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of refuge, spared at the intercession,
of Lot. (Gen. xiii. 10; xiv. 2, 8; xix.
20-30.) It is still called Ziara.
Dr. Robinson is disposed, with the old
tradition, to assign the position of
Zoar to the eastern side of the Dead
Sea, at the foot of the mountains, near
its southern end, in the mouth of the
Wady Kerek, where it issues upon the
isthmus of the long peninsula. (Deut.
xxxiv. 3; Isa. xv. 5; Jer. xlviii. 34.)
ZOBAH=station. A Syrian king-
dom, sometimes called "Aram Zobah,"
and also written "Zoba," whose kings
made war with Saul; (1 Sam. xiv. 47;)
with David; (2 Sam. viii. 3; x. 6, 8;
1 Chron. xviii. 5, 9;) and with Solomon.
(2 Chron. viii. 3.) It was on the north
of Damascus, and seems to have in-
cluded the city of Hamath, hence
called "Hamath Zobah," and to have
extended as far as the Euphrates. (2
Sam. viii. 3; xxiii. 36; 1 Kings xi.
23; 2 Chron. viii. 3.) Zobah is found
on the Assyrian Inscriptions. Dr.
Porter says that it is just possible that
the Arab Hums, and Roman Emesa,
may be identical with the ancient city
Zobah. It is a bustling town of 20,000
inhabitants. There is a large mound,
and a few marble and granite columns
scattered about the streets. A short
distance west of the town is Bahr
Kades, a lake eight miles long, formed
by a dam drawn across the Orontes.
ZOBEBAH slow moving. A des-
cendant of Judah. (1 Chron. iv. 8.)
ZOHAR=whiteness. 1. The father
of Ephron the Hittite. (Gen. xxiii.
8.) 2.-See ZERAH.

ZOHELETH = serpent. A noted
stone by En-rogel, near Jerusalem. (1
Kings i. 9.)-See EN-ROGEL.

ZOHETH-snatching. A descen-
dent of Judah. (1 Chron. iv. 20.)
ZOPHAH a cruse, or spreading. A
descendant of Asher. (1 Chron. vii.
35, 36.)

=

ZOPHAI.-See ZUPH.

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ZOPHAR=sparrow. One of Job's
three friends; called the "Naama-
thite," probably from Naamah, a town
or district in Idumea. (Job ii. 11;
xi. 1; xx. 1; xlii. 9.)

ZOPHIM watchers, lookers out. 1.
The cultivated portion of the district
about Pisgah, where Balak took Baal-
am to see and curse the Hebrews.
(Num. xxiii. 14.) 2.—See ZUPH.

ZORAH = hornet's town. A city
reckoned as in the plain of Judah';
also called "Zoreah;" now Sur'a, a
small village situated on a high peak
overlooking the plain of Beth-shemesh.
It was celebrated as the birth-place of
Samson. (Josh. xv. 33; xix. 41; Judg.
xiii. 25.)

ZORÓBABEL=sown, i.e., begotten
in Babylon. The son of Salathiel, the
son of Neri, and one of the ancestors
of Mary. (Luke iii. 27.) He is not
to be confounded with Zerubbabel or
Zorobabel the prince, who led back
the first band of Jewish captives from
Babylon, and built the temple. (Ezra
ii. 1; Matt. i. 12, 13.)

ZUAR smallness. A descendant
of Issachar. (Num. i. 8; ii. 5.)

ZUPH comb, honey-comb. An an-
cestor of Samuel; (1 Sam. i. 1; 1
Chron. vi. 35;) also written "Zophai.'
(1 Chron. vi. 26.) He appears to have
given name to the "land of Zuph.”—
See RAMATHAIM-ZOPHIM.

ZUPH.-See SEA, RED.

ZUR=form, shape. 1. A prince of
the Midianites. (Num. xxv. 15: xxxi.
8; Josh. xiii. 21.) 2. A descendant of
Benjamin. (1 Chron. viii. 30; ix. 36.)

ZURIEL my rock is God. A chief
of the families of Merari. (Num.iii.35.)
ZURISHADDAI=my rock is the
Almighty. A descendant of Simeon.
(Num. i. 6; ii. 12.)

ZUZIMS = strong. An ancient
people or nation on the borders of
Palestine, conquered by Chedorlaomer
and his allies. (Gen. xiv. 5.)

e of J

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.

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As the ancient Hebrews possesed no formal
and recognised era, whence events might be
dated, they necessarily used different methods
of computation. The most ancient method of
computation was by generations. (Gen. v. 1
-32.) Indeed, the only information we have
respecting the time which elapsed from the
creation of Adam to the birth of Abraham, is
derived from the Mosaic genealogical tables.
Those tables register the year of the life of
each antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarch,
when that son was born in whom his line
was continued, the years each lived after the
birth of his heir, and the total years of the
life of each. (Gen. v. 1-32; x. 21, 22; xi. 10
-32; xii. 4; Acts vii. 4.) Still the number of
years, in the several generations, as given in
the Hebrew text, is widely departed from in
the Samaritan copy, the Septuagint version,
and also in Josephus, as will be seen by the
subjoined table.

Adam

Seth

Hebr. Samar. Sept. Josep.
230 230

170

130

130

105

105

205

205

Enoa

90

90

190

190

Cainaan

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170

Mahalaleel

6.5

65

165

165

Jared

[blocks in formation]

162

162

Enoch

65

65

165

165

Methuselah

187

67

167

187

Lamech

182

53

188

182

Noah

502

[blocks in formation]

502

Shem

100

100

100

110

Arphaxad

35

135

135

135

Cainan?

0

0

130

Salah

30

[blocks in formation]

130

Eber

34 134

134

134

Peleg

30 130

130

130

Reu

32

132

132

130

Serug

30

130

130

132

Nahor

[blocks in formation]

179

120

Terah at the birth)

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of Abraham

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0

Thus, from the creation of Adam to the
birth of Abraham, in the 130th year of Ter-
ah, the number of years according to the

Hebrew text, is
Samaritan copy
Septuagint-Roman edition
Septuagint-Alexandrian edition

Josephus

2008

2249

3474

3394
3249

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The genuine Bible chronology is undoubtedly that which has been handed down in the original Hebrew text. The various disresulted, not from accident, but from premedcrepancies exhibited by the versions evidently itated design. By looking at the first table it will be seen that in no instance of the addition or substraction of a century, in the years of the antediluvian patriarchs, does the Hebrew text stand alone, but is supported either by the Samaritan against the Septuagint, or by the Septuagint against the Samaritan. Now, in this systematic disagreement, the Septuagint and the Samaritan differ throughout, so as to contradict each other in regard to the age of each of the first nine patriarchs; while the Hebrew, without following either, takes such a middle course as to have the concurrence of the Samaritan in the age of Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel and Enoch; and of the Septuagint, or of Josephus, respecting And, surely, Jared, Methuselah and Lamech. in a disagreement of three witnesses, two must be credited against one; and most of all must he be believed, who takes such an independent course, that he is supported now by one, and now by the other.

In the various ages composing the Hebrew numbers, we find no appearance of design; while all the discrepancies in the units, tens, and hundreds, in the Septuagint version, so systematic, and so skilfully adjusted as until recently to have concealed the artifice, must the unworthy design of the translators in have resulted, not from accident, but from ian chronology. Nor has the Egyptian chro developing their numbers out of the Egyptaritan copy. Even the numbers in Josephus Sep-nology been without its influence on the Samhave been corrupted to make them agree with the chronology of the Septuagint; as in other parts of his work, which has escaped the hands of false correctors, he differs but slightly from the Hebrew.

The subjoined summary exhibits the period which has elapsed from the creation of man to the birth of Christ, according to the principal ancient eras, which are evidently derived from the lengthened chronology of the tuagint version:

Grecian era

Era of Constantinople
Era of Alexandria

Era of Antioch

5598
5508.
5502

5494

Several of the modern systems of chronol

The Deluge occurred, according to the Hebrew computation, B.C. 2348, or 1656 years after the creation of man, when Noah was 600 years old. The number of years which the Septuagint, according to the Alexandrian copy-the Vatican manuscript is defective in the first forty-six chapters of Genesis-interposes between the creation of man and the Deluge is 2262, thus placing that event B.C. 3245, according to their computation. The 2262 years, from the creation of Adam to the Deluge, reduced to lunar months, ie., monthyears, give in round numbers 28,000. That there was such an Egyptian chronography, on which the Septuagint chronology is based, which counted 28,000 years down to B.C. 3245, is evident from the Eusebian Manetho; which reckons 25,920 years from the first of the Egyptian gods to Menes, the first of the mortal kings. To the first eleven dynasties of mortal kings it assigned 1941 years, which, added to the former, make 27,861. Thus, then, the 28,000 years from the first of the gods would end, according to this chronography, with the 139th year of the twelfth dynasty, which coincided with B.C. 3245, the Septuagint date of the Flood, when, it seems, the Septuagint chronologers imagined the monthyear of the Egyptian computation ceased, and men began to reckon by real years. This view is supported by the Eusebian Manetho, which assigns B.C. 3383 as the date of the commencment of the twelfth dynasty, which was the Egyptian year of the world 27,861; hence 139 added to B.C. 3245, bring us to B.C. 3383. So also Eusebius, in his chronological canon, states the birth of Abraham, B.C. 2016; and makes that event coincident with the first year of Manetho's sixteenth dynasty. To the fifteenth dynasty he assigns 250 years; to the fourteenth, 484; to the thirteenth, 453; and to the twelfth, 182. Thus the interval may be taken at about 1368 Egyptian real years; which bring us again to B.C. 3383, as the date of the commencement of the twelfth Egyptian dynasty. The 28,000 years, when understood of lunar months, which exactly fill up the Septuagint interval between Adam and the Deluge, remove any doubt as to the kind of calculations on which the Septuagint chronology is based. Its authors had before them this Egyptian computation, which counted 28,000 years down to B.C. 3,245, the date of the Flood as given by them. They were determined to make the Egyptian chronology tally with the Bible, by doing violence to both, hence they compressed all those thousands of years into less than a twelfth part of the space they were entitled to, on the one hand, and swelled the number of years assigned to the Bible patriarchs on the other, to make both ends meet. All these years they chose to regard as months, which they accordingly reduced to years on the common scale of ninetynine of the former to eight of the latter. Thus stands the calculation:

sesses a meaning. For of a lunar year is 222 days, and the "seventeenth day of the second month," on which the Flood is said to have commenced, (Gen vii. 11.) is actually the 17th day of Zif or Yiar, the 223rd day of the Hebrew year.

The argument for adopting the lengthened chronology of the Septuagint. in the years of the postdiluvian patriarchs, instead of that of the Hebrew text, on the ground of the supposed impossibility of the world being peopled in so short a time as the era B.C. 2224, or about 124 years after the Flood, as to render the dispersion in the time of Peleg requisite is of little weight; because, though those versions give additional years, they give no additional generations. From the time of Arphaxad to that of Nahor, about 220 years, the Hebrew numbers, place upon an average each generation, ie., the birth of a son, at intervals of little more than 31 years. Whereas the Samaritan and Septuagint numbers extend their chronology for the same period, the former 870, and the latter 1,100 years, only by placing upon an average cach generation, on the birth of a son, at intervals of little more than 124 and 137 years, inserting before each descent 100 or 50 years, and in one case an additional generation of 130 years; by which, in point of population, nothing can be gained. For it is manifest that as the casualties in 31 years must be less than in 124 or 137 years, where the lives are of the same length, so, according to the short Hebrew numbers, the population in the same number of generations must much more rapidly increase than according to the more extended period; and the population upon the Hebrew computatation must, in the allotted 220 years, have been almost one-half as much again as in the most extended of these computations.

Recent investigations in Assyrian chronology from the cuneiform inscriptions, have, on some points, contributed to the confirmation of that drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures; while on other points there exists a considerable variation. The Assyrians had no fixed epoch, but appear to have dated events from the reigns of their kings. Prof. Rawlinson refers to a recently discovered tablet, recording the occurence of a solar eclipse, which is presumed to have been total, in the month Sivan or June, in the ninth year of Asshur-dan. III. He observes that the calculations of astronomers show that the only total eclipse falling at this time of the year visible in Assyria between B. C. 847 and B.C. 647-within which period the reign of Asshur-dan. III., must have fallenwas one on June 15, B. c. 763. This eclipse commenced before noon, was total, and was visible all over Western Asia. There can be no reasonable doubt that it is the one recorded upon the tablet, and there can be little doubt that this eclipse is the one of which Amos prophesied. (Am. viii. 9.) This discovery gives a certainty, equal to that possessed by astronomical science, to the whole range of 99 8 28,000 2,262 93 Assyrian chronology from B.C. 909 to B. c. 665, Even the fraction over 2,262-the Septuagint From the most recent discoveries given by interval between Adam and the Deluge-pos-Prof. Rawlinson, "Five Great Monarchies,"

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