AMMAN hymns or prayers, as amen and amen' (Ps. xli. 13; lxxii. 19; lxxxix. 52). The proper signification of it in this position is to confirm the words which have preceded, and invoke the fulfilment of them: so be it.' Hence in oaths, after the priest has repeated the words of the covenant or imprecation, all those who pronounced the amen bound themselves by the oath (Num. v. 22; Deut. xxvii. 15, 26; Neh. v. 13; viii. 6; 1 Chron. xvi. 36; comp. Ps. cvi. 48). AMETHYST. The word thus translated in the common version is in Hebrew ACHLAMAH, and is the name of the precious stone mentioned in Scripture as the ninth in the breastplate of the high-priest (Exod. xxviii. 19; xxxix. 12): in the New Testament the precise word amethyst (which is Greek) designates the twelfth stone in the foundations of the New Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 20). The transparent gems called amethysts are of a colour which seems composed of a strong blue and deep red; and according as either of these prevails, exhibit different tinges of purple, sometimes approaching to violet, and sometimes declining even to a rose colour. All the varieties of it are comprehended under two species, the Oriental Amethyst and the Occidental Amethyst. The Oriental amethyst is very scarce, and of great hardness, lustre, and beauty. It is in fact a rare variety of the adamantine spar, or corundum. Next to the diamond, it is the hardest | substance known. It contains about 90 per cent. of alumine, a little iron, and a little silica. Of this species, emery, used in cutting and polishing glass, &c., is a granular variety. To this species also belongs the sapphire, the most valuable of gems next to the diamond; and of which the Oriental amethyst is merely a violet variety. Like other sapphires, it loses its colour in the fire, and comes out with so much of the lustre and colour of the diamond, that the most experienced jeweller may be deceived by it. The more common, or Occidental amethyst, is a variety of quartz, or rock crystal, and is found in various forms in many parts of the world, as India, Siberia, Sweden, Germany, Spain; and even in England very beautiful specimens of tolerable hardness have been discovered. This also loses its colour in the fire. Amethysts were much used by the ancients for rings and cameos; and the reason given by Pliny-because they were easily cut-shows that the Occidental species is to be understood. The ancients believed that the amethyst possessed the power of dispelling drunkenness in those who wore or touched it, and hence its Greek name. In like manner, the Rabbins derive its Jewish name from its supposed power of procuring dreams to the wearer. i. AMIN'ADAB (kindred of the prince), one of the ancestors of David and of Christ (Matt. i. 4). He was the son of Aram, and the father of Naasson, and of Elisheba, who became the wife of Aaron (Exod. vi. 23). 2. AMINADAB, in Cant. vi. 12. The chariots of this Aminadab are mentioned as proverbial for their swiftness. Of himself we know nothing more than what is here glanced at, from which he appears to have been, like Jehu, one of the most celebrated charioteers of his day. AM'MAN. [RABBAH.] AMMONITES AM'MON. [No AMMON.] AM'MONITES, the descendants of the younger son of Lot (Gen. xix. 38). They originally occupied a tract of country east of the Amorites, and separated from the Moabites by the river Arnon. It was previously in the possession of a gigantic race called Zamzummims (Deut. ii. 20), but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites, and they succeeded them and dwelt in their stead.' The Israelites on reaching the borders of the Promised Land, were commanded not to molest the children of Ammon, for the sake of their progenitor Lot. But, though thus preserved from the annoyance which the passage of such an immense host through their country might have occasioned, they showed them no hospitality or kindness; they were therefore prohibited from entering the congregation of the Lord' (i. e. from being admitted into the civil community of the Israelites) to the tenth generation for ever' (Deut. xxiii. 3). This is evidently intended to be a perpetual prohibition, and was so understood by Nehemiah (Neh. xiii. 1). The first mention of their active hostility against Israel occurs in Judges iii. 13. About 140 years later we are informed that the children of Israel forscok Jehovah and served the gods of various nations, including those of the children of Ammon, and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against them, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and of the children of Ammon. The Ammonites crossed over the Jordan, and fought with Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim, so that Israel was sore distressed.' In answer to Jephthah's messengers (Judg. xi. 12), the king of Ammon charged the Israelites with having taken away that part of his territories which lay between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok, which, in Joshua xiii. 25, is called half the land of the children of Ammon,' but was in the possession of the Amorites when the Israelites invaded it; and this fact was urged by Jephthah, in order to prove that the charge was ill-founded. Jephthah 'smote them from Aroer to Minnith, even twenty cities, with a very great slaughter' (Judg. xi. 33). The Ammonites were again signally defeated by Saul (B.c. 1095) (1 Sam. xi. 11), and, according to Josephus, their king Nahash was slain. His successor, who bore the same name, was a friend of David, and died some years after his accession to the throne. In consequence of the gross insult offered to David's ambassadors by his son Hanun (2 Sam. x. 4), a war ensued, in which the Ammonites were defeated, and their allies the Syrians were so daunted that they feared to help the children of Ammon any more' (2 Sam. x. 19). In the following year David took their metropolis, Rabbah, and great abundance of spoil, which is probably mentioned by anticipation in 2 Sam. viii. 12 (2 Sam. x. 14; xii. 26-31). In the reign of Jehoshaphat (B.c. 896) the Ammonites joined with the Moabites and other tribes belonging to Mount Seir, to invade Judah; but, by the divine intervention, were led to destroy one another. Jehoshaphat and his people were three days in gathering the spoil (2 Chron. xx. 25). The Ammonites gave gifts' to Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 8), and paid a tribute to his son Jotham for three successive years, consisting of 100 talents of silver, 1000 measures of wheat, and as many of barley. When the two and a half tribes were carried away captive, the Ainmonites took possession of the towns belonging to the tribe of Gad (Jerem. xlix. 1). Bands of the children of Ammon' and of other nations came up with Nebuchadnezzar against Jerusalem (B.c. 607), and joined in exulting over its fall (Ezek. xxv. 3, 6). Yet they allowed some of the fugitive Jews to take refuge among them, and even to intermarry (Jer. xl. 11; Neh. xiii. 23). On the return of the Jews from Babylon the Ammonites manifested their ancient hostility by deriding and opposing the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Neh. iv. 3, 7, 8). Both Ezra and Nehemiah expressed vehement indignation against those Jews who had intermarried with the heathen, and thus transgressed the divine command (Deut. vii. 3; Ezra x.; Neh. xiii. 25). Judas Maccabæus (B.C. 164) fought many battles with the Ammonites, and took Jazer with the towns belonging to it. Justin Martyr affirms that in his time the Ammonites were still numerous. The national idol of the Ammonites was Molech or Milcom, whose worship was introduced among the Israelites by the Ammonitish wives of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 5, 7); and the high places built by that sovereign for this 'abomination' were not destroyed till the reign of Josiah (B.C. 610) (2 Kings xxiii. 13). Besides Nahash and Hanun, an Ammonitish king Baalis is mentioned by Jeremiah (xl. 14). In the writings of the prophets terrible denunciations are uttered against the Ammonites on account of their rancorous hostility to the people of Israel; and the destruction of their metropolis, Rabbah, is distinctly foretold (Zeph. ii. 8; Jer. xlix. 1-6; Ezek. xxv. 1-5, 10; Amos i. 13-15). AM'NON (faithful), the eldest son of David, by Ahinoam of Jezreel. He was born at Hebron, about B.C. 1056. He is only known for his atrocious conduct towards his half-sister Tamar, which her full-brother Absalom revenged two years after, by causing him to be assassinated while a guest at his table, in B.C. 1032 (2 Sam. xiii.) [ABSALOM]. A'MON (Jer. xlvi. 25) is the name of an Egyptian god, in whom the classical writers unanimously recognise their own Zeus and Jupiter. His chief temple and oracle in Egypt 23. AMORITES were at Thebes, a city peculiarly consecrated to him, and which is probably meant by the No and No Amon of the prophets. He is generally represented on Egyptian monuments by the seated figure of a man with a ram's head, or by that of an entire ram, and of a blue colour. In honour of him, the inhabitants of the Thebaid abstained from the flesh of sheep, but they annually sacrificed a ram to him and dressed his image in the hide. As for the power which was worshipped under the form of Amon, it has been asserted that the Libyans adored the setting sun under that of their Ammon; others have endeavoured to prove that Amon represented the sun at the vernal equinox. But nothing very definite is known upon the subject, though the fact seems placed beyond a doubt that Amon bears some relation to the sun. AMON (artificer), son of Manasseh, and fourteenth king of Judah, who began to reign B.C. 641, and reigned two years. He appears to have derived little benefit from the instructive example which the sin, punishment, and repentance of his father offered; for he restored idolatry, and again set up the images which Manasseh had cast down. He was assassinated in a court conspiracy: but the people put the regicides to death, and raised to the throne his son Josiah, then but eight years old (2 Kings xxi. 19-26; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 21-25). AM'ORITES, the descendants of one of the sons of Canaan. They were the most powerful and distinguished of the Canaanitish nations. We find them first noticed in Gen. xiv. 7. In the promise to Abraham (Gen. xv. 21), the Amorites are specified as one of the nations whose country would be given to his posterity. But at that time three confederates of the patriarch belonged to this tribe; Mamre, Aner, and Eshcol (Gen. xiv. 13, 24). When the Israelites were about to enter the promised land. the Amorites occupied a tract on both sides o' the Jordan. That part of their territories which lay to the east of the Jordan was allotted to th tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe o Manasseh. They were under two kings-Sihoa. king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan (Deut i. 4; Josh. xii. 4; xiii. 12). Before hostilitie. commenced messengers were sent to Sihon, requesting permission to pass through his land: but Sihon refused, and came to Jahaz and fought with Israel; and Israel smote him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon (Modjeb) unto Jabbok (Zerka (Num. xxi. 24). Ög also gave battle to the Israelites at Edrei, and was totally defeated. After the capture of Ai, five kings of the Amorites, whose dominions lay within the allotment of the tribe of Judah, leagued together to wreak vengeance on the Gibeonites for having made a separate peace with the invaders. Joshua, o. being apprised of their design, marched t Gibeon and defeated them with great slaughte (Josh. x. 10). Another confederacy was shortly after formed on a still larger scale; the asseciated forces are described as much people, even as the sand upon the sea-shore in multitud. with horses and chariots very many ' (Josh. xi. 4). Joshua came suddenly upon them by the wate of Merom (the modern lake Huleh), and Israe AMOS AMULET 65 smote them until they left none remaining | framed according to the rules prescribed in the (Josh. xi. 8). Still, after their severe defeats, Pentateuch, a fact which furnishes a conclusive the Amorites, by means of their war-chariots argument for the genuineness of the Mosaic reand cavalry, confined the Danites to the hills, cords. and would not suffer them to settle in the plains: they even succeeded in retaining posression of some of the mountainous parts (Judg. i. 34-36). It is mentioned as an extraordinary circumstance that in the days of Samuel there was peace between Israel and the Amorites 1 Sain. vii. 14). In Solomon's reign a tribute of bond-service was levied on the remnant of the Amorites and other Canaanitish nations (1 Kings ix. 21; 2 Chron. viii. 8). A'MOS (borne), one of the twelve minor prophets, and a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea. He was a native of Tekoah, about six miles south of Bethlehem, inhabited chiefly by shepherds to which class he belonged, being also a dresser of sycamore-trees. The period during which he filled the prophetic office was of short duration, unless we suppose that he uttered other predictions which are not recorded. It is stated expressly that he prophesied in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake (Amos i. 1). As Uzziah and Jeroboam were contemporaries for about fourteen years, from B.C. 798 to 784, the latter of these dates will mark the period when Amos prophesied. When Amos received his commission, the kingdom of Israel, which had been cut short' by Hazael (2 Kings x. 32) towards the close of Jehu's reign, was restored to its ancient limits and splendour by Jeroboam the Second (2 Kings xiv. 25). But the restoration of national prosperity was followed by the prevalence of luxury, licentiousness, and oppression, to an extent that again provoked the divine displeasure, and Amos was called from the sheep-folds to be the harbinger of the coming judgments. Not that his commission was limited entirely to Israel. The thunder-storm (as Ruckert poetically expresses it) rolls over all the surrounding kingtoms, touches Judah in its progress, and at ength settles upon Israel. Chap. i.; ii. 1-5, form a solemn prelude to the main subject; ation after nation is summoned to judgment. Israel is then addressed in the same style, and n chap. iii. (after a brief rebuke of the twelve ribes collectively) its degenerate state is strikngly portrayed, and the denunciations of divine justice are intermingled, like repeated thunderclaps, to the end of chap. vi. The seventh and ighth chapters contain various symbolical visions, with a brief historical episode (vii. 10-17). In the ninth chapter the majesty of Jehovah and the terrors of his justice are set forth with a sublimity of diction which rivals ind partly copies that of the royal Psalmist comp. vers. 2, 3, with Ps. cix., and ver. 6 with Ps. civ.). Towards the close the scene brightens, and from the eleventh verse to the end the prouises of the divine mercy and returning favour to the chosen race are exhibited in imagery of great beauty taken from rural life.. The canonicity of the book of Amos is amply supported both by Jewish and Christian authorities. Philo, Josephus, and the Talmud include it among the minor prophets. It is also in the catalogues of Melito, Jerome, and the 60th canon of the Council of Laodicea. Justin Martyr. quotes a considerable part of the 5th and 6th chapters, which he introduces by saying,Hear how he speaks concerning these by Amos, one of the twelve.' There are two quotations from it in the New Testament: the first (v. 25, 26) by the proto-martyr Stephen, Acts vii. 42: the second (ix. 11) by the apostle James, Acts xv. 16. A'MOSIS, an Egyptian monarch, the founder of the eighteenth dynasty, who ascended the throne in B.C. 1575. The period of his accession, and the change which then took place in the reigning family, strongly confirm the opinion of his being the new king who knew not Joseph (Exod. i. 8); and if it be considered that he was from the distant province of Thebes, it is reasonable to expect that the Hebrews would be strangers to him, and that he would be likely to look upon them with the same distrust and contempt with which the Egyptians usually regarded foreigners. AMPHIPOLIS, a city of Greece, through which Paul and Silas passed on their way from Philippi to Thessalonica (Acts xvii. 1). It was situated on the left bank of the river Strymon just below its egress from the lake Kerkine (now Takino), and about three miles above its influx into the sea. This situation upon the banks of a navigable river, a short distance from the sea, with the vicinity of the woods of Kerkine, and the gold-mines of Mount Pangææus, rendered Amphipolis a place of much importance, and an object of contest between the Thracians, Athenians, Lacedæmonians, and Macedonians, to whom it successively belonged. It has long been in ruins; and a village of about one hundred houses, called Jeni-keui, now occupies part of its site. AM'RAM, son of Kohath, of the tribe of Levi. He married his father's sister Jochebed, by whom he had Aaron, Miriam, and Moses. He died in Egypt, at the age of 137 years (Exod. vi.). AM'RAPHEL, king of Shinar, one of the four kings who invaded Palestine in the time o Abraham (Gen. xiv. 1, 2, sq.) [ABRAHAM; CHEDORLAOMER]. AMULET (Isa. iii. 20). From the earliest ages the Orientals have believed in the influences of the stars, in spells, witchcraft, and the maligi power of the evil eye; and to protect themselves against the maladies and other evils which such influences were supposed to occasion, almost all the ancient nations wore amulets. These amulets consisted, and still consist, chiefly of tickets inscribed with sacred sentences, and of certain stones or pieces of metal. Not only were persons thus protected, but even houses were, as they still are, guarded from supposed malign influences by certain holy inscriptions upon the doors. The writings of this prophet afford clear evidence that the existing religious institutions both of Judah and Israel (with the exception of the corruptions introduced by Jeroboam) were The previous existence of these customs i F implied in the attempt of Moses to turn them | to becoming uses, by directing that certain passages extracted from the law should be employed (Exod. xiii. 9, 16; Deut. vi. 8; xi. 18). The door-schedules being noticed elsewhere, we here limit our attention to personal amulets. By this religious appropriation the then all-pervading tendency to idolatry was in this matter obviated, although in later times, when the tendency to idolatry had passed away, such written scrolls degenerated into instruments of superstition. ANANIAS ment), with words written on thein, whereby it was supposed that diseases were either driven away or cured. They wore such amulets all the week, but were forbidden to go abroad with them on the Sabbath, unless they were "approved amulets," that is, were prescribed by a person who knew that at least three persons had been The ear-rings (Auth. Vers.) of Isa. iii. 20, it is now allowed, denote amulets, although they served also the purpose of ornament. They were probably precious stones, or small plates of gold or silver, with sentences of the law or magic formulæ inscribed on them, and worn in the ears, or suspended by a chain round the neck. It is certain that earrings were sometimes used in this way as instruments of superstition, and that at a very early period (Gen. xxxv. 4), and they are still used as charms in the East. Augustin speaks strongly against car-rings that were worn as amulets in his time. Some have supposed that these amulets were charms inscribed on silver and gold similar to those ornamental little cases for written charms which are still used by Arab women. This is represented in the first figure of the cut No. 34. The writing is covered with waxed cloth, and enclosed in a case of thin embossed gold or silver, which is attached to a silk string, or a chain, and generally hung on the right side, above the girdle, the string or chain being passed over the left shoulder. Amulets of this shape, or of a triangular form, are worn by women and children; and those of the latter shape are often attached to children's head-dress. The superstitions connected with amulets grew to a great height in the later periods of the Jewish history. There was hardly any people in the whole world,' says Lightfoot, that more used or were more fond of amulets, charms, mutterings, exorcisms, and all kinds of enchantments. . . . The amulets were either little roots hung about the neck of sick persons, or, what was more common, bits of paper (and parch 85. In these amulets cured by the same means. mysterious names and characters were occasionally employed, in lieu of extracts from the law. One of the most usual of these was the cabalistic hexagonal figure known as the "shield of David" and "the seal of Solomon."' A'NAB, one of the cities in the mountains of Judah, from which Joshua expelled the Anakim (Josh. xi. 21; xv. 50). A'NAH (responder), son of Zibeon the Hivite, and father of Esau's wife Aholibamah (Gen. xxxvi. 24). While feeding asses in the desert he discovered warm springs,' as the original is rendered by Jerome. Gesenius and most modern critics think this interpretation correct, supported as it is by the fact that warm springs are still found in the region east of the Dead Sea. AN'AKIM, or BENE-ANAK and BENE-ANAKIM, a wandering nation of southern Canaan, descended from Anak, whose name it bore (Josh. xi. 21). It was composed of three tribes, descended from and named after the three sons of Anak-Ahiman, Sesai, and Talmai. When the Israelites invaded Canaan, the Anakim were in possession of Hebron, Debir, Anak, and other towns in the country of the south. Their formidable stature and appearance alarmed the Hebrew spies; but they were eventually overcome and expelled by Caleb, when the remnant of the race took refuge among the Philistines (Num. xiii. 33; Deut. ix. 2; Josh. xi. 21; xiv. 12; Judg. i. 20). ANAM'MELECH (2 Kings xvii. 31) is mentioned, together with Adrammelech, as a god of the people of Sepharvaim, who colonized Samaria. He was also worshipped by the sacrifice of children by fire. No satisfactory etymology of the name has been discovered. The same obscurity prevails as to the form under which the god was worshipped. 1. ANANI'AS (same name as Hananiah, whom Jehovah hath graciously given), son of Nebedæus, was made high-priest in the time of the procurator Tiberius Alexander, about A.D. 47, by Herod, king of Chalcis, who for this purpose removed Joseph, son of Camydus, from the highpriesthood. He held the office with credit, until Agrippa gave it to Ismael, the son of Tali, who succeeded a short time before the departure of ANANIAS the procurator Felix, and occupied the station also under his successor Festus. Ananias, after retiring from his high-priesthood, increased in glory every day, and obtained favour with the citizens, and with Albinus, the Roman procurator, by a lavish use of the great wealth he had hoarded. His prosperity met with a dark and painful termination. The assassins, who played so fearful a part in the Jewish war, set fire to his house in the commencement of it, and compelled him to seek refuge by concealment; but being discovered in an aqueduct, he was captured and slain. It was this Ananias before whom Paul was brought, in the procuratorship of Felix (Acts xxiii.). After this hearing Paul was sent to Cæsarea, whither Ananias repaired, in order to lay a formal charge against him before Felix, who postponed the matter, detaining the apostle meanwhile, and placing him under the supervision of a Roman centurion (Acts xxiv.). spirited exposure of their aggravated offence. Their death, the reader is left to infer, was by the hand of God; nor is any ground afforded in the narrative (Acts v. 1-11) for holding that Peter was in any way employed as an immediate instrument of the miracle. 3. ANANIAS, a Christian of Damascus (Acts ix. 10; xxii. 12), held in high repute, to whom the Lord appeared in a vision, and bade him proceed to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth.' Ananias had difficulty in giving credence to the message, remembering how much evil Paul had done to the saints at Jerusalem, and knowing that he had come o Damascus with authority to lay waste the church of Christ there. Receiving, however, an assurance that the persecutor had been converted, and called to the work of preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, Ananias went to Paul, and, putting his hands on him, bade him receive his sight, when immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales; and, recovering the sight which he had lost when the Lord appeared to him on his way to Damascus, Paul, the new convert, arose, and was baptized, and preached Jesus Christ. 2. ANANIAS, a Christian belonging to the infant church at Jerusalem, who, conspiring with his wife Sapphira to deceive and defraud the brethren, was overtaken by sudden death, and immediately buried. The Christian community at Jerusalem appear to have entered into a solemn agreement, that each and all should de- Tradition represents Ananias as the first that vote their property to the great work of further-published the Gospel in Damascus, over which ing the Gospel and giving succour to the needy. place he was subsequently made bishop; but Accordingly they proceeded to sell their posses- having roused, by his zeal, the hatred of the sions, and brought the proceeds into the com- Jews, he was seized by them, scourged, and mon stock of the church. Thus Barnabas (Acts finally stoned to death in his own church. iv. 36, 37) having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. The apostles then had the general disposal, if they had not also the immediate distribution, of the common funds. The contributions, therefore, were designed for the sacred purposes of religion (Acts v. 1-11). As all the members of the Jerusalem church had thus agreed to hold their property in common, for the furtherance of the holy work in which they were engaged, if any one of them withheld a part, and offered the remainder as a whole, he committed two offences-he defrauded the church, and was guilty of falsehood: and as his act related not to secular but to religious affairs, and had an injurious bearing, both as an example, and as a positive transgression against the Gospel while it was yet struggling into existence, Ananias lied not unto man, but unto God, and was guilty of a sin of the deepest dye. Had Ananias chosen to keep his property for his own worldly purposes, he was at liberty, as Peter intimates, so to do; but he had in fact alienated it to pious purposes, and it was therefore no longer his own. Yet he wished to deal with it in part as if it were so, showing at the same time that he was conscious of his misdeed, by presenting the residue to the common treasury as if it had been his entire property. He wished to satisfy his selfish cravings, and at the same time to enjoy the reputation of being purely disinterested, like the rest of the church. He attempted to serve God and Mammon. With strange inconsistency on the part of those who deny miracles altogether, unbelievers have accused Peter of cruelly smiting Ananias and his wife with instant death. The sacred narrative, however, ascribes to Peter nothing more than a ANATH'EMA, literally anything laid up or suspended, and hence anything laid up in a temple, set apart as sacred. The corresponding Hebrew word means a person or thing consecrated or devoted irrevocably to God (Lev. xxvii. 21, 28): hence, in reference to living creatures, the devoted thing, whether man or beast, must be put to death (Lev. xxvii. 29). The prominent idea, therefore, which the word conveyed was that of a person or thing devoted to destruction, or accursed. Thus the cities of the Canaanites were anathematized (Num. xxi. 2, 3). Thus, again, the city of Jericho was made an anathema to the Lord (Josh. vi. 17), that is, every living thing in it (except Rahab and her family) was devoted to death; that which could be destroyed by fire was burnt, and all that could not be thus consumed (as gold and silver) was for ever alienated from man and devoted to the use of the sanctuary (Josh. vi. 24). The prominence thus given to the idea of a thing accursed led naturally to the use of the word in cases where there was no reference whatever to consecration to the service of God, as in Deut. vii. 26; it is sometimes used to designate the curse itself (e. g. Deut. xx. 17). In this sense, also, the Jews of later times use the Hebrew term, though with a somewhat dif ferent meaning as to the curse intended, employing it to signify excommunication or exclusion from the Jewish church. The more recent Rabbinical writers reckon three kinds or degrees of excommunication. The first of these is merely a temporary separation or suspension from eccle siastical privileges, involving, however, various civil inconveniences, particularly seclusion from society to the distance of four cubits. The person thus excommunicated was not debarred enter |