ADAM above all cattle;' literally, above every behemah. But the serpent tribe cannot be classed with that of the behemoth. The word is of very frequent occurrence in the Old Testament; and though, in a few instances, it seems to be put for brevity so as to be inclusive of the flocks as well as the herds, and in poetical diction it sometimes stands metonymically for animals generally (as Job xviii. 3; Ps. lxxiii. 22; Eccles. iii. 18, 19, 21); yet its proper and universal application is to the large animals (pachyderms and ruminants, such as the elephant, camel, deer, horse, ox, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, &c. [BEHEMOTH]. As little will the declaration, cursed agree with natural truth. It may, indeed, be supposed to be verified in the shuddering which persons generally feel at the aspect of any one of the order of serpents; but this takes place also in many other cases. It springs from fear of the formidable weapons with which some species are armed, as few persons know beforehand which are venomous and which are harm-able being, the spirit of lying and cruelty, the less; and, after all, this is rather an advantage than a curse to the animal. It is an effectual defence without effort. Indeed, we may say that no tribe of animals is so secure from danger, or is so able to obtain its sustenance and all the enjoyments which its capacity and habits require, as the whole order of serpents. If, then, we decline to urge the objection from the word behemah, it is difficult to conceive that serpents have more causes of suffering than any other great division of animals, or even so much. Scripture allusions, has said of the serpent, 'Now that he creeps with his very mouth upon the earth, he must necessarily take his food out of the dust, and so lick in some of the dust with it.' But this is not the fact. Serpents habitually obtain their food among herbage or in water; they seize their prey with the mouth, often elevate the head, and are no more exposed to the necessity of swallowing adherent earth than are carnivorous birds or quadrupeds. At the same time, it may be understood figuratively. Eating the dust is but another term for grovelling in the dust; and this is equivalent to being reduced to a condition of meanness, shame, and contempt.— See Micah vii. 17.' But these and other inconsistencies and difficulties (insuperable they do indeed appear to us) are swept away when we consider the fact before stated, that the Hebrew, literally rendered, is THE serpent was, &c., and that it refers specifically and personally to a rational and account his works.' In the mean time, our happiness lies in the implicit confidence which we cannot but feel to be due to the Being of Infinite Perfection. devil, the Satan, the old serpent. That God, the infinitely holy, good, and wise, should have permitted any one or more celestial spirits to apostatize from purity, and to be the successful seducers of mankind, is indeed an awful and overwhelming mystery. But it is not more so than the permitted existence of many among mankind, whose rare talents and extraordinary command of power and opportunity, combined with extreme depravity, have rendered them the plague and curse of the earth; and the whole Further, going upon the belly' is to none of merges into the awful and insolvable problem, them a punishment. With some differences of Why has the All-perfect Deity permitted evil at mode, their progression is produced by the push- all? We are firmly assured that He will bring ing of scales, shields, or rings against the ground, forth, at last, the most triumphant evidence that by muscular contractions and dilatations, byHe is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all elastic springings, by vertical undulations, or by horizontal wrigglings; but, in every variety, the entire organization-skeleton, muscles, nerves, integuments-is adapted to the mode of progression belonging to each species. That mode, The remaining part of the denunciation upon in every variety of it, is sufficiently easy and the false and cruel seducer sent a beam of light rapid (often very rapid) for all the purposes of into the agonized hearts of our guilty first pathe animal's life and the amplitude of its enjoy-rents: And enmity will I put between thee and ments. To imagine this mode of motion to be, in any sense, a change from a prior attitude and habit of the erect kind, or being furnished with wings, indicates a perfect ignorance of the anatomy of serpents. Yet it has been said by learned and eminent theological interpreters, that, before this crime was committed, the serpent probably did not go upon his belly, but moved upon the hinder part of his body, with his head, breast, and belly upright' (Clarke's Bible, p. 1690). This notion may have obtained credence from the fact that some of the numerous serpent species, when excited, raise the neck pretty high; but the posture is to strike, and they cannot maintain it in creeping except for a very short distance. the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he will attack thee [on] the head, and thou wilt attack him [at] the heel.' Christian interpreters generally regard this as the first gospel-promise, and we think with good reason. It was a manifestation of mercy: it revealed a Deliverer, who should be a human being, in a peculiar sense the offspring of the female, who should also, in some way not yet made known, counteract and remedy the injury inflicted, and who, though partially suffering from the malignant power, should, in the end, completely conquer it, and convert its very success into its own punishment' (J. Pye Smith, Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, vol. i. p. 226). The awful threatening to man was, 'In the day that thou eatest of it, thou wilt die the death.' The infliction is Death in the most comprehensive sense, that which stands opposed to Life, the life of not only animal enjoyment, but holy happiness, the life which comported with the image of God. This was lost by the fall; and the sentence of physical death was pronounced, to be executed in due time. Divine mercy gave a long respite. The same mercy was displayed in still more, tempering the terrors of justice. The garden of delights was not to be the abode of rebellious creatures. But before they were turned out into a bleak and dreary wilderness, God was pleased to direct them to make clothing suitable to their new and degraded condition, of the skins of animals. That those animals had been offered in sacrifice is a conjecture supported by so much probable evidence, that we may regard it as a well-established truth. Any attempt to force back the way, to gain anew the tree of life, and take violent or fraudulent possession, would have been equally impious and nugatory. The sacrifice (which all approximative argument obliges us to admit), united with the promise of a deliverer, and the promise of substantial clothing, contained much hope of pardon and grace. The terrible debarring by lightning flashes and their consequent thunder, and by visible supernatural agency (Gen. iii. 22-24), from a return to the bowers of bliss, are expressed in the characteristic patriarchal style of anthropopathy; but the meaning evidently is, that the fallen creature is unable by any efforts of his own to reinstate himself in the favour of God, and that whatever hope of restoration he may be allowed to cherish must spring solely from free benevolence. Thus, in laying the first stone of the temple, which shall be an immortal habitation of the Divine glory, it was manifested that 'Salvation is of the Lord,' and that grace reigneth through right eousness unto eternal life.' From this time we have little recorded of the lives of Adam and Eve. Their three sons are mentioned with important circumstances in connection with each of them. See the articles CAIN, ABEL, and SETH. Cain was probably born in the year after the fall; Abel, possibly some years later; Seth, certainly one hundred and thirty years from the creation of his parents. After that, Adam lived eight hundred years, and had sons and daughters, doubtless by Eve, and then he died, nine hundred and thirty years old. In that prodigious period many events, and those of great importance, must have occurred; but the wise providence of God has not seen fit to preserve to us any memorial of them, and scarcely any vestiges or hints are afforded of the occupations and mode of life of men through the antediluvian period [ANTEDILUVIANS]. 2. ADAM, a city at some distance east from the Jordan, to which, or beyond which, the overflow of the waters of that river extended when the course of the stream to the Dead Sea was stayed to afford the Israelites a passage across its channel. AD'AMAH. [ADMAH.] ADAMANT. The word thus rendered is, in Hebrew, SHAMIR. It occurs in Jer. xvii. 1; Ezek. iii. 9; Zech. vii. 12. The Sept. in Jer. xvii. 1, and the Vulgate in all these passages, take it for the diamond. The signification of the word, a sharp point,' countenances this interpretation, the diamond being for its hardness used in perforating and cutting other minerals. Indeed, this use of the shamir is distinctly alluded to in Jer. xvii. 1, where the stylus pointed with it is distinguished from one of iron. The two other passages also favour this view by using it figuratively to express the hardness and ADBEEL obduracy of the Israelites. Our Authorized Version has diamond' in Jer. xvii. 1, and adamant' in the other texts: but in the original the word is the same in all. Bochart, however, rejects the usual explanation, and conceives it to mean emery. This is a calcined iron mixed with siliceous earth, occurring in livid scales of such hardness that in ancient times, as at present, it was used for polishing and engraving precious stones, diamonds excepted. Rosenmüller urges in favour of this notion that if the Hebrews had been acquainted with the diamond, and with the manner of working it, we should doubtless have found it among the stones of the high-priest's breastplate; and that, as the shamir was not one of the stones thus employed, therefore it was not the diamond. But to this it may be answered, that it was perhaps not used because it could not be engraved on, or was possibly not introduced until a later period. A'DAR (Esth. iii. 7) is the sixth month of the civil and the twelfth of the ecclesiastical year of the Jews. The name was first introduced after the Captivity. The following are the chief days in it which are set apart for commemoration:-The 7th is a fast for the death of Moses (Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6). On the 9th there was a fast in memory of the contention or open rupture of the cele brated schools of Hillel and Shammai, which happened but a few years before the birth of Christ. The 13th is the so-called 'Fast of Esther.' Iken observes (Antiq. Hebr. p. 150) that this was not an actual fast, but merely a commemoration of Esther's fast of three days (Esth. iv. 16), and a preparation for the ensuing festival. Nevertheless, as Esther appears, from the date of Haman's edict, and from the course of the narrative, to have fasted in Nisan, Buxtorf adduces from the Rabbins the following account of the name of this fast, and of the foundation of its observance in Adar, that the Jews assembled together on the 13th, in the time of Esther, and that, after the example of Moses, who fasted when the Israelites were about to engage in battle with the Amalekites, they devoted that day to fasting and prayer, in preparation for the perilous trial which awaited them on the morrow. In this sense, this fast would stand in the most direct relation to the feast of Purim. The 13th was also, by a common decree,' appointed as a festival in memory of the death of Nicanor (2 Macc. xv. 36). The 14th and 15th were devoted to the feast of Purim (Esth. ix. 21). In case the year was an intercalary one, when the month of Adar occurred twice, this feast was first moderately observed in the intercalary Adar, and then celebrated with full splendour in the ensuing Adar. The former of these two celebrations was then called the lesser, and the latter the great Purim. ADA'SA, or ADARSA, called also by Josephus ADAZER, ADACO, and ACODACO, a city in the tribe of Ephraim, said to have been four miles from Beth-horon, and not far from Gophna. It was the scene of some important transactions in the history of the Maccabees (1 Mac. vii. 40, 45; Joseph. Antiq. xii. 10.5; Bell. Jud. i. 1). ADB'EEL, one of the twelve sons of Ishmael, and founder of an Arabian tribe (Gen. xxv. 13, 16). ADDER ADDER, the English name of a kind of serpent. It occurs several times in the English version of the Bible, and is there used not for a particular species, but generally for several of this dangerous class of reptiles. We have before us a list, far from complete, of the erpetology of Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt, in which there are, among forty-three species indicated, about eight whose bite is accompanied with a venomous effusion, and therefore almost all very dangerous. In our present state of knowledge we deem it best to discuss, under the words SERPENT and VIPER, all the Hebrew names not noticed in this article, and to refer to them those occurring in our version under the appellations of asp,' 'cockatrice,' &c.; and likewise to review the allusions to colossal boas and pythons, and, finally, to notice water-snakes and murænæ, which translators and biblical naturalists have totally overlooked, although they must exist in the lakes of the Delta, are abundant on the north coast of Africa, and often exceed eight feet in length. In this place we shall retain that genus alone which Laurenti and Cuvier have established upon characters distinguished from the innocuous coluber, and the venomous vipera, and denominated naja. The genus Naja-Haridi (?) of Savary-is distinguished by a plaited head, large, very venomous fangs, a neck dilatable under excitement, which raises the ribs of the anterior part of the body into the form of a disk or hood, when the scales, usually not imbricated, but lying in juxta-position, are separated, and expose the skin, which at that time displays bright iridescent gleams, contrasting highly with their brown, yellow, and bluish colours. The species attain at least an equal, if not a superior, size to the generality of the genus viper; are more massive in their structure; and some possess the faculty of self-inflation to triple their diameter, gradually forcing the body upwards into an erect position, until, by a convulsive crisis, they are said suddenly to strike backwards at an enemy or a pursuer. With such powers of destroying animal life, and with an aspect at once terrible and resplendent, it may be easily imagined how soon fear and superstition would Naja Haje; and the form of Cneph from the combine, at periods anterior to historical data, to raise these monsters into divinities, and endeavour to deprecate their wrath by the blandishments of worship; and how design and cupidity would teach these very votaries the manner of subduing their ferocity, of extracting their instruments of mischief, and making them subservient to the wonder and amusement of the vulgar, by using certain cadences of sound which affect their hearing, and exciting in them a desire to perform a kind of pleasurable movements that may be compared to dancing. Hence the agas of the East, the hag-worms of the West, and the haje, have all been deified, styled agathodemon or good spirit; and figures of them occur wherever the superstition of Pagan antiquity has been accompanied by the arts of civilization. The most prominent species of the genus at present is the naja tripudians, cobra di capello, hooded or spectacled snake of India, venerated by the natives; even by the serpent-charmers styled the good serpent to this day, and yet so 6. Naja Tripudians and Cobra di Capello; or, Hooded ferocious that it is one of the very few that will attack a man when surprised in its haunt, although it may be gorged with prey. This species is usually marked on the nape with two round spots, transversely connected in the form of a pair of spectacles; but among several varieties, one, perhaps distinct, is without the marks, and has a glossy golden hood, which may make it identical with the naja haje of Egypt, the undoubted Ihh-nuphi, ceneph, or agathodæmon of Ancient Egypt, and accurately represented on the walls of its temples, in almost innumerable instances, both in form and colour. This serpent also inflates the skin on the neck, not in the expanded form of a hood, but rather into an intumefaction of the neck. As in the former, there is no marked difference of appearance between the sexes; but the psilli, or charmers, by a particular pressure on the neck have the power of rendering the inflation of the arimal, already noticed as a character of the genus, so intense, that the serpent becomes rigid, and can be held out horizontally as if it were a rod. This practice explains what the soothsayers of | Pharaoh could perform when they were opposing Moses. That the rods of the magicians of Pharaoh were of the same external character with the rod of Aaron, is evident from no different denomination being given to them: therefore we may infer that they used a real serpent as a rod-namely the species now called hajefor their imposture; since they no doubt did what the present serpent-charmers perform with the same species, by means of the temporary asphyxiation, or suspension of vitality, before noticed, and producing restoration to active life by liberating or throwing down. Thus we have the miraculous character of the prophet's mission shown by his real rod becoming a serpent, and the magicians' real serpents merely assuming the form of rods; and when both were opposed in a state of animated existence, by the rod devouring the living animals, conquering the great typical personification of the protecting divinity of Egypt. This species of serpent may be regarded as extending to India and Ceylon; and probably the naja tripudians is likewise an inhabitant of Arabia, if not of Egypt, although the assertion of the fact (common in authors) does not exclude a supposition that they take the two species to be only one. We are disposed to refer the winged' or flying' serpent to the naja tripudians, in one of its varieties, because-with its hood dilated into a kind of shining wings on each side of the neck, standing, in undulating motion, one-half or more erect, rigid, and fierce in attack, and deadly poisonous, yet still denominated good spirit, and in Egypt ever figured in combination with the winged globe-it well may have received the name of saraph, swallowing or devouring, and may thus meet all the valid objections, and conciliate seemingly opposite comments (see Num. xxi. 6, 8; Deut. viii. 15; Isa. xiv. 29; Xxx. 6). ACHSUB is another name of a serpent which may be considered as specifically different from the former, though it is most probably one more of this group of terrible creatures. The root of the name implies bending back, recurving, but not coiling up, for all snakes have that faculty. The syllable ach, however, shows a connection with the former denominations; and both are perfectly reconcilable with a serpent very common at the Cape of Good Hope, not unfrequent in Western Africa, and probably extending over that whole continent, excepting perhaps Morocco. It is the poff-adder' of the Dutch colonists, about three feet in length, and about six inches in circumference at the middle of the body; the head is larger than is usual in serpents; the eyes are large, and very brilliant; the back beautifully marked in half circles, and the colours black, bright yellow, and dark brown; the belly yellow; the appearance at all times, but chiefly when excited, extremely brilliant; the upper jaw greatly protruding, somewhat like what occurs in the shark, places the mouth back towards the throat, and this structure is said to be connected with the practice of the animal when intending to bite, to swell its skin till it suddenly rises up, and strikes backwards as if it fell over. It is this faculty which appears to be indicated by the Hebrew name achsub, and therefore we ADJURATION believe it to refer to that species, or to one nearly allied to it. The Dutch name (poff-adder, or spooch-adder) shows that, in the act of swelling, remarkable eructations and spittings take place, all which no doubt are so many warnings, the bite being fatal. The poff-adder usually resides among brushwood in stony places and rocks, is fond of basking in the sun, rather slow in moving, and is by nature timid [SERPENT; VIPER]. AD'DON, one of several places mentioned in Neh. vii. 61, being towns in the land of captivity, from which those who returned to Palestine were unable to shew their father's house, or their seed, whether they were of Israel.' This, probably, means that they were unable to furnish such undeniable legal proof as was required in such cases. And this is in some degree explained by the subsequent (v. 63) mention of priests who were expelled the priesthood because their descent was not found to be genealogically registered. These instances show the importance which was attached to their genealogies by the Jews [GENEALOGY]. ADIABE'NE, the principal of the six provinces into which Assyria was divided. Pliny and Ammianus comprehend the whole of Assyria under this name, which, however, properly denoted only the province which was watered by the rivers Diab and Adiab, or the Great and Little Zab (Dhab), which flow into the Tigris below Nineveh (Mosul), from the north-east. This region is not mentioned in Scripture; but in Josephus, its queen Helena and her son Izates, who became converts to Judaism, are very often named (Joseph. Antiq. xx. 2, 4; Bell. Jud. ii. 16, 19; v. 4, 6, 11). AD'IDA, a fortified town in the tribe of Judah. In 1 Macc. xii. 38, we read that Simon Maccabæus set up Adida in Saphela, and made it strong with bolts and bars.' Eusebius says that Sephela was the name given in his time to the open country about Eleutheropolis. And this Adida in Sephela is probably the same which is mentioned in the next chapter (xiii. 13) as Adida over against the plain,' where Simon Maccabæus encamped to dispute the entrance into Judæa of Tryphon, who had treacherously seized on Jonathan at Ptolemais. In the parallel passage Josephus (Antiq. xiii. 6, 5) adds that this Adida was upon a hill, before which lay the plains of Judæa. One of the places which Josephus calls Adida (Bell. Jud. iv. 9, 1) appears to have been near the Jordan, and was probably the Hadid of Ezra ii. 33. ADJURATION. This is a solemn act or appeal, whereby one man, usually a person vested with natural or official authority, imposes upon another the obligation of speaking or acting as if under the solemnity of an oath. We have an example of this in the New Testament, when the high-priest thus calls upon Christ, I adjure thee by the living God, tell us' &c.— (Matt. xxvi. 63; see also Mark v. 7; Acts xix. 13; 1 Thes. v. 27). An oath, although thus imposed upon one without his consent, was not only binding, but solemn in the highest degree; and when connected with a question, an answer was compulsory, which answer being as upon oath, any falsehood in it would be perjury. Thus our Saviour, who had previously disdained to ADONIJAH reply to the charges brought against him, now felt himself bound to answer the question put to him. ADMAH, one of the cities in the vale of Siddim (Gen. x. 19), which had a king of its own (Gen. xiv. 2). It was destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. xix. 24; Hos. xi. 8). ADONIBE'ZEK (lord of Bezek), king or lord of Bezek, a town which Eusebius places 17 miles east of Neapolis or Shechem. The small extent of the kingdoms in and around Palestine at the time of its invasion by the Hebrews is shown by the fact that this petty king had subdued no less than seventy of them; and the barbarity of the war-usages in those early times is painfully shown by his cutting off all the thumbs and great toes of his prisoners, and allowing them no food but that which they gathered under his table. These conquests made Adonibezeka triton among the minnows; and we find him at the head of the confederated Canaanites and Perizzites, against whom the tribes of Judah and Simeon marched after the death of Joshua. His army was routed and himself taken prisoner. The victors failed not to express their indignation at the mode in which he had treated his captives, by dealing with him in the same manner. ADONIJAH (Jehovah [is] my Lord), the fourth son of David, by Haggith. He was born after his father became king, but when he reigned over Judah only (2 Sam. iii. 4). According to the Oriental notion developed in the article ABSALOM, Adonijah might have considered his claim superior to that of his eldest brother Amnon, who is supposed to have been born while his father was in a private station; but not to that of Absalom, who was not only his elder brother, and born while his father was a king, but was of royal descent on the side of his mother. When, however, Amnon and Absalom were both dead, he became, by order of birth, the heir apparent to the throne. But this order had been set aside in favour of Solomon, who was born while his father was king of all Israel. Absalom perished in attempting to assert his claim of primogeniture, in opposition to this arrangement. Unawed by this example, Adonijah assumed the state of an heir-apparent, who, from the advanced age of David, must soon be king. But it does not appear to have been his wish to trouble his father as Absalom had done; for he waited till David appeared at the point of death, when he called around him a number of influential men, whom he had previously gained over, and caused himself to be proclaimed king. This was a formidable attempt to subvert the appointment made by the Divine king of Israel; for Adonijah was supported by such men as Joab, the general-in-chief, and Abiathar, the highpriest; both of whom had followed David in all his fortunes. But his plot was, notwithstanding, defeated by the prompt measure taken by David, who directed Solomon to be at once proclaimed, and crowned, and admitted to the real exercise of the sovereign power. Adonijah then saw that all was lost, and fled to the altar, which he refused to leave without a promise of pardon from King Solomon. This he received, but was warned that any further attempt of the same kind would be fatal to him. Accordingly, when, some time after the death of David, Adonijah covertly endeavoured to reproduce his claim through a marriage with Abishag, the virgin widow of his father [ABISHAG], his design was at once penetrated by the king, by whose order he was instantly put to death (1 Kings i.-ii. 13-25). ADONIRAM (lord of height, that is, high lord) (1 Kings iv. 6). This name is exhibited in the contracted form of ADORAM in 2 Sam. xx. 24; 1 Kings xii. 18; and of Hadoram in 2 Chron. x. 18. 1. ADONIRAM, or HADORAM, son of Toi, king of Hamath, who was sent by his father to congratulate David on his victory over their common enemy Hadarezer, king of Syria (1 Chron. xviii. 10). This prince is called Joram in 2 Sam. viii. 10. 2. ADONIRAM. A person of this name is mentioned as receiver-general of the imposts in the reigns of David, Solomon, and Rehoboam. Only one incident is recorded in connection with this person. When the ten tribes seceded from the house of David, and made Jeroboam king, Rehoboam sent Adoniram among them, for the purpose, we may presume, of collecting the usual imposts, which had become very heavy. Perhaps he had been rigid in his invidious office under Solomon: at all events the collector of the imposts which had occasioned the revolt was not the person whose presence was the most likely to soothe the exasperated passions of the people. They rose upon him, and stoned him till he died (1 Kings xii. 18). ADONIZE'DEK. The name denotes lord of justice, i. e. just lord, but some would rather have it to mean king of Zedek. He was the Canaanitish king of Jerusalem when the Israelites invaded Palestine; and the similarity of the name to that of a more ancient king of (as is supposed) the same place, Melchi-zedek (king of justice, or king of Zedek), has suggested that Zedek was one of the ancient names of Jerusalem. Be that as it may, this Adonizedek was the first of the native princes that attempted to make head against the invaders. After Jericho and Ai were taken, and the Gibeonites had succeeded in forming a treaty with the Israelites, Adonizedek was the first to rouse himself from the stupor which had fallen on the Canaanites (Josh. x. 1, 3), and he induced the other Amoritish kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon, to join him in a confederacy against the enemy. They did not, however, march directly against the invaders, but went and besieged the Gibeonites, to punish them for the discouraging example which their secession from the common cause had afforded. Joshua no sooner heard of this than he marched all night from Gilgal to the relief of his allies; and falling unexpectedly upon the besiegers, soon put them to utter rout. The pursuit was long, and was signalized by Joshua's famous command to the sun and moon, as well as by a tremendous hail-storm, which greatly distressed the fugitive Amorites [JOSHUA]. The five kings took refuge in a cave; but were observed, and by Joshua's order the mouth of it was closed with large stones, and a guard set over it, until the pursuit was over. When the pursuers returned, the cave was opened, and the five kings brought out. The Hebrew chiefs then set their feet upon the necks of the prostrate D |