of the New Testament, it may be observed that they have furnished little matter for critical inquiry. Those that exist are almost exclusively confined to common and easily supplied words, e. g. God, Lord, father, son, &c.; or to the terminations of formation and inflexion, in which case they fall more properly under the province of general Greek Palæography. They very rarely furnish any hint of the mode in which a various reading has arisen, as has been suggested, for instance, in the case of Kaip and Kupi in Romans xii. 11. The use of letters for numerals, however, according to Eichhorn's Einleit. ins N. T., iv. 199, is not only found in some MSS. now extant, but, in the instance of the number 666, in Rev. xiii. 18, can be traced up to the time of the apostles; partly on the testimony of Irenæus, and partly because those MSS. which wrote the number out in words differ in the gender of the first word, some writing éçakódigi, some éƐakóσiai, some étaкooia. The early fathers have also unhesitatingly availed themselves of the theory that numbers were originally denoted by letters, whenever they wished to explain a difficulty in numbers. Thus Severus of Antioch (cited by Theophylact) accounts for the difference of the hour of our Lord's crucifixion, as stated in Mark xv. 25, and John xix. 14, by the mistake of (3) for s (6). Eichhorn has given a lithographed table of the most usual abbreviations in the MSS. of the New Testament. Lastly, the abbreviations by which Origen, in his 'Hexapla,' cites the Septuagint and other Greek versions, deserve some notice. The nature of this work rendered a compendious mode of reference necessary; and, accordingly, numeral letters and initials are the chief expedients employed. A large list of them may be seen in Montfaucon's edition of the Hexapla;' and Eichhorn (Einleit, ins A. T. i. 518-50) has given those which are most important.-J. N. 6 1. ABDON (jy, a servant; Sept. 'Aßswv), the son of Hillel, of the tribe of Ephraim, and tenth judge of Israel. He succeeded Elon, and judged Israel eight years. His administration appears to have been peaceful; for nothing is recorded of him but that he had forty sons and thirty nephews, who rode on young asses-a mark of their consequence (Judg. xii. 13-15). Abdon died B.C. 1112. There were three other persons of this name, which appears to have been rather common. They are mentioned in 1 Chron. viii. 29; ix. 36; xxxiv. 20. 2. ABDON, a city of the tribe of Asher, which was given to the Levites of Gershom's family (Job xxi. 30; 1 Chron. vi. 74). his elder brother (Gen. iv. 1-16). The circumstances of that mysterious transaction are considered elsewhere [CAIN]. To the name Abel a twofold interpretation has been given. Its primary signification is weakness or vanity, as the word 27, from which it is derived, indicates. By another rendering it signifies grief or lamentation, both meanings being justified by the Scripture narrative. CAIN (a possession) was so named to indicate both the joy of his mother and his right to the inheritance of the first-born: Abel received a name indicative of his weakness and poverty when compared with the supposed glory of his brother's destiny, and prophetically of the pain and sorrow which were to be inflicted on him and his parents. Ancient writers abound in observations on the mystical character of Abel; and he is spoken of as the representative of the pastoral tribes, while Cain is regarded as the author of the nomadic life and character. St. Chrysostom calls him the Lamb of Christ, since he suffered the most grievous injuries solely on account of his innocency (Ad Stagir. ii. 5); and he directs particular attention to the mode in which Scripture speaks of his offerings, consisting of the best of his flock, and of the fat thereof,' while it seems to intimate that Cain presented the fruit which might be most easily procured (Hom. in Gen. xviii. 5). St. Augustin, speaking of regeneration, alludes to Abel as representing the new or spiritual man in contradistinction to the natural or corrupt man, and says, 'Cain founded a city on earth, but Abel as a stranger and pilgrim looked forward to the city of the saints which is in heaven' (De Civitate Dei, xv. i.). Abel, he says in another place, was the first-fruits of the Church, and was sacrificed in testimony of the future Mediator. And on Ps. cxviii. (Serm. xxx. sec. 9) he says: this city' (that is, the city of God') has its beginning from Abel, as the wicked city of Abel, subjected the just to the unjust, that the from Cain.' Irenæus says that God, in the case righteousness of the former might be manifested by what he suffered (Contra Hæres. iii. 23). Heretics existed in ancient times who represented Cain and Abel as embodying two spiritual powers, of which the mightier was that of Cain, and to which they accordingly rendered divine homage. In the early Church Abel was considered the first of the martyrs, and many persons were accustomed to pronounce his name with a particular reverence. An obscure sect arose under the title of Abelites, the professed object of which was to inculcate certain fanatical notions respecting marriage; but it was speedily lost amid a host of more popular parties.-H. S. ABEDNEGO (12y, servant of Nego, i. e. ABEL ; Sept. 'AẞéX), a name of seNebo; Sept. 'Aßdevay), the Chaldee name im- veral villages in Israel, with additions in the case posed by the king of Babylon's officer upon of the more important, to distinguish them from Azariah, one of the three companions of Daniel. With his two friends, Shadrach and Meshach, and Syriac, one another. From a comparison of the Arabic appears to mean fresh grass; and he was miraculously delivered from the burning the places so named may be conceived to have furnace, into which they were cast for refusing been in peculiarly verdant situations. In 1 Sam. to worship the golden statue which Nebuchad-vi. 18, it is used as an appellative, and probably nezzar had caused to be set up in the plain of signifies a grassy plain. Dura (Dan. iii.). ABEL; Sept. "Aẞ€λ), properly HEBEL, the second son of Adam, who was slain by Cain, ABEL, ABEL-BETH MAACAH, or ABEL MAIM, a city in the north of Palestine, which seems to have been of considerable strength from its his tory, and of importance from its being called 'a mother in Israel' (2 Sam. xx. 19). The identity of the city under these different names will be seen by a comparison of 2 Sam. xx. 14, 15, 18; 1 Kings xv. 20; 2 Chron. xvi. 4. The addition of Maacah' marks it as belonging to, or being near to, the region Maacah, which lay eastward of the Jordan under Mount Lebanon. This is the town in which Sheba posted himself when he rebelled against David. Eighty years afterwards it was taken and sacked by Benhadad, king of Syria; and 200 years subsequently by Tiglath-pileser, who sent away the inhabitants captives into Assyria (2 Kings xx. 29). ABI-ALBON. [ABIEL 2.] ABIATHAR (, father of abundance; Sept. 'Aßiábap), the tenth high-priest of the Jews, and fourth in descent from Eli. When his father, the high-priest Abimelech, was slain with the priests at Nob, for suspected partiality to the fugitive David, Abiathar escaped the massacre; and bearing with him the most essential part of the priestly raiment [EPHOD], repaired to the son of Jesse, who was then in the cave of Adullam (1 Sam. xxii. 20-23; xxiii. 6). He was well received by David, and became the priest of the party during its exile and wanderings. As such he sought and received for David responses from God. When David became king of Judah Zadok had been appointed high-priest by Saul, he appointed Abiathar high-priest. Meanwhile and continued to act as such while Abiathar was high-priest in Judah. The appointment of Zadok in accordance with the divine sentence of depowas not only unexceptionable in itself, but was sition which had been passed, through Samuel, ABEL-MAIM. The same as ABEL. upon the house of Eli (1 Sam. ii. 30-36). When, ABEL MEHOLAH, or ABEL MEA ( therefore, David acquired the kingdom of Israel, in, place of the dance; Sept. 'ABEAμeould), a town supposed to have stood near the Jordan, and some miles (Eusebius says ten) to the south of Bethshan or Scythopolis (1 Kings iv. 12). It is remarkable in connection with Gideon's victory over the Midianites (Judg. vii. 22), and as the birth-place of Elisha (1 Kings xix. 16). ABEL BETH MAACAH, that is, Abel near the house or city of Maacah: the same as Abel. ABEL-CARMAIM (D", place of the vineyards; Sept. 'Eßeλxapuíu), a village of the Ammonites, about six miles from Philadelphia, or Rabbath Ammon, according to Eusebius, in whose time the place was still rich in vineyards (Judg. xi. 33). ABEL-MIZRAIM (D, the mourning of the Egyptians; Sept. Пév0os Aiyúnтov), the name of a threshing-floor, so called on account of the great mourning' made there for Jacob by the funeral party from Egypt (Gen. L. 11). Jerome places it between Jericho and the Jordan, where Bethagla afterwards stood. ABEL-SHITTIM (vin bax, place of acacias; Sept. Beλod), a town in the plains of Moab, on the east of the Jordan, between which and Beth-Jesimoth was the last encampment of the Israelites on that side the river (Num. xxxiii. 49). It is more frequently called Shittim merely (Num. xxv. 1; Josh. ii. 1; Mic. vi. 5). Eusebius says it was in the neighbourhood of Mount Peor; and in the time of Josephus it was known as Abila, and stood sixty stadia from the Jordan (Antiq. iv. 8, 1; v. 1, 1). The place is noted for the severe punishment which was there inflicted upon the Israelites when they were seduced into the worship of Baal-Peor, through their evil intercourse with the Moabites and Midianites. ABELA. [ABILA.] ABI, the mother of King Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 2), called also Abijah (2 Chron. xxix. 1). Her father's name was Zachariah, perhaps the same who was taken by Isaiah (viii. 2) for a witness. ABIA. [ABIJAH, 3.] ABIAH or ABIJAH (N,pater, Jehova, i.e. vir divimus, ut videtur, i. q. Db, Gesenius in Thesaur.; Sept. 'Aßid), one of the sons of Samuel, who were intrusted with the administration of justice, and whose misconduct afforded the ostensible ground on which the Israelites demanded that their government should be changed into a monarchy (1 Sam. viii. 1-5). he had no just ground on which Zadok could be removed, and Abiathar set in his place; and the attempt to do so would probably have been offensive to his new subjects, who had been accustomed to the ministration of Zadok, and whose good feeling he was anxious to cultivate. The king got over this difficulty by allowing both appointments to stand; and until the end of David's reign Zadok and Abiathar were joint high-priests. How the details of duty were settled, under this somewhat anomalous arrangement, we are not informed. As a high-priest Abiathar must have been perfectly aware of the divine intention that Solomon should be the successor of David: he was therefore the least ex cusable, in some respects, of all those who were parties in the attempt to frustrate that intention by raising Adonijah to the throne. So his conwho, in deposing him from the high-priesthood, duct seems to have been viewed by Solomon, and directing him to withdraw into private life, plainly told him that only his sacerdotal character, and his former services to David, preserved him from capital punishment. This deposition of Abiathar completed the doom long before denounced upon the house of Eli, who was of the line of Ithamar, the younger son was of the elder line of Eleazer. Solomon was of Aaron. Zadok, who remained the high-priest, probably not sorry to have occasion to remove the anomaly of two high-priests of different lines, house of Eleazer (1 Kings i. 7, 19; ii. 26, 27). and to see the undivided pontificate in the senior In Mark ii. 26, a circumstance is described as occurring in the days of Abiathar, the highpriest,' which appears, from 1 Sam. xxi. 1, to have really occurred when his father Abimelech was the have been offered. The most probable in itself high-priest. Numerous solutions of this difficulty is that which interprets the reference thus in the days of Abiathar, who was afterwards the high-priest' (Bishop Middleton, Greek Article, pp. 188-190). But this leaves open another difficulty which arises from the precisely opposite reference (in 2 Sam. viii. 17; 1 Chron. xviii. 16; xxiv. 3, 6, 31) to Abimelech, the son of Abia thar, as the person who was high-priest along with Zadok, and who was deposed by Solomon; whereas the history describes that personage as Abiathar, the son of Abimelech. The only explanation which seems to remove all these difficulties-although we cannot allege it to be altogether satisfactory-is, that both father and son bore the two names of Abimelech and Abiathar, and might be, and were called by, either. But although it was not unusual for the Jews to have two names, it was not usual for both father and son to have the same two names. We therefore incline to leave the passage in Mark ii. 26, as explained above; and to conclude that the other discrepancies arose from an easy and obvious transposition of words by the copyists, which was afterwards perpetuated. In these places, the Syriac and Arabic versions have Abiathar, the son of Abimelech,' ABIB. [NISAN.] · 1. ABIEL IN, father of strength, i. e. strong; Sept. 'ABA), the father of Kish, whose son Saul was the first king of Israel, and of Ner, whose son Abner was captain of the host to his cousin Saul (1 Sam. ix. I; xiv. 5). 2. ABIEL, one of the thirty most distinguished men of David's army, (1 Chron. xi. 32). He is called Abi-albon (jäỳ 18) in 2 Sam. xxiii. 31; a name which has precisely the same signification (father of strength) as the other. | that the vengeance which he had purposed was not warranted by the circumstances, and was thankful that he had been prevented from shedding innocent blood. The beauty and prudence of Abigail made such an impression upon David on this occasion, that when, not long after, he heard of Nabal's death, he sent for her, and she became his wife (1 Sam. xxv. 14-42). By her it is usually stated that he had two sons, Chileab and Daniel; but it is more likely that the Chileab of 2 Sam. iii. 3, is the same as the Daniel of 1 Chron. iii. 1; the son of Abigail being known by both these names. 1. ABIHAIL (, father of light or splendour; Sept. 'Aßiata), the wife of Rehoboam, king of Judah. She is called the daughter of Eliab, David's elder brother (2 Chron. xi. 18): but, as David began to reign more than eighty years before her marriage, and was 30 years old when he became king, we are doubtless to understand that she was only a descendant of Eliab. This name, as borne by a female, illustrates the remarks under AB. It should be 2. ABIHAIL (N, father of might, i.e. mighty; Sept. 'Aßixatx). This name, alrized version, is, in the original, different both in though the same as the preceding in the authowritten ABICHAIL. orthography and signification. The name was borne by several persons: 1. ABICHAIL, the son of Huri, one of the family-chiefs of the tribe of Gad, who settled in Bashan (1 Chron. v. 14); 2. ABICHAIL, the father of Zuriel, who was the father of the Levitical tribes of Merari (Num. iii. 35); 3. ABICHAIL, the father of queen Esther, and brother of Mordecai (Esth. ii. 15). ABIEZER (, father of help; Sept. 'ABIéCep, Josh. xvii. 2), a son of Gilead, the grandson of Manasseh (Num. xxvi. 30), and founder of the family to which Gideon belonged, and which bore his name as a patronymic Abiezrites (Judg. vi. 34; viii. 2). Gideon him- ABIHU (NEN, father of him; Sept. self has a very beautiful and delicate allusion to 'Aßloud), the second of the sons of Aaron, who, this patronymic in his answer to the fierce and with his brothers Nadab, Eleazer, and Ithamar, proud Ephraimites, who, after he had defeated was set apart and consecrated for the priesthood the Midianites with 300 men, chiefly of the (Exod. xxviii. 1). When, at the first establishfamily of Abiezer, came to the pursuit, and cap- ment of the ceremonial worship, the victims tured the two Midianitish princes Zeba and Zal-offered on the great brazen altar were consumed manna. They sharply rebuked him for having engrossed all the glory of the transaction by not calling them into action at the first. But he soothed their pride by a remark which insinuated that their exploit, in capturing the princes, although late, surpassed his own in defeating their army-What have I done now in comparison with you? Is not the (grape) gleaning of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer?' (Judg. viii. 1-3). by fire from heaven, it was directed that this fire should always be kept up; and that the daily incense should be burnt in censers filled with it from the great altar. But one day, Nadab and Abihu presumed to neglect this regulation, and offered incense in censers filled with strange' or common fire. For this they were instantly struck dead by lightning, and were taken away and buried in their clothes without the camp [AARON]. There can be no doubt that this severe ABIGAIL ( or, father of joy; example had the intended effect of enforcing beSept. 'Aßiyaía), the wife of a prosperous sheep-coming attention to the most minute observances master, called Nabal, who dwelt in the district of Carmel, west of the Dead Sea. She is known chiefly for the promptitude and discretion of her duct in taking measures to avert the wrath of David, which, as she justly apprehended, had been violently excited by the insulting treatment which his messengers had received from her husband [NABAL]. She hastily prepared a liberal supply of provisions, of which David's troop stood in much need-and went forth to meet him, attended by only one servant. When they met, he was marching to exterminate Nabal and all that belonged to him; and not only was his rage mollified by her prudent remonstrances and delicate management, but he became sensible of the ritual service. As immediately after the record of this transaction, and in apparent reference to it, comes a prohibition of wine or strong drink to the priests, whose turn it might be to that Nadab and Abihu were intoxicated when enter the tabernacle, it is not unfairly surmised they committed this serious error in their ministrations (Lev. x. 1-11). 1. ABIJAH (72, 73, see signif. in ABIAH; Sept. 'Aßiá, 2 Chron. xiii. 1). He is also called Abijam (D'28; Sept. 'Aßiou, 1 Kings xv. 1). Lightfoot (Harm. O. T. in loc.) thinks that the writer in Chronicles, not describing his reign as wicked, admits the sacred JAH in his name; but which the book of Kings, charging him with fol lowing the evil ways of his father, changes into JAM. This may be fanciful; but such changes of name were not unusual. Abijah was the second king of the separate kingdom of Judah, being the son of Rehoboam, and grandson of Solomon. He began to reign B.C. 95$ (Hales, B.C. 973), in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam, king of Israel; and he reigned three years. At the commencement of his reign, looking on the well-founded sepa ration of the ten tribes from the house of David as rebellion, Abijah made a vigorous attempt to bring them back to their allegiance. In this he failed; although a signal victory over Jeroboam, who had double his force and much greater experience, enabled him to take several cities which had been held by Israel. The speech which Abijah addressed to the opposing army before the battle has been much admired. It was well suited to its object, and exhibits correct notions of the theocratical institutions. His view of the political position of the ten tribes with respect to the house of David is, however, obviously erroneous, although such as a king of Judah was likely to take. The numbers reputed to have been present in this action are 800,000 on the side of Jeroboam, 400,000 on the side of Abijah, and 500,000 left dead on the field. Hales and others regard these extraordinary numbers as corruptions, and propose to reduce them to 80,000, 40,000, and 50,000 respectively, as in the Latin Vulgate of Sixtus Quintus, and many earlier editions, and in the old Latin translation of Josephus; and probably also in his original Greek text, as is collected by De Vignoles from Abarbanel's charge against the historian of having made Jeroboam's loss no more than 50,000 men, contrary to the Hebrew text (Kennicott's Dissertations, i. 533; ii. 201, &c. 564). The book of Chronicles mentions nothing concerning Abijah adverse to the impressions which we receive from his conduct on this occasion; but in Kings we are told that he walked in all the sins of his father' (1 Kings xv. 3). He had fourteen wives, by whom he left twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. Asa suc ceeded him. There is a difficulty connected with the maternity of Abijah. In 1 Kings xv. 2, we read, His mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom;' but in 2 Chron. xiii. 2, His mother's name was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.' Maachah and Michaiah are variations of the same name; and Abishalom is in all likelihood Absalom, the son of David. The word () rendered daughter' is applied in the Bible not only to a man's child, but to his niece, grand-daughter, or great-grand-daughter. It is therefore probable that Uriel of Gibeah married Tamar, the beautiful daughter of Absalom (2 Sam. xiv. 27), and by her had Maachah, who was thus the daughter of Uriel and granddaughter of Absalom. 2. ABIJAH, son of Jeroboam I., king of Israel. His severe and threatening illness induced Jeroboam to send his wife with a present [PRESENT], suited to the disguise in which she went, to consult the prophet Ahijah respecting his recovery. This prophet was the same who had, in the days of Solomon, foretold to Jeroboam his elevation to the throne of Israel. Though blind with age, he knew the disguised wife of Jeroboam, and was authorized, by the prophetic impulse that came 6 upon him, to reveal to her that, because there was found in Abijah only, of all the house of Jeroboam, some good thing towards the Lord,' he only, of all that house, should come to his grave in peace, and be mourned in Israel. Accordingly, when the mother returned home, the youth died as she crossed the threshold of the door. And they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him' (1 Kings xiv. 1-18). 3. ABIJAH, one of the descendants of Eleazer, the son of Aaron, and chief of one of the twentyfour courses or orders into which the whole body of the priesthood was divided by David (1 Chron. xxiv. 10). Of these the course of Abijah was the eighth. Only four of the courses returned from the captivity, of which that of Abijah was not one (Ezra ii. 36-39; Neh. vii. 39-42; xii. 1). But the four were divided into the original number of twenty-four, with the original names; and it hence happens that Zecharias, the father of John the Baptist, is described as belonging to the course of Abijah or 'Abia' (Luke i. 5). ABIJAM [ABIJAH, 1.] ABILA, capital of the Abilene of Lysanias (Luke iii. 1); and distinguished from other places of the same name as the Abila of Lysanias CABIAN TOù Avravíov), and (by Josephus) as the Abila of Lebanon.' It is unnecessary to reason upon the meaning of this Greek name; for it is obviously a form of the Hebrew Abel, which was applied to several places, and means a grassy spot. This has been supposed to be the same as Abel-beth-Maacah, but without foundation, for that was a city of Naphtali, which Abila was not. An old tradition fixes this as the place where Abel was slain by Cain, which is in unison with the belief that the region of Damascus was the land of Eden. But the same has been said of other places bearing the name of Abel or Abila, and appears to have originated in the belief (created by the Septuagint and the versions which followed it) that the words are identical; but, in fact, the, name of the son of Adam is in Hebrew Hebel (7), and therefore different from the repeated local name of Abel .(אבל) However, under the belief that the place and district derived their name from Abel, a monument upon the top of a high hill, near the source of the river Barrada, which rises among the eastern roots of Anti-Libanus, and waters Damascus, has long been pointed out as the tomb of Abel, and its length (thirty yards) has been alleged to correspond with his stature! (Quares mius, Elucid. Terræ Sanctæ, vii. 7, 1; Maundrell, under May 4th). This spot is on the road from Heliopolis (Baalbec) to Damascus, between which towns-thirty-two Roman miles from the former and eighteen from the latterAbila is indeed placed in the Itinerary of Antoninus. About the same distance north-west of Damascus is Souk Wady Barrada, where an inscription was found by Mr. Banks, which, beyond doubt, identifies that place with the Abila of Lysanias (Quart. Rev. xxvi. 388; Hogg's Damascus, i. 301). Souk means market, and is an appellation often added to villages where periodical markets are held. The name of Souk (Wady) Barrada first occurs in Burckhardt (Syria, p. 2); and he states that there are here two villages, built on the opposite sides of the Barrada. The lively and refreshing green of this neigh bourhood is noticed by him and other travellers, and undesignedly suggests the propriety of the name of Abel, in its Hebrew acceptation of a grassy spot. ABILENE CAß‹ŋvý, Luke iii. 1), the small district or territory which took its name from the chief town, Abila. Its situation is in some degree determined by that of the town; but its precise limits and extent remain unknown. Northward it must have reached beyond the Upper Barrada, in order to include Abila; and it is probable that its southern border may have extended to Mount Hermon (Jebel es-Sheikh). It seems to have included the eastern declivities of Anti-Libanus, and the fine valleys between its hase and the hills which front the eastern plains. This is a very beautiful and fertile region, well wooded, and watered by numerous springs from Anti-Libanus. It also affords fine pastures; and in most respects contrasts with the stern and barren western slopes of Anti-Libanus. This territory had been governed as a tetrarchate by Lysanias, son of Ptolemy and grandson of Mennæus (Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 13, 3), but he was put to death, B.c. 33, through the intrigues of Cleopatra, who then took possession of the province (Antiq. xiv. 4, 1). After her death it fell to Augustus, who rented it out to one Zenodorus; but as he did not keep it clear of robbers, it was taken from him, and given to Herod the Great (Antiq. xv. 10, 1; Bell. Jud. i. 20, 4). At his death, a part (the southern, doubtless) of the territory was added to Trachonitis and Ituræa to form a tetrarchy for his son Philip; but by far the larger portion, including the city of Abila, was then, or shortly afterwards, bestowed on another Lysanias, mentioned by Luke (iii. 1), who is supposed to have been a descendant of the former Lysanias, but who is nowhere mentioned by Josephus. Indeed, nothing is said by him or any other profane writer, of this part of Abilene until about ten years after the time referred to by Luke, when the emperor Caligula gave it to Agrippa I. as the tetrarchy of Lysanias' (Joseph. Antiq. xviii. 6, 10), to whom it was afterwards confirmed by Claudius. At his death, it was included in that part of his possessions which went to his son Agrippa II. This explanation (which we owe to the acuteness and research of Winer), as to the division of Abilene between Lysanias and Philip, removes the apparent discrepancy between Luke, who calls Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene at the very time that, according to Josephus, (a part of) Abilene was in the possession of Philip. 1. ABIMELECH (7, father of the king, or perhaps royal father; Sept. 'Aßtuéλex), the name of the Philistine king of Gerar in the time of Abraham (Gen. xx. 1, sqq.: B.C. 1898; Hales, B.C. 2054); but, from its recurrence, it was probably less a proper name than a titular distinction, like PHARAOH for the kings of Egypt, or AUGUSTUS for the emperors of Rome. Abraham removed into his territory after the destruction of Sodom; and fearing that the extreme beauty of Sarah might bring him into difficulties, he declared her to be his sister. The conduct of Abimelech in taking Sarah into his harem, shows that even in those early times kings claimed the right of taking to themselves the unmarried females not only of their natural subjects, but of those who sojourned in their dominions. Another contemporary instance of this custom occurs in Gen. xii. 15; and one of later date in Esth. ii. 3. But Abimelech, obedient to a divine warning communicated to him in a dream, accompanied by the information that Abraham was a sacred person who had intercourse with God, restored her to her husband. As a mark of his respect he added valuable gifts, and offered the patriarch a settlement in any part of the country; but he nevertheless did not forbear to rebuke, with mingled delicacy and sarcasm, the deception which had been practised upon him (Gen. xx.). The most curious point in this transaction seems to be, that it appears to have been admitted, on all hands, that he had an undoubted right to appropriate to his harem whatever unmarried woman he pleased-all the evil in this case being that Sarah was already married: so early had some of the most odious principles of despotism taken root in the East. The interposition of Providence to deliver Sarah twice from royal harems will not seem superfluous when it is considered how carefully women are there secluded, and how impossible it is to obtain access to them, or get them back again (Esth. iv. 5). It is scarcely necessary to add that these practices still prevail in some Eastern countries, especially in Persia. The present writer, when at Tabreez, in the days of Abbas Meerza, was acquainted with a Persian khan who lived in continual anxiety and alarm lest his only daughter should be required for the harem of the prince, who, he was aware, had heard of her extreme beauty. Nothing further is recorded of King Abimelech, except that a few years after, he repaired to the camp of Abraham, who had removed southward beyond his borders, accompanied by Phichol, the chief captain of his host,' to invite the patriarch to contract with him a league of peace and friendship. Abraham consented; and this first league on record [ALLIANCE] was confirmed by a mutual oath, made at a well which had been dug by Abraham, but which the herdsmen of Abimelech had forcibly seized without his knowledge. It was restored to the rightful owner, on which Abraham named it BEERSHEBA (the Well of the Oath), and consecrated the spot to the worship of Jehovah (Gen. xxi. 22-34). 2. ABIMELECH, another king of Gerar, in the time of Isaac (about B.c. 1804; Hales, 1960), who is supposed to have been the son of the preceding. Isaac sought refuge in his territory during a famine; and having the same fear respecting his fair Mesopotamian wife, Rebekah, as his father had entertained respecting Sarah, he reported her to be his sister. This brought upon him the rebuke of Abimelech, when he accidentally discovered the truth. The country appears to have become more cultivated and populous than at the time of Abraham's visit, nearly a century before; and the inhabitants were more jealous of the presence of such powerful pastoral chieftains. In those times, as now, wells of water were of so much importance for agricultural as well as pastoral purposes, that they gave a proprietary right to the soil, not previously appropriated, in which they were dug. Abraham had dug wells during his sojourn in the country; and, to bar the claim which re |