XANTHICUS {'SaveiK6s), the sixth month of
the Macedonian year (2 Maccab. xi. 30, 33). Jo-
sephus says (Antiq. i. 3. 3 ; x. 3) that it corre-
sponded to the Heb. Nisan ; and the Syr. version
has n^ . ■< here. — W. L. A.
 
XIMENES, DE CiSNEROs Francisco. This
distinguished cardinal and primate of Spain, to
whom Biblical literature is indebted for the first
Polyglott, was born in I436 at the little town of
Tordelaguna, of an ancient but decayed Castilian
family, who originally lived at C'sneros, whence
tlie cardinal derived the name de Cisneros. Being
in straitened circumstances his parents destined
him for the church from his very youth, and accord-
ingly gave him an excellent rudimentary education
in tlic ancient languages at Alcala. At the age of
fourteen (1450) he was sent to the university of
Salamanca, where he devoted himself most assidu-
ously to the study of the civil and canon law, and
received in 1456 the degree of bachelor in both
these departments. Three years after he left the
university (1460) he went to Rome, where he prac-
tised the law for six years, and from which place
 
 
 
he was suddenly called to his native country (1467)
by the death of his father. Before his return,
however, he obtained a papal bull or expeciative,
preferring him to the first benefice of a specified
value which should become vacant in the see of
Toledo. For this he had to wait several years, and
when a vacancy at last offered itself, at the death
of the arch-priest of Uzeda (1473), and Ximenes
took possession of it, Archbishop Carillo threw
him into prison, where he was detained six years.
When restored to freedom and placed in possession
of his benefice, he effected an exchange for the
chaplainship of Siguenza (1480), in order to escape
the jurisdiction of the vindictive archbishop. In
this new position he prosecuted with the utmost
diligence the study of theology, as well as of the
Hebrew and Chaldee languages, which afterwards
proved of the greatest sei-vice to him when editing
the Polyglott. His extraordinary qualities had
now become so famous that Mendoza, who was
at that time bishop of Siguenza, appointed him
vicar. In the midst of his brilliant career he entered
(1483) the noviciate to the Observantines of the
Franciscan order in the convent of San Juan de
los Reyes at Toledo, when he exchanged his
baptismal name Gonzalo for Francisco. After a
few years sojourn in it, he quitted this convent to
become a hermit in the convent of Our Lady of
Castafiar, so called from a deep forest of chestnuts
in which it was embosomed. In the midst of these
dark mountain solitudes he built with his own
hands a little hermitage, in which he passed three
years in prayer and meditation, and which he only
left because his superiors appointed him guardian
of the convent of Salzeda. Upon the recommenda-
tion of Mendoza, now cardinal and archbishop of
Toledo, he was appointed confessor to Queen
Isabella in 1492 ; in 1494 he was elected provincial
of his order m Castile ; and in 1495, °" ^he death
of Mendoza, was promoted to the archbishopric of
Toledo, and with it became High Chancellor of
Castile. Passing by his political adventures ana
martial exploits as foreign to tlie scope of the bio-
graphical notices in this Cycloptedia, we shall only
detail Ximenes' efforts to promote Biblical studies
and sacred literature. As the most praiseworthy
undertaking in this department, which ultimately
led to the publication of the celebrated Compluten-
sian Polyglott, is his founding the university at
Alcala de Henares = the Roman Compliittim,
whence the Polyglott derives the appelk^tion Coin-
plutensian. The site for this abode of learning he
selected himself in 1498, and in 1500 he laid the
foundation-stone of the college of San Ildefonso.
Adjoining to this principal college he had erected
nine other colleges, as well as a hospital for the
sick of the university, and the whole pile of build-
ings was completed in 1508 under his own superin-
tendence. With the aid of his learned friends he
appointed forty-two professors, and the fii'st lecture
was delivered in the university in August 1508.
He assigned for its support 14,000 ducats a-year.
Having thus completed his scheme for the educa-
tion of the peo]ile at large, Ximenes now applied
himself to carrying into elTect his projected Poly-
glott, which was to supply the spiritual guides of the
people with the originals of the sacred Scriptures,
being the source whence these teachers derive the
instruction they impart to those intrusted to their
care. To this end he began to collect materials
for the Polyglott in 1502, shortly after laying the
 
 
 
XIMENES
 
 
 
1156
 
 
 
XIMENES
 
 
 
foundation-stone of the other projected structure
of learning, and the work was completed in 15 17.
The stupendous character of this magnificent Bible
may be seen from the following analysis of the con-
tents of the six splendid volumes.
 
{a.) The first vobnne contains the Pentateuch in
Hebrew, Chaldee, Greek, and Latin. The Hebrew
text, which has the vowel-points but not the accents,
occupies the outside of the three columns, the
Sept. with an intevlineary Latin translation occu-
pies the inside column, and the Vulg. occupies
the middle column, indicating that just as Christ
was crucified between two thieves so the Roman
Church, represented by St. Jerome's version, is
crucified between the synagogue represented by the
Hebrew text, and the Eastern Church, denoted
by the Greek version. At the lower part of the
page are two smaller columns, one containing the
Chaldee paraphrase and the other a Latin translation
of it. This volume is preceded by — /'. St Jerome's
Preface to the Pentateuch, ii. The Bull of Leo X.
permitting the circulation of the work. Hi. Ad-
dresses to the reader by Francis, bishop of Abyla,
and Francis of Mendoza, archdeacon of Pedroche.
iv. The dedicatory epistle of Cardinal Ximenes to
Leo X. V. An address to the reader about the
language of the O. T. vi. A treatise on finding
the roots of the Hebrew words, vii. An introduc-
tion to the N. T. via. An introduction to the
Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon and Hebrew Gram-
mar, as well as to the interpretation of proper
names, ix. On the manner of studying the sacred
Scriptures, x. Epistle of St. Jerome to Paul the
Presbyter about the history of the sacred books.
At the end of the volume are two leaves of errata.
{b.) The second volume contains Joshua, Judges,
Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and the Prayers
of Manasseh. It is preceded by — /. The dedica-
tor)' epistle to Leo X. ii. Address to the reader
as in the first volume, and at the end of the volume
are two leaves of errata. In this volume, as well as
in the remaining two volumes, which embrace the
O. T. , the two columns containing the Chaldee
paraphase and the Latin translation of it are omitted.
The cardinal tells us that he has only given the
Chaldee version of the Pentateuch, and omitted the
Targum on the Prophets and Hagiographa, because
he looked upon it as corrupt, interspersed with
Talmudic fables, and as unworthy to be bound up
with the Holy Scriptures.
 
{c. ) The third vohtme contains Ezra, Nehemiah,
Tobit, Judith, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and Ecclesi-
asticus. It is preceded by the same dedicatory
epistle and address to the reader as given in the
previous volumes, and the end has two leaves of
errata. It is to be observed that the Sept. on the
Psalms, instead of having the new interlineary
Latin translation, which is the case in all the other
books of the O. T., has the old Latin version occu-
pying this interlineary position.
 
(d.) The fourth volume contains Isaiah, Jere-
miah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel
with the additions, the Minor Prophets, and the
three Maccabees. Like the other volumes it
begins with the dedicatoiy epistle and ends with
two leaves of errata. At the end of this volume
is the date July 10, 1517.
 
(^.) The fifth volume contains the whole N. T.
in Greek and Latin (Vulgate) in two columns. A
letter of reference connects the Greek and Latin
 
 
 
texts verbally together, as will be seen from the
following specimen of Matt. xxvi. i : --
 
 
 
Kai * eyevvro * fire
ItjctoOs
 
 
 
^ irdXeaev
 
f Travras Stovs
 
^ TOVTOVS.
 
 
 
Et 6 factum est « cum
<^consummasset « Jesus,
S'sermones *hos /om-
nes.
 
When there is anything in the one to whicli there
is nothing in the otlier to correspond, a hyphen or
circles are used to fill up the vacant space, in
order that the student may easily see whether the
Latin translation has always corresponding words
to the Greek original.
 
The volume is preceded by — /. A Greek address
to the reader with a Latin translation, ii. A Greek
epistle of Eusebius. Hi. St. Jerome's Prologue on
the four Evangelists addressed to Pope Damasus.
At the end of the volume is the date Januaiy 10,
1 5 14, and on the next leaf are some Greek and
Latin verses in commendation of the book. The
editors of this volume were ^Elius Antonius Ne-
brissensis, Demetrius Cretensis, Ferdinadus Piti-
anus, and especially Lepoz de Stunica, who pre-
paied the Greek text.
 
(f) The sixth volume contains — i. A Hebrew
and Chaldee vocabulary of the O. T. , dated March
17, 1815. ii. An explanation of the Hebrew,
Chaldee, and Greek proper names of the O. and
N. T. in alphabetical order, whereunto is added a
list of names according to the various i-eadings.
Hi. An introduction to the Hebrew Grammar,
dated May 15 15. iv. An alphabetical Index of
the Latin words which occur in the work. v. A
Greek and Latin Lexicon, vi. An introduction to
the Greek Grammar, vii. An explanation of the
Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek names which occur
in the N. T, This volume is almost entirely the
work of Zamora. [Zamora.]
 
When with the aid of the most learned converted
Jews and Christians that Spain could produce, the
last sheet of this magnificent Polyglott was finished,
in 15 1 7, after spending over it fifteen years of
incessant labour and fifty thousand ducats, John
Broccario, the son of the printer, then a child, was
dressed in his best attire and went with a copy to
the cardinal. The latter, as he took it up, raised
his eyes to heaven, and devoutly offered up his
thanks to the Saviour for being spared to see the
completion of this good work, which had cost him
so much labour and anxiety. Then turning to
those who surrounded him, Ximenes said, that ' of
all the acts which distinguished his administration,
there was none, however arduous, better entitled
to their congratulation than this ! ' It does indeed
seem that Providence had just spared Ximenes to
complete this grand work, for he died a few
months after it, November 8, 15 17, aged 81. His
death, however, delayed its immediate circulation.
I'or although completed in 15 17, the Polyglott did
not receive the sanction of Pope Leo X. for its
publication until March 22, 1520, and the copies
were not circulated and vended till 1522. As
there were only 600 copies printed, the Polyglott
became very scarce so early as the latter part of
the 1 6th century.
 
As for the MSS. used in compiling the texts of
the Hebrew Scriptures — the so-called Chaldee Para-
phrase of Onkelos on the Pentateuch, the Sept.,
the Greek of the N. T., and the Vulg. — tliese
have as yet eluded the research of critics. The He-
brew text of the O. T. and the Chaldee of the Pen-
 
 
 
XIMENES
 
 
 
1137
 
 
 
YACHMUR
 
 
 
tateuch had already been published several tinoes,
both in parts and as a whole, before the appearance
of the Polyglott. Thus, the Hebrew Pentateuch
with the Chaldee of Onkelos appeared in Bologna
1432 ; ibid. 1490; Lisbon 1491 ; Naples 1491 ;
Brescia 1492 ; ibid. 1493 ; and Constantinople 1505.
The text of the Earlier Prophets was published at
Soncino 1485 ; and Leiria 1494 ; of the Latter Pro-
phets, circa 1485 ; and Pessaro 1515 ; of the Hagio-
grapha, Naples i486- 7, ibid. 1490 ; and Salonica
1513 ; and of the entire Bible, Soncino 1488, and
Brescia 1494. It was therefore not likely that the
editors would resort much to RISS., though it is
stated that they used seven MSS., which the car-
dinal secured at the cost of 4000 ducats without
saying what they were. Besides the Hebrew and
Chaldee texts of the Complutensian Polyglott, with
the exception of a few variations, agree with those
of former and later editions, which shows that the
editors depended upon the printed texts. Tlie same
is the case with the text of the Vulg. which had
repeatedly been published before — viz. at Mayence
1450-5 ; Bamb. 1462 ; Strasburg 1469 ; ibid. 1470 ;
ibid. 1468 ; Cologne 1470 ; Rome 1471 ; Mayence
1472 ; Cologne 1474 ; Basle 1475 ; Placenza 1475 ;
Nurenburg 1475 5 Venice 1475 > Paris 1475 ; Venice
 
1476 , Naples 1476 ; Nurenburg 1476 ; Basle
 
1477 ; Venice 1478 ; Lyons 1479 ; Col. 1480 ;
Venice 1480 ; ibid. 148 1 ; ibid. 1483 ; ibid. I484 ;
ibid. 1487 ; Basle 149 1 ; Venice 1498 ; Paris 1504 ;
Lyons 1514 ; and a number of other places. It is
the texts of the Sept. and of the Greek N. T.
which appeared for the first time in this Polyglott,
and for which of course MSS. had to be used.
And indeed, though the editors, in accordance with
the custom of that time, do not describe the MSS.,
they distinctly declare that ' ordinary copies were
not the archetypes for this impression, but very
ancient and correct ones ; and of such antiquity
that it would be utterly wrong not to own their
authority ; which the supreme pontiff Leo X., our
most holy father in Christ, and lord, desiring to
favour this undertaking, sent from the apostolical
librai7 to the most reverend lord the Cardinal of
Spain, by whose authority and commandment we
have had this work printed' {Preface io the N. T.)
The same declaration is made by Cardinal Ximenes
himself, who says in his dedication to Pope Leo X. :
* For Greek copies indeed, we are indebted to your
Holiness, who sent us most kindly from the aposto-
lical library very ancient codices both of the O. and
the N. T. , which have aided us very much in this
undertaking.' That Greek MSS. both of the O.
and the N. T. were furnished from the Vatican
library is moreover corroborated by the fact that
thougli all the MSS. which formerly belonged to
Cardinal Ximenes, and which comprised almost
all the MS. materials used in the Polyglott, are still
safely preserved in the library at Madrid, to which
place they have been transferred from Alcala,* yet
no MS.S. exist in this collection of the Sept. on the
Pentateuch, or of the Greek N. T., thus showing
that they did not belong to the cardinal, and that
they were restored again to the Vatican when the
 
 
 
* The whimsical story which the Danish profes-
sor Moldenhawer brought from Spain in 17S4, that
the MSS. had all been sold by an illiterate lib-
rarian about the year 1749, as useless parcliments.
to a rocket-maker, who soon worked them Vtp in
the regular way of his vocation — and which was
VOL. in.
 
 
 
work was completed. Indeed the two Greek
MSS. of the Sept. which Ximenes got from Leo
are now ascertained, as has been shown by Fr.
Vercellone in his Preface to Card. Mai's edition of
Codex B. Vercellone also mentions the fact that
Codex B is missing in catalogues of the Vatican
library made in 15 18, which seems to favour the
supposition that the editors of the Polyglott had it.
A most remarkable testimony to the interest
which Pope Leo X. took in securing a correct text
of the N. T., and to the nature of the MSS. he
procured for this purpose, is to be found in the
celebrated .^A?j-jc;;r//^ Ha-Massoreth of Elias Levita.
As we have not seen the passage noticed anywhere,
we subjoin it entire in an English version : ' When
I was at Rome I saw three Chaldeans who arrived
from the countiy of Prester John (JX'T 'D""'"IQ),
having been sent for by Pope Leo X. They were
masters of the Syriac language and literature,
though their vernacular language was Hebrew. The
special language however they employed in writing
books, as well as that of the N. T. of the Christ-
ians which they had brought with them, was
Syriac, which is also called Aramcean, Baby-
lonian, Assyrian, Chaldaic, Tursai or Targum, being
denominated by these seven names. Pope Leo X.
had sent for them in order to correct by their
codices his exemplar of the N. T., which was
written in Latin. I then saw in their hands a
Psalter written in Syriac characters as well as
translated into Syriac ; that is to say the He-
brew text was written with Syriac letters' {Mas-
soreth Ha-AIassoreth, Introduction, iii. 11 a, ed.
Sulzbach 1 771).
 
It only remains to be added that the Greek text
of this Polyglott has been reprinted in the Antwerp
or Royal Polyglott (1569-72), the Heidelberg Poly-
glott edited by Bertram (15S6), the Hamburg Poly-
glott edited by Wolder (1596), and the Paris Poly-
glott edited by Le Jay (1645).
 
Literatuj-e. — For the life of Ximenes, see Pres-
cott'r. History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,
part ii. cap. v. etc., and for the description and
the critical value of his great Biblical work, see
Wolf, Bibliotheca Ilebraa, ii. 338-341 ; Le Long,
Bihliothcca Sacra, i. 332-339, ed. Masch. ; Rosen-
miiller, Handbuch fiir die Litcratur der biblischen
Kritik iind Exegese, iii. 279-296, Gottingen 1799 ;
Pettigrew, Bibliotheca Sussexiana, vol. i. part ii.
pp. 3-28, London 1827; Tregelles, An account of
the Printed Text of the Greek N. T. pp. 1-18,
London 1854, where will also be found reprinted
Dr. Thomson's catalogue of the MSS. used in
preparing the Polyglott ; Home, Introduction to the
Holy Scriptures, vol. iv. pp. 1 19-122, ed. Tregelles,
London 1856.— C. D. G.
 
 
 
YACIIMUR O^On*, Deut. xiv. 5 ; i Kings iv.
 
23) is not, as in the A. V., 'the fallow-deer,' but
the Oryx leucoryx of the modems, the true Oryx of
 
 
 
believed through Europe for about sixty years — is
now relinquished by scholars as fabulous. It is
greatly to be regretted that so indefatigable a
scholar as Prescott should still have incorporated
it in his excellent History of Ferdinand and Isabella^
part ii. cap. xxi.
 
 
 
YAEL
 
 
 
1138
 
 
 
YANSHUPH
 
 
 
the ancients, and of Niebuhr, who quotes R. Jona,
and points out the Chaldaic yachmura, and Persian
kutziiohi (probably a mistalce for maskandos), and
describes it as a great goat. The eastern Arabs
still use the name vaznuir.
 
 
 
 
531. The Yachmur. Oryx Icucoryv.
 
The Leitcoiyx, as the name implies, is white,
having a black mark down the nose, black cheeks
and jowl, the legs, from the elbow and heel to the
pastern joints, black, and the lower half of the
thighs usually, and often the lower flank, bright
rufous ; hence the Heb. name from lOn [rubere,
 
to redden). The species now resides in pairs, in
small families, and not unfrequently singly, on the
mountain-ranges along the sandy districts, in the
desert of eastern Arabia, and on the banks of the
Lower Euphrates ; and may extend as far eastward
as the west bank of the Indus, feeding on shrubby
acacias, such as tortilis and Ehrenbergi. It was,
no doubt, formerly, if not at present, found in
Arabia Petraea, and in the eastern territories of the
people of Israel. — C. li. S.
 
YAEL (^ly), a species of wild goat ; supposed
 
by some to be the Ibex, but probably a species
peculiar to Syria and Arabia the Capra Sinaitka
 
 
 
 
\ \ \^
532. Wild Goat of Sinai.
 
of Ehrenberg. The male is considerably taller and
more robust than the larger he-goats, the horns
forming regular curves backwards, and with from
fifteen to twenty-four transverse elevated cross
 
 
 
ridges, being sometimes near three feet long, and
exceedingly ponderous : there is a beard under the
chin, and the fur is dark brown ; but the limbs are
white, with regular black marks down the front of
the legs, with rings of the same colour above the
knees and on the pasterns. The females are smaller
than the males, more slenderly made, brighter
rufous, and with the white and black markings on
the legs not so distinctly visible. This species live
in troops of fifteen or twenty, and plunge down
precipices with the same fearless impetuosity which
distinguishes the ibex. Their horns are sold by
the Arabs for knife handles, etc. — C. H. S.
 
YAEN (ir) and fem. YAANAH {n2V\ always
coupled with n3) ; the latter is the form most fre-
quently used. This term designates the ostrich
(LXX. arpovdiov ; Vulg. struthio), and is derived
by some from an obsolete root {y\ to be greedy ;
 
whilst others, with greater probability, regard the
word as onomato poetic from the harsh cry of the
bird. References to this bird are frequent in the
 
0. T. (Lev. xi. 19 ; Deut. xiv. 15 ; Job xxx. 29 ;
xxxix. 13; Is. xiii. 21 ; xxxiv. 13; xliii. 20; Jer.
 
1. 39 ; Lam. iv. 3 ; Micah i. 8) ; in most of which
passages the A. V. has the mistaken rendering of
owls. In Job xxxix. 13 female ostriches are called
D''JJ"1, from their wailing tremulous cry.
 
There are two varieties of ostrich, the one having
a glossy black plumage, and often attaining ten
feet in height ; the other covered with grey and
dingy feathers, and never reaching seven feet.
They are gregarious, associating sometimes in
troops of near a hundred. They are birds of great
voracity, and perhaps on this account were included
among unclean birds in the law. — W. L. A.
 
YAHALOM (Q?n^), a species of gem, deiiving
 
its name from its hardness (from DpH, io hammer
or beat). The older versions make it the onyx ;
Ibn Ezra and other of the Jewish commentators
make it the diamond, which is the rendering given
in the A. V. (Exod. xxviii. 18; xxxix. 11 ; Ezek.
xxviii. 11), and approved by Braun {De vest. Sacerd.
ii. 13). It is doubtful, however, if the art of cut-
ting the diamond was known at that early period ;
and, besides, the Pleb. name Shamir seems to have
been appropriated to the diamond [Shamir]. The
probability therefore is in favour of the Yahalom
being an onyx, which is a species of chalcedony of
the flint family of minerals. — W. L. A.
 
YANSHUPH (:lVt^'3''; Lev. ii. 17; Deut. xiv.
 
16; Is. xxxiv. 11). In the Septuagint and Vul-
gate it is translated 'Ibis,' but in our version
' Owl;' which last Bochart supports, deriving the
name from F]C'3 neshepk, ' twilight.' It may be re-
marked that ' ibis ' in Europe, and even in medi-
aeval and modern Egypt, was a very indefinite
name, until Bruce first pointed out, and Cuvier
afterwards proved, what we are to understand by
that denomination. The Ibis is probably the
Abou-hannes of Bruce, and certainly the Ibis reli-
giosa of Cuvier, who discovered specimens in the
mummy state, such as are now not uncommon in
museums, and, by comparison, proved them to be
identical with his sacred ibis. The species is no-
where abundant ; it occurs, in the season, on the
Upper Nile, a few in company, seldom coming
down into Lower Egypt, but extending over ceQ*
 
 
 
YARN
 
 
 
1139
 
 
 
YEAR
 
 
 
tral Africa to the Senegal. A bird so rare al>out
Memphis, and totally unknown in Palestine, could
not be the Yanshuph of the Pentateuch, nor could
the black ibis which appears about Damietta, nor
any species, strictly tenants of hot and watery
regions, be well taken for it. Bochart and others,
who refer the name to a species of owl, appear to
disregard two other names ascribed to owls in the
i6th verse of the same chapter of Leviticus. If,
therefore, an owl was here again intended, it would
have been placed in the former verse, or near to it.
In this difficulty, considering that the Seventy
were not entirely without some grounds for refer-
ring the Hebrew Yanshuph to a wader ; that the
older commentators took it for a species of ardea ;
and that the root of the name may refer to twi-
 
 
 
 
533. Night Heron of Arabia.
 
light, indicating a crepuscular bird ; we are inclined
to select the night heron as the only one that
unites these several qualities. It is a bird smaller
than the common heron, distinguished by two or
three white plumes hanging out of the black-capped
nape of the male. In habit it is partially noc-
turnal. The Arabian Abou-onk (?), if not the
identical bird, is a close congener of the species,
found in every portion of the temperate and warmer
climates of the earth : it is an inhabitant of Syria,
and altogether is free from the principal objec-
tions made to the ibis and the owl. The Lin-
njean single Ardea nycticorax is now typical of a
genus of that name, and includes several species of
night herons. They fly abroad at dusk, frequent
the sea-shore, marshes, and rivers, feeding on
mollusca, Crustacea, and worms, and have a cry of a
most disagreeable nature. This bird has been con-
founded with the night hawk, which is a goat-
sucker (caprimulgus), not a hawk. — C. H. S.
 
YARN. This is the rendering in the A. V. of
a word which appears first in the form HpO (l
 
Kings X. 28), and then in the form NIpD (2 Chron.
 
i. 16). The LXX. in the former passage gives iK
QeKove (Alex. QeKovee/x), from Tekoa, in the latter
it omits the word ; the Vulg. has de Coa,from Coa,
in both places. The word is prol)ably a local de-
signation ; and Coa is most likely the place in-
tended. — W. L. A.
 
YASHPEH (naC'^), a precious stone which
 
nearly all are agreed in regarding as the jasper
 
 
 
(LXX. Wo-Trts), a conclusion which the name itself
(carried probably abroad by the Phoenicians)
guarantees. The jasper is of the flint family ; its
prevailing colour is dark red, frequently with cloudy
or flammeous shades ; but specimens of yellow,
red, brown, and green are found. That kind
which is commonly known as the bloodstone, which
has bright red spots on a dark green ground, is the
most esteemed (Rosenmiiller, Biblical Mineralogy
p. 41).— W. L. A.
 
YEAR (njK'). The Hebrew year consisted of
twelve unequal months, which, previously to the
exile, were lunar, as may be seen from the names
of the moon, t^'in and nT*, which signify respec-
tively a month (so with us moon from mouth,
German mond) ; though Credner, relying too much
on hypothesis, especially on the assumption of the
late origin of the Pentateuch, has endeavoured to
show that, until the 8th century before Christ, the
Israelites reckoned by solar years. The twelve
solar months made up only 354 days, constituting
a year too short by no fewer than eleven days.
This deficiency would have soon inverted the year,
and could not have existed even for a short period
of time without occasioning derangements and
serious inconvenience to the Hebrews, whose year
was so full of festivals. At an early day, then, we
may well believe a remedy was provided for this
evil. The course which the ancients pursued is
unknown, but Ideler {Chronol. i. 490) may be con-
sulted for an ingenious conjecture on the subject.
The later Jews intercalated a month every two, or
every three years, taking care, however, to avoid
making the seventh an intercalated year. The
supplementary month was added at the termina-
tion of the sacred year, the twelfth month (Feb-
ruary and March), and as this month bore the
name of Adar, so the interposed month was called
Veadar (IISI), or Adar the Second. The year,
as appears from the ordinaiy reckoning of the
months (Lev. xxiii. 34 ; xxv. 9 ; Num. ix. 1 1 ;
2 Kings xxv. 8 ; Jer. xxxix. 2 ; comp. i Maccab.
iv. 52 ; X. 21), began with the month Nisan
(Esther iii. 7), agreeably to an express direction
given by Moses (Exod. xii. 2; Num. xi. i). This
commencement is generally thought to be that of
merely the ecclesiastical year ; and most Jewish,
and many Christian authorities, hold lliat the civil
year originally began, as now, with the month
Tisri ; the Rabbins conjecturally assigning as the
reason that this was the month in which the crea-
tion took place. Josephus' statement is as follows :
'Moses appointed that Nisan should be the first
month for their festivals, because he brought them
(the Israelites) out of Egypt in that montli ; so that
this month began the year, as to ail the solemnities
they observed to the honour of God, altliough he
preserved the original order of the months as to
selling and buying and other ordinary affairs
{Atitiq. i. 3. 3). Winer, however, is of opinion
that the commencement of the year with Tisri, to-
gether with the beginning of tlie sacred year in
Nisan, is probably a post-exilian arrangement, de-
signed to commemorate the first step of the return
to the native soil of Palestine (Esther iii. 1 ; Neh.
vii. 73; viii. i, seq.) ; an idea, however, to which
they only can give assent who hold that the changes
introduced on the return from Babylon were of a
constructive rather than a restoratory nature — a
class of authorities with which the writer has few
 
 
 
YELEK
 
 
 
1140
 
 
 
YONAH
 
 
 
bonds of connection. The reader should consult
Exod. xxiii. i6 ; xxxiv. 22. But the commence-
ment of the civil year with Tisri, at whatever period
it originated, had after the exile this advantage, --
that it accorded with the era of the Seleucidse,
which began in October. The ancient Hebrews
possessed no such thing as a formal and recognised
era. Their year and their months were deter-
mined and regulated, not by any systematic rules
of astronomy, but by the first view or appearance
of the moon. In a similar manner they dated
from great national events, as the departure from
Egypt (Exod. xix. i ; Num. xxxiii. 38 ; I Kings vi.
i) ; from the ascension of monarchs, as in the books
of Kings and Chronicles; or from the erection of
Solomon's temple (i Kings viii. i ; ix. 10) ; and at
a later period, from the commencement of the
Babylonish captivity (Ezek. xxxiii. 21 ; xl. i).
When they became subjects of the Grjeco-Syrian
empire they adopted the Seleucid era, which began
with the year B.C. 312, when Seleucus conquered
Babylon.— J. R. B.
 
YELEK (p?"'). This term is variously rendered
 
(Ps. cv. 34, ppovxos, bruchii.';, caterpillar ; Jer. li.
14, 27, aKpl-i, bnicits, caterpillar ; and in the latter
passage the Vulg. reads brtiats acideatiis, and some
copies horripilaiiies ; Joel i. 4, ii. 25, jSpovxos,
byiichus, cankerworm ; Nah. iii. 15, 16, d/cpi's and
(ipovxos, cankerworm). Assuming that the Psalmist
 
means to say that the p?'' was really another species
employed in the plague on Egypt, the English
word caterpillar in the common acceptation cannot
be correct, for we can hardly imagine that the larvae
of the Papilionidas tribe of insects could be carried
by 'winds.' Cankerworm means any worm that
preys on fruit. Bpouxos could hardly be understood
by the Sept. translators of the minor prophets as
an unfledged locust; for in Nah. iii. 16 they give
fipovxos iiipp-rjo-e Kal i^e-jreTdcrdr], the ^povxos fliCs
 
away. The Arabic pp\ to be while, is offered ;
hence the white locust, or the chafer-worm which
is white (Michaelis, Recueil de Quest, p. 64; Sup.
 
ad Lex. Neb. p. 1080). Others give \>p?, to lick
off, as Gesenius, who refers to Num. xxii. 4, where
this root is applied to the ox 'hcking' up his
pasturage, and which, as descriptive of celerity in
eating, is supposed to apply to the pi5\ Others
 
suggest the Arabic ppl, to hasten, alluding to the
quick motions of locusts. The passage in Jer. li.
27 is the only instance where an epithet is applied
 
to the locust, and there we find p?"' "lOD, ' rough
caterpillars.' As a noun the word means 'nails,'
' sharp-pointed spikes.' Hence Michaelis refers it
to the rough sharp-pointed feet of some species of
chafer (tit supra). Oedman takes it for the G.
cristatus of Linn. Tychsen, with more probability,
refers it to some rough or bristly species of locust,
as the G. hamatopits of Linn., whose thighs are
ciliated with hairs. Many grylli are furnished with
spines and bristles ; the whole species acheta, also
the pupa species of Linn. , called by Degeer Locusta
pupa spinosa, which is thus described : —Thorax
ciliated with spines, abdomen tuberculous and
spinous, posterior thighs armed beneath with four
spines or teeth ; inhabits Ethiopia. The allusion
in Jer. is to the ancient accoutrement of war-horses,
bristling with sheaves of arrows.— J. F. D.
 
 
 
YEMIM (D''0';). This ciTra^ Xe-^bnevov occurs
 
Gen. xxxvi. 24, where it is rendered in the A. V.
by 'mules.' This is the meaning given to the
word by some of the Rabbins, and it is adopted in
the Zurich Bible, to which the A. V. is so much
indebted, by Diodati and others. Luther, how-
ever, follows Jerome, who gives aqua: calidce as the
proper rendering, and this is now generally adopted.
There are warm springs in the vicinity of the Dead
Sea, and some of these probably Anah found
when feeding his father's asses in the Arabah.
The Cod. Samar. reads D'^O^XH, The Emim, and
this the Targumists follow ; but this is evidently a
mistake.— W. L. A.
 
YOKE. [Agriculture.]
 
YONAH (njiS otVds, TrepLcTTepd). There are
 
probably several species of doves or pigeons in-
cluded in the Hebrew name yonah. It may con-
tain all those that inhabit Palestine, exclusive of
the turtle-doves properly so called. Thus gener-
alised, the dove is figuratively, next to man, the
most exalted of animals, symbolising the Holy
Spirit, the meekness, purity, and splendour of
righteousness. Next, it is by some considered
(though in an obscure passage) as an early na-
tional standard (Ps. Ixviii. 13), being likewise held
in pagan Syria and Phoenicia to be an ensign and
a divinity, resplendent with silver and gold; and
so venerated as to be regarded as holy, and for-
bidden as an article of food. By the Hebrew law,
however, doves and turtle-doves were the only
birds that could be offered in sacrifice, and they
were usually selected for that purpose by the less
wealthy (Gen. xv. 9 ; Lev. v. 7 ; xii. 6 ; Luke ii.
24) ; and to supply the demand for them, dealers
in these birds sat about the precincts of the Temple
(Matt. xxi. 12, etc.) The dove is the harbinger of
reconciliation with God (Gen. viii. 8, lO, etc.) As
to the supposed use of doves' dung for food, see
Doves' Dung.
 
 
 
 
With regard to the dove as a national ensign, it
may be remarked that we have two figures where
the symbol occurs : one from a Phoenician coin,
where the dove stands on a globe instead of the
usual pedestal of ancient signa, with wings closed,
and a glory of sunbeams round the head ; the other,
from a defaced bas-relief observed in the Hauran,
where the bird, with wings displayed, is seated also
on a globe, and the sunbeams, spreading behind
the whole, terminate in a circle of stars ; probably
representing Assyria, Syria, or perhaps Semiramis
(compare several passages in Jeremiah). The
brown wood-dove is said to be intended by the
 
 
 
ZAANAIM
 
 
 
1141
 
 
 
ZABULUN
 
 
 
Hebrew name ; but all the sacred birds, unless ex-
pressly mentioned, were pure white, or with some
roseate feathers about the wing coverts, such as
are still frequently bred from the carrier-pigeon of
Scandiroon. It is this kind which Tibullus notices,
 
' Alba Palsestino sancta Columba Syro.'
The carrier-birds are represented in Egyptian bas-
reliefs, where priests are sliown letting tliem fly on
a message ; and to them also may be referred the
black-doves, which typified or gave their name to
an order of Gentile priests, both in Egj'pt and, it
would seem, in early Greece, who, under this char-
acter, were, in the mysteries, restorers of light.
This may have had reference to tlie return of the
dove which caused Noali to uncover the ark. All
pigeons in their true wild plumage have iridescent
colours about the neck, and often reflected flashes
of the same colours on the shoulders, which are the
source of the silver and gold feathers ascribed to them
in poetical diction ; and thence the epithet of purple
bestowed upon them all, though most applicable
to the vinous and slaty-coloured species. The
coasts and territoiy of Syria are noted for the great
number of doves frequenting them, though they are
not so abundant there as in the Coh-i-Suleiman
chain near the Indus, which in Sanscrit is named
Arga varta, or, as it is interpreted, the 'dove.'
Syria possesses several species of pigeon : the
Columba cenas, or stock-dove, C. palumbus, or
ring-dove, C. do?)iestica, Livia, the common pigeon
in several varieties, such as the Barbaiy, Turkish
or Persian carrier, crisp, and shaker. These are
still watched in their flight in the same manner as
anciently their number, gyrations, and other ma-
noeuvres were observed by soothsayers. The wild
species, as well as the turtle-doves, migrate from
Palestine to the south ; but stock and ring doves
are not long absent.
 
We figure above (No. 534) the more rare species
of white and pink carrier, and the Phoenician sacred
ensign of the dove. — C. H. S.
 
 
 
ZAANAIM, Plain of (D^3y>;3 ji^X ; more cor-
rectly ' Oak of Zaanaim ;' 5p0s irXeoveKTovvTuiv ;
Alex. 6pDs avairavoixivoov ; Vallis qua vacatur Sen-
nim), a place mentioned only in Judg. iv. II,
where, in relating the story of IBarak's victory, and
Jael's terrible act of loyalty, the sacred historian
states that Helper the Kenite, Jael's husband, had
separated from his brethren, ' and pitched his tent
unto ike plain (or oak) of Zaanaim, which is by
Kedesh.' The locality is thus indicated. The
' oak ' was probably some noted tree, perhaps a
patriarch in a sacred grove, beneath or around
which nomad shepherds of those days were accus-
tomed to pitch their tents, as Abraham pitched his
by the oak of Mamre. The green pastures which
abound around the ruins of Kedesh are studded
to this day with large oak trees ; and the writer has
seen, at more than one place, the black tents of
the nomad Turkman pitched beneath them. The
name Zaanaim, which appears to signify ' remov-
ings' (as if a camping-ground), has passed away,
at least no trace of it has yet been discovered
(Handlwok, p. 444 ; Van de Velde, Travels, ii. 418).
 
It is generally supposed that the Zaanannim of
 
 
 
Josh. xix. 33 is only another form of Zaanaim j
and there can be little doubt that such is the case.
The rendering of the A. V. is incorrect. ' And
their coast was from Heleph,/;w« Allan to Zaan-
annim. The Hebrew is n''|3j;V3 l'"l^Xp> and can
only signify, ' from the oak of (or ' in ') Zaanan-
nim ' (see Keil, ad loc. ; Reland, Pal. p. 717;
Keil and Delitzsch on Judg. iv. 11 ; Stanley,
Jeivish Church, i. 324 ; Porter, Giaiit Cities of
Bashan, p. 268).— J. L. P.
 
ZAANAN. [Zenan.]
 
ZABAD (nar, Cod-given ; Sept. Za;3^S). i. A
 
person of the tribe of Judah, mentioned in i Chron.
ii. 36, among the descendants of Sheshan, by the
marriage of his daughter M'ilh an Egyptian servant
[Jarha ; Sheshan].
 
2. A grandson of Ephraim, who, with others of
the family, was killed during the lifetime of Eph-
raim, by the men of Gath, in an attempt which the
Hebrews seem to have made to drive off their
cattle (i Chron. vii. 21). [See Ephraim.]
 
3. Son of an Ammonitess named Shimeath, who,
in conjunction with Jehozabad, the son of a Moa-
bitess, slew king Joash, to whom they were both
household officers, in his bed (2 Kings xii. 21 ;
2 Chron. xxiv. 25, 26). In the first of these texts
he is called Jozachar. The sacred historian does
not appear to record the mongrel parentage of these
men as suggesting a reason for their being more
easily led to this act, but as indicating the sense
which was entertained of the enormity of Joash's
conduct, that even they, though servants to the
king, and though only half Jews by birth, were led
to conspire against him ' for the blood of the sons
of Jehoiada the priest.' It would seem that their
murderous act was not abhorred by the people ;
for Amaziah, the son of Joash, did not venture to
call them to account till he felt himself \\ell estab-
lished on the throne, when they were both put to
death (2 Kings xiv. 5, 6 ; 2 Chron. xxv. 3, 4).
 
4. One of the persons who, at the instance of
Ezra, after the return from captivity, put away the
foreign wives they had taken (Ezra x. 27). — J. K.
 
ZABUD (n^iar, bestowed; Sept. ZapovO). a son
 
of Nathan the prophet, who held under Solomon
the important place of 'king's friend,' or favourite
(I Kings iv. 5), which Hushai had held under
David (i Chron. xxvii. 33), and which a person
named Elkanah held under Aliaz (2 Chron. xxviii.
7). Azariah, another son of Nathan, was ' over
all the (household) officers' of king Solomon ; and
their advancement may doubtless be ascribed not
only to the young king's respect for the venerable
prophet, who had been his instructor, but to the
friendship he had contracted with his sons during
tlie course of education. The office, or rather
honour, of 'friend of the king,' we find in all the
despotic governments of the East. It gives high
power, \Aithout the pul)lic responsibility which the
holding of a regular office in the state necessarily
imposes. It implies the possession of the utmost
confidence of, and familiar intercourse with, the
monarch, to whose person ' the friend ' at all times
has access, and whose influence is therefore often
far greater, even in matters of state, than that of
the recognised mioisters of government.
 
ZABULUN. [Zebulun.]
 
 
 
ZACCHEUS
 
 
 
1142
 
 
 
ZAIR
 
 
 
ZACCHEUS (Za/txaioy, "'3T, Justus?), a super-
intendent of taxes at Jericho. Having heard of the
Redeemer, he felt a great desire to see him as he
drew near that place ; for which purpose he
climbed up into a sycamore-tree, because he was
little of stature. Jesus, pleased with this manifes-
tation of his eagerness, and knowing that it pro-
ceeded from a heart not far from the kingdom of
God, saw fit to honour Zaccheus by becoming his
guest. This offended the self-righteous Jews, who
objected that ' he was gone to be a guest with a
man that is a sinner.' This offensive imputation
was met by Zaccheus in the spirit of the Mosaic
conception of goodness — ' Tlie half of my goods I
give to the poor ; and if I have taken anything
from any man by false accusation, I restore him
fourfold.' He that knew the heart of man knew,
not only the truth of this statement, but that the
good works of Zaccheus emanated from right mo-
tives, and therefore terminated the conversation
with the words, ' This day is salvation come to this
house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham '
— a declaration which, whether Zaccheus was by
birth a Jew or not, signifies that he had the same
principle of faith which was imputed to Abraham,
the father of the faithful, for righteousness (Luke
xix. 2, seq.)
 
Tradition represents Zaccheus as the first Chris-
tian bishop of Cassarea. — J. R. B.
 
ZACHARIAH. [Zechariah.]
 
ZACHARIAS. [Zechariah.]
 
ZADOK, derived from the root plV, corre-
sponding with the Latin Justus. There are several
men of this name mentioned in the O. T.
 
1. In the reign of David, Zadok (the son of
Ahitub and father of Ahimaaz, i Chron. vi. 8) and
Ahimelech, were the priests (2 Sam. viii. 17). Za-
dok and the Levites were with David when, after
the middle of the nth century B.C., he fled from
Absalom ; but the king ordered Zadok to carry
back the ark of God into the city (2 Sam. xv. 24,
25, 27, 29, 35, 36 ; xviii. 19, 22, 27). The king,
also, considering Zadok a seer, commanded him to
return to the city, stating that he would wait in the
plain of the wilderness until he should receive such
information from him and his son Ahimaaz, and
also from the son of Abiathar, as might induce him
to remove farther away. On hearing that Ahitho-
phel had joined Absalom, David requested Hushai,
his friend, to feign himself to be also one of the
conspirators, and to inform Zadok and Abiathar of
the counsels adopted by Absalom and his rebellious
confederates. The request of David was complied
with, and the plans of the rebels made known to
David by the instrumentality of Zadok and the
others.
 
After Absalom was vanquished, David sent to
Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, saying, ' Speak
unto the elders of Judah, Why are ye the last to bring
the king back to his house?' etc. (2 Sam. xix. 11 ;
XX. 25). When Adonijah attempted to succeed to
the throne, Abiathar countenanced him, but Za-
dok was not called to the feast at which the con-
spirators assembled. King David sent for Zadok
and Nathan the prophet to anoint Solomon king
(I Kings i. 32-45).
 
2. In I Chron. vi. 12, and Neh. xi. 11, another
Zadok is mentioned, the father of whom was also
called Ahitub, and who begat Shallum. This
 
 
 
Zadok descended from Zadok the priest in the
days of David and Solomon, and was the ancestor
of Ezra the scribe (Ezra vii. 2). We learn from
Ezek. xl. 46 ; xliii. 19; xliv. 15 ; xlviii. 11, that
the sons of Zadok were a pre-eminent sacerdotal
family.
 
3. Zadok was also the name of the father-in-
law of Uzziah and the grandfather of King Jotham,
who reigned about the middle of the 8th century
before Christ (2 Kings xv. 33 ; 2 Chron. xxvii. i).
 
4 and 5. Two priests of the name of Zadok
are mentioned in Neh. iii. 4-29, as having as-
sisted in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem about
B.C. 445. _
 
The Zadok mentioned in Neh. x. 22 as having
sealed the covenant, and Zadok the scribe named
in Neh. xiii. 13, are probably the same who helped
to build the wall.— C. H. F. B.
 
ZAHAB (Snt), the general name for gold in
 
Hebrew. Besides this other words are used to
indicate the metal in different states, or of different
qualities, viz. — i. JB, tiative gold, produced in a
 
pure state, and vvdthout mixture with any other metal
(Job xxviii. 17; Ps. xxi. 4; cxix. 127; Song v. 15,
etc.) The word is derived apparently from ftS, to
 
separate or purify ; in 2 Chron. ix. 17 liilD QHT,
pure gold, is used instead of T310 ''f of i Kings
X. 1 8. 2. 1V3, gold-dust or ore (Job xxii. 24, 25).
[Betzer.] 3. pnn, from Y^p, to shine, glister, de-
notes gold with reference to its colour (Ps. Ixviii.
14 ; Prov. iii. 14 ; viii. 10 ; xvi. 16 ; Zech. ix. 3) ;
it is used chiefly in connection with silver. 4. DOS,
 
from DPS, to dig out ore, used poetically for gold
 
(Job xxi. 34 ; Prov. xxv. 12 ; Lam. iv. I, etc.) ; it
is sometimes coupled with TiQiX (Job xxviii. 16;
 
Ps. xlv. 10 ; Is. xiii. 12), once T21X (Dan. x. 5).
 
Zahab is sometimes joined with "I'lJD, signifying
 
concealed, shut up, treasured, to describe treasured
gold (i Kings vi. 20, 21 ; vii. 49, 50 ; x. 2i ; i
Chron. iv. 20). In l Kings x. 16, 17, and 2 Chron.
ix. 15, 16, mention is made of tO^inCi^ ITW, of which
 
Solomon caused two hundred shields to be made,
Gesenius renders this mixed ox alloyed gold ; but the
rendering of the LXX., xp^'^"- e\a.Tu., gold beaten
out by the hammer into plates, seems preferable.
 
The Hebrews got their gold from Arabia, chiefly
from Ophir. Mention is also made of Uphaz and
Parvaim as places whence gold was brought ; but
great uncertainty exists as to the places so named
[Parvaim ; Uphaz]. Gold was known at a very
early period (Gen. ii. II ), and was used from re-
mote antiquity for articles of personal ornament
(Gen. xxiv. 22 ; xh. 42). It constituted part of
Abraham's wealth (Gen. xiii. 2). It was exten-
sively employed for the utensils of the tabernacle
and in the temple (Exod. xxv. 35 ; l Kings vi. 22).
The first notice we have of its being used as money
is in the age of David (i Chron. xxi. 25). In
early times silver seems to have been the usual
medium of exchange, and hence in Hebrew as in
other tongues silver often means money (Gen. xxiiL
9, etc.)— W. L. A,
 
ZAIR (TyV, 'little;' Su6/) ; Seira). In the
expedition of king Joram against Edom this place
 
 
 
ZAIT
 
 
 
1143
 
 
 
ZANOAH
 
 
 
is mentioned. It is said he ' went over to Zair,
and all the chariots with him ; and he rose by night
and smote the Edomites which compassed him
about' (2 Kings viii. 21). There is no other refer-
ence to it in Scripture. It was evidently situated
on, if not within the border of Edom, and conse-
quently somewhere in the great valley of Arabah.
There Joram would have favourable ground for
the operations of his chariots. As no place of this
name has been found on the borders of Moab,
several theories have been advanced regarding it.
I. Some identify it with Zoar ; but the latter was
situated too far northward (Movers, Jirii. Unters.
218). 2. Some suppose it to be an erroneous
reading for Vltj', ' his princes,' which is found in
 
its place in the parallel passage (2 Chron. xxi. 9) ;
but for this there is no manuscript authority
(Dahler, Paralip. p. 107). 3. Others think that
the correct reading ought to be T^yi^, Self, the
ancient name of Edom. Such conjectures are
purely gratuitous. The critical scholar must admit
the authenticity of the text unless he can bring
forward some trustworthy evidence of corruption
(see Keil and Bertheau, ad loc.) — ^J. L. P.
 
ZAIT, or SAIT (nT), is universally acknow-
ledged to be the Olive-tree. The Latin author
Ammianus Marcellinus, as quoted by Celsius
(vol. ii. p. 331), was acquainted with it, for he
says of a place in Mesopotamia, ' Zaitam venimus
locum, qui Olea arbor interpretatur.' Zaitoon is
the Arabic name by which the olive is known from
Syria to Caubul, and described in the works of
both Arabic and Persian authors. No tree is more
frequently mentioned by ancient authors, nor was
any one more highly honoured by ancient nations.
 
The olive-tree is of slow growth, but remarkable
for the great age it attains. It never, however,
becomes a very large tree, though sometimes two
or three stems rise from the same root, and reach
from twenty to thirty feet high. The leaves are in
pah-s, lanceolate in shape, of a dull green on the
upper, and hoary on the under surface. Hence in
countries where the olive is extensively cultivated,
the scenery is of a dull character from this colour
of the foliage. The fruit is an elliptical drupe,
with a hard stony kernel, and remarkable from the
outer fleshy part being that in which much oil is
lodged, and not, as is usual, in the almond of the
seed. It ripens from August to September.
 
Of the olive-tree two varieties are particularly
distinguished ; the long-leafed, which is cultivated
in the south of France and in Italy, and the broad-
leafed in Spain, which has also its fruit much
larger than that of the former kind. The wild
olive-tree, as well as the practice of grafting, has
been noticed in the article Agrileia. The great
age to which the olive attains is well attested.
Chateaubriand says : ' Those in the garden of
Olivet (or Gelhsemane) are at least of the times of
the Eastern empire, as is demonstrated by the fol-
lowing circumstance. In Turkey every olive-tree
found standing by the Musselmans, when they con-
quered Asia, pays one niedina to the Treasury,
while each of those planted since the conquest is
taxed half its produce. The eight olives of which
we are speaking are charged only eight jnedinas.^
By some, especially by Dr. Martin, it is supposed
that these olive-trees may have been in existence
even in the time of our Saviour. Dr. Wilde de-
scribes the largest of them as being twenty-four
 
 
 
feet in girth above the roots, though its topmost
branch is not thirty feet from the ground ; Bove,
who travelled as a naturalist, asserts that the largest
are at least six yards in circumference, and nine or
ten yards high ; so large, indeed, that he calculates
their age at 2000 years.
 
The olive is one of the earliest of the plants
specifically mentioned in the Bible, the fig being
the first (Gen. viii. 11). It is always enumerated
among the valued trees of Palestine ; which Moses
describes (Deut. vi. 1 1 ; viii. 8) as ' a land of oil-
olive and honey' (so in xxviii. 40, etc.) ; and (2
Chron. ii. 10) Solomon gave to the labourers sent
him by Hiram, king of Tyre, 20,000 baths of oil.
Besides this, immense quantities must have been
required for home consumption, as it was exten-
sively used as an article of diet, foi burning in lamps,
and for the ritual service. The olive still continues
one of the most extensively cultivated of plants.
Mr. Kitto mentions that in a list he had made of
references to all the notices of plants by the different
travellers in Palestine, those of the presence of the
olive exceed one hundred and fifty, and are more
numerous by far than to any other tree or plant.
The references to vines, fig-trees, mulberries, and
oaks, rank next in frequency. Something of this
must, however, depend upon the knowledge of
plants of the several travellers. Botanists, even
from Europe, neglect forms with which they are
unacquainted, as, for instance, some of the tropical
forms they meet with. Not only the olive-oil, but
the branches of the tree were employed at the
Feast of Tabernacles. The wood also was used
(l Kings vi. 23) by Solomon for making the cheru-
bim (vers. 31, 32), and for doors and posts 'for
the entering of the oracle,' the former of which
were carved with cherubim, and palm-trees, and
open flowers. The olive being an evergreen was
adduced as an emblem of prosperity (Ps. lii. 8),
and it has continued, from the earliest ages, to be
an emblem of peace among all civilised nations.
The different passages of Scripture are elucidated
by Celsius {Hierobot. ii. p. 330), to whom we have
been much indebted in most of the botanical
articles treated of in this work, from the care and
learning which he has brought to bear on the sub-
ject.— J. F. R.
 
ZALMON (|10^X ; Sept. T^eXfidiv), a mountain
 
in Samaria near to Shechem (Judg. ix. 48). [Sal-
mon.]
 
ZALMONAH (Hlb^S ; SeX/otww), a station ot
the Israelites in the desert [Wandering, Wilder-
ness of].
 
ZALMUNNA. [Zebah and Zalmunna.]
ZAMZUMMIMS (D''13TpT ; Sept ZoxofiM"), a
race of giants dwelling anciently in the territory
afterwards occupied by the Ammonites, but extinct
before the time of Moses (Deut. ii. 20) [ZuziM ;
Giants.]
 
ZANOAH [mi marsh, hog). I. (Sept. Tavw ;
 
Alex. Zavci), one of the towns of Judah ' in the
valley or Shephelah' (Josh. xv. 34) ; which Jerome
identifies with a village called in his time Zanua,
on the borders of Eleutheropolis, on the road to
Jerusalem {Oiiomast. s. v. 'Zanohua'). The name
of Zanu'a is stUl connected with a site on the slope
 
 
 
ZAPHNATH-PAANEAH
 
 
 
1144
 
 
 
ZEBAIM
 
 
 
of a low hill not far east of Ain Shems (Betli-
shemesh).
 
2. {7iaKavat/jL ; Alex. ZavuaKel/x ; formed by
combining niJT and the following word PpH), a
town in the hill country of Judah (Josh. xv. 56),
founded probably by Jehuthiel the son of Mered
by his Jewish wife (i Chron. iv. 18). Robinson
mentions a place Zdnfitah about ten miles south
of Hebron {B. R. ii. 626; Van de Velde, Me-
moir, p. 354).
 
ZAPHNATH-PAANEAH (njj?3 nJDV; Sept.
 
^^ovBofKpavrjx), an Egyptian name given by Pharaoh
to Joseph in reference to his public office. The
genuine Egyptian form of the word is supposed to
have been more nearly preserved by the Sept.
translator, as above ; in which both Jablonsky
(Opusc. c. 207-216) and Rosellini {Mott. Storici, i.
185) recognise the Egyptian Psotmfeneh, ' the
salvation,' or ' saviour of the age;' which corre-
sponds nearly enough with Jerome's interpretation,
' Salvator mundi.' Gesenius and others incline,
however, rather to regard its Egyptian form as
PsoNTMFENEH, ' sustainer of the age,' which cer-
tainly is a better meaning. This, in Hebrew
letters, would probably be represented by DJi'Q
nyjD, Paznath-Paaneah ; but in the name as it
now stands the letters JfS are transposed, in order
to bring it nearer to the Hebrew analogy. Con-
cerning the Egyptian root SNT, sustentare, hieri,
see Champollion, Gramin. p. 380 ; P«zron, Lex.
Copt. p. 207. [Bunsen, adopting the LXX. form,
says, ' In the former part of the word lies the old
Eg3'ptian root snt == sont., to ground, to secure, and
the latter is to be resolved into p an/ch, life, a term
in which many of the old Egyptian names ter-
minate' {Bibelwerk, in loc.) The name given to
Joseph would thus mean Life-stistainer. ]
 
ZAPHON Qiav, 'the north;' Sa^tiy; Saphon),
 
a city of Gad, situated in ' the valley,' or Araiah,
on the east bank of the Jordan, and grouped with
Succoth. It is only mentioned in Josh. xiii. 27.
It probably lay near the northern .end of the val-
ley, and hence its name. No trace of it has been
discovered. It would appear to be this city which is
mentioned in Judg. xii. i, ' The Ephraimites
gathered themselves together and passed over to
Zaphon' (HJISV). This is generally regarded as
an appellative, and rendered 'northward;' but
the construction shows it to be a proper name,
and so it is represented in the Alexandrine MS.
of the Septuagint. According to a statement of
the Gemara it was identical with Anratka (Reland,
Fal. p. 308 ; Keil and Delitzsch 07t yitdg. ad loc.) ;
but Amatha lay among the mountains. — ^J. L. P.
 
ZARED. [Zered.]
 
ZAREPHATH. [Sarepta.]
 
ZARETAN, ZARTHAN, and ZARTANAH
(jmV and njJTlV ; Secpd in I Kings vii. 46 ;
2e(raS-(x;'in I Kings iv. 12 ; Sarthaji and Saj-tka7ta)
are different forms of the same name. The two
first are identical in Hebrew Qosh. iii. 16 ; I Kings
vii. 46) ; and the third has a feminine termination
(i Kings iv. 12). The name is first mentioned in
connection with the miraculous passage of the
Jordan by the Israelites : — ' The waters rose up
upon an heap far from the city Adam, that is
beside Zaretan.^ Its position is more definitely
pointed out in i Kings iv. 12 as near Bethshean.
 
 
 
In the only other passage where the name occurs
it is used to describe the place where the brazen
vessels of the temple were cast — ' in the clay-
ground between Succoth and Zarthan' (vii. 46).
It must thus have been a well-known place on the
bank of the Jordan, and not far distant from Beth-
shean. Van de Velde says : ' The name seems to
have been preserved in that of Surtabah, the pecu-
liar mountain group in the Ghor south of Wady-
el-Ferrah' {Memoir, 354). This, however, is much
too far south, being at least thirty miles from
Bethshean (see, however, Keil and Delitzsch on
Josh. iii. 16) ; and the resemblance m name is
more fanciful than real. — ^J. L. P.
 
ZARETH-SHAHAR ("intrri TTlV ; 2epa5d
 
KoX ^iLwv ; Alex. 2apS- 2iw/) ; Sa>-ath-asar), a town
in the territory allotted to the tribe of Reuben,
and described as being ' upon a mount of the val-
ley ' (poyn ina), that is, of the Jordan valley.
It is only mentioned in Josh. xiii. 19, and the
notice is so indefinite that its site cannot be fixed
farther than that it was somewhere within the ter-
ritory of Reuben, and in the Jordan valley. It
must consequently have been near the north-
eastern shore of the Dead Sea. Even the recent
minute researches of De Saulcy in this region
have failed to discover any trace of it. Seetzen's
conjecture that it is identical with Sara in Wady
Zurka Main, cannot be received {Reisen, ii. 369 ;
see Keil and Delitzsch on Joshua, ad loc) — ^J. L. P.
 
ZARHITES, The prniH ; 6 Za/sat; Alex. 6
 
Tia.pa.iC), the descendants of Zerali the son of Judah
(Num. xxvi. 13, 20).
 
ZEALOTS. The followers of Judas the Gau-
lonite or Galilean [JuDAS]. Josephus speaks of
them as forming the ' fourth sect of Jewish philo-
sophy,' and as distinguished from the Pharisees
chiefly by a quenchless love of liberty and a con-
tempt of death. Their leading tenet was the un-
lawfulness of paying tribute to the Romans, as
being a violation of the theocratic constitution.
This principle, which they maintained by force of
arms against the Roman government, was soon
converted into a pretext for deeds of violence
against their own countrymen ; and during the last
days of the Jewish polity, the Zealots were lawless
brigands or guerrillas, the pest and teiTor of the
land. After the death of Judas, and of his two
sons, Jacob and Simon (who suffered crucifixion),
they were headed by Eleazar, one of his descend-
ants, and were often denominated Sicarii, from
the use of a weapon resembling the Roman Sica
(Joseph. Antiq. xviii. i ; De Bell. Jiid. iv. 1-6;
vii. 8 ; Lardner's Credibility, pt. i. b. i. ch. 6, 9 ;
Ya\.\.o\ Palestine, pp. 741, 751). — ^J. E. R.
 
ZEBAH AND ZALMUNNA, chiefs of the
Midianites, whom Gideon defeated and slew.
[Gideon.]
 
ZEBAIM (D''3Sn). This term is appended to
 
the name of Pochereth, the chief of a family num-
bered among Solomon's servants (Ezra ii. 57 ; Neh.
vii. 59). It has been supposed by some to be the
name of a place, but it is more probably the pi. of
''3^*, aw antelope or gazelle; 'Pochereth of the
antelopes' having probably received that name
from being a mighty hunter of these animals.--
W. L. A.
 
 
 
ZEBEDEE
 
 
 
1145
 
 
 
ZEBULUN
 
 
 
ZEBEDEE (Ze/SeSalos ; in Hebrew '>"nnT, Zabdi,
 
nn3f, JehovaJis gift), husband of Salome, and
 
father of the apostles James and John (Matt. x. 2 ;
XX. 20 ; xxvi. 37 ; xxvii. 56 ; Mark iii. 17 ; x. 35 ;
John xxi. 2). He was the owner of a fishing-boat
on the lake of Gennesaret, and, with his sons, fol-
lowed the business of a fisherman. He was pre-
sent, mending the nets with them, when Jesus
called James and John to follow him (Matt. iv.
21 ; Mark i. 19 ; Luke v. 10) ; and as he offered
no obstacle to their obedience, but remained alone
without murmuring in the vessel, it is supposed
that he liad been previously a disciple of John the
Baptist, and, as such, knew Jesus to be the Mes-
siah. At any rate, he must have known this from
his sons, who were certainly disciples of the Baptist.
It is very doubtful whether Zebedee and his sons
were of that very abject condition of life which is
usually ascribed to them. They seem to have been
in good circumstances, and were certainly not poor.
Zebedee was the owner of a ' ship,' or fishing-
smack, as we should call it — and, perhaps, of more
than one ; he had labourers under him (Mark i.
20) ; his wife was one of those pious women whom
the Lord allowed ' to minister unto him of their
substance ;' and the fact that Jesus recommended
his mother to the care of John, implies that he had
the means of providing for her ; whilst a still further
proof that Zebedee's family was not altogether
mean may be found, perhaps, in the fact, that
John was personally known to the high-priest (John
xviii. 16).
 
ZEBOIM (□'•hV, but in Hos. xi. 8, D''KaV ;
 
'Ee^wifj. ; 2el3w€i/jt, ; "Ze^oeiix ; Scboim), a city situ-
ated apparently in that part of the Jordan valley
which was anciently called ' The Vale of Siddim'
(Gen. xiv. 3), and generally grouped with Sodom
and Gomorrah (x. 19 ; Deut. xxix. 23 ; Hos. xi.
8). It has been already shown that, in all proba-
bility, the site of the Pentapolis, after having been
burned by fire from heaven, was overflown, and
now forms the southern section of the Dead Sea
[Sodom ; Sea]. This being the case, all attempts
to discover any traces of Zeboim must necessarily
be vain (see, however, De Saulcy, Journey round
the Dead Sea, i. 416).— J. L. P.
 
ZEBOIM, The Valley of (□•'pvn V. ' ^"^
 
Tr\v Za^ifi ; Va/li's Sclwim), is only mentioned in I
Sam. xiii. iS, where it is said that one of the bands
of Philistine spoilers went out from Michmash
' the way of the border that looketh to the Valley
of Zebohn.'' This must not be confounded with
the city of Zeboim. Though the names are the
same in English, they are radically different in the
Hebrew. ' The Valley of Zeboim ' signifies the
' valley of hyaenas,' and was apparently given to
one of tliose wild ravines which nm down the
eastern slopes of Benjamin into the Jordan plain.
-J. L. P.
 
ZEBUL (^2T, a dzvelling ; Sept. Zf/3oi5X), an
 
officer whom Abimelech left in command at She-
chem in his own absence ; and who discharged with
fidelity and discretion the difficult trust confided to
him (Judg. ix. 29-41 ^ See the particulars in
Abimelech.
 
 
 
ZEBULUN, Tribe and Possessions of (jiiS^T,
also I'lP^aT; Za/3oi;Xuiv; Zabulon). Zebulun was
tlie sixth and last son of Leah, and the tenth bora
to Jacob (Gen. xxx. 20 ; xxxv. 23). In the order
of birth he followed his brother Issachar, with
whom, in the history of the tribes, and in their
allotted territories in Canaan, he was closely con-
nected (Deut. xxxiii. 18). His personal history
does not appear to have contained a single incident
worthy of record ; and his name is not once men-
tioned except in the genealogical lists. At the
time of the descent of Jacob into Egypt, Zebulun
had three sons, Sered, Elon, and Jahleel (Gen.
xlvi. 14), who became the founders of the three
great families into which tlie tribe was divided
(Num. xxvi. 26). Though the first generation was
so small, this tribe ranked fourth in numbers
among the twelve, when the census was taken at
Mount Sinai, in the year of the exodus ; Judah,
Dan, and Simeon being more numerous. During
the wilderness-journey it increased from 57,400
males to 60,500 ; but it held just the same relative
place among the twelve — ^Judah, Dan, and Issa-
char being before it when the census was made on
the plains of Moab (Num. xxvi. 27).
 
History is almost as silent regarding the acts of
the tribe during the long period of Egyptian bond-
age, and the desert journey, as it is regarding the
patriarch Zebulun himself It does not a])pear to
have been signalised in any way. A quiet steady
demeanour seems to have been the chief character-
istic of the people. The only point worthy of
note previous to its settlement in Palestine is the
fact that, on the solemn proclamation of the law,
Zebulun was among the six tribes stationed on
Mount Ebal to pronounce the curses (Deut. xxvii.
13)-
 
The position and physical character of Zebu-
hm's destined territory in the Land of Promise had
been sketched in the projihetic blessings of Jacob
and Moses. Looking down into a far distant age,
Jacob exclaimed, as his son stood by his bedside :
' Zebulun shall dwell on the coast of seas ; and he
shall be for a shore of ships ; and his side will be
to Zidon !' (Gen. xlix. 13). Though Issachar was
an elder brother, Jacob seems to have already
noticed and acknowledged the political superi-
ority of Zebulun, by placing him first in order.
This superiority was afterwards more fully dis-
played in the blessing of Moses, which, though
embracing both tribes, appears as if addressed to
Zebulun alone — ' And of Zebithin he said : Rejoice,
Zebulun, in thy going out ; and, Issachar, in thy
tents. They shall call the people unto the
mountain ; there they shall offer sacrifices of
righteousness ; for they shall suck of the abund-
ance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand'
(Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19). Zebulun's territory was
one of the richest and most Iseautiful sections of
western Palestine. Joshua defines its borders
with his usual minuteness, though, in conse-
quence of the disappearance of many old cities, it
cannot now be entirely identified. Its position,
however, and general extent are clear enough.
Asher and Naphtali bounded it on the north, and
Issachar on the south. It strctclied across the
country from the Sea of Galilee on the east, to the
maritime plain of Phoenicia on the west ; em-
bracing a large strip of Esdraelon, a portion of the
plain of Akka, the whole of the rich upland plain
 
 
 
ZEBULUN
 
 
 
1146
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
of Battauf, with the fertile table-land between it
and the great basin of the Sea of Galilee. The
beautiful wooded hills and ridges extending from
Tabor, by Nazareth and Sefuriyeh, to the plain
of Akka, were also in Zebulun. It touched Car-
mel on the south-west ; and though it did not
actually reach to the shore of the Mediterranean,
its sides joined the narrow maritime territory of
Phoenicia, to which Jacob, according to common
eastern custom, gives the name of its chief city,
Zidon— 'And his side wUl be to Zidon.' Its
opposite extremity resting on the shore of the sea
of Galilee, the words of Jacob were fulfilled : ' Ze-
bulun shall dwell on the coast of seas.^ His fisher-
men on the Sea of Galilee, and his merchants
navigating the Mediterranean, in company with
their Phoenician neighbours, illustrate remarkably
the other blessings : ' He shall be for a shore of
ships ;' 'he shall rejoice in his goings out' Pos-
sessing thus a rich agricultural country, abundance
of wood, and an outlet for commercial enterprise
both in the Mediterranean and in the Sea of Galilee,
the future state and history of Zebulun were influ-
enced and moulded by external circumstances.
The four northern tribes, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher,
and Napthali, were in a great measure isolated
from their brethren. The plain of Esdraelon,
almost unceasingly swept by the incursions of
hostile nations, separated them from Ephraim and
Judah ; while the deep Jordan valley formed a
barrier on the east. Isolation from their brethren,
and their peculiar position, threw them into closer
intercourse with their Gentile neighbours — the old
mountaineers whom they were never able entirely
to expel (Judg. i. 30), and especially the commer-
cial Phoenicians. Their national exclusiveness was
thus considerably modified ; their manners and
customs were changed ; their language gradually
assumed a foreign tone and accent (Matt. xxvi.
73) ; and even their religion lost much of its
original purity (2 Chron. xxx. 10, 18). 'Galilee
of the Gentiles ' and its degenerate inhabitants
came at length to be regarded with distrust and
scorn by the haughty people of Judah (Is. ix. i ;
Matt. iv. 15 ; xxvi. 73).
 
The four northern tribes formed as it were a
state by themselves (Stanley, yewish Church, i.
266) ; and among them Zebulun became distin-
guished for warlike spirit and devotion. In the
great campaign and victory of Barak it bore a pro-
minent part (Judg. iv. 6, 10). Deborah in her
triumphal ode, says : 'Zebulun and Naphtali were
a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death
in the high places of the field' (v. iS). It would
appear besides that their commercial enterprise led
them to a closer and fuller study of the arts and
sciences than tlieir brethren. ' They thus at an
early period acquired the reputation of literary ac-
complishment ; and the poet sang of them : ' From
Zebulun are the men who handle the pen of the
scribe" (Judg. v. 14; Kalisch on Genesis,-^. 753).
This combination of warlike spirit with scientific
skill seems to be referred to once again in a more
extended field of action. The sacred historian
mentions that in David's army there were, ' of
Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in
war, with all instruments of war, fifty thousand
which could keep rank ; not of double heart' (l
Chron. xii. 33). They were generous also and
liberal, as well as brave and loyal ; for they contri-
buted abundantly of the rich products of their
 
 
 
country — meal, figs, raisins, wine, oil, oxen, and
sheep — to the wants of the army (ver. 40).
 
The tribe of Zebulun, though not mentioned,
appears to have shared the fate of the other northern
tribes at the invasion of the country by Tiglath-
pileser (2 Kings xvii. 18, 24, seq) From this time
the history of distinct tribes ceases. With the ex-
ception of the Levites, the whole were amalga-
mated into one nation, and on the return from
exile were called Jews. The land of Zebulun,
however, occupied a distinguished place in N. T.
times. It formed the chief scene of our Lord's
life and labours. Nazareth and Cana were in it ;
and it embraced a section of the shore of the Sea of
Galilee, where so many of the miracles of Christ
were performed, and so many of his discourses and
parables spoken. Then was fulfilled the prophecy
of Isaiah : ' The land Zabulon, and the land
Nephthalim, the way of the sea, beyond Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles ; the people which sat in
darkness saw great light ; and to them which sat
in the region and shadow of death, light is sprmig
up' (Is. ix. I, 2; Matt. iv. 15, 16).— J. L. P,
 
ZECHARIAH (nn2T, whom Jehovah remem-
bers; Sept. and N. T.' Zaxapias), a very common
name among the Jews, borne by the following per-
sons mentioned in Scripture.
 
1. ZECHARIAH, son of Jeroboam II., and four-
teenth king of Israel. He ascended the throne in
B.C. 772, and reigned six months. It has been
shown in the article Israel, that from undue de
ference to a probably corrupted number, which
ascribes 41 years to the reign of Jeroboam II.,
chronologers have found it necessaiy to suppose
anarchy or an interregnum, of 11 years, during
which his son Zechariah was kept from the throne.
But there is no appearance of this in the sacred
narrative, and it was not likely to follow a reign so
prosperous as Jeroboam's. The few months of
Zechariah's reign just sufficed to evince his inclina-
tion to follow the bad course of his predecessors ;
and he was then slain by Shallum, who usurped
the crown. With his life ended the dynasty of
Jehu (2 Kings xiv. 29 ; xv. 8-12).
 
2. Zechariah, high-priest in the time of Joash,
king of Judah. He was son, or perhaps grandson,
of Jehoiada and Jehosheba ; the latter was the aunt
of the king, who owed to her his crown, as he did
his education and throne to her husband [Joash].
Zechariah could not bear to see the evil courses
into which the monarch eventually fell, and by
which the return of the people to their old idolatries
was facilitated, if not encouraged. Therefore,
when the people were assembled at one of the
solemn festivals, he took the opportunity of lifting
up his voice against the growing corruptions. This
was in the presence of the king, in the court of the
temple. The people were enraged at his honest
boldness, and with the connivance of the king, if not
by a direct intimation from him, they seized the
pontiff and stoned him to death, even m that holy
spot, ' between the temple and the altar.' His dying
cry was not that of the first Christian martyr,
' Lord, lay not this sin to their charge' (Acts vii.
60), but ' The Lord look upon it, and require it'
(2 Chron. xxiv. 20-22). It is to this dreadful affair
that our Lord alludes in Matt, xxiii. 35 ; Luke xi.
5 1. At least this is the opinion of the best inter-
preters, and that which has most probability in its
favour. The only difificulty arises from his being
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
1H7
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
called the son of Barachias, and not of Jehoiada ;
but this admits of two explanations — either that
Zechariah, though called the 'son' of Jehoiada in
the O. T., was really his grandson, and son of
Barachias, who perhaps died before his father ; or
else that, as was not uncommon among the Jews,
Jehoiada had two names, and Jesus called him by
that by which he was usually distinguished in his
time, when the Jews had acquired a reluctance to
pronounce those names which, like that of Je-
hoiada, contained the sacred name of Jehovah.
See Doddridge, Le Clerc, Kuinoel, Wetstein, and
others, on Matt, xxiii. 35.
 
3. Zechariah, described as one ' who had un-
derstanding in the visions of God' (2 Chron. xxvi.
7). It is doubtful whether this eulogium indicates
a prophet, or simply describes one eminent for his
piety and faith. IDuring his lifetime Uzziah, king
of Judah, was guided by his counsels, and pros-
pered ; but went wrong when death had deprived
him of his wise guidance. Nothing is known of
this Zechariah's history. It is possible that he
may be the same whose daughter became the wife
of Ahaz, and mother of Hezekiah (2 Kings xvi. i,
2 ; 2 Chron. xxix. i).
 
4. Zechariah, son of Jeberechiah, a person
whom, together with Urijah the high-priest, Isaiah
took as a legal witness of his marriage with ' the
prophetess' (Is. viii. 2). This was in the reign of
Ahaz, and the choice of the prophet shows that
Zechariah was a person of consequence. Some
confound him with the preceding ; but the distance
of time will not admit their identity. He may,
however, have been the descendant of Asaph
named in 2 Chron. xxix. 13.— J. K.
 
5. Zechariah (n''13T; Zaxaplas), the eleventh
 
in order of the minor prophets, was ' the son of
Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet.' The
meaning of Hyp has been disputed, some affirming
that Iddo was not the grandfather, as the formula
seems to indicate, but the yJz///^r of Zechariah, and
thus rendering the clause with Jerome, ' filium
Barachice, filium Addo,' or with the Septuagint, rov
ToO Ba/)axi'ou, lAov 'A55w. Jerome likewise refers to
his peculiar rendering in his notes. Others of the
fathers adopted it, such as Cyril of Alexandria,
who attempts to solve the difficulty created by it
by maintaining that the one was the natural, the
other the spiritual parent, of the prophet — Bere-
chiah being his father Kara tt)v aapKa, and Iddo
the prophet, Kara t6 irvev/xa. Others have justified
this translation by assigning both names to Zecha-
riah's father, as if he had worn them successively
at different periods of his life, or as if one of them
had been a cognomen. But the version of Jerome
and the Seventy is a false one. Analogy declares
against it, and its origin is to be traced to Ezra v.
I, and vi. 14, where the prophet is named only
' Zechariah the son of Iddo,' The words Kny"n3
denote merely ' grandson of Iddo ' (Gesenius, T//e-
saitr. p. 216), and the paternal name may have
been omitted because of its comparative obscurity,
while the grand-paternal name is inserted, because
of its national popularity. It was a very strange
mistake of Jerome to confound the Iddo named in
connection with this prophet as his ancestor with
Iddo the seer, who flourished some centuries before
under Jeroboam, first king of Israel (Hieronym.
Commeut. ad Zach.) The term K''D3 in the first
verse belongs, not to Iddo, hut to Zechariah, as
 
 
 
the Septuagint and Vulgate properly render it.
The probability is, that Iddo is the person men-
tioned in Neh. xii. 4 as one of the sacerdotal pro-
phets who had returned with Joshua and Zerub-
babel. Berechiah, son of Iddo, and father of
Zechariah, seems to have died young, for in Neh.
xii. 16, Zechariah is said to be Iddo's successor,
under Joiakim, son of Joshua. Thus the prophet's
descent is, in Ezra, traced at once from his grand-
father. Compare Gen. xxix. 5, and xxxi. 28-55.
Should this theory be correct, Zechariah exercised
the priestly as well as the prophetical office. In
the second year of Darius Hystaspis, and the
eighteenth year of the return, he was a young man,
when he entered on his work ("ip, ii. 4), so tiiat
 
he was born in Babylon, and must have come back
with the first band of exiles. As a prophet he was
somewhat later than Haggai, but the mission of
both coincided. The pseudo-Epiphanius is wholly
in error, therefore, when he speaks of Zechariah as
comhig from Babylon ^hf] irpol3e^r]Kui {De Vita
Prophet, xxi.), and so is Dorotheus, who says that
he x&inmtA a:tate proveda. But the argument from
the use of "lyj, ii. 4, admitted by Hengstenberg,
 
Knobel, and Kimchi, is precarious ; and is denied by
Ewald, Maurer, and Hitzig, who refer the 1J/3, not
 
to the prophet, but to ' the man with the measuring
line.' The name Zechariah was a very common
one among the Jews, three others bearing it seem
also to have been prophets.
 
The mission of Zechariah had especial reference
to the affairs of the nation that had been restored
to its territory. The second edict, granting per-
mission to rebuild the temple, had been issued, but
the work had paused during the reign of Cambyses
and the Magian usurper; and the oflice of Zechariah
was to incite the flagging zeal of tlie people, in
order that the auspicious period might be a season
of religious revival as well as of ecclesiastical re-
organisation, and that the theocratic spirit might
resume its former sway in the breasts of all who
were engaged in the work of restoring the ' holy
and beautiful house.' The prophet asures them of
success in the work of re-erecting the sacred edifice,
despite of every combination against them ; for
Zerubbabel ' should bring forth the head-stone with
shouting, Grace, grace unto it' — comforts them
with a solemn pledge that, amidst fearful revolu-
tions and conquests by which other nations vi'ere to
be swept away, they should remain uninjured ; for,
says Jehovah, ' He that toucheth you toucheth the
apple of mine eye.' The pseudo-Epiphanius re-
cords some prodigies wrought by Zechariah in the
land of Chaldsea, and some wondrous oracles which
he delivered ; and he and Dorolheus both agree in
declaring that the prophet di^ in Judsea in a good
old age, and was buried beside his colleague
Haggai.
 
Book. — The book of Zechariah consists of four
general divisions.
 
I. The introduction or inaugural discourse (ch.
i. i-i6).
 
II. A series of nine visions, extending onwards to
ch. vii., communicated to the prophet in the third
month after his installation. Tiiese visions were--
 
I. A rider on a roan horse among the myrtle-
trees, with his equestrian attendants who report to
him the peace of the world — symbolising the fitness
of the time for the fulfilment of the promises of
God. his people's protector.
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
114S
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
2. Four horns, symbols of the oppressive ene-
mies by which Judah had been on all sides sur-
rounded ; and four carpenters, by whom these horns
are broken — emblems of the destruction of these
anti-theocratic powers.
 
3. A man with a measuring-line describing a
wider circumference for the site of Jerusalem, as
its population was to receive a vast increase — fore-
showing that many more Jews would return from
Babylon and join their countrymen, and indicating
also the conversion of heathen nations under the
Messiah.
 
4. The high-priest Joshua before the angel of
the Lord, with Satan at his right hand to oppose
him. The sacerdotal representative of the people,
clad in the filthy garments in which he had returned
from captivity, seems to be a type of the guilt and
degradation of his country ; while forgiveness and
restoration are the blessings which the pontiff sym-
bolically receives from Jehovah, when he is reclad
in holy apparel and crowned with a spotless tur-
ban, the vision at the same time stretching into far
futurity, and including the advent of Jehovah's
servant the Branch.
 
5. A golden lamp -stand fed from two olive-trees,
one growing on each side of it — an image of the
value and divine glor)' of the theocracy as now seen
in the restored Jewish church, supported, not ' by
might nor by power, but by the Spirit of Jehovah,'
and of the spiritual development of the old theo-
cracy in the Christian church, which enlightens the
world through the continuous influences of the
Holy Ghost.
 
6. A flying roll, containing on its one side curses
against the ungodly, and on its other, anathemas
against the immoral — denoting that the head of the
theocracy would from his place punish those who
violated either the first or the second table of his
law — the command in the middle of each table
being selected as an example.
 
7. A woman pressed down into an ephah by a
sheet of lead laid over its mouth, borne along in
the air by two female figures with storks' wings,
representing the sin and punishment of the nation.
The Fury, whose name is Wickedness, is re-
pressed, and transported to the land of Shinar ; --
i.e. idolatry, in the persons of the captive Jews,
was for ever removed at that period from the Holy
Land, and, as it were, taken to Babylon, the home
of image -worship. (For another meaning, see
Jahn's Introduction, Turner's translation, p. 428. )
 
8. Four chariots issuing from two copper moun-
tains, and drawn respectively by red, black, white,
and spotted horses, the vehicles of the four winds
of heaven — a hieroglyph of the swiftness and extent
of divine judgments against the former oppressors
of the covenant-people.
 
9. The last scene is not properly a vision, but
an oracle in connection with the preceding visions,
and in reference to a future symbolical act to be
performed by the prophet. In presence of a de-
putation of Jews from Babylon, the prophet was
charged to place a crown on the head of Joshua
the high-priest, a symbol which, whatever was its
immediate signification, was designed to prefigure
the royal and sacerdotal dignity of the man whose
name is ' Branch,' who should sit as ' a priest upon
his throne.'
 
The meaning of all the preceding varied images
and scenes is explained more or less fully to the
prophet by an attendant angelus interpres.
 
 
 
III. A collection of four oracles de'ivered at
various times in the fourth year of Darius, and
partly occasioned by a request of the nation to be
divinely informed, whether, now on their happy
return to their fatherland, the month of Jerusalem's
overthrow should be registered in their sacred
calendar as a season of fasting and humiliation.
The prophet declares that these times should in
future ages be observed as festive solemnities.
 
IV. The 9th, loth, and nth chapters contain a
variety of prophecies unfolding the fortunes of the
people, their safety in the midst of Alexander's
expedition, and their victories under the Macca-
bsean chieftains, including the fate of many of the
surrounding nations, Hadrach, Damascus, Tyre,
and Philistia (see Hengstenberg's Christologie).
 
V. The remaining three chapters graphically
portray the future condition of the people, espe-
cially in Messianic times, and contain allusions to a
siege of the city, the means of escape by the cleav-
ing of the Mount of Olives on the descent of Jeho-
vah, with a symbol of twilight breaking into day,
and living waters issuing from Jerusalem, and
concluding with a blissful vision of the enlarged
prosperity and holiness of the theocratic metropolis,
when upon the bells of the horses shall be inscribed
' holiness unto the Lord. '
 
Integrity. — The genuineness of the latter portion
of Zechariah, from ch. ix. to xiv., has been dis-
puted. Among the first to suggest doubt on this
subject was Joseph Mede, who referred chaps, ix.
X. and xL to an earlier date, and ascribed them to
Jeremiah. Remarking on Matt, xxvii. 9, 10, he
says : ' It may seem the evangelist would inform
us that those latter chapters ascribed to Zachary --
namely, the ninth, tenth, eleventh, etc. — are indeed
the prophecies of Jeremy, and that the Jews had
not rightly attributed them. Certainly, if a man
weigh the contents of some of them, they should
in likelihood be of an elder date than the time of
Zachary — namely, before the captivity ; for the sub-
jects of some of them were scarce in being after
that time. ... As for their being joined to the
prophecies of Zachary, that proves no more they
ai-e his than the like adjoining of Agur's proverbs
to Solomon's proves that they are therefore Solo-
mon's, or that all the psalms are David's because
joined in one volume with David's psalms' {Epist.
xxxi.) His opinion was adopted in England by
Hammond, Kidder, Bridge, Newcome, Whiston,
and Seeker, by Pye Smith and Davidson, and has
been followed, with variations, on the continent by
Fliigge (Die Weissagimg. Zach. iibersetzt, etc., 1784) ;
by Bertholdt {Einleit. p. 1701); by Rosenmiiller
in his Scholia, though in the first edition he
defended the genuineness of these chapters ; by
Eichhorn [Einleit. sec. 605) ; Corrodi {Beleiichtting
des Bibelcanons, \.- 107) ; De Wette, in the earlier
editions of his Einleitit7ig ; Credner (yoel, 67)
Knobel {Der Prophetismics, etc., Th. il s. 284)
Forberg {Comment, in Zach. Vaticin., pars i.)
as also by Maurer, Hitzig, Ewald, Ortenberg
{Die Bestandsteile des B. Sacharja) ; Bleek {Einleit.
p. 553) ; Herzfeld {Gesch. i. p. 286) ; Bunsen
{Gott in der Gesch. i. p. 449, etc.) ; and E. Meier
{Gesch. d. poet. Lit. der Hebraer, p. 306).
 
On the other hand, the integrity of this portion
of Zechariah has been defended by Jahn {Introduc-
tion, pt. ii. sec. 161), Carpzov {Critica Sacra, p.
848), Beckbaus {Integritdt d. Proph. Schriften, p.
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
1H9
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
337), Koester {Afeuiema/a Crit. et Exeget. in Zach.
part. post. p. 10), Uengstenberg [d. Integritdi d.
Sac/iarja/i, in his Beitrdge, i. 361), Burger {Etudes
Excg. et crit. sur le Proph. Zcch. p. iiS), Thenins,
Ilerbot, Scliegg, Hofmann, Kliefoth, Ebrard, Ha-
vernich, Henderson, De Wette, Keil (Einleit. sec.
103), Stahelin [Specielie Einleit. p. 321, etc.), Moore
{Prophets of the Restoration, p. 209, New York
1856), Neumann [Die Wcissag. d. Sakliarjah
aitsgcl. i860), and Kohler {d. IVeissng. Sacharjas
erkl. 1863). The theory of Mede was suggested
Ijy the difficuhy arising from the quotation in Mat-
thew, and, rejecting otlier hypotheses, he says :
' It is certain that Jeremiah's prophecies are digested
in no order, but only as it seems they came to hght
in the scribes' hands. Hence sometimes all is ended
with Zedekiah, then we are brought back to Je-
hoiakim, then to Zedekiah again, etc. Whereby
it seems they came not to light to be enrolled
secundum ordi)iein te/nporis, nor all together, but
as it happened in so distracted a time. And why
might not some not be found till the return from
captivity, and be approved by Zechariah, and so
put to his volume according to the time of their
finding and approbation by him, and after that some
other prophecies yet added to his ?' {Epist. Ixi.)
The others who deny the genuineness of these
chapters are by no means agreed as to the real
authorship of them. Eichhorn ascribes one por-
tion to the time of Alexander, and the other sections
to a period before the exile ; while Corrodi places the
fourteenth chapter as low as the age of Antiochus
Epiphanes. Bertholdt, Gesenius, Maurer, and
Knobel suppose the ninth, tenth, and eleventh
chapters to be the production of Zechariah, the son
of Jeberechiah, referred to in Is. viii. 2, and the
remaining three to be the composition of an anony-
mous author who lived under Josiah, and of course
before the captivity. Rosenmiiller is of opinion
that the whole second part is the work of one author
who lived under Uzziah. Fliigge arbitrarily divides
it into no less than nine sections, referring them to
different times and authors, but yet ascribing the
ninth chapter to the Zechariah spoken of in 2 Chron.
xxvi. 5. Ewald adds xiii. 7-9 to the first section
— ix.-xi. Bunsen ascribes the second section --
xii.-xiv. — to ' Urijah, the son of Shemaiah of Kir-
jath-jearim' (Jer. xxvi. 20). Newcome places the
first three chapters, as to date of authorship, before
the overthrow of Israel, and the last three before
the captivity of Judah. Hitzig and Credner carry
back the period of their authorship to the age of
Ahaz, or before it.
 
This question of genuineness is one of some diffi-
culty, and the arguments on either side are not of
preponderant inOuence. It may certainly be asked
in favour of the genuineness. How came these
chapters to be connected with the acknowledged
writings of Zechariah, especially as the addition
must have been made within a brief period of the
prophet's death ? No satisfactory answer can be
given, and the suppositions that ix.-xiv. was anony-
mous, or, being current under the name of Zecha-
riah, son of Berechiah, was appended to the previ-
ous oracles, have no hisloiical support whatever.
Uriah is called a priest, but Zechariah is not called a
prophet (Is. viii. 2). Many of the arguments against
the genuineness of this latter portion of Zechariah
rest on peculiar interpretations of his language,
making it refer to events that happened prior to the
time when he flourished. But tiiis exegesis may not
 
 
 
in all points be correct. Ephraim is indeed spoken
of, though that kingdom was overthrown 186 years
before the return of the Jews from Babylon ; and it
is inferred that the author of such oracles must have
lived when Ephraim was an independent sove-
reignty. It may be said, in reply, that vast
numbers of the ten tribes returned with their
brethren of Judah from captivity ; and we find (ch.
xii. i) Israel used as a name for all the tribes. In
Malachi, too, we find Israel used after the captivity
in contrast to Jerusalem. Zechariah never charac-
terises Ephraim as a separate political confedera-
tion ; nor, as Henderson remarks, ' is there any-
thing, but the contrary, to induce the conclusion
that a king reigned in Judah in the days of the
author.' The predictions in this latter part, sup-
posed by some to refer to past events, are by others
interpreted to refer to the Egyptian expedition of
Alexander, the sufferings of the Messiah, and the
final overthrow of Jerusalem. As the prophets
before the Babylonian captivity threatened a de-
portation to Babylon, so Zechariah, living after
that event, menaces a Roman invasion and slavery.
The exile is supposed to be past in ix. 12, x. 6.
The mention of Persia, Egypt, Greece, Gaza,
and Ashdod, harmonises with the state of^ parties
in the prophet's age, or after the exile. No seer
could have spoken of Jerusalem shortly before
the captivity as Zechariah does — predicting for it a
striking deliverance and the crowding of strangers
to worship in it. Yet there are some difficult
points. How could the brotherhood of Israel and
Judah be described as broken by the prophet ? But
to lay stress on this would carry the composition
greatly beyond the time which the opponents of the
integrity contend for — would carry it beyond the
division of the kingdoms. How could he say,
'the pnde of Assyria shall be brouglit down'
(x. 11), if he lived a centuty after the overthrow
of Nineveh and soon after the Persian capture
of Babylon ? Perhaps Assyria and Egypt mean
not the kingdoms, but only the territories in which
many Jews still dwelt. De Wette supposes that
the parts which seem to belong to an earlier period
were written in reference to the future and in pro-
phetic form. Little stress can be placed on any
argument based on imagined difierence of style in
the former and latter chapters of this prophecy.
The introductory notices to the separate oracles in
the early portion of the book, as ' the word of the
Lord came,' or 'thus saith the Lord of hosts'
which occurs forty-one times, or ' I lifted up mine
eyes and saw,' are either not found in the last sec-
tion, or are very different in form (comp. i. 1-7, iv.
8, vi. 9 with ix. I, xi. 4). The writer also in the
earlier part mentions his own name and gives dates,
but there is a total omission of those characteristics
in the second part. The repetition of *liy in suc-
cessive clauses, as four times in i. 17, does not occur
in the second part. 'Lord of the whole earth' is
found in iv. 14, vi. 5, but not in the concluding
chapters. Rulers are called 'shepherds' and the
people 'the flock' only in the second part, nor
does there occur in it that form of mysterious visiim-
ary representation which gives peculiar colour and
style to the first part. In the second jiart, too, are
recurring formulce, as often ' It shall come to pass*
(iTni), xii. 9; xiii. 2, 3, 4, 8 ; xiv. 6, 8, 13,
 
16 ; 'saith the Lord' (nin^ DW), xii. i, 4 ; xiii. 2,
 
7, 8 ; and the phrase, ^tunn DT^) ' in that day,' is
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
1150
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
used six times in the twelfth chapter, thrice in the
thirteenth chapter, and five times in the fourteenth
chapter. The phrase is found rarely in the former
part, ii. 15 ; iii. 10 ; vi. 10. But we are too igno-
rant of many circumstances in the prophet's history
to speculate on the causes of such change ; or if we
are unable to discover any sesthetical or religious
reasons for such alterations, it is surely rash to come
on such grounds to a decision of diversity of author-
ship. Introductory formulae as different as those in
Zechariah occur in other books whose sameness of
style is admitted as proof of identity of authorship,
as in Amos, where the application of the same
principles of criticism would ' dismember it,' and
assign its composition to three different authors.
Nor perhaps is the difference of style of the former
and latter portions of Zechariah greater than the
different topics treated would lead us to expect.
It may also be replied that there are terms and
phrases common to both parts of the book, as the
peculiar use of the word ' eye,' iii. 9 ; iv. 10 ; ix.
1-8 ; the occurrence of thehophel "Ti^yn, with the
 
signification to remove, iii. 4 ; xiii. 2 ; and the
striking idiom ^TOl laijID, vii. 14 ; ix. 8 (Keil,
 
Einleit. sec. 163). Similar theocratic promise is
found in ii. 10 ; ix. 12 ; xi. 14 ; and ix. 9. Comp.
also ii. 4 with xiv. lO ; viii. 20 with xiv. 16.
Stahelin (p. 323) insists too on the close similarity
which Zechariah presents to the prophets of his
own period in those disputed last chapters. Thus
he resembles Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Ezekiel.
Compare Zech. xi. 1-3 with Jer. xxv. 34-36 and
xii. 5 ; Zech. xiv. 8 with Ezek. xlvii. I-12 ; Zech.
ix. 12 with xvi. 8 ; Zech. ix. 2 with Ezek. xxviii.
3 ; Zech. ix. 5 with Zeph. ii. 4 ; Zech. x. 3 with
Ezek. xxxiv. 17 ; Zech. xiv. 10 with Jer. xxxi. 38,
etc. etc. Not a few of the passages of this kind
usually quoted are found on close examination to
be merely accidental coincidences ; and such, as a
whole, are the resemblances which Hitzig and
others find between this latter part of Zechariah
and some of the older prophets. Comp. ix. 8
with Joel iii. 17; ix. 13 with Joel iii. 6; xii. 2 with
Joel iii. II ; xii. 16 with Amos viii. 10 ; xiii. 5 with
Amos vii. 14. That Zechariah should manifest
acquaintance with the earlier prophets need occa-
sion no surprise. Yet the resemblance is not very
close between viii. 20-23 and Is. ii. 3 and Mic.
iv. 2. The name ' Branch,' iii. 8, is found in Jer.
xxiii. 5 ; xxxiii. 15. Allusion is also made to his
prophetic predecessors before the fall of Jerusalem,
vii. 7. No great stress can be laid on peculiar
words occurring in the later part. Tin is written
 
in full form, but the same spelling is found in Rosea
 
and Amos. P]lpX is used of Jewish chiefs, as in
 
Jer. xiii. 21. While much may be said in favour
of the integrity of the book, there are still, as we
have seen, some features of difference that are not
easily explained : alteration of allusions and formula ;
occasional glimpses into the condition of the country
which appear to want consistency ; different phases
of the Messianic reign, and different standpoints
from which it is viewed ; and a change of style from
the visions and flatter prose of the first part to the
richer and more poetical style of the concluding
chapters. The chief argument against the genuine-
ness of these chapters is that expressed by Mede on
Matt, xxvii. 9 : ' There is no Scripture saith they
are Zechariah's, but there is Scripture saith they
 
 
 
are Jeremiah's' (^Works, p. 786). The quotation
in Matthew varies in several points from the pre-
sent Hebrew text. The evangelist, to serve his
immediate object, changes the first person into the
third, and for the words, ' I threw it' (the money),
 
he has, * And they gave them.' The Hebrew ^J^
 
IV'l'n, 'to the potter,' are in the Sept. rendered ets
 
t6 x'^t'ei'^'J/^""', ' into the crucible ;' and in Matt
eh rhv aypbv rov Kepaixiuis. Ewald, Gesenius, and
Fiirst, following the Targum, and Kimchi, pro-
pose to read "l^»n ^S!, ' to the treasury ;' but the
 
word does not occur with this meaning in Scripture.
Dopke [HerDieneiitik, p. 212) and Kuinoel (Comm.
in loc.) suppose that Matthew quoted some unpub-
lished apocryphal Jeremiah, perhaps such a one as
that to which Jerome refers, as having found it
among the Nazarenes, and of which a portion con-
taining analogous language is yet extant in a Sahidic
lectionary in the Codex Himtiugtoiiiayms, 5, in the
Bodleian Library, and in the Coptic language in a
MS. in the library of St. Germain in Paris. This
passage, as given by Dr. Henderson, at once
betrays itself to be a clumsy imitation, designed to
solve the very difficulty on which we are writing.
Ewald thinks that the Evangehst quoted a portion of
Jeremiah now lost. Augustine, Meyer, and Alford
generally hold, as Fritzsche does, that the discre-
pancy arose on the part of the Evangelist, ' per
memorise errorem' (Cotjwieiit. in ]\Tatt. p. 801).
Nor is there any extrication from the difficulty in
supposing, with Eisner, that the reference of the
Evangelist is to the transaction recorded in Jer.
xxxii. 8, or in hinting, with Eusebius {Hist. Eccles.
X. 4), that the oracle cited has been falsified by the
Jews. It is another conjecture without warrant that
the name Jeremiah was the technical appellation of
the third great division of the Hebrew Scriptures,
so that any quotation from the minor prophets
may be referred to him, not as its author, but as
the title of that collection, from one of the books of
which it is taken (Lightfoot's Works, by Pitman,
vol. xi. p. 344). That there is a difference of read-
ing was a fact early known. Perhaps the proper
name was omitted altogether, or rather not inserted
at all by the evangelist, and he wrote only Sia tov
irpo(pi)rov. Augustine testifies that MSS. were found
in his days wanting the word 'lepe/xiov. It is not
found either in the most ancient and faithful ver-
sion, the Syriac, nor in the Verona and Vercelli
Latin MSS. It is wanting also in MSS. 33, 157,
and in the Polyglott Persic, in the modern Greek,
and in a Latin MS. of Luc. Brug. Other codices
and versions read Zax^piov, such as MS. 22, and
the Philoxenian Syriac in the margin — a reading
which was approved of by Origen and Eusebius.
Morus, Le Moyne, Griesbach, Henderson, and
others, believing that Matthew wrote in Hebrew or
Syro-Chaldaic, think the original was simply T<3
X''33n, ' by the prophet,' and that the Greek trans-
lator, mistaking the T for T in the word T^J, read
"^^2, and thinking it a contraction for VnOT'3,
rendered it 8ia 'lepefxiov rod irpo(prjrov. If the au-
thority of MSS. be now in favour oVlepeixiov, then
the error may have arisen on the part of some early
copyist meeting with the contracted form Zpiov, and
mistaking it for Iptou. The various opinions of the
fathers, and the different lections in MSS. and ver-
sions, seem to point to some such change and error
in the course of early transcription. Hengstenberg
 
 
 
ZECHARIAH
 
 
 
1151
 
 
 
ZEDEKIAH
 
 
 
imagines that Matthew names Jeremiah, and not
Zechariah, on purpose to turn the attention of his
readers to the fact that Zechariah's propliecy was
but a reiteration of a fearful oracle in Jer. xviii.
xix. ; a curse pronounced of old by Jeremiah, and
once fulfilled in the Babylonian siege ; a curse
reiterated by Zechariah, and again to be verified
in the Roman desolation. This theory, adopted
by M'Caul, is at least preferable to that of such
critics as Glassius and Frischmuth, and virtually of
Hofmann {IFeisa^. und Erful. ii. p. 128), who
hold that the quotation in Matthew is made up of
a mixture of oracles from Jeremiah and Zechariah,
while Jeremiah only is named as the earlier and
more illustrious of the two — the priinarhis aiictor.
Theophylact's explanation is clumsy, for he proposes
to insert Kal — 'by Jeremiah and the prophet, to wit
Zechariah.' The notion of Wordsworth is peculiar,
as he holds that the oracle had in the first instance
been delivered by Jeremiah, and that though it is now
in Zechariah, it is quoted as Jeremiah's, because the
spirit intends to ' teach us not to regard the pro-
phets as the authors of their prophecies,' they being
only 'channels,' not sources (JVe7u Test, in loc.)
Calvin says, as to the introduction of the name
Jeremiah, me nescire fateor nee anxie laboro. Our
space is so limited that we have only found room to
indicate the various points of discussion, and on this
account we need not enter into the hypercritical
question as to the different authorships of chaps, ix.
X. xi. and of chaps, xii. xiii. xiv. This division,
with various proposed subdivisions, rests to a great
extent on subjective grounds, which are easily
shifted or variously moulded.
 
Style. — The language of Zechariah has not the
purity and freshness of a former age, yet probably
it is purer than the style of Ezekiel and Jeremiah.
A slight tinge of Chaldaisin pervades it. We have
the particle JIN at the commencement of incom-
plete sentences (vii. 7 ; viii. 17), and a peculiar
use of "ip'i>? (i. 15 ; vi. 10), the occurrence of H
 
before the status const, (iv. 7-10), omission of ""j
 
(vii. 23), the unusual phrase py n33 (ii. 12) (7132
 
being derived by Gesenius and Fiirst from a root
333, ' to hollow out,' and meaning the gate of the
eye), the unwonted construction of IPIX as ini<
 
1133 (ii. 12), etc. Ewald does not join in that
 
depreciation of his style which Knobel and De
Wette indulge in. Yet from the strange symbols
introduced by him — swift dramatic transitions and
abrapt and rapid explanations — his oracles are
difficult of comprehension, so that Jerome says :
Obscitrissimus liber inter duodecim et longissiniiis
— ab obscnris ad obsctiriora transimus {Comment,
in Zack. lib. i. lib. ii. p. 779, 825 ; Opera, vol. vi.
ed. Vallar). The symbols with which he abounds
are obscure, and their prosaic structure is diffuse
and unvaried. The rhythm of his poetry is un-
equal, and its parallelisms are inharmonious and
disjointed. He is also peculiar in his introduction
of spiritual beings into his prophetic scenes.
 
Commentaries. — Der Proph. Zack. Ausgele£;t
durch Mart. Luther, Vitemberg, 1528; Phil.
Melanchthonis Comment, iti Proph. Zach. 1553 ;
J. J. Grynaei Comment, in Zach. Genevse 1581 ;
J. H. Ursini Comment, in Proph. Zach. 1652 ;
S. Bohlius, Analys. el Exeg. Proph. Zach. Rost.
1711 ; C. Vitringa, Comment, ad lib. Proph. Zach.
 
 
 
1734; B. G. Fliigge, D:e Weissagnngen welchi
bey den Schrift. des Proph. Zach. beygebogen sittd,
etc., 1788 ; F. Venema, Sermones Academ. in lib.
Proph. Zack. 1 789 ; Koester, Meletemata Crit.
etc., 181 8 ; Forberg, Comm. Crit. et Exeget. in
Zach. 1824 ; Rosenmiilleri, Scholia, pars sept.
1828; Hengstenberg's Ckristologie ; B. Blayney,
Neiu Translation of Zech. Oxf. 1797; W. New-
come, Minor Prophets, 1785 ; Comment, on the
Vision of Zechariah the Proph. , by John Stonard,
D.D. , 1S24 ; Rabbi David Kimchi, Comment, on
the Proph. of Zech., translated, with Notes, etc., by
A. M'Caul, A.M., 1837 ; Ewald, Die Propheten,
vol. ii. Stuttgart 1841 ; Henderson, On the Minor-
Prophets, 1845; Umbreit, Commentar iiber die kl.
Proph. Hamburg 1846; Baumgarten, Die Naclit-
gesichte ZacharicCs, ein Prophetenstimme aus die
Gegemvart, Braunschweig 1854-55 ; T. Y. Moore,
Prophets of the Restdration, a new translation, with
Notes, New York 1856 ; Neumann, Die Weissag.
d. Sakharjah, Stuttgart i860; Khefoth, De Proph.
Sacharjak iibers. u. ausg., Schwerin 1862 ; Kohler,
Die Nachexilisch. Proph. erkldrt. ii. iii. Abth. .
Erlangen 1864. — ^J. E.
 
6. Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist
[John the Baptist.]
 
ZEDAD t^'Xi ; ZapaMK ; Alex. SaSaSd/c ; Se-
 
dada), a city which formed one of the landmarks
on the north-east border of the Promised Land,
as described by Moses (Num. xxxiv. 8) and Ezekiel
(xlvii. 15). The line of that border has already
been fully defined [Palestine, p. 384] ; and just
in the position which appears to be indicated by
the sacred writers stands the modern village of
 
Stidud, whose name in Arabic (jXtf) corresponds
 
exactly to the Hebrew Zedad. The fact of its being
grouped with 'the entrance of Hamath,' and the
cities of Hamath and Riblah, shows that Zedad
must have been situated in that region ; and the
identity of name establishes identity of site (Robin-
son, B. P. ii. 507 ) Knobel on JViiin. xxxiv. 8 ;
Wetzstein, Reisebericht iiber Haitran, 88). Zedad
lies eight hours east of Hums, the ancient Emesa,
across an open desolate plain. It is a large, thriv-
ing village, surrounded by gardens and fields.
Some fragments of columns built up in the walls of
the houses, and some large hewn stones in the
streets and lanes, bear evidence to its antiquity.
Sudud is now the head-quarters of the Jacobite
church in Syria. The inhabitants all belong to the
one sect, and they are brave, spirited, and indus-
trious. Though hated by their fellow-christians,
encompassed by plundering Arabs, and oppressed
by the government, they still prosper (Porter,
flandbook, pp. 55°> 5^° > Giant Cities of Bashan,
3i7).-J. L. P.
 
ZEDEKIAH (n^'ipny, ^n-I^ny; -^eZ^da, 2e5e-
 
Kia.%). I. Son of Josiah, the twentieth and last
king of Judah, was, in place of his brother Je-
hoiakim, set on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar,
who changed his name from Mattaniah to that by
which he is ordinarily spoken of. As the vassal
of the Babylonian monarch, he was compelled to
take an oath of allegiance to him, which, however,
he observed only till an opportunity offered for
throwing off his yoke. Success in such an under-
taking was not likely to attend his efforts. His
heart was not right before God, and therefore
 
 
 
ZEEB
 
 
 
1152
 
 
 
ZELAH
 
 
 
was he left without divine succour. Corrupt and
weak, he gave himself up into the hands of his
nobles, and lent an ear to false prophets ; while
the faithful lessons of Jeremiah were unwelcome,
and repaid by incarceration. Like all of his class,
he was unable to follow good, and became the
slave of wicked men, afraid alike of his own no-
bility and of his foreign enemies. By his folly and
wickedness he brought the state to the brink of
ruin. Yet the danger did not open his eyes.
Instead of looking to Jehovah, he threw himself for
support on Egypt when the Chaldean came into
the land and laid siege to his capital. The siege
was begun on the tenth day of the tenth month in
the ninth year of his reign. For a year and a half
did Jerusalem effectually withstand Nebuchad-
nezzar. At the end of that time, however, the
city was stormed and taken (B.C. 58S), when Zede-
kiah, who had fled, was captured on the road to
Jericho. Judgment was speedily executed ; his
sons were slain before his eyes, and he himself was
deprived of sight and sent in chains to Babylon,
where he died in prison (2 Kings x.xiv. 17, seq. ;
XXV. I, sfij. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10, seq. ; Jer. xxviii.
xxxiv. xxxvii. xxxviii. xxxix. lii. ; Ezek. xvii. 15).
-J. R. B.
 
2. A false prophet who, when Micaiah the pro-
phet of Jehovah was, in compliance with the re-
quest of Jehoshaphat, summoned to advise whether
he and Ahab should go against Ramoth-Gilead to
battle, set himself to oppose Micaiah. In the
vehemence of his rage he even struck the prophet
on the cheek, probably as Josephus (Aittiq. viii.
15. 3) states, in bravado as a challenge to him to
inflict, if he could, some such judgment on him as
Iddo inflicted on Jeroboam for a similar insult.
Micaiah contented himself with obscurely inti-
mating that on some season of approaching danger
he should be compelled to hide himself, and then
should see the falsehood of those declarations by
which he was misleading the kings (i Kings xxii.
11-24; 2 Chron. xviii. 10-24).
 
3. The son of Maaseiah, a false prophet de-
nounced by Jeremiah, and who was taken captive
to Babylon along with Jeconiah. Jeremiah de-
clared that he should be burnt to death by order of
Nebuchadnezzar, and that imder circumstances
which should make his name and fate a proverb
(Jer. xxix. 21, 22).
 
A. The son of Hananiah (Jer. xxxvi. 12. --
W. L. A.
 
ZEEB (3XT), the name of a fierce rapacious
 
animal (Gen. xlix. 27 ; Is. xi. 6 ; Ixv. 25 ; Jer.
V. 6, etc. ; \vkos, Matt. vii. 15; x. 16; Luke x. 3;
John X. 12; Acts XX. 29; Ecclus. xiii. 17). By
this term there is no doubt the wolf is intended,
though the identity of the species in Palestine is
by no means established, for no professed zoologist
has obtained the animal in Syria, while other tra-
vellers only pretend to have seen it. Unquestion-
ably a true wolf, or a wild canine with veiy similar
manners, was not infrequent in that country during
the earlier ages of the world, and even down to
the commencement of our era. The prophets, as
well as the Messiah, allude to it in explicit lan-
guage. At this day the true wolf is still abundant
in Asia Minor, as \\'ell as in the gorges of Cilicia,
and from the travelling disposition of the species,
wolves may be expected to reside in the forests of
Libanus ; yet. except we rely on mere rumours,
 
 
 
wild and contradictory a^i&ertions, or decided mis-
takes as to the species, none are at present found
in the Holy Land. Hemprich and Ehrenberg, the
most explicit of the naturalists who have visited that
 
region, notice the dib or zeb l ^ tJ. under the de-
nomination of Caf/is hipaster, and also, it seems, of
Licpiis Syriacus : they describe it as resembling the
wolf, but smaller, with a white tip on the tail,
etc. ; and give for its synonym Canis antJms, and
the wolf of Egypt, that is the \vko% of Aristotle,
and Thoes aniJms of Ham. Smith. This species,
found in the mummy state at Lycopolis, though
high in proportion to its bulk, measures only
eighteen inches at the shoulder, and in weight is
scarcely more than one-third of that of a true wolf,
 
 
 
 
535- Egyptian Wolf.
 
whose stature rises to thirty and thirty-two inches.
It is not gregarious, does not howl, cannot carry
off a lamb or sheep, nor kill men, nor make the shep-
herd flee ; in short, it is not the true wolf of Europe
or Asia Minor, and is not possessed of the qualities
ascribed to the species in the Bible. The next in
Hemprich and Ehrenberg's description bears the
same Arabic name ; it is scientifically called Cauis
sacer, and is the piseo}tch of the Copts. This
species is, however, still smaller, and thus cannot
be the wolf in question. It may be, as there are
no forests to the south of Libanus, that these
ravenous beasts, who never wiUingly range at a
distance from cover, have forsaken the more open
country ; or else, that the derboiin, now only indis-
dinctly known as a species of black wolf in Arabia
and southern Syria, is the species or variety which
anciently represented the wolf in Syria : an appel-
lation fully deserved, if it be the same as the black
species of the Pyrenees, which, though surmised to
be a wild dog, is even more fierce than the common
wolf, and is equally powerful. The Arabs are
said to eat the derbonn as game, though it must be
rare, since no European traveller has described a
specimen from personal observation. Therefore,
either the true wolf, or the derbonn, was anciently
more abundant in Palestine, or the ravenous powers
of those animals, equally belonging to the hysena
and to a great wild dog, caused several species to
be included in the name [Keleb]. — C. H. S.
 
ZEEB. [Oreb and Zeeb.]
 
ZELAH {V)>^ ■ Sela), a city of Benjamin (Josh.
 
xviii. 28), containing the family tomb of Kish, the
father of Saul (2 Sam. xxi. 14). It was probably
also the native-place of Israel's first king. Its geo-
graphical position is not described by the sacred
historian, nor does it appear to have been known
 
 
 
ZELOPHEHAD
 
 
 
1153
 
 
 
ZEMER
 
 
 
to ancient geographers (Reland, Pal. p. 1058) ;
but from the way in which it is grouped with other
places it could not have been very far distant from
Jerusalem. Some would identify Zelah with Zel-
zah, and both with the modern village of Beit Jala,
near Bethlehem (Wilson, Lands of Bible, i. 401 ;
Van de Velde, Memoir, 355) ; for this, however,
there is no evidence, and the names Zelah and
 
Zelzah (nV?V) are radically different. The site of
Zelah is unknown. — ^J. L. P.
 
ZELOPHEHAD, son of Hepher, a descendant
of Joseph, who had no sons, but five daughters.
These came to Moses and Eleazar, when now at the
edge of the Promised Land, to lay their case before
them for adjudication. Their father had died
in the wilderness, leaving no male child. The
(.laughters thought themselves entitled to take their
tuther's share of the land. Moses on this brought
their cause before Jehovah, who ordered that they
should receive their father's inheritance, taking
occasion to establish the general rule : ' If a man
die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inherit-
ance to pass unto his daughter,' and failing daugh-
ters, to his next of kin (Num. xxvi. 33 ; xxvii. I,
seq. Compare Josh. xvii. 3, seq.) — J. R. B.
 
ZELZAH (nV?V ; dWofi^vovs fieydXa ; in me-
 
ridie), a place in the border of Benjamin, men-
tioned by Samuel when sending Saul home from
Ramah : ' Thou shalt find two men by Rachel's
sepulchre, in the border of Benjamin, at Zelzah^ (i
Sam. X. 2). It is not again named in Scripture.
Rachel's sepulchre is well known. It stands on
the side of the road leading from Bethlehem to
Jerusalem, about a mile distant from the former.
Westward of the sepulchre, in full view across the
valley, and not much over half-a-mile distant, is
the village of Beit Jala, which may probably be
identical with Zelzah. The names bear some slight
resemblance to each other, and the position agrees
with the sacred narrative (Wilson, Lands of the
Bible, i. 401). The Sept. rendering of Zelzah is
remarkable. It makes it an expression of joy on
the part of the men who announced the finding of
the asses — ' Thou shalt meet two men leaping
violently!' But Dean Stanley's remark on this is
surely a rash criticism, that the Hebrew text ' can-
not be relied upon' {^Sin. and Pal. 222). — ^J. L. P.
 
ZEMARABI (D;innV; -a/Ja; Alex. Zefj-piu. ;
Semaraim), one of the ancient towns in the terri-
tory allotted to Benjamin. It is only once men-
tioned, and is grouped between Belh-Arabah and
Bethel (Josh, xviii. 22) ; and it would therefore
appear to have been situated either in the Jordan
valley (Arabah), or on the mountain declivities be-
tween it and Bethel. About five miles north of
Jericho, in the valley of the Jordan, are the ruins
of a small town or village, strewn over a low hill,
and called Khnrbet cs-Sumrah, ' the ruins of
 
Sumrah.' The name (^_4^) is radically identical
 
with Zemaraim ; and as the site corresponds to
the Scripture notice of that town it may be re-
garded as the modern representative of the old
town of Benjamin (Robinson, B. R. i. 569 ; iii.
292, note ; Van de Velde, Memoir, 355).
 
2. A vtotintain of this name is mentioned in 2
Chron, xiii. 4: — 'And Abijah stood up upon
Mount Zemaraim, which is in Mount Ephraim,
VOL. in.
 
 
 
and said. Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel*
(Though the Hebrew word is the same, the LXX.
has here Zofiopibv, and the Vulg. Seweron). Its
geographical position is not farther defined. Re-
land and others {Pal. p. 105S) suppose that it
stood near the town of Zemaraim, and took its
name from it. This, however, is impossible, if
Zemaraim be identified with es-Sumrah, because
Mount Zemaraim was situated in the mountainous
region of Ephraim, whereas es-Sumrah is in the
Jordan valley. Others would identify Mount
Zemaraim with the hill on which Samaria was
built, and which is called Shimrou in the Hebrew
(^~IDt^'). The names, however, are different ; and
the conference between Abijah and Jeroboam,
before the great battle, was evidently at some place
much farther south than Samaria (see Reland, Pal.
344), and probably not far distant from the borders
of the two kingdoms at Bethel (KeU and Bertheau,
adloc.)—]. L. P.
 
ZEMARITE, The. [Ham.]
 
ZEMER. In our version of Deut. xiv. 5 "int,
 
ze/ner, is rendered Chamois ; Sept. Ka/j.r]\oTrdp-
daXis ; Vulg. Camelopardalus ; Luther, in his Ger-
man translation, adopts Elend, or ' Elk ;' and the
old Spanish version, from the Hebrew, has ' Cabra
montes.'* All, however, understand st-wtv to be a
clean ruminant ; but it is plain that the Mosaic
enumeration of clean animals would not include
such as were totally out of the reach of the Hebrew
people, and at best only known to them from speci-
mens seen in Egypt, consisting of presents sent
from Nubia, or in pictures on the walls of temples.
The Camelopardalis or Giraffe is exclusively an
inhabitant of Southern Africa, and therefore could
not come in the way of the people of Israel. The
same objection applies to the Elk, because that
species of deer never appears further to the south
than northern Germany and Poland ; and with
regard to the Chamois, which has been adojjted in
our version, though it did exist in the mountains
of Greece, and is still found in Central Asia, tliere
is no vestige of its having at any time frequented
Libanus or any other part of Syria. We may,
therefore, with more propriety i-efer to the rumi-
nants indigenous in the regions which were in t'" :
contemplation of the sacred legislator, and we
may commence by observing that "lOf, ze/ner, is a
term which, in the slightly altered form of zatnmer,
is still used in Persia and India for any large species
of mminants, particularly those of the stag kind,
which are commonly denominated Rusa, a sub-
genus of deer established in Griffith's translation of
Cuvier's Animal Kingdom. In the sacred text,
however, the word zemer is not generical, but
strictly specific. Ail, or 'stag,' is mentioned zt
tlie same time, and, as well as several Antilo-
pidDS, in the same verse ; we must, therefore, look
for an animal not hitherto noticed, and withal
sufficiently important to merit being named in so
important an ordinance.
 
The only species that seems to answer to the
conditions required is a wild sheep, still not un-
common in the Mokattam rocks near Cairo, found
in Sinai, and eastward in the broken ridges of
 
 
 
* Biblia en lengua Espafiola traducida palabra
por palabra da la verdad Hebrayca por muy excel-
lentes Ictrados, fol. No date.
 
4K
 
 
 
ZENAN
 
 
 
1154
 
 
 
ZEPHANIAH
 
 
 
Stony Arabia, where it is known under the name of
Kebsch, a sHght mutation of the old Hebrew 3tJ'3,
Cheseb, or rather 5^23 Chebes, which is applied
indeed to a domestic sheep, one that grazed ; while
Zemer appears to be derived from a root denoting
•to crop' or ' feed on shrubs.'
 
 
 
r^^^
 
 
 
 
536. Kebsch. Ovis tragelaphus.
 
This animal is frequently represented and hiero-
glyphically named on Egyptian monuments, but
we question if the denomination itself be phoneti-
cally legible. The figures in colour leave no doubt
that it is the same as the Kebsch of the modern
Arabs, and a species or a variety of Ovis trage-
laphiis, or bearded sheep, lately formed into a
separate group by Mr. Blyth under the name of
Antmotragus barbatus. The Spanish version of
the Hebrew text, before quoted, appears alone to
be admissible, for although the species is not
strictly a goat, it is intermediate between that
genus and the sheep. It is a fearless climber, and
secure on its feet, among the sharpest and most
elevated ridges. In stature the animal exceeds a
large domestic sheep, though it is not more bulky
of body. Instead of wool, it is covered with close
fine rufous hair : from the throat to the breast, and
on the upper arms above the knees there is abund-
ance of long loose reddish hair, forming a compact
protection to the knees and brisket, and indicating
that the habits of the species require extraordinary
defence while sporting among the most rugged
cliffs ; thus making the name Zemer, ' one that
springe th,' if that interpretation be trustworthy,
remarkably correct. The head and face are per-
fectly ovine, the eyes are bluish, and the horns, of
a yellowish colour, are set on as in sheep ; they
ri^e obliquely, and are directed backwards and
outwards, with the points bending downwards.
Tlie tail, about nine inches long, is heavy and
round. It is the Moiiflon d'Afrique and Mouflon
a Manchettes of French writers, probably identical
with the Tragelaphus of Caius, whose specimen
came from Barbary. See bearded Argali in
Griffith's Animal Kingdom of Cuvier. We figure
a specimen in the Paris Museum and one in Wil-
kinson's Egypt, vol. iii. p. 19. — C. H. S.
 
ZENAN (pV ; Sewi ; Alex. Sewa/* ; Sanan),
 
a town of Judah, situated in the Shephelah, or
plain of Philistia, and apparently near the western
coast, since it is grouped with Migdalgad (Josh.
 
 
 
XV. 37). The latter has been identified with Mej-
del, and a few miles south of it is a smaU village
called yentn, which may perhaps be the modern'
representative of Zenan. It is generally supposed
that Zenan is the same place which the prophet
Micah calls Zanaan (i. II ; pK^ ; see Reland, p.
 
1058 ; Keil and Delitzsch, on Josk. xv. 37), and
which Knobel supposes to be identical with the
ruin of es-Senat, near Beit Jibrin (Tobler, Dritte
Wanderung, p. 124). The two places perhaps
were the same ; but the theory of Knobel has
nothing to support it. — ^J. L. P.
 
ZENAS (Z7?ms), a disciple who visited Crete
with Apollos, bearing seemingly the epistle to
Titus, in which Paul recommends the two to his
attentions (Tit. iii. 13). He is called ' the lawyer ;'
and as his name is Greek, it seems doubtful whether
he is so called as being, or having been, a doctor
of the Jewish law, or as being a pleader at the
Roman tribunals. The most probable opinion is,
perhaps, that which makes him a Hellenistic Jew,
and a doctor of the Mosaical law. — ^J. K.
 
ZEPHANIAH (n^JSX; Sept. ^o(povlas, taken
 
from a participial form according to Bleek), the
ninth in order of the minor prophets, both in the
Hebrew and Greek copies of the Scriptures (Hie-
ronym. Prolog, ad Paul, et Eustoch.)
 
Ajithor. — The name of this prophet has been
variously explained. Disputes upon it arose as
early as the time of Jerome, for in his Commentary
on this book he says, 'Nomen Sophoniae alii
speculam, alii arcanum Dei, transtulerunt.' The
word was thus derived either from HSlf, he saw
beyond, or JDV, he hid, with the common affix rT".
The old father made it a matter of indifference
which etymon he adopted, as both, according to
him, give virtually the same sense, — the commis-
sion of a prophet being virtually that of a watch-
man or seer, and the burden of his message, some
secret revealed to him by God. Abarbanel {Praf.
in Ezek.) adheres to the latter mode of derivation,,
and the pseudo-Dorotheus, following the former,
translates the prophet's name by the Greek parti-
ciple (jKoiredwv. Hiller, taking the term from JDV,
renders it 'abscondidit se — i.e. deli tuit Jehovah'
{Onomast. sub voce), but Simonis {Onomasi. V. T.)
gives the true signification, one sanctioned by
Gesenius — ' abscondidit — i.e. custodivit Jehovah,'
Jehovah hath guaj-ded, the verb jSS being used
T)f divine protection in Ps. xxvii. 5 ; and Ixxxiii.
4. The name seems to have been a common one
among the Jews. Contrary to usual custom the
pedigree of the prophet is traced back for four
generations — ' the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah,
the son of Amariah, the son of Hizkiah.' This
formal record of his lineage has led many to sup-
pose that Zephaniah had sprung from a noble stock
(Cyril, Prcef. ad Zeph. ), and the occurrence of the
highest name in the list, which in the Hebrew text
is spelled and pointed in the same way as that
rendered Hezekiah in the books of Kings and
Chronicles, has induced some to identify it with that
of the good king, and to pronounce the prophet
a cadet of the royal house of Judah. Kimchi is-
very cautious in his opinion, and leaves the point
undecided ; but Aben-Ezra concludes that Zepha-
niah was descended from Hezekiah ; and his opinion
has been followed by Huet {Demonstrat. Evangel.
Propos. iv. 303), and by Eichhom, Hengstenberg.
 
 
 
ZEPHANIAH
 
 
 
1155
 
 
 
ZEPHANIAH
 
 
 
Havemick, Keil, Hitzig, Bleek, and Strauss. -The
conjecture has little else to recommend it than the
mere occurrence of the royal name. But it was
not a name confined to royalty ; and had it been
the name of the pious monarch to which Zepha-
niah's genealogy is traced, his official designation,
' king of Judah,' might have been subjoined, in
oi-der to prevent mistake. Such an addition is
found in connection with his name in Prov. xxv. i
and Is. xxxviii. 9. It forms no objection to affimi
that the phrase ' king of Judah' is added to Josiah,
and to avoid repetition may have been omitted after
Hizkiah, for such regard to euphony, such finical
dehcacy, is no feature of Hebrew composition.
On the other hand the argument of Carpzov {Iiitrod.
p. 414), copied by Rosenmiiller {Procemium hi
Zeph.), against the supposed connection of the
prophet with the blood royal, is of no great weight.
These critics say that from Hezekiah to Josiah, in
whose reign Zephaniah flourished, are only three
generations, while from Hezekiah to Zephaniah
four are reckoned in the first verse of the prophecy.
But as Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine years, and
his successor sat on the throne no less than fifty-
five years, there is room enough in so long a period
for the four specified descents ; and Amariah,
though not heir to the crown, may have been older
than his youthful brother Manasseh, who was
crowned at the age of twelve. As there was at
least another Zephaniah, a conspicuous personage
at the time of the captivity, the parentage of the
prophet may have been recounted so minutely to
prevent any reader from confounding the two indi-
viduals. The Jews absurdly reckon that here, as
in other superscriptions, the persons recorded as a
prophet's ancestors were themselves endowed with
the prophetic spirit. The so-called Epiphanius
{De Vitis Prophet, cap. xix. ) asserts that Zephaniah
was of the tribe of Simeon, of the hill Sarabatha,
ttTTo Spoi/s Sa/3o/3a0d. The existence of the pro-
phet is known only from his oracles, and these
contain no biographical sketch ; so that our know-
ledge of this man of God comprises only the fact
and results of his inspiration. It may be safely
inferred, however, that he laboured with Josiah in
the pious work of re-establishing the worship of
Jehovah in the land.
 
Age. — It is recorded (ch. i.) that the word of the
Lord came to him ' in the days of Josiah, the son
of Amon, king of Judah.' We have reason for
supposing that he flourished during the earlier por-
tion of Josiah's reign. In the second chapter (vers.
13-15) he foretells the doom of Nineveh, and the
fall of that ancient city happened 625 B.C. (Raw-
iinson's Ancient Monarchies, ii. 523). In the com-
mencement of his oracles also, he denounces various
forms of idolatry, and specially the remnant of
Baal. The reformation of Josiah began in the
twelfth, and was completed in the eighteenth year
of his reign. So thorough was his extirpation of
the idolatrous rites and hierarchy which defiled his
kingdom, that he burnt the groves, dismissed the
priesthood, threw down the altars, and made dust
of the images of Baalim. Zephaniah may have
prophesied prior to this religious revolution, and
prepared the way for it though some remains of
Baal were yet secreted in the land, or between the
twelfth and eighteenth years of the royal reformer.
So Hitzig, Jahn, Keil, Knobel, Ewald, De Wette,
Umbreit, Strauss, Bunsen, and Movers (Chronik.
p. 234) place him ; while Eichhorn, Bertholdt,
 
 
 
Jaeger, Delitzsch, Stahelin, Kimchi, and Abarbanel,
incline to give him a somewhat later date. The
' king's children ' (i. 8) could not be sons of Josiah,
who was but eight years old when he began to
reign, nor does the name necessarily imply it ; they
may have been brothers, or princes of the blood
royal, or princes living at the time when the oracle
should be fulfilled. At all events, he flourished
between the years B.C. 642 and B.C. 611 ; and the
portion of his prophecy which refers to the destruc-
tion of the Assyrian empire must have been de-
livered prior to the year B.C. 625. The publication
of these oracles was, therefore, contemporary with
a portion of those of Jeremiah, for the word of the
Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the
reign of Josiah. Indeed, the Jewish tradition is,
that Zephaniah had for his colleagues Jeremiah
and the prophetess Huldah, the former fixing his
sphere of labour in the thoroughfares and market-
places, the latter exercising her honourable voca-
tion in the college in Jerusalem (Carpzov, Introd.
p. 415). Koester {Die Propheten, iii.) endeavours
to prove that Zephaniah was posterior to Habak-
kuk. His arguments from similarity of diction are
trivial, and the more so when we reflect that all
circumstances combine in inducing us to fix the
period of Habakkuk in the reign of Jehoiakim
[Habakkuk], or immediately before the Chaldseau
invasion.
 
Contents. — The book consists of only three
chapters, which form one whole, and are not to be
separated as by Bertholdt, Eichhorn, and Knobel,
into three parts, or by De Wette and Strauss into
two parts. In the first, the sins of the nation are
severely reprimanded, and a day of fearful retribu-
tion is menaced. The circuit of reference is wider
in the second chapter, and the ungodly and perse-
cuting states in the neighbourhood of Judxa are
also doomed ; but in the third section, while the
prophet inveighs bitterly against Jerusalem and her
magnates, he concludes with the cheering prospect
of her ultimate settlement and blissful theocratic
enjoyment. It has been disputed what the enemies
are with whose desolating inroads he threatens
Judah. The ordinary opinion is, that the foes
whose period of invasion was ' a day of the tnimpet
and alarm against the fenced cities and against the
high towers' (ch. i. 16), were the Chaldceans.
Hitzig, Cramer, Eichhorn, Movers, Ewald, E.
Meier, and Umbreit suppose the prophet to refer
to a Scythian invasion, the history of which has
been preserved by Herodotus (i. 105). The general
style of the oracle, and the sweeping vengeance
which it menaces against Assyria, Philistia, Am-
mon, and Cush, as well as against Judah, by some
great and unnamed power, seem to point to the
Chaldaean expedition which, under Nebuchadnez-
zar, laid Jerusalem waste, and carried to Babylon
its enslaved population. But there may be in the
prophetic grouping allusions also to the Scythian
raid which poured itself through so many countries,
overflowed Media as the Huns of a later day did
Italy, swept into Syria and Palestine, till it was
arrested by the policy of Psammetichus, who was
laying siege at the time to Ashdod. This invasion
happened in the reign of the last Assyrian king, and
in the period of Cyaxares and Nabopolassar(Rawlin-
son's Monarchies, ii. p. 508). The nations around,
from Media and Babylon down to Egypt, were in
commotion ; war and revolution were impenaing ;
and amidst such restless upheavings Judah coiUd
 
 
 
ZEPHANIAH
 
 
 
1156
 
 
 
ZERAH
 
 
 
not escape (Stark's Gaza, p. 209, Jena 1852). The
contemporaiy prophecies of Jeremiah seem to con-
template the musterings, onset, and devastations
of the same victorious hosts. The first part of
Zephaniah's prediction is ' a day of clouds and of
thick darkness,' but the closing section is full of
light and joy : ' The King of Israel, the Lord, is
in the midst of thee ; He will rejoice over thee with
joy ; He will rest in his love.'
 
Style. — We cannot by any means ascribe so low
a character to Zephaniah's style as is done by De
Wette (Einleit sec. 245), who brands it as being
often heavy and tedious. It has not the sustained
majesty of Isaiah, or the originaHty and force
of Joel : it has no prominent feature of distinc-
tion ; yet its delineations are graphic, and many
of its touches are bold and striking. For ex-
ample, in the first chapter the prophet groups
together in his descriptions of the national idolatry
several characteristic exhibitions of its forms and
worship. He seizes on the more strange peculiari-
ties of the heathen worship — uttering denunciations
on the remnant of Baal, the worshippers of Che-
marim, the star-adorers, the devotees of Malcham,
the fanatics who clad themselves in strange apparel,
and those who in some superstitious mummery
leapt upon the threshold (Bochart, Hier. cap. 36).
A few paronomasise occur (i. 15 and ii. 1-4) ; and
occasionally there is a peculiar repetition of a lead-
ing word in the formation of a climax (ii. 15).
Zephaniah has borrowed to a considerable extent
from the earlier prophets, especially from Isaiah ;
as Is. xxxiv. II to Zeph. ii. 14, or Is. xlvii. 8 to
Zeph. ii. 15, or Is. xviii. i to Zeph. iii. 10, or Is.
xvi. 6 to Zeph. ii. 8. Coincidences of expression
have also been noted between Zephaniah and
some of his contemporaries, particularly Jeremiah
(Eichh. Einleit. sec. 595 ; Rosenm. Proam. vi. ;
Strauss, p. 28). In Zeph. i. 5 and Jer. viii. 2, the
same superstitious custom is referred to, and the
phrase, 'settled on the lees,' is found Zeph. i. 12,
and Jer. xlviii. II. It was altogether groundless,
therefore, in some of the older critics, such as
Isidore and Schmidius {Prolegom. in Sophon.), to
style Zephaniah the abbreviator of Jeremiah. Re-
semblances have also been traced between Zepha-
niah and Amos, and between him and his succes-
sor Ezekiel. The language of Zephaniah is pure :
it has not indeed the ease and dignity of the earlier
compositions, but it wants the degenerate feeble-
ness and Aramaic corruption of the succeeding era.
Zephaniah is not expressly quoted in the N. T. ;
l)ut clauses and expressions occur which seem to
have been formed from his prophecy (Zeph. iii. 9 ;
Rom. XV. 6, etc.)
 
Coftwtentaries. — Martini Lutheri Comment, ijt
Sophon. Prophet. Opera Latina, t. iv. ; Mart.
Buceri Sophonim Explicatio, 1528 ; Noltenii Dis-
sertatio Exeget. Praliin. in Proph. Zeph. 1719 ;
Crsxatr, Scyihische Denkjniiler in Pahrstitia, ITJT, it
contains a Comment on Zephaniah ; D. von Coelln,
Spicileg. Obsei-vai. Exeget. Critic, ad Zeph. Vati-
cinia, 1818 ; P. Ewald, Zeph. uebersetzt. Erlangen
1827 ; Maurer, Comment. Gramtnat. Hist. Crit. in
Prophetas Minor es, p. 373, 1840; Exeget. Hand-
buch z. A. T. ; die 12 hleinen Prophet, erkldrt, von
F. Hitzig, 1838 ; Rosenm iilleri Scholia in Proph.
Min. vol. iv. ; Dr. E. Henderson On the Twelve
Minor Prophets, 1845 ; F. Ad. Strauss, Vaiicin.
Zeph. Co7nmentariis illiis*rat. Berlin 1843; Umbreit
diiklein. Proph. ii. Th. 1846, Hamburg. — ^J. E.
 
 
 
ZEPHATH (DQV ; Sept. Se0^5), a Canaanitish
 
city, afterwards called Hormah (Judg. i. 17). The
ancient designation is perhaps retained in the mo-
dem es-Siifah, the name of a difficult pass leading
up from the Arabah to the south of Judah (Robin-
son, Bib. Res. ii. 592-616). Another identification
has been proposed — viz. with Sebdta, a place on the
road to Suez, half an hour north of Rohebeh (Wil-
liams, Holy City, i. 464).
 
ZEPHATHAH, The Valley of (nnSV K"'3 ;
 
ev TTi (papa-yyi /card, ^oppav ; in valle Sephatd).
When Zerah, the Ethiopian, invaded Palestine
with his vast army, the sacred historian says that
' Asa went out against him, and they set the
battle in array in the valley of Zephathah, at Ma-
reshah' (2 Chron. xiv. 10). The name is notelse-
Avhere mentioned ; but the site of Mareshah is
known [Mareshah] ; and there is a deep valley
which runs past it down to Beit Jibrin, and thence
into the plain of Philistia. This perhaps may be
the valley of Zephathah {Handbook, p. 258). Dr.
Robinson's theoiy that the name is preserved in
Tell es-Safieh cannot be admitted, because it would
locate it too far from Mareshah {Bib. Res. ii, 31).
-J. L. P.
 
ZERAH (ITlT, a rising; Sept. Zapd). i. Son
 
of Judah and Tamar, and younger but twin brother
of Pharez (Gen. xxxviii. 30 ; Matt. i. 3). Geddes,
in his Critical Remarks (pp. 126, 127), has some
interesting medical testimony in illustration of the
remarkable circumstances attending the birth of
the twins.
 
2. Son of Reuel and grandson of Esau (Gen.
xxxvi. 13, 17).
 
3. Son of Simeon and founder of a family in
Israel (Num. xxvi. 13). He is called Zohar in
Gen. xlvi. 10 : his descendants are called Zarhites
in Num. xxvi. 13, 20.
 
4. The Cushite king or leader who invaded
Judah in the tenth year of king Asa (B.C. 941),
with an army of 'a thousand thousands ' {i.e. very
many thousands) of men, and three hundred cha-
riots. Asa defeated them in the valley of Zepha-
thah at Mareshah, utterly routed them, pursued
them to Gerar, and carried back much plunder
from that neighbourhood. We are left uncertain
as to the countiy from which Zerah came. The
term Cushite or Ethiopian may imply that he was
of Arabian Cush ; the principal objection to which
is, that history affords no indication that Arabia
had at that epoch, or from its system of govern-
ment could well have, any king so powerful as
Zerah. That he was of Abyssinia or African Ethi-
opia is another conjecture, which is resisted by the
difficulty of seeing how tliis ' huge host ' could have
obtained a passage through Egypt, as it must have
done to reach Judaea. If we could suppose, with
Champollion {Precis, p. 257), whom Coquerel fol-
lows {Biog. Sacr. s.v.), that Zerah the Cushite was
the then king of Egypt, of an Ethiopian dynasty,
this difficulty would be satisfactorily met. In fact
it is now often stated that he was the same with
Osorkon I. (of whom there is a statue in the
British Museum, No. 8), the son and successor of
the Shishak who invaded Judaa twenty-five years
before, in the time of Rehoboam. This is a tempt-
ing explanation, but cannot be received wthout
question, and it is not deemed satisfactory by Ro-
 
 
 
ZERED
 
 
 
1157
 
 
 
ZIBA
 
 
 
sellini, Wilkinson, Sharpe, and others. Jahn
hazards an ingenious conjecture, that Zerah was
king of Cush on both sides of the Red Sea — that is,
of both the Arabian and African Ethiopia ; and
thus provides him a sufficient power without sub-
jecting him to the necessity of passing through
Egypt. This also is not without serious difficulties.
In fact, no conclusion that can be relied upon has
yet been exhibited. — J. K.
 
ZERED n-ir ; Za/)^5 ; Alex. Tittpi and Zap^r ;
 
Zared). A valley on the south-eastern border of
Moab, where the Israelites encamped before cross-
ing the Amon (Num. xxi. 12). In the A. V. of
Deut. ii. 13, it is called a 'brook ;' but the He-
brew word is the same as in Numbers (PHJ, ' a
torrent-bed' or ' valley'). The name Zered seems
to have disappeared ; but as the wady was the
southern border of Moab, Dr. Robinson says, ' the
features of the country seem to show that this
was probably the Wady el-Ahsy, which now se-
parates the district of Kerak from Jebal, and in-
deed forms a natural division between the country
on the north and on the south. Taking its rise
near the castle of el-Ahsy on the route of the
Syrian Haj, upon the high eastern desert, it breaks
down through the whole chain of mountains to
near the south-east corner of the Dead Sea, form-
ing for a part of the way a deep chasm. The
Israelites doubtless passed Wady el-Ahsy near its
upper end, where it would present no difficulty'
(B. R. ii. 157 ; Burckhardt, Travels, 400). --
J. L. P.
 
ZEREDA (miVn ; Sept. r/ 2api/3d ; Alex. 7]
 
2ap£5d), a town on Mount Ephraim, the birth-
place of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (l Kings xi.
26). In an addition made by the LXX. to ch. xii.
Sarira is said to have been built by Jeroboam for
Solomon, and it is stated that to it Jeroboam re-
turned when he came out of Egypt. It was pro-
bably a fastness or keep erected to protect or over-
awe the suiTOunding district, which took from it
its name. Some would identify it vwth Zererath,
Zarthan, and Zaredatha, but there is a difficulty in
the way of this arising from the fact that this was
on a hill, whilst these seem to have been in the
plain.— W. L. A.
 
ZEREDATHA. [Zererath.]
 
ZERERATH (nmiV, with H local, properly
 
T T •■ i
 
miV, Zererah ; Tayapaya'ita. ; Alex. koI <rvvr)-
 
yay€p), a place mentioned in connection with the
flight of the Midianites after their defeat by Gideon
in the valley of Jezreel : — ' And the host fled to
Beth-shittah in (to) Zererath, and to the border of
Abel-meholali, unto Tabbath' (Judg. vii. 22). The
reading of this word is not satisfactorily established
in the Hebrew text. Some MSS., with the Syriac
and Arabic versions read Zerea'ath, or Zeredathah,
which is mentioned in 2 Chron. iv. 17. There can
be httle doubt that the places are identical, and the
difference in name has arisen from an accidental
mistake of a") foral. It may also be the same place
which is called Zereda in the A. V. (HTlX, i Kings
 
xi. 26), and which was the birth-place of Jeroboam
the first king of Israel. But by comparing 2
Chron. iv. 17 with i Kings vii. 46, it would appear
tHat Zeredatha was called Zarthan. A close con-
 
 
 
nection seems thus to be established between
Zererath, Zeredathah, Zereda, and Zarthan. Three
of them at least were situated in the valley of the
Jordan, and not far distant from Bethshean. The
probabihty is that they were all various forms of
the same name. Examples of this are common in
Syria at the present day (Keil and Delitzsch on
Judges, ad loc. ; Gesenius, Thesaurus, s. v. [Zar-
tenah]). — ^J. L. P.
 
ZERESH (K'-lT; Pers. gohi ; Sept. Zucydpa),
 
the wife of Haman (Esth. v. 10 ; vi. 13), and well
worthy of him, if we may judge from the advice
she gave him to prepare a gibbet and ask the king's
leave to hang Mordecai thereon [Haman ; MoR-
DECAl]. — J. K.
 
ZERUAH (nyny, leprous; Sept. ^apipd), the
 
widowed mother of Jeroboam (i Kings xi. 26).
 
ZERUBBABEL (^33-)?, so-wn in Babylon;
 
Sept. TiOpo^d^eX), called also ' Sheshbazzar, prince
of Judah ' (Ezra i. 8), son (comp. i Chron. iii.
17) of Shealtiel, of the royal house of David (i
Chron. iii.), was the leader of the first colony of
Jews that returned from captivity to their native
land under the permission of Cyrus, cartying with
them the precious vessels belonging to the service
of God. With the aid of Joshua and his body of
priests, Zerubbabel proceeded, on his arrival in
Palestine, to rebuild the fallen city, beginning with
the altar of burnt-offerings, in order that the daily
services might be restored. The Samaritans,
however, having been offended at being expressly
excluded from a share in the land, did all they
could to hinder the work, and even procured
from the Persian court an order that it should be
stopped. Accordingly, everything remained sus-
pended till the second year of Darius Hystaspis
(a.c. 521), when the restoration was resumed and
carried to completion, according to Josephus,
owing to the influence of Zerubbabel with the
Persian monarch {Antiq. xi. 3 ; Ezra ; Haggai i.
1-14; ii. i). — ^J. R. B. [The name Slieshljazzar
was the Chaldee or Persic name which he had after
the analogy of Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego.]
 
ZERUIAH (n-iimV, wounded; Sept. 2a/30u/a),
 
daughter of Jesse, sister of David (i Chron. ii. 16),
and mother of Joab, Abishai, and Ashael (2 Sam.
ii. 18; iii. 39 ; viii. 16 ; xvi. 9).
 
ZIBA (NTy, statue ; Sept. 2t/3d), a servant of
 
the house of Saul, of whom David inquired if there
was any one left of the house of Saul to whom the
monarch might show favour. Mephibosheth was
in consequence found, and having been certified of
David's friendship, Ziba, who was at the head of a
large family, having fifteen sons and twenty slaves,
was appointed to till the land for the prince, and
generally to constitute his household and do him
service (2 Sam. ix. 2-10). This position Ziba em-
ployed for his master's harm. When David had
to fly from Jerusalem in consequence of the rebel-
lion of Absalom, Ziba met the king with a large
and acceptable present : — ' But wliere is Mephi-
bosheth ?' asked the fugitive monarch ; ' In Jeru-
salem,' was the answer ; ' for he said. To-day
shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom
of my father.' Enraged at this, which looked like
 
 
 
ZIBEON
 
 
 
1158
 
 
 
ZIDON
 
 
 
ingratitude as well as treachery, David thereupon
gave to the faithless Ziba all the property of Me-
phibosheth (2 Sam. xvi. i, seq.) On David's re-
turn to his metropolis an explanation took place,
when Mephibosheth accused Ziba of having slan-
dered him ; and David, apparently not being per-
fectly satisfied with the defence, gave his final
award, that the land should be divided between
the master and his servant (2 Sam. xix. 24, seq.)
-J. R. B.
 
ZIBEON (fiyny, dyed; Sept. ^e^ey^v), a son
 
of Seir, phylarcli or head of the Hivites (Gen.
xxxvi. 2, 20, 24, 29).
 
ZICHRI C"I3T, renowned; Sept. ZexpO? ^^i
 
Ephraimite, probably one of the chiefs of the tribe,
and one of the generals of Pekah king of Israel.
It has been supposed that he took advantage of
the victory of this monarch over the anny of Judah
to penetrate into Jerusalem, where he slew one of
the sons of Ahaz, the governor of the palace, and
the king's chief minister or favourite. It is diffi-
cult without this supposition to explain 2 Chron.
xxviii. 7. There is some probability in the con-
jecture that he was the 'Tabael's son' whom
Pekah and Rezin designed to set upon the throne
of Judah [Tabael]. — ^J. K.
 
ZIDDIM (D'l'nSfn), a place belonging to Naph-
 
thali (Josh. xix. 35). It has not been identified.
Knobel suggests that the name may be preserved
in es-Saicdah, a place to the west of the southern
extremity of the Lake of Tiberias ; but this would
place it in a territory beyond that of Naphthali,
and in that of Issachar. There is more probability
in the suggestion that it is to be identified with the
ICefr-Hattin, a village a few miles west of the Lake
Tiberias, and within the allotment of Naphthali.
Lightfoot cites the Jerusalem Talmud {Afegillah,
fol. 70. i) as identifying Ziddim with Caphar Hit-
taim, near to Tiberias {Cent. Chorog. Matthaeo
prcemiss. c 78). — W. L. A.
 
ZIDON, SiDON (Phoen. pV; Heb, p'«V, '^y^'i;
 
Gr. StStic; the present liX**^, Saida), the name of
 
a Phoenician city, probably derived from TlV, to
hunt, to fish, and bestowed upon it for the abund-
ance of the fish found in its neighbourhood (Urbs
. . , quam a piscium ubertate Sidona appeUave-
runt : nam piscem [? piscatum] Phoenices Sidon [cf.
 
Syr. ).] vocant. Just, 18. 3), situated in a narrow
 
plain between the Lebanon and the Mediter-
ranean, in 33° 34' 05" N. L., 200 stadia from Tyre,
400 from Berytus (Strabo). The term ' first-born
of Canaan,' bestowed upon it in the genealogical
table of Gen. x. 15, can only be understood in
the sense of its having early reached the highest
place among the cities and tribes of Phoenicia ;
for the existence of other Phoenician cities before
Zidon seems sufficiently proved from the circum-
stance Berytus and Byblos being mentioned
much earlier by Sanchuniathon than Zidon ; and
further, _ from the priority and position of the
local deities of the two former places in the colo-
nies. Thus the worship of the Cabiri, the tutelary
deities Berytus, and of Aphrodite, of Byblus,
was nowhere found as a national cultus in Zidon-
ian or Tyrian colonies, while long before historical
 
 
 
times they flourished in Cyprus, and had reached
the most distant coast of the Mediterranean. That
pre-histoiic period of a preponderance of northern
Phoenicia, however, had passed away when we
first meet Zidon in the Bible and Homer. There
it appears already in the full zenith of its wealth
and power: — TIIT pT'X,' Zidon the Great, 01
Zidon the Metropolis, scil. of Zidonia. This district
appears to have embraced the states of Zidon,
Tyre, and Aradus, and its inhabitants are always
distinguished from the inhabitants of the city itself
(called 'Dwellers, ''a{;n\ of Zidon) as D''jnV,
' Zidonians,' or dwellers in the districts ; and it
seems in those early times to have extended north-
wards to the Giblites, southwards to the Carmel
(Zebulon's border, Gen. xlix. 13). At a later
period the boundaries south were determined by
the fluctuating issue of the struggle for the hege-
mony between Zidon and Tyre, while northwards
the river Tamyrus divided it from the State of
Berytus. To the east, where it never had extended
very far (Dan, a Zidonian colony, being described
as being 'far from the Zidonians,' Judg. xviii. 7)
in early days, it touched, at a later period, the
territory of Damascus. The assumption, however,
drawn by some writers from the inexact way in
which the appellation Zidonian is used by ancient
writers — viz. that this name stood for ' Phoenician,'
and Zidonia itself for the whole of Phoenicia, an
important part of which it only formed — is in-
correct. Tyre, of later origin than Zidon, if not
indeed founded by it, in the same way styles itself
on coins D3^V DX, ' Metropolis of Zidonia,' in the
sense of its momentary hegemony over Zidon only,
possibly also with a secondary reference to the
nationality of its inhabitants, mostly immigrants
from Zidon.
 
The frequent allusions to the skilfulness of the
Zidonians in arts and manufactures, the extent of
their commerce, their nautical information and
prowess, in ancient writers, are well known. Thus
Homer, who never seems to have heard of Tyre,
speaks of a large silver bowl cunningly wrought
by Zidonians, which Achilles bestows as a prize
upon the swiftest runner at the games in honour of
Patroclus (//. ^' 741). Menelaos gives Telemachus
a similar bowl of silver, gold-edged, a gift to him
from the king of the Zidonians {Od. 5' 618).
Sidonian women had worked the garment which
Hecuba offers to Minerva (//. f ' 290), etc. Of the
trade of the 'Zidonian merchants' (Is. xxiii.), both
by land and sea, we hear in Diod. Sic. (16, 41, 45) ;
of their glass, linen, and other manufactories in
Pliny, Virgil, Strabo, and other classical writers.
As we have already spoken on this subject of
their trade under Phcenicia, it will suffice here to
remind our readers of the terms ttoXi^x'^^'^os ap-
plied to Zidonia, and 7roXu5at5aXoi to its inhabit-
ants, by Homer, to show what was the renown
both of the metal-produce of the country and of
the skill of its sons and daughters in the early
days of Greece.
 
The History of Zidon or Zidonia has likewise been
touched upon briefly in the articles on Phoenicia
and Tyre. Although allotted to Asher (Josh. xix.
28), it yet never seems to have been really conquered
by the Israelites. On the contrary, it would appear
as if the Zidonians had, for a time at least, ruled
over them. But veiy soon after that period its
splendour and power began to pale before Tyre,
which existed already at the time of Joshua, but as
 
 
 
ZIDON
 
 
 
1159
 
 
 
ZIDON
 
 
 
a dependency from Zidon. After the memorable
defeat which the Zidonians suffered in the war with
the king of Askalon (13th century B.C.), reported
by Justin, when the Zidonians are said to have
' retired to their ships and to have founded [ ? re-
founded] Tyre,' Zidon almost disappears from
history for a time, — so utterly enfeebled and insig-
nificant had it become through the sudden and
brilhant rise of its own daughter and rival, to whom
all the noblest and most skilful of her children had
fled. Its fate was almost the same as was that of
Tyre herself when Dido-Ehssa had founded Car-
thage, and drew all the most important elements
from the old city to the 'New Town' — which, it
must not be forgotten, had originally been a
Zidonian settlement under the name of Kakkabe.
 
Although Zidon had retained her ovra kings, yet,
at the time of David and Solomon, Tyre is found
manning its fleets with Zidonian sailors, and Hiram
furnishes Zidonian workmen for the building of Solo-
mon's temple. Gradually the kings of Tyre even
assumed the title of ' king of Zidon.' And, although
the foundation of Carthage, and the consequent
weakening of Tyre, allowed Zidon to breathe some-
what more freely, yet, a very short time after
that event, the same internal political dissensions
and party-struggles caused a similar emigration as
that which had taken place in Tyre, or which had
peopled Tyre itself with Zidonians. This emigra-
tion-founded Aradus, and thus gave rise to the con-
federation of the three states of Tyre, Zidon, and
Aradus, the supreme council (or Synedrium) of
which had its seat at Tripolis. Yet this confedera-
tion did not last long. When Shalmanassar (707-
701 B.C.) marched against Phoenicia, Zidon, out of
her ancient rancour against her successful rival,
joined, together with other cities, the conqueror,
assisting him with sixty vessels manned with 800
rowers. Nothing is heard of Zidon for a century
: afterwards ; but Tyre having emerged victoriously
from the contest with Shalmanassar, it is to be pre-
sumed that it ruled its treacherous confederate with a
heavy hand. When Chaldeans, Egyptians, Scythic
hordes, overflooded the whole country during the
7th and part of the 6th century B.C., the power of
both Tyre and Zidon was finally broken so com-
pletely that, notwithstanding their kings and their
fleets, they almost without resistance fell into the
hands of Persia under Cyrus and Cambyses (526 B.C.)
As tributary provinces, they had now to aid their
conquerors with their ships, both against the Greeks
: and the Egyptians. Yet no sooner had the Achte-
menidian rulers restored peace, than these Phoeni-
cian cities began to gather wealth and strength
anew, and in the year 351 Zidon dared Artaxerxes
Ochus in open rebellion. Goaded to despair by
the insolence of the Persian satraps and generals
who had taken up their abode in their city, the
inhabitants resolved to shake off the galling yoke,
and persuaded their Phoenician kinsmen to join
them in their resistance. Nectanebo, the king of
Egypt, sent them 3000 Greek soldiers, who, together
with their armed men and ships, bade fair to carry
the day. After committing a few excesses in the
royal palace itself, and taking some of their insolent
visitors captive, they marched against the royal
troops sent from Babylon to quell the rebellion,
and, under the Zidonian general Tennes, routed
them. Whereupon the king himself appeared be-
fore the city, and Tennes treacherously handed
it over to the besieging enemy. 'J'he Zidonians
 
 
 
having burnt their ships, and seeing all further
resistance impossible, shut themselves up in their
houses, with their wives and children, and fired the
whoie place. No less than 40,000 people are said
to have perished in the flames, together with the
most colossal wealth. The king, indeed, sold the
ruins, on account of the vast amount of molten gold
and silver found beneath them, for many talents.
Rebuilt again, it became a provincial town vdthout
importance, and gladly opened its gates to Alex-
ander the Great — happy to get rid 0/ Ihe Persian
yoke at any price. Under his Syrian successors it
again rose in population and importance ; so much
so that Antiochus III. preferred to pass it by without
attacking it (216 B.C.) At the time of Csesar it
appears to have possessed a kind of autonomy. In
the middle of the ist century a.d. it is again called
' Opulenta Sidon . . . maritimarum urbium
maxima' (Pomp. Mela, i. 12); a circumstance
due chiefly to its exceptionably favourable harbour
or harbours — one for summer and one for vwnter.
Greek coins style her Nauapx^J, Roman coins Co-
lonia Augusta, and Metropolis. In the N. T. we
find it mentioned in Matthew (xv. 21) and Mark
(vii. 24, 31). Paul finds there also a Christian
friend (Acts xxvii. 3). The first bishop of Zidon
mentioned is Theodoras, who appeared at the
Nicean council. Eusebius and Jerome call it ' Urbs
Phoenices insignis,' while Antoninus Martyr (6cx)l
finds it in decay, and calls its inhabitants ' wicke.l
people.'
 
From that time forth, however, little is heard of
it until the time of the Crusades. Still called
Sidona in the Itineraries, we meet it again as Sa'i'da
in Edrisi ; and, by a further corruption of this
name, as Sageta or Sagitta in later writers.
Edrisi speaks of it as an important place, the four
districts of which mount up to the Lebanon, and
within the precincts of whose territory no less than
600 villages were situated. There can be no doubt
about the importance of Saida at the time of the
Crusades. Although its surrounding districts
yielded welcome plunder in cattle and other provi-
sions to the invading army of the Crusaders, yet
they dared not attack the city itself at first in
1099. Eight years later mighty preparations for a
siege were made, but the inhabitants bought it off
at a high price. The place was taken, neverthe-
less, in mi, after a six weeks' defence. From
that time forth it remained in the hands of the
Christians for seventy-six years, when, after the
battle of Hattin, Sultan Saladin seized it and de-
stroyed its fortifications. Ten years later it again
fell into the hands of the pilgrims (1197), who are
said to have used the cedar-planks taken from its
houses for stabling and fuel.
 
In 1253 Lewis IX. rebuilt it, and fortified it with
high walls and towers, and afterwards sold it to
the Templars, who very soon had to relinquish it
to the Mongols. Destroyed by the latter, it was
taken possession of by Sultan Ashraf in 1291. In
132 1 — at the time of Abulfeda — it had, in conse-
quence of all these troubles and successive de-
structions, lost almost all vestiges of its former
grandeur, and was hardly deemed worthy of men-
tion. In the middle of the 15th century it reap-
pears again as a port of Damascus. A new era
dated for this city from the time of the Emir
Fachr Ad-din, who for nearly half a century took
up his abode there, and besides restoring it to
somewhat of its pristine splendour, also made it the
 
 
 
ZIDON
 
 
 
1160
 
 
 
ZIDON
 
 
 
link between Europe and Asia, its commerce and
ideas. For here it was that Europeans, to whom
the Emir was particularly favourable, first estab-
lished themselves after the failing of the Crusaders'
expeditions, and thence spread over the whole oi
the East. Of the gorgeous buildings erected by
European architects whom he drew to his court,
nothing but ruins now remain, but some bridges
over the river at Beirut and Saida, constnicted by
Tuscan masters (Fagni and Cioli), exist to this day.
 
 
 
Factories and khans (campi) of magnificent pro»
portions aided the reawakened trade and industry
not a httle, and European merchants, especially
French and Italian, again crowded the streets and
markets of ancient Zidon. After Fachr Ad-din's
sudden downfall the commerce began to wane ; but
such was its importance still, that the French trade
alone brought an annual revenue of 200,000 crowns
into the Turkish treasury. In the constant warfare
between the Druses and the Turks that ensued.
 
 
 
 
537. Zidon.
 
 
 
Saida suffered terribly ; yet up to the end of the
iSthcentury it remained the central point for export
and import, which chiefly consisted of cotton, silk,
rice,^ drugs, spices, cloth, etc. When, however,
Jezzar Pasha was appointed Pasha of Saida (1775),
he at once assumed the attitude of a rebel towards
the Porte, held the whole 01 Syria for a quarter
of a century in a state of abject terror, and finally
turned against the French merchants, who offered a
 
 
 
i
 
 
 
spirited resistance to his cruel and ruinous decrees.
He expelled the French consulate in 1790, and
ended by driving the French merchants themselves-
from the country.
 
Ever since Saida has lost all and everything, and
has once more become a poor miserable place,
without trade or manufactures worthy of the name.
To add to its desolation, an earthquake, which took
place in 1837, destroyed about one hundred of its
 
 
 
ZIDON
 
 
 
1161
 
 
 
ZIDON
 
 
 
insignificant houses. Yet such is its favourable
natural position, and the fruitfulness of the' sur-
rounding country, that in 1840 the district of Saida
contained about 70,000 inhabitants (above 36,000
Christians and Jews), whose annual tax amounted
to about ^114,000. It only requires some favour-
able turn in the tide of its affairs to make it once
more lift up its head again as of yore.
 
Saida, however, possesses another most vital
interest, apart from its faded historical memories.
It is the only spot in Phoenicia where Phoenician
monuments with Phoenician inscriptions have been
found as yet. While the great bulk of palseo-
graphical relics of this most importa> t people had
been found in its colonies, Saida alone has fur-
nished no less than three of the most ancient and
lengthy inscriptions extant. On the 19th of January
1855 one of the many sepulchral caves near the city
was opened by chance, and there was discovered
in it a sarcophagus of black syenite, the lid of
which represented the form of a mummy %vith the
imcovered face of a man : evidently of Egyptian
workmanship. Twenty-two lines of Phoenician
writing were found engraved upon the chest of the
royal personage — King Ashmanezer II. — whom it
represents. A smaller, abbreviated, inscription
nins round the neck. The age of this monument,
now in the Louvre, has variously been conjectured
as of the nth century B.C. (Ewald) — which is un-
questionably wrong — further as of the 7th, 6th, or
4th respectively, by Hitzig, the Due de Luynes,
Levy, and others. The inscriptions contain prin-
cipally a solemn injunction, or rather an adjura-
tion, not to disturb the royal remains. Besides
this there is an enumeration of the temples erected
by the defunct in honour of the gods.
 
The following is a portion of the most remark-
able (larger) inscription divided into words (there
is no division even of the letters in the original)
according to the sense — in some instances merely
conjectured — and transcribed into Hebrew charac-
ters,* to which is subjoined a translation, princi-
pally following Munk and Levy, but occasionally
differing from either : --
 
ipD "•a^of' I iim vmxi 'ovn^^ihi ni'-a ti.
 
rhfi: -\^i6 D31V i^D
33t^n no ha p nn^ m tx do"" idd p Tiy fjn 3.
 
Dns bi na^DD ^3 nx^ojp nn i^a men 4.
: 1 T 2:^^12 IT'S nns'* ba
 
{<»■•> ^X1 D3D p n^ "-N 3 D30 \2 ^p2'> hn 5.
 
: ny ^si ''22:^^ rhn n^x
 
DOnS DK FIX "'3B' 22\i>D rf?V T 33C^D1 \0 6.
 
n na^Do b 2 Djnn yoLJ'n ba i:im^
 
 
 
• It need not be added that the final letters of
this transcript are not found in the original.
 
t The lines on the Sarcophagus are without the
break necessitated by the space of our column.
 
:|: The word is here broken off and continued in
the next line.
 
 
 
NB'' tj'K ON r 33B^ n^y nna^ k'n onx ^33 :.
103 pJDV trx nx U3B'D n^n n^N
 
13P"' ^5X1 DXQI nX 33ti'0 D^ p^ ^X T 33^* 8.
 
jnn p 0^5 p> bxi ■13P3
■nx ibo Dnx Dmpn n^^xn d^jdm Djnnn 9.
 
t pb DJ3 h^Q B'X
 
rhv nna^ b'x xn onx dx n3^D0 rr-x Djnx lo
 
n^X XB'^ B'X DX T 33B'0
 
nono Dnx dx xn n[3]^DD yir n-'xi r nijn n.
 
1 1 DO^ EDB' D^ p'' ^X
 
.... B'lDCJ'n nnn D'^ns nxni bv^b id 12.
 
(i.) In the month of Bui, in the year 14 (XIV.)
of my reigning [I], King Ashmanezer, King of the
Zidonians (2.), Son of King Tabnith, King of the
Zidonians : Spake King Ashmanezer, King of the
Zidonians, saying : I have been stolen away (3.)
before my time — a son of the flood [?] of days.
The whilom Great is dumb — the Son of God is
dead. And I rest in this grave, even in this tomb,
(4.) in the place which I have built. — My adjura-
tion to all the Ruling Powers, and all men : Let no
one open this resting-place, and (5.) not search
with us for treasure, for there is no treasure with
us, and lei him not bear away the couch of my rest,
and not trouble (6.) us on this resting-place by dis-
turbing the couch of my slumbers. Even if people
should persuade thee, do not listen to their speech.
For all the Ruling Powers and (7.) all men who
should open the tomb of this my rest, or any man
who should carry away the couch of my rest, or any
man who trouble me or (8.) this my couch : — Unto
them there shall be no rest with the departed ; they
shall not be buried in a grave, and there shall be to
them neither son nor seed (9.) in their stead, and
the Holy Gods will send over them a mighty king
who will rule over them, and (10.) cut them off
with their Dynasty. If any human being should
open this resting-place, and any man should carry
away (11.) this tomb — be he of Royal Seed or
a man of the people : — there shall be unto them
neither root below nor fruit above, nor honour
among the living under the sun' . . .
 
The shorter inscription — round the king's neck
— contains 7 lines, as follows : --
 
Dnv ... I iii'ny3"ix'nDyn3B'3^3n"i''3 i.
. . ''xnnD''^x . . . txco"'3DDJ3"'nybn^H3-i»xf' 2.
 
yOB'ni'X .... 100"'X3D3033B'P3''^X"IT33B'» 3.
 
n3p3 . . . ^vnnD^B'xonx^3in[3]^o»!'33on3 4.
 
ej^xnD3-)JD^iDjnnnynn33D^33^^K 5
 
n^xxB'*
 
nDnoDixoxxnn3^Doyitn^xnn^ . . 6.
 
33XnD
 
. . . yjDB'X3:K3 7.
 
The third inscription we mentioned was dis-
covered a few years ago by Consul Moore on
another locahty near Saida. It is found on a block
69 centimetres in height, 38 in length, which evi-
dently was once used for building purposes. It is
now in the possession of Count de Vogue. The
inscription reads as follows : --
 
 
 
ZIF
 
 
 
1162
 
 
 
ZINNIM
 
 
 
I II riB'i . . » . . m^n
 
mntJ'ynnpaDjnv
 
mnii'j;^"'^
 
The fragmentary nature of this inscription allows
of little certainty in its deciphering, save with
respect to a few proper names.
 
The coins of Zidon in its Greek (Seleucidian,
from Antiochus IV.) and Roman times are by no
means rare. The most common emblem is a ship,
in allusion to the maritime importance of the city.
 
Is it necessary that we, in conclusion, once more
urge the infallible certainty of the most precious
archaeological and palasographical treasures await-
ing the spade of the excavator, on this as on many
another spot of ancient Canaan ? [Phcenicia ;
Tyre; Shemitic Languages, etc.]— E. D.
 
ZIF (It t^lhj bloom -month), an ante-e.\ilian
 
name of the second Hebrew month (i Kings vi.
1-37)) corresponding with our April and May.
This, the second month of the sacred, was the
eighth of the civil year. The second month bore
also the name lyar. — ^J. R. B,
 
ZIKLAG (i^p"'y ; Sept. SefceX^x), a city be-
longing to the tribe of Simeon (Josh. xv. 31 ; xix.
5), but at times subject to the Philistines of Oath,
whose king, Achish, bestowed it upon David for a
residence ; after which it pertained to Judah (i Sam.
xxvii. 6; xxx. i, 14, 26; 2 Sam. i. i ; I Chron.
iv. 30 ; Neh. xi. 28).
 
WhUe David was absent with his men to join
Achish, Ziklag was burned and plundered by the
Amalekites ; and on his return, after receiving the
spoU from them, he remained here till called to
assume the crown after the death of Saul. It was
during his stay in this place that he was joined by
many considerable and valiant persons, whose ad-
hesion to his cause was of much importance to him,
and who were ever after held in high esteem in his
court and army. — ^J. K.
 
ZILLAH (n^S, shade ; Sept. SeXXd), one of
 
the wives of Lamech, and mother of Tubal-cain
(Gen. iv. 19. [Lamech.]
 
ZILPAH (na!??, a dropping; Sept. ZeX^d), a
 
female servant of Laban, whom he gave to Leah
on her marriage with Jacob (Gen. xxix. 24), and
whom Leah eventually induced him to take as a
concubine-wife ; in which capacity she became the
mother of Gad and Asher (Gen. xxx. 9-13 ; xxxv.
26; xxxvii. 2; xlvi. 18). — ^J. K.
 
ZIMRAN (pDT, sung, i.e. celebrated in song ;
 
Sept. Zofi^pdv), a son of Abraham by Keturah,
and the name of an Arabian tribe descended from
him (Gen. xxv. 2 ; I Chron. i. 32). This name
may perhaps be connected with the Zabram men-
tioned by Ptolemy as a city with a king, situated
between Mecca and Medina. — ^J. K.
 
ZIMRI ("""IfpT), a proper name in the O. T.,
 
which is derived from the root "IDT, carpere, especi-
ally carpere vites = pntare vites, ' to prune ; ' and
also carpere fides = pulsar e, cantare, 'to play,' 'sing.'
 
 
 
It IS very remarkable that the Greek \}/6XKeiv also
occurs in both these acceptations, which appear at
first sight to be so very heterogeneous — to scrape,
pull, pluck, and to sing. Compare the Latin car-
pere, which is etymologically connected, as well
with the Greek Hpirr), sickle, as with the English
harp ; and the English colloquial and vulgar ex-
pressions, 'to scrape the violin,' ' to pull away at
the piano,' and 'to pull out a note.' If we con
sider the striking cohicidence of the Greek with the
Hebrew, we are led to suppose that the link of the
ideas is as we have stated, and cease to be sur-
prised that Fiirst translates the name ""IJ^T by the
German Winzer = vine-dresser, but Gesenius by
carmine celebratus — i.e. a man celebrated by song,
or a man of celebrity in general.
 
The Septuagint imitates the Hebrew sound by
Za/jL^pl, and Josephus {Atitiq. viii. 12. 5) by Za-
 
Four men are called Zimri in the O. T. : --
 
1. A son of Zerah, who was a son of Judah by
Tamar (i Chron. ii. 6).
 
2. The name of the Israelite slain, together with
the Midianitish woman, in Shittim, by Phinehas,
was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief
house among the Simeonites (Num. xxv. 14).
 
3. King Saul begat Jonathan, who begat Merib-
baal, who begat Micah, who begat Ahaz, who
begat Jehoadah, whose sons were Alemeth, Azma-
veth, and Zimri. Zimri begat Moza, etc. (i Chron.
viii. 36; ix, 42).
 
4. In the twenty-sixth year of Asa, king of
Judah, Elah, the son of Baasha, began to reign
over Israel in Tirzah. After he had reigned two
years, Zimri, the captain of half his chariots, con-
spired against him when he was in Tirzah, dnmk,
in the house of his steward. Zimri went in and
smote and killed him, and reigned in his stead,
about B.C. 928; and he slew all the house ot
Baasha, so that no male was left. Zimri reigned
only seven days at Tirzah. The people who were
encamped at Gibbethon, which belonged to the
Philistines, heard that Zimri had slain the king.
They made Omri, the captain of the host, king over
Israel in the camp. Omri besieged Tirzah and
took it. Zimri, seeing that the city was taken,
went into the king's palace, set it on fire, and
perished in it for his sins in walking in the way of
Jeroboam, and for making Israel to sin (i Kings
xvi. 1-20 ; 2 Kings ix. 31).
 
5. The kings of Zimri, mentioned in Jer. xxv.
25, seem to have been the kings of the Zimranites,
the descendants of Zimran, son of Abraham by
Keturah (Gen. xxv. 2; i Chron. i. 32). It seems
that in Jer. xxv. 25, ""IDI is a contraction for
■•JIDT. The town Zabram, mentioned by Ptolemy
as situated between Mecca and Medina, perhaps
had its name from the tribe of Zimran. — C. H. F. B.
 
ZIN (|y ; Sept. ^iv), a desert on the south of
 
Palestine, and westward from Idumaea, in which
was situated the city of Kadesh-bamea (Num. xiii.
21 ; XX. I ; xxvii. 14). Its locality is therefore
fixed by the considerations which determine the
site of Kadesh to the western part of the Arabah
south of the Dead Sea.
 
ZINNIM (Wrri) and ZENINIM (D''J''3y) occur
 
in several passages of Scripture, as in Num. xxxiii.
55 ; Josh, xxiii. 13, where they are mentioned
along with SiKKiM ; also in Job v. 5, and Prov,
 
 
 
ZION
 
 
 
1163
 
 
 
ZIZANION
 
 
 
xxii. 5. The Septuagint has rpl^oXoi in Prov.
xxii. 5, and jSoXiSes in Num. xxxiii. 55, and J6sh.
xxiii. 13. It has been supposed that zinnim might
be the Rhamims palmrus, but nothing more pre-
cise has been ascertained respecting it, than of so
many other of these thorny plants ; and we may
therefore, with Michaelis, say, ' Nullum simile
nomen habent reliquas linguse Orientales ; ergo fas
est sapienti, Celsio quoque, fas sit et mihi, aliquid
ignorare. Ignorantise professio via ad inveniendum
varum, si quis in Oriente qusesierit.' — ^J. F. R.
 
ZION. [Jerusalem.]
 
ZIPH (Pin; Sept. T^lcp), the name of a city in
 
the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv. 55; 2 Chron. xi. 8),
and of a desert in its vicinity (i Sam. xxiii. 14, 15).
It is mentioned by Jerome {Onomast. s. v.), but
had not been since noticed till Dr. Robinson found
the name in the Tell Zif (Hill of Zif), which occurs
about four miles and a half S. by E. from Hebron,
and is a round eminence about a hundred feet high,
situated in a plain. A site also called Zif lies
about ten minutes east of this, upon a low hill or
ridge between two small wadys, which commence
here and run towards the Dead Sea. There is
now little to be seen besides broken walls and
foundations mostly of unhe\vn stones, but indica-
tive of soHdity. — ^J. K.
 
ZIPHRON (flDV ; Sept. Ae^pw^d ; Alex. Ze0-
 
pwva., the final a behig the Heb. local H), a place
on the northern border of the land of Canaan as
described by Moses (Num. xxxiv. 9). This has
been identified with extensive niins bearing the
 
name of Zifrdn (,..^jO) fourteen hours to the
 
N. E. of Damascus (Wetzstein, Reisebericht iiber
Hauran, p. 88). If Ziphron is the same as the
Sibraim of Ezek. xlvii. 16, it lay on the border of
the Damascene and Hamath district, and this ac-
cords well with the above identification. — W. L. A.
 
ZIPPOR (liBV or iaV), the father of Balak
 
king of Moab (Num. xxii. 2, etc. ; xxiii. 18 ; Josh,
xxiv. 9 ; Judg. xi. 25). Whether he was ever
himself king of Moab is unknown, as he is never
mentioned save in connection with Balak ; indeed
it may even be doubted whether any such person
ever existed, as Ben-tsippor (Sparrow-son) may
have been merely an appellation of Balak. As
the feminine Zipporah, however, was used as a
proper name, it is probable that Zippor was so
also. He may have been the former king of Moab
referred to Num. xxi. 26. — W. L. A.
 
ZIPPORAH (mby, Uttle bird ; Sept. Zerr-
 
^ilipa), one of the seven daughters of Reuel (comp.
Exod. xviii.), priest of Midian, who, in consequence
of aid rendered to the young women when, on
their going to procure water for their father's flocks,
they were set on by a party of Bedouins, was given
to Moses in marriage (Exod. ii. 16, sei/.) A son,
the fruit of this union, remained for some time
after his birth uncircumcised ; but an illness into
which Moses fell in a khan when on his way to
Pharaoh, being accounted a token of the divine
displeasure, led to the circumcision of the child,
when Zipporah, having, it appears, reluctantly
yielded to the ceremony, exclaimed, ' Surely a
bloody husband thou art to me ' (Exod. iv. 26).
 
 
 
This event seems to have caused some alienation
of feeling, for Moses sent his wife back to her
father, by whom she is again brought to her hus-
band while in the desert, when a reconciliation
took place, which was ratified by religious rites
(E.\od. xviii. i, se^.) — J. R. B.
 
ZIZ (pif ; Sept 'Affffeh), a cliff or pass leading
up from the Dead Sea towards Jerusalem, by which
the bands of the Moabites and Ammonites ad-
vanced against Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xx. 16).
They seem to have come round the south end of
the Dead Sea, and along the western shore as far
as Engedi, where there is a pass which leads out
northward towards Tekoa (Robinson, Bib/. Res.
ii. 215). This is the route which is taken by the
Arabs in their marauding expeditions at the present
day.-J. K.
 
ZIZANION (Zi^dvLov). This word occurs in
Matt. xiii. 25, and several of the foUo\ving verses,
and is translated weeds by Luther, and (ares in
the A. V. ; among Greek authors it is found only in
the Geoponica. It is therefore supposed that, as the
GosjDel of Matthew was (as some think) first writ-
ten in Syro-Chaldaic, the vernacular name of some
particular plant was adopted, and thus introduced
 
 
 
 
538. Lolium temulentum.
 
into the Greek version. This seems to be con-
firmed by the existence of a plant which is suitable
to the above passage, and of which the Arabic
name is very similar to zizatiion. Thus, in the
parable of the man who sowed good seed in his
field, it is said : ' But while men slept, his enemy
came and sowed tares among the wheat : when the
blade sprung up and brought forth fruit, then ap-
peared the tares also.' From this it is evident that
the wheat and the zizanion must have had consi-
derable resemblance to each other in the herba-
ceous parts, which could hardly be the case unless
they were both of the family of the grasses. That
such, however, is the case, is evident from what
Volney says, that the peasants of Palestine and
Syria do not cleanse away the seeds of weeds from
their com, but even leave that called Siwan by the
 
 
 
ZOAN
 
 
 
1164
 
 
 
ZOAR
 
 
 
Arabs, which stuns people and makes them giddy,
as he himself experienced. This no doubt is the
 
L' Zawan, or Ziwan, of Avicenna, and which
 
Buxtorf, in his Rabbifvikal Lexicon, says was by
the later Hebrews called pjiT Zonin. Avicenna
 
describes two kinds of Ziwan ; one ' quidpiam
tritico non absimile,' of which bread is made ; the
other ' res ebrietatem inducens, pravse naturae,
atque inter fruges provenit.' The Ziwa7i of the
Arabs is concluded to be our Darnel, the ivraie of
the French, the Lolium temulentum of botanists,
and is well suited to the palate. It is a grass often
found in corn-fields, resembling the wheat until
both are in ear, and remarkable as one of the very
few of the numerous family of grasses possessed of
deleterious properties. These have long been
known, and it is to this plant that Virgil alludes
(Georg.i. 154):--
 
' Interque nitentia culta
Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur avense.'
 
J.K.
 
ZOAN (|yV ; Sept. Taj-ts), an ancient city of
 
Lower Egypt, situated on the eastern side of the
Tanitic branch of the Nile, called in Egyptian
X<Ln.H or X^ni, Gane or Gani — i.e. 'low
region' — whence both the Hebrew name Zoan,
and the Greek Tanis, are derived ; as is also
the Arabic San, by which name the site is still
known. Zoan is of considerable Scriptural interest.
It was one of the oldest cities in Egypt, having
been built seven years after Hebron, which already
existed in the time of Abraham (Num. xiii. 22 ;
comp. Gen. xxii. 2) . It seems also to have been
one of the principal capitals, or royal abodes, of
the Pharaohs (Is. xix. Ii, 13 ; xxx. 4) : and accord-
ingly ' the field of Zoan,' or the fine alluvial plain
around the city, is described as the scene of the
marvellous works which God wrought in the time
of Moses (Ps. Ixxviii. 12, 33). The desti-uction
predicted in Ezek. xxx. 14 has long since befallen
Zoan. The ' field' is now a barren waste; a canal
passes through it without being able to fertilise the
soil ; ' fire has been set in Zoan ;' and the royal
city is now the habitation of fishermen, the resort
of vvdld beasts, and infested by reptiles and malig-
nant fevers. The locality is covered with mounds
of unusual height and extent, full of the fragments
of pottery which such sites usually exhibit. These
extend for about a mile from north to south, by
about three-quarters of a mile. The area in which
the sacred enclosure of the temple stood, is about
1500 feet by 1250, surrounded by the mounds of
fallen houses, as at Bubastis [Pi-beseth], whose
increased elevation above the site of the temple is
doubtless attributable to the same cause — the fre-
quent change in the level of the houses to protect
them from the inundation, and the unaltered posi-
tion of the sacred buildings. There is a gateway
of granite and fine gritstone to the enclosure of this
temple, bearing the name of Rameses the Great.
Though in a very ruinous condition, the fragments
of walls, columns, and fallen obelisks, sufficiently
attest the former splendour of the building to which
they belonged. The obelisks are all of the time of
Rameses the Great (b. c. 1355), and their number,
evidently ten, if not twelve, is unparalleled in any
Egyptian temple. The name of this king most
frequently occurs ; but the ovals of his successor
 
 
 
Pthamen, of Osirtasen III. , and of Tirhakah, have
also been found. The time of Osirtasen III.
ascends nearly to that of Joseph, and his name,
therefore, corroborates the Scriptural account of
the antiquity of the town. Two black statues,
and a granite sphinx, with blocks of hewn and
occasionally sculptured granite, are among the
objects which engage the attention of the few
travellers who visit this desolate place. The
modern village of San consists of mere huts, with
the exception of a ruined kasr of modem date
(Wilkinson's Modern Egypt, i. 449-452 ; Narra-
tive of the Scottish Deputatio?i, pp. 72-76). — ^J. K.
 
ZOAR ("lyiV, also "ll?V, 'smallness;' Zbyopa ;
 
liTiydip ; Segor), one of the cities of the Pentapolis,
and apparently, from the way in which it is men-
tioned, the most distant from the western highlands
of Palestine (Gen. xiii. 10). Its original name was
Bela (xiv. 2, 8), and the change is thus explained
in the narrative of Lot's escape from Sodom.
When urged by the angel to flee to the mountain,
he pointed to Bela, and said : ' This city is near to
flee unto, and it is a little one ("lyi'D) : Oh, let me
escape thither (is it not a little one?) and my soul
shall live.' The angel consented ; and the inci-
cent proved a new baptism to the place — 'There-
fore the name of the city was called Zoar,^ that is,
'little' (v. 22). This incident further tends to fix
its site, at least relatively to Sodom. It must have
been nearer than the mountains, and yet outside
the boundary of the plain or vale of Siddim, which
was destroyed during the conflagration. It would
seem from ver. 30 that it lay at the foot of the
mountain into which Lot subsequently went up,
and where he dwelt. That mountain was most
probably the western declivity of Moab, overlook-
ing the Dead Sea. In Deut. xxxiv. 3 there is
another slight indication of the position of Zoar.
From the top of Pisgah Moses obtained his view
of the Promised Land. The east, the north, and
the west he viewed, and lastly 'the south, and
the plain of the valley of Jericho, unto Zoar. ' This
is not quite definite ; but considering the scope of
the passage it may be safely concluded that the
whole basin of the Dead Sea is meant, and that
Zoar was at its southern end. Isaiah reckons Zoar
among the cities of Moab, but does not describe
its position. It would seem, however, from the
way in which it is mentioned, that it must have been
on the utmost border (Is. xv. 5). Jeremiah is the
only other sacred writer who mentions it, and his
words are less definite than those of Isaiah (Jer.
xlviii. 34).
 
The site of Zoar must be determined in a great
measure by that of Sodom. It has been sho\vn
that Sodom lay in that low valley which now forms
the southern section of the Dead Sea [Sodom ;
Dead Sea] ; and as Zoar was in Moab, it follows
that it must have stood near the base of the moun-
tain-range at the south-eastern angle of the sea.
 
The notices of Zoar in later writers sustain this
view. Josephus places it in Arabia — that is, east
of the Dead Sea {Bell. Jud. iv. 8. 4). Jerome
mentions it incidentally in various ways, all of
which tend to indicate a site near the Dead Sea in
the southern border of Moab [Onomast. s.v. 'Luith,'
' Nemrim,' ' Fenon'). Regarding itself directly he
says : ' Ipsa est quae hodie Syro nomine vocatur
Zoora, Hebrseo Segor, vAroq\ie parvula . . ,
vectes quoque pro terminis, et robore intellige, to
 
 
 
ZOBAH
 
 
 
1165
 
 
 
ZOPHIM
 
 
 
qtiod Segor in finibus Moabitorum sita sti, dividens
ab eis terram Fhilistibn ' {Comment, in Isai. xv.
5). Easebius also describes the Salt Sea as lying
between Jericho and Zoar {Onomast. s. v. 'Mare
Salinarum'). Ptolemy assigns Zoar to Arabia
Petraea {Geogr. v. 17). It was still a large town
with a Roman garrison in the early centuries of
the Christian era ; and it became the seat of a
bishop in the province of Pahzstina Tertia (Reland,
Pal. pp. 272, 451, 463). The Crusaders mention
the name, and passed through it on an expedition
round the south end of the Dead Sea {Gesta Dei, p.
7S1) ; and the Arab historian Abulfeda says that
Zoar, or Zoghar, lay near the Dead Sea and the
Ghor ( Tab. Syr. ed. Koh. p. 8).
 
It may be safely concluded from the foregoing
data that the ancient city of Zoar lay at or near the
south-east shore of the Dead Sea. At the mouth
of Wady Kerak, where it opens on the little fertile
plain at the neck of the peninsula of Lisan, are
some ancient ruins, first described by Irby and
Mangles {Travels, p. 448), and aftenvards by De
Saulcy [yourney, i. 307). There is a streamlet
near it called Der''a, or Zer''a, which seems to be a
vestige of the ancient name (Irby and Mangles, p.
447). Here we may, with considerable confidence,
locate the ancient Zoar,
 
For the different views held regarding the site
of Zoar, the student may consult Robinson, B. R.
ii. 517; Reland, Pal. p. 1064 ; De Saulcy,
Travels, i. 481 ; Tristram, Land of Israel, 360;
Smith's Diet. 0/ Bib. s.v.— J. L. P.
 
ZOBAH (SniV and n3iX ; Soi/^(£ ; Soba), one
 
T T
 
of the ancient kingdoms of Syria, first mentioned
as having been conquered by Saul after his eleva-
tion to the throne of Israel (i Sam. xiv. 47). King
David also turned his victorious arms against ' Ha-
dadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobak, as he
went to recover his border at the river Euphrates '
(2 Sam. viii. 3, 5, 12). From the sacred narrative
we learn that it was one of the great provinces or
kingdoms of Aram ; that its people were rich and
warlike ; and that it embraced that section of
northern Syria which lies between Hamath and
the Euphrates (cf. I Chron. xviii. 3-9 ; xix. 6). It
was so closely connected with Hamath, that that
great city was sometimes distinguished as Hamath-
Zobah (2 Chron. viii. 3). The people of Zobah
were among the most troublesome and determined
enemies of Israel during the reigns of David and
Solomon. They seem to have lost no opportu-
nity of joining confederacies to restrain the rising
power of the Jewish nation. Solomon was especi-
ally harassed by the intrigues of Rezon, a refugee
from Zobah, who collected a band of followers,
seized the ci'ty of Damascus, and became for a time
its real or virtual monarch. It is emphatically said
of him, ' He was an adversaiy to Israel all the days
 
of Solomon and he abhorred Israel and
 
reigned over Syria ' (i Kings xi. 23-25).
 
' The Syriac interpreters take Zobah to be Nisi-
bis, in Mesopotamia, and they have been followed
Iw Michaelis ' (Gesenius, s. v.) Others would iden-
tify it with the classic Clialcis. These, however,
are mere conjectures. There are no data to fix
definitely the site of the city. The kingdom mani-
festly lay north of Damascus, and east of Hamath.
It was a wide arid plain intersected by several
ranges of bleak white mountains ; but having also
r. few fertile valleys. The inhabitants were pro-
 
 
 
bably semi-nomads, and chiefly shepherds. Like
the modern Bedawin of that region tney were rich
in horses (Ritter, Pal. und Syt. iv. 1700 • Hand-
book, 614).— J. L. P.
 
ZOHAR (ini*, whiteness ; Zadp). i. A son ol
Simeon [Zerah].
 
2. The father of Ephron the Hittite (Gen. xxiii.
8 ; XXV. 9).
 
3. (In Keri; in Chetib ■;ni*\ Jezoar), a de-
scendant of Judah (i Chron. iv. 7).
 
ZOOLOGY, BIBLICAL. [Beasts.]
 
ZOPHAR ("iBiV, sparrow ? Sept. Sw0dp), one
 
of Job's three friends and opponents in argument
(Job ii. U ; xi. I ; XX. I ; xlii. 9). He is called a
Naamathite, or inhabitant of Naamah, a place
whose situation is unknown, as it could not be the
Naamah mentioned in Josh. xv. 41. Wemyss,
in his Job and his Times (p. Ill), well characterises
this interlocutor : — ' Zophar exceeds the other two,
if possible, in severity of censure ; he is the most
inveterate of the accusers, and speaks without
feeling or pity. He does little more than repeat
and exaggerate the arguments of Bildad. He un-
feelingly alludes (chap. xi. 15) to the effects of
Job's disease as appearing in his countenance.
This is cruel and invidious. Yet in the same dis-
course how nobly does he treat of the divine
attributes, showing that any inquiry into them is
far beyond the grasp of the human mind ! And
though the hortatory part of the first discourse
bears some resemblance to that of Eliphaz, yet it
is diversified by the fine imageiy which he employs.
He seems to have had a full conviction of the pro-
vidence of God, as regulating and controlling the
actions of men ; but he limits aU his reasonings to a
present life, and makes no reference to a future
world. This circumstance alone accounts for the
weakness and fallacy of these men's judgments.
In his second discourse there is much poetical
beauty in the selection of images, and the general
doctrine is founded in truth ; its fallacy lies in its
application to Job's peculiar case. The whole
indicates great warmth of temper, inflamed by
misapprehension ^of its object, and by mistaken
zeal.'
 
It is to be observed that Zophar has but two
speeches, whereas the others have three each.
When Job had replied (ch. xxvi.-xxxi.) to the
short address of Bildad (ch. xxv.), a rejoinder
might have been expected from Zophar ; but he
said nothing, the three friends, by common con-
sent, then giving up the contest in despair (ch.
xxxii. i) [Job]. — ^J. K.
 
ZOPHIM, The Field of (CD^; nnb* ; ih
 
dypoO (TKOTTidu ; in locum stddiincm). When Balak
desired Balaam to cui"se Israel, he took him to the
most favourable spot for seeing the whole camp,
then spread out on -the plain on the east side of the
Jordan, opposite Jericho : so ' he brought him unto
the field of Zophi?)t, to the top of Pisgah* (Num.
xxiii. 14). Zophim was probably a district sur-
rounding Pisgah ; and the word ' field,' which
must signify ' a cultivated field,' indicates doubtless
the fertile nature of the territory. Mount Nebo,
or Pisgah, is now undoubtedly identified [Nebo].
De Saulcy appears to have even heard the ancient
name given to it by the Bedawin {Voyage en Teire
 
 
 
ZORAH
 
 
 
1166
 
 
 
ZUZIMS
 
 
 
Sainte, i. 289). Along its eastern side, and reach-
ing from the ruins of Maan to Heshbon, is a
plateau of arable land, still cultivated in part by
the Arabs. There can be little doubt that this is
' the cultivated field of Zophim' {Handbook, p.
300).*— J. L. P.
 
ZORAH. {\\Vfyi, hornets' town ; Sept. Sapad),
 
a town reckoned as in the plain of Judah (Josh. xv.
33), but inhabited by Danites (xix. 41), not far
from Eshtaol, and chiefly celebrated as the birth-
place of Samson (Judg. xiii. 2, 25 ; xviii. 2, 8, 1 1 ;
comp. 2 Chron. xi. 12 ; Neh. xi. 29). The site
may still be recognised under the name of Surah,
situated upon a spur of the mountains running into
the plain north of Beth-shemesh (Robinson, ii
339 ; iii. I8).-J. K.
 
ZUPH (fj^lV; 2/0; Alex. 2e/0 ; Suph), a dis-
trict visited by Saul when in search of his father's
asses (i Sam. ix. 5). The way in which it is men-
tioned would seem to imply that it lay to the south
of Benjamin. Saul first traversed Mount Ephraim
on the north ; then, after visiting Shalisha and
Shalim, he passed through ' the land of the Ben-
jamites,' and finally reached^' the land of Zuph,'
where he turned back. His course was from north
to south. It appears also that Ramah of Samuel
 
* A statement in Smith's Did. of Bib. s. v.
' Zophim,' requires a word of explanation. The
writer of that article, Mr. Grove, says that Mr.
Porter identifies Attdrils with Pisgah. This may
seem strange to the readers of the articles Nebo
and Pisgah in this Cyclopedia. But on turning to
the Hatidbook for Syr. and Pal. pp. 299, 300, it
will be seen that Mr. Porter never expressed any
such opinion. Mr. Grove has strangely mistaken
his meaning.
 
 
 
was in that region, and on going back home from
it, after his interview with the prophet, his way led
by Rachel's sepulchre (x. 2). The word Zophim
(D"'S1X) attached to Ramah is evidently a plural
form of Ztiph, and shows the connection between
the land and the city. [Ramathaim-Zophim.]
'The land of Zuph' was thus unquestionably to
the south of the territory of Benjamin ; but its
exact locality has not yet been ascertained. — J. L. P.
 
ZURIEL (ij^fl^V, God is my rock ; Sept. 2ou-
pf^X), son of Abihail, and family chief or genesarch
of the Merarites at the organisation of the Levitical
establishment (Num. iii. 35). It does not appear
to which of the two great divisions of the Merarites
he belonged. — ^J. K.
 
ZUZIMS (D^nt; •i'itvt] lax^pd; Zuzim), the
 
name given in Gen. xiv. 5 to an ancient race of
people who appear to have been the aboriginai
inhabitants of the country afterwards possessed by
the Ammonites. The eastern invaders first at-
tacked the Rephaim in Bashan, apparently in
Jebel Hauran, then marching southward they smote
' the Zuzims in Ham.' The Zuzims were evidently
the same who in Deut. ii. 20 are said to have been
giants, and to whom the Ammonites gave the name
Zumzummims. They appear to have been alhed
by blood to the Rephaim, and other gigantic races
who originally possessed Palestine ; and probably
a remnant of them, or at least a respect for their
memory, may have lingered in Rabbath-Ammon
down to the period of the Exodus ; and the singular
fact of the preservation of Og's 'bedstead' in that
city may thus be accounted for. The name Zuzim
has been variously interpreted (Gesenius, Thes.
s. V.) ; but none of the interpretations are satisfac-
tory, and they throw no light either on the people
or their country. — J. L. P.
 
 
 
SUPPLEMENT TO VOL. IIL
 
 
 
ARTICLES OMITTED.
 
 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, BIBLICAL
 
MANUSCRIPTS, BIBLICAL (vol. iii. p. 57, col. i, I.
16).
 
Neubauer has printed the result of his examination — Aus
der Petersburger Bibliothek. Beitrdge und Dokumente zur
Geschichte des Karderihums -und der Kardischen Liter a-
tur, 1866. Only a small portion of the little volume is
about Bible MSS. ; and that has relation merely to the
inscriptions respecting their dates. It does not appear that
he collated any. The oldest is a roll containing Deuter-
onomy, No. 6, A.D. 489. Other rolls are dated 639 (No. 8),
764 (No. 9), 781 (13), 789 (14), 788 (is), 90S (12), 939 (7), 940
(10). Other MSS. are dated 888 (No. 55) and 923 (77), each
containing Leviticus. No. 59 contains the last prophets,
dated 921 ; No. 72,, containing the Psalms and Job, is dated
929 ; while No. 8g, containing the first prophets, is dated
933. No. 81, containing the Chronicles, is dated 957 ; No.
86, having the end of the Pentateuch, dates 939 ; No. 52,
containing the last prophets, dates 1102 ; and No. no, con-
taining the Pentateuch, dates 1038. In addition to these
notices, a few others relating to the dates of the same St
Petersburg MSS. are contained in Chwolson's Achtzehn
Hebraische Grabschriften aus der Krim, printed in the
Memoires de Vacademie imperiale des sciences de St.
Petersburg, 1865. The object of the latter scholar was not
the examination of MSS. It is disappointing to the critic
to perceive the slender publication just issued by Neubauer
and his incompetency to the task of proper collation. Most
of the Karaite MSS. are synagogue rolls, and therefore
without vowels or accents.
 
In the year 1839, in consequence of a letter addressed by
the govemer-general of Odessa, Prince Woronzoff, to the
governor of Sympheropol, respecting the Karaite Jews,
Abraham Firkowitsch repaired to Tschufutkale, the seat of
a very old Karaite community, as well as to other places,
and found fifty-one Bible MSS., which, together with fifty-
nine copies of Inscriptions on gravestones, he brought to
Odessa. It was impossible to doubt the genuineness of these
documents, especially as the character of the man who
collected them was above suspicion. But there was an idea
in some minds that the copies he made might have been
incorrect, because the dates were more ancient than any
hitherto known. In consequence of this. Dr. Stem was
dispatched by the Odessa Archaeological Society to the
places visited by Firkowitsch, in order to verify the copies
and subject the collection, as far as he could, to a careful
examination. The result of his investigation went to confirm
the general accuracy of the copies. Stern added to the
collection some very old MSS., and discovered seven other
ancient inscriptions on gravestones in the Jewish cemetery
at Tschufutkale. Encouraged by this fresh addition, Firko-
witsch, with his son-in-law Gabriel, undertook repeated
journeys through those parts of the Crimea where Karaite
communities and old cemeteries existed, gathering up what-
 
 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, BIBLICAL
 
ever he could find in the shape of ancient MSS., and copy*
ing gravestones in Solchat, Kaffa, Hangup, and Eupatoria.
The industry of the travellers may be judged of by the fact,
that when they went to St Petersburg in 1853 they had
about 700 copies of inscriptions on old graves, and 150
copies of epigraphs belonging to old Bible MSS. which they
had discovered.
 
In 1856, when about to set forth on a similar mission,
they were advised by several learned men to make facsimiles
in paper of the most important inscriptions on tombstones,
as a guarantee for the existence of the originals, in the
interest of palaeography. Following this advice, they
returned with loo facsimiles of Inscriptions on graves belong-
ing to different centuries. The natiu-e and contents of these
put the idea of falsification out of the question. It would
have required fine tact, and an amount of historical, geo-
graphical, and palaeographlcal knowledge which no Crimean
Karaite could possess, to commit such forgeries. The acute
Geiger has not ventured to impugn their genuineness ; and
Chwolson, who has all along watched the progress of these
discoveries with interest, maintains that they cannot be
forged. Indeed, the difficulties in the way of such an
hypothesis are Insuperable. The latter scholar has just
published a dissertation upon them, bringing out results
which are new, Important, and suggestive. If firmly
established, they will enlarge, modify, and correct many
opinions which have hitherto passed among scholars un-
challenged.
 
The eighteen inscriptions on tombs given by Chwolsoa
are all dated, and belong to the following years of our
era:— 6, 30, 89, 179, 197, 262, 305, 369, 625, 670, 678, 719,
807, 834, 898, 937, 958, and 960. It is remarkable to see na
less than three belonging to the first century. In the first
eight, as they stand in Chwolson's hst, three eras are men-
tioned — after the exile, after the creation, and the era of th«
Matarchians ; most of them with only one of the dates,
some with two. How then are the dates to be read ? After
giving the explanation of the three eras in question proposed
by Firkowitsch, he examines them In a different method,
and arrives at the same result, which is, that the era of th*
exile is 696 B.C. — i.e. the exile of the ten tribes ; not 586
B.C. when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar ; nor 69,
when Jerusalem was taken by Titus. The era of the Ma-
tarchians [ji.e. the Jews of Tamatarcha, now called Taman,
near the ancient Phanagoria) corresponds to the date now
usual among the Jews after the creation, to which 240
should be added to correspond to the Christian year ; whila
the era after tiu creation, in these inscriptions, differs from
the latter by 151 yea's, so that only 89 should be added to it
to find the Christian year. These conclusions seem to us to
be settled on solid grounds by Professor Chwolson ; and
they are confirmed by the dates on several old Karaite MSS,(
as he is careful to show.
 
 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, BIBLICAL
 
 
 
1168
 
 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, BIBLICAL
 
 
 
The following are the three oldest : --
 
 
 
 
No. I. ^^3 \v^ nxr
 
itj''' nyic''' ny
 
' This is the grave of Buki, son of Isaac, the priest ; may
his rest be in Paradise ! [died] at the time of the deliverance
of Israel, in the year 702 after our captivity' [i.e. a.d. 6).
 
 
 
Dots over letters are marks of abbreviation or of numerals.
In No. I rj is for liy IHIJ, or 1^33 "llj?, or "Jlj;
in?3K^J. The word pSItJ''' ^s divided between two lines;
and jV^ means grave (see Zunz's Zitr Geschichte una
Literatur, p. 393).
 
No. 2. i is for 3-1 or "i^.
 
No. 3. K is for D''3^X ; n^^''^ for TTf^'^'h-
The era 'after our exile' occurs four times in grave-
inscriptions, and twelve times in the inscriptions of MSS. ;
first on the old tombstone which dates a.d. 6, and last in
the inscription of No. 87, belonging to the year 1059 A.D-
The localities in which the era was used are, besides the
tomb-inscriptions in Tschufutkale, the following : — Matarcha,
in the year 489 A. D. ; Kol-Kat, in the inscription of a frag-
mentary Pentateuch-roll, 585 a.d. ; Shemaclia, in Shirwan,
A.D. 604, in two inscriptions; Tschiifutkale, according to
two inscriptions of 639 and 764 A.D. respectively; Keriin,
according to an inscription of 789 ; Knffa, after an inscrip-
tion of 798 A.D. ; a locality on the Kur, in Caucasus, accord-
ing to two inscriptions of 848 A.D. ; Kcrtsch, according to a
document of Abraham Ben Simchah, of 986 a.d. ; Sarkel
(perhaps) in an inscription of 1004 A.D. ; JeJutd-Kat near
Derbend, a.d. 1059. In some of these MS. inscriptions, the
old Crimean, the Matarchian, or the Seleucidian era, occurs
in addition. The enumeration given shows that the era of
 
 
 
 
No. 2. no ''lb r\^m
 
' Rabbi Moses Levi died in the year 726 after our e.xile
 
A.D. 30).
 
 
 
No. 3.
 
 
 
 
 
 
'Zadok the Levite, son of Moses, died 4000 after the
creation,, 785 after our exile' (89 a.d.)
 
 
 
t/ie exile was used not only in the Crimea, but also in the
Caucasus, and perhaps at the mouth of the Don.
 
Various interesting questions arise in connection with
these Crimean discoveries of old MSS. and tomb-inscriptions.
 
First, The inquiry about the locality of the ten tribes
seems to be brought very near its settlement. Caucasian
and Cnmean Jews, even the inhabitants of Sarkel at the
mouth of the Don, dated 'after our banishment.' Hence
the posterity of the exiles who were carried away at the
breaking up of the kingdom of Israel inhabited those regions.
Nor is it difficult to conjecture how they came there. They
spread out of the lands of their first settlement at different
times, and from various causes, into the regions of the East :
from Armenia, probably, to the Caucasus ; thence to the
Crimea and to other south-eastern parts of European Russia.
Thus the existing remnant of the ten tribes should not be
looked for in one place. They are scattered over various
countries of the East. It may be also that some are in the
West, having come thither over Asia Blinor. The Karaite
Jews now in the Crimea are genuine descendants of the ten
tribes, who have not intermingled with neighbouring non-
Semitic peoples so as to lose their identity.
 
Secondly, We see that the modern square Hebrew cha-
racter was in use among the Jews a considerable time before
Christ. Whether it was current several centuries before
 
 
 
MANUSCRIPTS, BIBLICAL
 
 
 
1169
 
 
 
PAR'OSH
 
 
 
then, as Chwolson asserts, may be doubted, though Nojdeke
puts it before the Maccabaean period. The origin, develop-
ment, and age of this character have been recently discussed
by De Vogiie and De Saulcy on the basis of tomb-inscriptions
found at Jerusalem ; but the views of the latter must be
modified by these Karaite inscriptions. There can be no
doubt that the square character was common in many
countries at the time of Christ. The letter yod is a simple
dot, explaining the reference of Christ, ' oacjot or tittle.'
 
Thirdly, The Crimean Jews were in almost perpetual
intercourse with the Jews of other lands, and were never
without opportunities of knowing the ideas and doctrines
prevalent in the central seats of Judaism.
 
Fourthly, Itwas notuncommon for these ante-Karaite Jews
to put words and phrases on the tombs of the dead, which
imply a belief in the immortality of the soul. Thus yj, in
an abridged form, is not unusual, meaning, ' May his rest
(or his soul) be in Paradise.' The expression occurs even in
the inscription A. D. 6. The belief must, therefore, have been
general among the Jews of the day. If so, it was current
in Palestine at an earlier period, and existed at least in the
Maccabaean time, if it did not then originate. We cannot
follow Chwolson in putting it so far back as from four to five
centuries before Christ ; nor do we agree with him in the
conclusion he draws from the book of Ecclesiastes respecting
it. But he has some pertinent and just remarks on Renan,
who has not scrupled to assert that the doctrine came from
the Indo-European race to the Jews.
 
Fifthly, If the conclusion of Chwolson be well founded as
to the era of the captivity — namely 696 B.C. — an important
date is gained for Assjnrian and Babylonian chronology, as
well as the Egyptain. It has also a bearing upon the usual
Hebrew chronology and the numbers in the Bible. From
the old Crimean era being already used a.d. 8g, we see that
the Bible MSS. of that early period had the numbers of the
present Hebrew text, not those of the Septuagint. And if
the descendants of the ten tribes had the same era from the
creation of the world as the Masoretic copies at that early
period, there is a strong presumption in favour of the anti-
quity of the present text. It is not likely that the Pales-
tinian Jews would have curtailed the numbers, in the first
centurj', in order to differ from the LXX. Nor indeed did
the time suffice for such falsification. The long chronology
of Josephus and the Septuagint rests on a feebler basis than
that of the Masoretic text
 
Sixthly, Some objections to the date of these inscriptions
may be anticipated from Rabbinical Jews. Indeed we
know that one at least has been made by that eminent
scholar Zunz, to whom several of them were shown by Dr.
Mandelstamm in Berlin. The titles rabbi and priest occur ;
consequently, as Zunz asserts, they cannot be earlier than
the eighth century of the Christian era. But surely such
reasoning is one-sided. It may be that rabbi or priest is not
found on tombstones among the Rabbinical Jews prior to
the eighth century ; but that is hardly a valid argument
against another usage among ante-Karaite Jews. Is it
logical to argue from what is already known to what has
been hitherto unknown, and to conclude that the subject
admits of no new or additional light ? The title rabbi was in
use in the time of Christ. What prevented the Jews from
putting it on gravestones from that onward? It is also said
that the names Moses and Levi could not have been on
tombstones there in the first century ; to which the answer
is best put as an interrogation, Why?
 
The important contribution of Chwolson suggests the idea
that, after all our expectations, important Karaite variations
from the Masoretic text need not be expected. The Kara-
ites were in contact with Jews from Judxa at a pretty early
period. Numbers of the latter found their way into the
Crimea from time to time. It is now known that three
teachers, whom Furst calls ' the three fathers of the Kara-
ites,' were sent as missionaries by the Jews in Jerusalem to
preach Rabbinical doctrines in the Crimea, which they did
A'OL. III.
 
 
 
with success. This was about 957 a.d. These Rabbinical
missionaries — Ephraim, Elisha, and Chanukah — punctuated
Bible MSS. in the Crimea, spread their doctrines in Kertsch,
Onchat, Solchat, and Kaffa ; and converted two hundred
families to Rabbanism in those places. Such facts seem to
lead to the inference that the Karaite MSS. may have been
conformed to the Rabbinical type. Happily, however, a
number of these Bible MSS. are of a date prior to the loth
century. One of them is even as old as a.d. 489. Were
they not rolls, which they generally are, we might have a
larger basis for a critical knowledge of that peculiar punc-
tuation and accentuation called the Assyrian or Babylonian,
in contradistinction to the Masoretic, about which Pinsker,
Olshausen, and others have written. See Achtxehn He-
brdische Grabschriften aus der Krim, von Dr. Chwolson,
with nine plates, folio, St. Petersburg i86s ; Neubauer's
Melanges A siatiques tires du Bulletin de VA cadentie i>«-
periale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, tome v., 1865 ; and
the Theological Review for October i858.
 
The little volume of Neubauer {Aus der Petersburgcr
Bibliothek. Beitrlige -tind Dokumente zur Geschichie des
Karaerthums und der Karaischer Literatur, 1866) is dis-
appointing. The author did not collate the Karaite MSS. in
St. Petersburg. We rejoice to learn, however, that Chwol-
son is cataloguing these documents. If he would collate
them properly, he would confer a permanent boon on the
literary world, for we fear that nothing need be expected
from Neubauer or Pinner. — S. D.
 
NAPIER, John, Baron of Merchiston, and the celebrated
inventor of logarithms, 1550-1617. The exposition of the
Revelation by this author is entitled, A plain discovery oj
the wlwle of the Revelation of St. John, set down in two
treatises ; the one searching and provi/ig the interpretation
thereof; the other applying the same paraphrasticallie and
historicallie to the text, 1593. The work secured fame for
Napier before his discovery of logarithms, which was an-
nounced in 1614. Before 1627 his exposition had been trans-
lated into French, and Dutch, and German, and more than
one edition of it had been published in these foreign lan-
guages. It was entitled to this honour for its undoubted
learning and research, though some of its calculations were
so far from the mark as to fix the latter day between 1688
and 1700 ! — W. H. G.
 
PAR (13), a term used principally of young bullocks,
though sometimes also of the full-grown animal (Judg. vi.
25 ; Ps. Ixix. 32). It often appears with the adjunct 1p3 J3
(Exod. xxix. I ; Lev. iv. 3, 14 ; Num. vii. 15, 17). It is
almost always used of animals destined for sacrifice. From
this may be explained Hos. xiv. 3 : ' So will we pay bullocks
our lips' — i.e. we will present our lips (=; our thanksgivings)
as sacrifices (see Pusey, Minor Prophets, in loc.) The
LXX., however, seem to have used ^1Q here, for they
render by Kapirbv, which undoubtedly gives a better mean-
ing. As the bull was the emblem of strength. Par is used
metaphorically for a strong assailant (Ps. x.xii. 12). In Jer.
1. 27 Paritn is supposed by some to denote chiefs, princes ;
by others it is taken to mean the young men, t lie forces =
' the chosen young men ' of xlviii. 15. The form mS, a
heifer, is used of a cow giving milk (Job xxi. 10 ; xviii. 6,
7), and employed for purposes of draught (Hos. iv. 16).
The ' heifers [A. V. kinc] of Bashan ' is an expression used
of the women of Samaria to indicate their unrestrained
habits and consequent lawlessness. — W. L. A.
 
PAR'OSH (t^yiQ, A. V. Flea, Pulex irritans. Class
aptera, Linn. ; sip/iottaptera, Latr. ; aptianaptera, Kirby)
occurs only i Sam. xxiv. 14 ; xxvi. 20, where David thui
addresses his persecutor Saul at the cave of Adullam :
' After whom is the king of Israel come out ? after whom
dost thou pursue? — after a flea;' 'The king of Israel ii
come out to seek a flea ! ' In both these passages our trans-
 
4p
 
 
 
PATHROS
 
 
 
1170
 
 
 
PATHROS
 
 
 
Kition omits the force of the word THSi which is found in
the Hebrew of each : thus, ' to pursue after, to seek one or
a single flea.' In the former passage the Septuagint pre-
serves it — i/'uXXou kvbs ; in the latter it omits all mention
of the flea, and reads Ka^ws KaraSiuKeL 6 vvKTlKdpa^ iv
TOtS Specn, 'as the owl hunteth on the mountains.' But
another Greek version in the Hexapla reads xj/i/Wov 'iva.
The Vulgate preserves the word in both passages, piilicem
unum. David's allusion to the flea displays great address.
It is an appeal founded upon the immense disparity between
Saul as the king of Israel, and himself as the poor con-
temptible object of the monarch's laborious pursuit. Hunt-
ing a flea is a comparison, in other ancient writings, for much
labour expended to secure a worthless result.
 
The agility of the flea places it at the head of all the
leaping insects, when its strength is considered in relation to
its size, it being able to leap, unaided by wings, 200 times
its own length. It was certainly with misplaced wit that
Aristophanes [Niib. 145) endeavoured to ridicule Socrates for
having measured xpiiXXav OTTOffOVS fiXXotTO Toiis ai'T'^s
vdScLs, ' how many of its own lengths, at one spring, a flea
can hop.' Such is the happy change in the state of science
that philosophers have since done this with impunity ; they
have also traced the interesting career of this insect from the
round smooth egg deposited on the creatures that can afford
food to the larva, falling down through the hair to the skin ;
the shining pearl-coloured active larva, feeding on the scurfy
surface of the cuticle, rolling itself into a ball when disturbed ;
the cocoon or silken bag which it spins around itself ; and its
reappearance as a perfect insect. It is more than likely that
the flea, besides participating in the happiness of all ani-
mated nature, and supplying a link in the universal chain of
being, as well as serving the incidental use of chastising un-
cleanliness, may also, along with many other tribes of in-
sects, serve the purpose of the scavefiger, in clearing away
same source of disease (see Cuvier's Anhnal Kingdom,
Lond. 1834, art. 'Pulex'). Linnaeus has assigned a per-
sonal service to mankind to some other insects, with which
popular associations are even less pleasing, but which unerr-
ingly appear where the habits of mankind render their pre-
sence needful. Owing to the habits of the lower orders,
fleas abound so profusely in Syria, especially during the
spring, in the streets and dusty bazaars, that persons of
condition always change their long dresses upon returning
home. There is a popular saying in Palestine that ' the
king of the fleas keeps his court at Tiberias,' though many
other places in that region might dispute the distinction with
that town (Kitto's Physical History of Palestine, p. 421J. --
J. F. D.
 
PATHROS (Di"iri5), a proper name always grouped by
the sacred writers with Egypt. In the Sept. and Vulg.
versions the word is not always rendered in the same way.
In Is. xi. II the LXX. read "Ba^vXwvlas, and the Vulg.
Phetros. In Jer. xliv. i and 15, IIaS^oOjO?;s ; Phatures.
In Ezek. xxix. 14 and xxx. 14, $a3-w/)i5s J Alex. ■jraS^oi^/JTjs ;
Phatures. The plural of Pathros is Pathricsim, which occurs
in Gen. x. 14 and i Chron. L 12 as the name of a Mizraite
tribe (D"'D"inB; Yio.rpoauiVi.di).; Phetrusim). The origin
of the name is here indicated. The Mizraim were the de-
scendants of Masor ("IIVO, dual D^/lVD), a son of Ham
(Gen. X. 6) ; and the Pathrusim were descendants of Pathros,
son of Masor (13, 14). The name Pathros was given to the
country colonised by the tribe, and may perhaps have been,
like some other names of patriarchs, descriptive of the country
■where they settled. Gesenius derives the word from the
Egyptian Tl-GT'-pHC, g«od meridiei est; it is allied
to the modem Coptic JULApHC, and the Arabic
^,^> -oj the name given in Egypt to the south wind (Frey-
lag. Lex. Arab.) The Egyptians also use the form
n^.TOTpHC, or TlA.eOTpHC, in the same
 
 
 
sense ; and hence one of the provinces of Thebais was called
Phaturites (Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1141). This is identi-
cal with the word TraS-Oi^pijS by which the translators of the
Sept. render Pathros ; and it thus aflTords a clue to the
position of that country. Gesenius' etymology of the word
has recently been questioned by Mr. Poole (Smith's Diet, oj
Bible, s. V. ), but his arguments do not appear convincing.
 
Various theories have been advanced regarding the
country here called Pathros. Some would identify it with
Parthia (Calvin) ; some with Arabia Petrsea (Forerius,
Co7mn. in yesai.); some with Pharuris in Ethiopia (Grotius).
It is necessary, therefore, critically to examine those
passages in Scripture in which the name occurs. Mizraim
the son of Ham colonised Egypt, and gave it a name which
it retains to the present day in the Arabic form Misr.
[Egypt; Mizraim.] Isaiah appears to distinguish Pathros
from Mizraim [I. c.) ; but Jeremiah evidently includes it in
the latter : — ' All the people that dwelt in the land of
Mizraim, in Pathros,^ etc. (xliv. 15) ; while from the words
of Ezekiel it might be inferred that Pathros was only another
name for Mizraim : ' I will bring again the captivity of Egypt
(Mizraim), and I will cause them to return into the land of
Pathros, into the land of their birth' (xxLx. 14). Jerome
translates this passage as follows : ' Et reducam captivitatem
^gypti, et collocabo eos in terra Phatures, in terra nativi-
tatis suae ; ' and comments upon it thus : ' Reducetur in anti-
quum solum universa captivitas, et coUocabitur in urbe me-
tropoli, quae appellatur Phatures, ubi orta est et unde pro-
fecta est.' Jerome thus appears to have thought that Pathros
was the earliest seat of the Egyptian nation. Herodotus also
says that in ancient times ' Thebais bore the name of Egypt '
(ii. 15) ; and existing monuments show that Upper Egypt,
or Thebais, was inhabited at an earlier period than Lower
Egypt. Now from all this it may be inferred that Mizraim
was the general or collective name of a great Hamitic nation,
and was given to the whole country colonised by them ; and
that Pathros was a section or province of that country occu-
pied by the subtribe of Pathrusim,
 
It is not directly stated, however, in what part of Mizraim
Pathros was situated, and ancient writers differ widely upon
this point. The Jenisalem Targum renders Pathrusim by
Pehiscei — that is. Lower Egypt. Hiller derives the word
from DT nXDj angiihis rorationis, and says the Delta is
meant (Michaelis, Sjiicileg. Geogr. Hebr. p. 272). The
Targum of pseudo-Jonathan reads ""NtiVDJ, which, ac-
cording to Bochart, also signifies the Delta [Opera, i. 274.)
But none of these theories agree with the Scripture notices,
nor with the meaning of the name. The most probable
opinion is that of Bochart, who affirms that Pathros is identi-
cal with the province of Thebais, which is sometimes spoken
of as being in Egypt, and sometimes as distinct from it (Pliny,
xviii. 18 ; Cassian. i. 3) ; just as in one part of Scripture
Pathros appears to be located in Egypt, while in another it
is distinguished from it (/. c.) Bochart suggests that as the
name Mizraim is a dual form it was intended to indicate a
twofold country — namely Lower Egypt, which is Mizraim
proper ; and Upper Egypt, or Thebais. This seems highly
probable ; for though JNIizraim is sometimes used to denote
one of the divisions only (as in Is. /. c); yet it is more fre-
quently given to the whole country. Ptolemy mentions an
inland town, near Thebes, called Pathyris (sometimes written
Tathyris], which seems to be the same as Pathros (iv. 5, 69) ;
and Pliny says : 'The upper part of Egj^^ which borders
on ^Ethiopia, is called Thebais. The region is divided into
prefectures of towns, usually termed nomes ; ' and among
these he mentions Phaturiiis, which corresponds to TTO-
^ovpris, the LXX. rendering of Pathros [Hist. Nat. v. 9).
The incidental notices of the sacred writers tend to confirm
this view. In general, when giving lists of places, they group
them in geographical order; and so Isaiah has 'Mizraim,
Pathros, Cush ' (Ethiopia)— advancing from north to south.
Jeremiah observes a similar order (xliv. i).
 
It may be safely concluded, therefore, that Pathros was
 
 
 
PERSIAN VERSIONS
 
 
 
1171
 
 
 
ZAMORA
 
 
 
that country which by classic geographers is usually called
Thebais. Though sometimes included under the more
general name Masor, because it was colonised by a tribe of
the Mizraim, yet its magnitude and independence caused it
to be generally spoken of as a distinct country ; and hence
the apparent discrepancy in the notices of the sacred writers.
It would seem also, from traditional records and existing
monuments, that Thebais was the first part of Egypt colo-
nised, and that it was the birthplace of power, and civilisation,
and art, in that country; and hence the prophet Ezekiel
refers to Pathros as the origin of the Egyptian nation. The-
bais was a strip of fertile valley forming the basin of the Nile ;
shut in on the east and west by deserts, and extending from
the Delta on the north to Philae on the south. The prophet
Isaiah, therefore, appropriately places Pathros between Miz-
raim and Cush, or Lower Egypt and Ethiopia (Kalisch on
Gfn. X.) See for fuller information Michaelis, Spicileg. i.
271-74 ; Jablonski, Opuscula, i. 198, ii. 122 ; Roediger, Encyc.
Germ. xiii. 312 ; and art. Egypt. — ^J. L. P.
 
PERSIAN VERSIONS. The Bible seems to have been
translated at an early period into the. Persian language.
Both Chrysostom {Second Horn, on John) and Theodoret
(De curand. Grcec. Affect.) speak of a Persian translation;
and, according to Maimonides, the Pentateuch was trans-
lated many centuries before Mohammed into this language
(Zun's Gottesdiensilichen Vortrdge, p. 9, note a). A Per-
sian version of the Pentateuch was first printed at Constan-
tinople, in Hebrew characters, A.D. 1346, as part of a Poly-
glott Pentateuch, and afterwards inserted by Walton in the
London Polyglott in the proper Persian character. It was
made after the time of the false prophet, and must have
been later than the 8th century. The text follows the
Hebrew very closely, according to the Masoretic recension,
retaining many of the original terms from the translator's
inability to render them into Persian. Both Onkelos's and
Saadia's versions appear to have been consulted by the
author.
 
If credit is to be given to the inscriptions, it was made by
Jacob, the son of Joseph Tawus, for the use of the Persian
Jews. Critics are not agreed about the meaning of Tus or
Tawus. Rosenmiiller (De Vers. Pentat. Pers. Lips. 1813,
4to) assigns it to the gth century ; Lorsbach (Jena AUgeni.
Lit. Zeii. 1816, No. 58), with less probability, brings it
down to the i6th. Walton, in his Prolegomena (ed. Dathe,
p. 694), speaks of two MS. copies of Psalms which he had,
but both were very recent, and taken from the Vulgate, not
the Hebrew. Hassler discovered an immediate version of
Solomon's %vritings existing in Parisian MSB. [Studien und
Kritiken for 1829, p. 469, et seg.)
 
There are two Persian versions of the Gospels, one of
which is printed in the London Polyglott, from a MS. be-
longing to Pococke, written in the year of our Lord 1341.
Its source is the Peshito, as internal evidence abundantly
shows. The other version was made from the original
Greek. Wheloc, professor of Arabic in the University of
Cambridge, began to print it with a Latin translation.
After his death it was edited by Pierson, London, 1652-57.
The editors made use of the Syro-Persian MS. of the Gos-
pels from which that in the Polyglott was printed. In con-
sequence of the confusion arising from their procedure, the
version is of little use either in the criticism or interpretation
of the text.— S. D.
 
PESARO, Aaron de, was bom about the middle of the
i6th century at Pesaro in Italy, whence he derived his name.
He immortalised his name by the compilation of an elaborate
 
work entitled }"l"inX Hn^ri, the Generations of Aaron.aSilv:
Num. iii. II, which is an index of all the pa.ssages of the
Hebrew Bible cited and explained in the Babylonian Talmud,
giving the treatises, chapters, pages, and columns wherein
these quotations are to be found. This stupendous work,
which is indispensable to those who are desirous to see what
principles of interpretation obtained in the days of Chnst.
 
 
 
and how the Hebrew Scriptures were explained in the anciem
Jewish church, was first published in Freiburg 1583-84. The
part which treats on the Pentateuch and the five Megilloth
has frequently been printed with the Hebrew Pentateuch and
the Rabbinic commentaries, and is given in the excellent
edition of the Pentateuch with Chaldee paraphrases, the
commentaries of Rashi, Nachmanides, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam,
Sefomo, Baal Ha-Turim, etc. etc., 5 vols. Vienna 1859.
Comp. Steinschneider, Catalogns Libr. Hehr. in Biblio-
theca Bodleiana, col. 725 ; Furst, Bibliotheca Judaica,
iii. 79— C. D. G.
 
STONES, PRECIOUS (nnj^"; DNI,calIedalsorn-|3X,
stotie of^ace or beauty, and }*Sn |DK stone of delight or
elegance, sometimes simply pX := stone, ko-t i^oxv'' >
LXX. XWos X/"70"'"<5Sj X- ^KXeKToi). The precious stones
mentioned in the Bible bear the names — Odem, Pitdah,
Barequeth, Nophech, Saphir, Yahalom, Leshem, Shebo,
Achlamah, Tarshish, Shoham, Yaspeh, Kadkod, Shamir,
Ekdach, Chrysoprasus, Chalcedony, Sardonyx. [See the
articles on these in their proper places in this work.]
 
These gems must have been imported by the Hebrews
from other countries, for Palestine is not known to contain
any precious stones. They were brought from Arabia,
Ethiopia, and India (i Kings x. 2, 10 ; Ezek. xxvii. 22),
probably by Phoenician traders. The cutting, setting, and
engraving of gems was practised as an art among the Heb-
rews, and held in honour (Exod. xxxv. 33) ; that they owed
their skill in this to their residence in Egypt is probable, but
that it was known among them before this is evident from
(Gen. xxxviii. 18). By the Jews, as by all Asiatic peoples,
jewels were much desired and esteemed. They formed a
necessary ornament of kings, priests, and eminent persons
(2 Sam. xii. 30 ; Ezek. xxviii. 13 ; Exod. xxviii. 17, ff. ;
xxxix. 10). They were used also for rings (Song v. 14), and
for the decoration of sacred edifices (i Chron. xxix. 2), and
of furniture (Judith x. 21). The Targumist (Esther i.), to
exalt the glory of Ahasuerus, says that he produced at his
feast the treasures of gold, pearls, beryls, and emeralds
which Cyrus had found when he captured Babylon, as many
as 680 chestsful. From the esteem in which they were held
and their native qualities, precious stones came to be s>Tn-
bolical of beauty, grace, worth, and diu-ability, and so they
are spoken of in the Bible (Song v. 14 ; Is. liv. 11, 12 ; Lam.
iv. 7 ; Rev. iv. 3, xxi. 10-21).
 
(Joseph. Antiq. iii. 7, 6 ; De Bell. Jttd. v. 5. 7 ; Epiphan.
Trepi rOiv tj3' \lduv tQv &vtuv iv tdis (TToXicrfiois tov
'XapOLV, in 0/>p. ii. 225, ed. Petav., edited separately by
Hiller in Syntagma Hermeneut. p. 83, ff. ; Braun, De
Vest. Sacerd. Hebr. ii. 497, ff. ; Bellermann, Urim und
Thummim, p. 32, ff. ; Rosenmuller, AltertJiumsk. iv. i. p.
28, ff. [Edinb. Bib. Cab. xxvii. p. 26, ff.] ; Eichhom, De
Gem. Sculpt. Hebr. in Comment. Soc. Gottingens. Rec. ii. ;
Winer, Real-W. B. s. v. 'Edelstcin.')— W. L. A.
 
TALMUD (vol. iii. p. 944, col. 2, 1. 13.)
 
One of the latest editions of the B.ibylonian Talmud is
that of Warszwa (1859-1864), 20 vols, folio ; and of the Jeru-
salem Talmud, that edited with a commentary by Levin^
1864, 4to, Lemberg (?) Others are in progress.
 
(Vol. iii. p. 944, col. 2, 1. 34, after mention of BuxtorTs
Lexicon.)
 
A new edition of this work has commenced, with additions
and corrections, by Fischer and Gclbc, Leipzig 1866, small
folio, to be issued in 25 parts, each cont.iining 40 pages.
 
ZAMORA, Alfonso de (miOV ''T 1D31DPS\ the
celebrated coadjutor in the Complutensian Polyglott, was
bom of Jewish parents, circa 1460, at Zamora, whence he
derived his name. His profound knowledge of Hebrew and
extensive learning in other departments of literature raised
him to the dignity of Rabbi of the Jewish community in his
native place. This office he exercised in 1492, when, upon
 
 
 
ZAMORA
 
 
 
-1172
 
 
 
ZEMACH
 
 
 
the ignominious expulsion of the Jews from Spain by Ferdi-
nand and Isabella, he embraced Christianity. Both his
previous position and great learning attracted the notice of
Cardinal Ximenes, who appointed Zamora professor of He-
brew in his newly-founded university of Alcalk de Henares,
and afterwards selected him as one of the editors of the
Polyglott. To this work he contributed — (i). A vocabulary
of the Hebrew and Chaldee roots of the O. T., entitled
Vocabularittnt omnium pritnitivorum. HeiraicoruTn et
Chaldakorum ; to which is added an Index vocum Latin-
arum, or index of the Latin words whereby the Hebrew and
Chaldee words in the foregoing vocabulary are rendered.
(2.) Interpretatio Hebraicorum, CItaldaicorum, et Grae-
corum Notninum V. et N. Testamenti. (3.) Catalogus
toruni, qua in utroqite Testamento aliter scrij>ta sunt vitio
scriptorum, quatn in Hebrceo et Grceco, in quibusdarn
Bibliis antiquis. (4) Introductiones Grammatica Hebra-
ictz. These works are comprised in the sixth volume of the
Polyglott. He also supplied (5.) The Latin translation of
the so-called Chaldee paraphrase of Onkelos given in the
first volume of this Polyglott. This Latin version, which
has been reprinted at Antwerp 1533, is inserted with some
emendations by Arias Montanus in the Antwerp Polyglott,
1572, and is adapted with some emendations by Samuel
Clerk in Walton's Polyglott [Onkelos]. Besides these
contributions to the Complutensian Bible, he wrote (6) A rtis
Gram.m.aticce Hebraices Introductio, being a concise and
lucid Hebrew Grammar, dedicated to Alfonso de Fonseca,
Bishop of Toledo, Alcalk 1526. (7.) Tractaius de vera
Ortho^raphia Hebraica, Alcala 1526. (8.) Vocabulorutn
preve omnium primitivorum Hebraicortitn, Alcalk 1526.
(9.) A Latin translation of the Chaldee paraphrase of the
Prophets, which is printed with emendations by Arias Mon-
tanus in the Antwerp Polyglott 1572. (10.) A Latin trans-
lation of the Chaldee paraphrase Of Job, Proverbs, Song of
Songs, and Lamentations, also inserted in the same Poly-
glott, with emendations by Montanus ; and (11.) A Latin
version of the Chaldee paraphrase of Ecclesiastes, printed
in Pineda's elaborate commentary on this book, Antwerp
1630. [EccLBSiASTES.] Zamora died in 1531. Comp. Wolf,
 
 
 
Bibliotheca Hebraa, i. 193 ; iii. 125 ; Steinschneider
Catalog-US Libr. Hebr. in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, 733 ,
Furst, Bibliotheca Judaica, iii. 542. — C. D. G.
 
ZEMACH, i. b. Paltoi, also called Mar Zemach, was
Gaon or rector of the celebrated college at Pumbadita (from
A.D. 872 to 890), where the successors of the ancient Scribes
or the Doctors of the Law were trained (Scribes]. He has
the honour of being the first who compiled an Aramaic Lexi-
con entitled Aruch \yi^)j)=:Arrangement — i.e. of words
in alphabetical order. This Lexicon was unknown to R.
Nathan b. Jechiel, the immortal author of the celebrated
Aramaic Lexicon which is now used by almost all students
of the Talmud, Midrashim, and the Chaldee paraphrases of
the Bible, and which is likewise called A ruck. [Nathan.]
The first who mentioned and made considerable use of
Zemach's Lexicon was R. Saccuto, the author of the famous
chronicle entitled JucJtassin, or the Book of Genealogies
(pDm'' "ISD) [Saccuto], who also compiled a similar work.
Zemach's Lexicon, however, has not as yet come to light.
The excerpts from Zemach's Lexicon, made by R. Saccuto
in his chronicle, were collected by Rapoport, and published
in note 11 to his biography of R. Nathan in The Hebrew
Essays and Reviews, called Bikkure Ha-Itim, vol. xi. p.
81, etc., Vienna 1830. Other excerpts made by Saccuto in
his unpublished Aramaic Lexicon have been published by
Geiger in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen morgenliindischen
Gesellschaft, vol. xL p. 144, Leipzig 1858. Zemach is also
supposed to be the author of the chronological account
of the Tanaim, Teachers of the Law, or the Elders
{trpea^VTepoC), who began with Antigonus of Soho, B.C.
200, and terminated with Gamaliel III. b. Jehudah I., a.d.
200 ; as well as the Atnoraitn or later Doctors of the Law
[Scribes], ^n\\t\^d the Order 0/ the Tanaim a7id A moraim
(n"'K3n mo O'iKIIOXI). TWs work has been edited by
Luzzato in The Hebrew Essays atid Reviews, entitled Kerem
Chomed, vol. iv. p. 184, etc. Prague 1839. Comp. Graetz,
Geschichte der yuden, v. 278, etc.,'Magdeburgi86o; Furst,
Bibliotheca yudaica, iii. 549. — C. D. G.