Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
•A town of northern Palestine, allotted to the tribe of Naphtali, and situated near Kedesh. (Joshua
19:37) About two miles south of Kedesh is a conical rocky hill called Tell Khuraibeh, the “tell of
the ruin,” which may be the site of Edrei.
Education
There is little trace among the Hebrews in earlier times of education in any other subjects than
the law. The wisdom therefore and instruction, of which so much is said in the book of Proverbs,
are to be understood chiefly of moral and religious discipline, imparted, according to the direction
of the law, by the teaching and under the example of parents. (But Solomon himself wrote treatises
on several scientific subjects, which must have been studied in those days.) In later times the
prophecies and comments on them, as well as on the earlier Scriptures, together with other subjects,
were studied. Parents were required to teach their children some trade. (Girls also went to schools,
and women generally among the Jews were treated with greater equality to men than in any other
ancient nation.) Previous to the captivity, the chief depositaries of learning were the schools or
colleges, from which in most cases proceeded that succession of public teachers who at various
times endeavored to reform the moral and religious conduct of both rulers and people. Besides the
prophetical schools instruction was given by the priests in the temple and elsewhere. [See Schools]
Eglah
(a heifer), one of David’s wives during his reign in Hebron. (2 Samuel 3:5; 1 Chronicles 3:3)
(B.C. 1055.)
Eglaim
(two ponds), a place named only in (Isaiah 15:8) probably the same as EN-EGLAIM.
Eglon
(calf-like).
•A king of the Moabites, (Judges 3:12) ff., who, aided by the Ammonites and the Amelekites,
crossed the Joran and took “the city of palm trees.” (B.C. 1359.) here, according to Josephus, he
built himself a palace, and continued for eighteen years to oppress the children of Israel, who paid
him tribute. He was slain by Ehud. [Ehud]
•A town of Judah in the low country. (Joshua 15:39) The name survives in the modern Ajlan, a
shapeless mass of ruins, about 10 miles from Eleutheropolis and 14 from Gaza, on the south of
the great maritime plain.
Egypt
(land of the Copts), a country occupying the northeast angle of Africa. Its limits appear always
to have been very nearly the same. It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east
by Palestine, Arabia and the Red Sea, on the south by Nubia, and on the west by the Great Desert.
It is divided into upper Egypt—the valley of the Nile—and lower Egypt, the plain of the Delta,
from the Greek letter; it is formed by the branching mouths of the Nile, and the Mediterranean Sea.
The portions made fertile by the Nile comprise about 9582 square geographical miles, of which
only about 5600 is under cultivation.—Encyc. Brit. The Delta extends about 200 miles along the
Mediterranean, and Egypt is 520 miles long from north to south from the sea to the First Cataract.
Names.—The common name of Egypt in the Bible is “Mizraim.” It is in the dual number, which
indicates the two natural divisions of the country into an upper and a lower region. The Arabic
name of Egypt—Mizr— signifies “red mud.” Egypt is also called in the Bible “the land of Ham,”
(Psalms 105:23,27) comp. Psalms 78:51—a name most probably referring to Ham the son of
Noah—and “Rahab,” the proud or insolent: these appear to be poetical appellations. The common
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William Smith