in 1 Chron. viii. 7. The family seems to have been called " Ahohites." (1 Chron. viii. 4; 2 Sam. xxiii. 9.)

AHOLAH she has her tent, her own tabernacle, temple. The name of a harlot, used by Ezekiel as the symbol of Samaria, the metropolis of the idolatrous kingdom of Israel. Aholah and Aholibah are represented as sisters, of Egyptian extraction, who were noted for their lewdness. (Ezek. xxiii. 4.) AHOLIAB=tent of his father. A son of Ahisamach. (Ex. xxxi. 6; xxxv. 34.)

ÁHOLIBAH=my tabernacle is in her. The name of a harlot, used by Ezekiel as the symbol of Jerusalem, the metropolis of the idolatrous kingdom of Judah. (Ezek. xxiii. 4.)

AHOLIBAMAH=tent of the height. 1. One of the wives of Esau. (Gen. xxxvi. 2, 14.) 2. A duke of Edom, or perhaps the seat of a tribe. (Gen. xxxvi. 41; 1 Chron. i. 52.) AHUMAI - brother of water, i. e., dwelling near it. The son of Jahath. (1 Chron. iv. 2.)

AHUZAM=their possession. The son of Ashur. (1 Chron, iv. 6.) AHUZZATH=possession. A friend of Abimelech, king of Gerar. (Gen. XXVI. 26.)

AI=heap of ruins A royal city of the Canaanites now called el-Tel, on the east of Bethel. In this region Dr. Porter visited a site with ruins which he identifies with this ancient city. He says, "Over its whole summit I found traces of many ancient ruins, with eisterns and caves such as exist on the sites of all mountain cities in Palestine, and many rock-hewn tombs." (Josh. vii. 2-12; viii. 1-29; Ezr. ii. 28; Neh. vii. 32. It is called "Hai;" (Gen. xii. 8; xiii. 3;) and "Aija;" (Neh. xi. 31;) and also "Aiath;" unless we suppose with Stanley, that the latter name indicates the whole locality. (Isa. x. 28.) In Jer. xlix. 3, instead of "for Ai is spoiled," we ought to read, "for the desolate ruins." ALAH=cry, clamour. The father of Rizpah. (2 Sam. iii. 7; xxi. 8.) AIATH.-See AL.

AIJA.-See AI.

AIJALON.-See AJALON.

AIJELETH-SHAHAR = the hind of the dawn, i.e., the rising sun. The title of the twenty-second Psalm. The terms probably denote a kind of poem or song, to the measure of which this song was sung or chanted.

AIN eye, or fountain. 1. The name of a fountain in the north-east of Palestine; now known as the great fountain of the Orontes, ten miles west of Riblah. (Num. xxxiv. 11.) 2. A city of Simeon, now Ghuwein. (Josh. xv. 32; xix. 7; xxi. 16; 1 Chron. iv 32.)

AIR. That transparent, colourless, bright, and attenuated fluid which surrounds our globe, extending to the height of more than fifty miles above its surface. Air is a mixture of the two gases-oxygen and nitrogen; and, as a substance, possesses all the principal attributes of matter; and its particles are operated on like those of other bodies, by chemical action. This atmospheric ocean is the great laboratory in which most of the actions of life go on, and on the composition of which they depend. In the Scriptures, the term air is often denoted by the word heaven; so "the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven"-in the air. God rained fire and brimstone "out of heaven"-from the air. (Rev. xix. 17; Gen. xix. 24; 2 Kings i. 10.) To "beat the air," and to "speak into the air" signify to speak or act without judgment, or to no purpose. (1 Cor. ix. 26; xiv. 9.) The 'power of the air," designates that influence which is exercised by evil spirits, whose movements are invisible and subtile as the air. (Eph. ii. 2.)

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AJAH = cry, clamour. A son of Zibeon. (Gen. xxxvi. 24.)

AJALON=Deer-field. 1. A Levitical city in the territory of Dan, situated upon the skirts of the fine plain or valley so renowned for the miracle in the history of Joshua. (Josh. x. 12; xix. 42; 2 Chron. xxviii. 18.) It is also called “Aijalon.” (Josh. xxi. 24; Judg. i. 35; 1 Chron. viii. 13; 2 Chron. xi, 10.) It is now a small village

AKAN twisted, wrested. A descendant of Seir. (Gen. xxxvi. 27.) Also called "Jakan." (1 Chron. i. 42.) AKKUB insidious. 1. A descendant of David. (1 Chron. iii. 24.) 2. One of the porters. (1 Chron. ix. 17; Ezr. ii. 42; Neh. vii. 45.) 3. One of the Nethinim. (Ezr. ii. 45.)

AKRABBIM=scorpions. A range of hills on the south border of Judah towards the southern extremity of the Dead Sea; which seems to have been infested with scorpions and serpents. (Deut. viii. 15; Num. xxxiv. 4; Judg. i. 36.) Instead of "the ascent of Akrabbim,' we have in the Hebrew the name "Maaleh-Acrabbim" scorpionheights, in Josh. xv. 3.

ALABASTER. What is usually called alabaster is a kind of soft gypsum, properly sulphate of lime. But the alabaster of which jars and vases were usually made was finer grained, opaque, and usually white, but frequently shaded with other soft colours; hence sometimes called onyx marble, which is properly a carbonate of lime. Layard found an alabaster vase at Nimrud, with the name of Sargon on it. One was found at Halicarnassus, bearing in cuneiform the name of Xerxes the Persian. And several have been found in Egypt, varying in form and size; one of which, bearing the name and title of the queen of Thothmes II. had ointment in it, which had retained its odour for several centuries. Mark xiv. 3, the phrase "she brake the

In

baster," i. e., the vase so called; and merely refers to the breaking of the seal which closed the vase, and kept the perfume from evaporation. (Matt. xxvi. 7; Luke vii. 37.)

A son of

ALAMETH=covering. Becher. (1 Chron. vii. 8.) ALAMMELECH = king's oak. A city of Asher. (Josh. xix. 26.)

ALAMOTH. A musical term found in the title of Psalm xlvi. and 1 Chron. xv. 20; it answers to our treble, soprano, the sound of the female voice, as opposed to the deeper voice of men. ALEMETH=covering.

1. A son of Jehoadah. (1 Chron. viii. 36; ix. 42.) 2.-See ALMON.

ALEXANDER = strong man, or helper of men. 1. The son of Simon. (Mark xv. 21.) 2. A member of the council. (Acts iv 6.) 3. A Jew of Ephesus. (Acts xix. 34.) 4. A coppersmith, and an apostate from Christianity. (1 Tim. i. 19, 20; 2 Tim. iv. 14.)

ALEXANDRIA. A celebrated city of lower Egypt, situated on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It was founded by Alexander the Great about B.C. 333, and peopled by colonies of Greeks and Jews. Alexandria rose rapidly to a state of prosperity, becoming the centre of commercial intercourse between the East and the West.

It was peopled by 300,000 free citizens and as many slaves. Upon the death of Alexander, whose body was deposited in this new city, Alexandria became the regal capital of Egypt, under the Ptolemies, and rose to its highest splendour. The most celebrated philosophers from the East, as well as from Greece and Rome, resorted thither for instruction; and eminent men in every department of knowledge, were found within its walls. Ptolemy Soter, the first of that line of kings, founded the museum, the library in the temple called Serapeum, and several other magnificent works. The library, under his successors, was augmented until it contained 700,000 volumes. The Greek or Alexandrine version of the Old Testament was made here, about B.O.

282. At the death of Cleopatra, B.C. 26, Alexandria passed into the hands of the Romans. It became an extensive market for grain; and many Jews resided there. (Acts ii. 10; vi. 9; xviii. 24; xxvii. 6.) After enjoying the highest fame for nearly a thousand years, it submitted to the arms of the Caliph Omar, A.D. 646. He ordered the volumes of the library to be distributed as fuel to the baths in the city. There are but few surviving remains of the ancient city. The population of the modern city, called Skandria, or Iskandria, may be reckoned at over 60,000. ALGUM.-See ALMUG.

ALIAH lofty. One of the dukes of Edom. (1 Chron. i. 51.) He is called "Alvah" in Gen. xxxvi. 40.

ALIAN=high. A son of Shobal. (1 Chron. i. 40.) He is called "Alvan" in Gen. xxxvi. 23.

ALIEN A foreigner or person born in another country and not having the usual rights and privileges of the citizens of the country in which he lives. Among the Hebrews, strangers were to be treated with kindness, and were to enjoy the same rights with other citizens. (Lev. xix. 33, 34.) They might be naturalized, by submitting to circumcision and renouncing idolatry. (Deut. xxiii. 1-8.) The Edomites and Egyptians were capable of becoming citizens of Israel, after the third generation; but the Ammonites and Moabites were absolutely excluded from the right of citizenship. The term "alien" is used figuratively in Eph. ii. 12, to denote those persons who were without Christ.

gible facts: this is the immediate representation. The narrative being finished, Christ furnished the explanation, or the ultimate representation. The "seed is the word of God," etc. (Luke viii. 5— 15.) The allegory, which is strictly a continued metaphor, is common in the Scriptures, and among all Oriental nations. Among those occurring in the Scriptures, the following may be noted, in which the resemblance between the immediate and the ultimate representation is sufficiently apparent. (Ps. lxxx. 1-16; Eccl. xii. 2-6; Isa. xxviii. 23—29 ; John. x. 1—16; xv. 1 -8; Gal. iv. 24-31.)

ALLELUIA.-See HALLELUJAH.

ALLON = oak. 1. The son of Jedaiah. (1 Chron. iv. 37.) 2. A place in Naphtali. (Josh. xix. 33.) ALLON-BACHUTH = oak of weeping. A place in Bethel, where Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, was buried. (Gen. xxxv. 8.)

ALMIGHTY.-See GOD.

ALMODAD = the mover, or perhaps ALMORAD=the descent. A son of Joktan. (Gen. x. 26; 1 Chron. i. 20.)

ALMON concealment. A sacerdotal city of Benjamin. (Josh. xxi. 18.) It is called "Alemeth," in 1 Chron. vi. 60. It is probably the place now called Almit, as suggested by Mr. Finn

ALMON-DIBLATHAIM = concealment of the two cakes. A place in the desert of Sinai. (Num. xxxiii. 46.)

The former word, rendered "hazel," (Gen. xxx. 37,) some suppose, designates the wild, and the latter the cultivated almond-tree. From the circumstance of it blossoming the earliest of any of the trees, and before it is in leaf, while the branches are yet bare,

it has the name shaked the waker. Hence the allusion in Jer. i. 11, 12, is to the haste with which God would send His judgments, or the vigilance with which He watched over His word to fulfil it. So the chiefs of the tribes had almond rods, emblematical of the vigilance which became them as the leaders of God's chosen people. (Num. xvii. 6-S.) Aaron's rod, which brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds," may symbolize the life, and beauty, and fruitfulness, which ought to characterize the labours of the servants of the Lord, whose supplications "enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus." (Gen. xliii. 11; Ex. xxv. 33, 34 Num. xvii. 8; Eccl. xii. 5; Heb. x. 19.) ALMS.-See POOR. ALMUG-TREE. A kind of wood, brought along with gold and precious stones in the time of Solomon from Ophir, and employed for the ornaments of the temple and the palace, and also for making musical instruments. According to 2 Chron. ii. 8, it grows in Lebanon; but this was probably another kind of wood occasionally called by the same name. Modern interpreters understand the Santalum album, or the common white sandalwood, which is best known and most highly esteemed in India, to be designated by the almug-tree. The wood is white, fine grained, and agreeably fragrant, and much used in cabinet work. It is a native of the mountainous parts of Malabar; and forms an important article of trade throughout the East. The elaborately carved gates of the Hindoo temple of Somnath, which were taken by Mahmood to the fortress of Ghuznee, in 1024, were of sandal-wood. When that fortress was dismantled by the British, in 1842, the gates were restored to Somnath; and were found, after a lapse of 800 years, to be in perfect preservation. (1 Kings x. 11, 12.) It is called "algum," by transposition, (2 Chron. ii. 8; ix. 10, 11.)

ALOES. The name given to an odoriferous tree, of which there are

several kinds, known by different names, growing in India and China. The Aquilaria ovata is said to produce the best aloes wood. It is also called "lign aloes"= aloe-wood. (Num. xxiv. 6.) In the Scriptures the name aloes appears, not only to have been given to the wood, but also to the fragrant resin or attur derived from it, which was much used in perfumery. (Ps. xlv. 9; Prov. vii. 17; Sol. Songs iv. 14.) This odoriferous substance must not be confounded with the bitter gum of the aloe-plant used in medicine. The "mixture of myrrh and aloes," brought by Nicodemus-not to embalm the body of Jesus, but for the purpose of being wound up with it in the linen, thus imparting an agreeable fragrance-is said to have been "about an hundred pounds weight." Large quantities of odoriferous substances sionally used at the funerals of Jews. (John xix. 39, 40.)

were occa

ALOTH milk-giving. Probably a place in Asher. (1 Kings iv. 16.)

ALPHA the first. The first letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding to the Hebrew Aleph. Both the Hebrews and the Greeks employed their letters as numerals; hence Aleph or Alpha= A, denoted one or the first; and Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, denoted the last. Christ appropriates the appellation "Alpha and Omega,' "the First and the Last," to Himself, as designating His supreme Divinity"the Eternal One." (Rev. i. 8, 11; ii. 8; xxi. 6; xxii. 13 ; Isa. xliv. 6; xlviii. 12; Heb. xiii. 8.) The Greek letters Alpha and Omega, with the two letters forming the monogram of Christ between them, were used at an early period as the symbol of Christianity. They are engraved upon mumerous tombs of the Christians, in the catacombs at Rome; and they also occur upon several Roman coins, from a. D. 338 to 364.

ARS

ALPHAUS = exchange. 1. The father of James the less, and husband of that Mary who with others "stood

ALTAR. A structure appropriated exclusively to offerings to the Deity. Though sacrifices of different kinds were offered before the flood, an altar is not mentioned until the time of Noah's departure from the ark. (Gen. viii. 20.) The earliest altars were of various forms, and very rude in their construction, being nothing more than a square heap of stones, or mound of earth, and they were generally erected on high ground, in the open air. The altar raised by Jacob at Bethel was "the stone" which had served him for a pillow during the night. (Gen. xxviii. 18.) The altar which Moses was commanded to build, was to be made of earth. If made of stone, it was expressly required to be rough, and not hewn,-iron was forbidden to be used in its construction; it was also to be without steps. (Ex. xx. 24-26; Deut. xxvii.5-7.) Among the heathen nations, in later times, altars were often of elegant construction, as will be seen in the illustration, which presents 1. an Egyptian, 2. an Assyrian, 3. a Greek, 5. a Roman, and 4. a Persian fire altar. Altars were deemed places of sanctuary, where sometimes the vilest criminals found refuge from justice. The Hebrew altars were two:-one for burnt offering, the other for burning

1. THE ALTAR OF BURNT OFFERING was a kind of coffer made of shittim wood, and overlaid with plates of brass, i.e., copper. It was five cubits = eight feet and nine inches square; and three cubits = five feet and three inches high. At the four corners were four horns or elevations, not for the purpose of confining the victims, but rather as the symbols of protection, they were the recognised points of sanctuary to the unfortunate who fled to the altar. It was portable, and had rings and staves for bearing it; and was furnished with all the requisite utensils. It was placed in the court before the tabernacle, towards the East. The fire used on this altar was kindled miraculously, and was perpetually maintained with the most devoted care. It was also a place of constant sacrifice, and the smoke ascended without interruption. (Ex. xxvii. 1-8; Ps. cxviii. 27; 1 Kings i. 51; ii. 28.) The altar in the temple was thirty-five feet square, and seventeen feet six inches high; it was made of copper, and occupied the same relative position as that in the front of the tabernacle. (2 Chron. iv. 1.)

2. THE ALTAR OF INCENSE, sometimes called the "golden altar," was made of shittim wood, and was one

cubit twenty-one inches square, and two cubits three feet six inches high. The top, as well as the sides and horns, was