Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
simple. It does not in the least savor of romance. The Hebrew is very like that of Ezra and parts of
the Chronicles; generally pure, but mixed with some words of Persian origin and some of the
Chaldaic affinity. In short it is just what one would expect to find in a work of the age to which the
book of Esther professes to belong.
Etam
(lair of wild beasts).
•A village of the tribe of Simeon, specified only in the list in (1 Chronicles 4:32) comp. Josh 19:7
•A place in Judah, fortified and garrisoned by Rehoboam. (2 Chronicles 11:6) Here, according to
the statements of Josephus and the Talmudists, were the sources of the water from which Solomon’s
gardens and the pleasure-grounds were fed, and Bethlehem and the temple supplied.
Etam, The Rock
a cliff or lofty rock, into a cleft or chasm of which Samson retired after his slaughter of the
Philistines. (Judges 15:8,11) This natural stronghold was in the tribe of Judah; and near it, probably
at its foot, were Lehi and Ramath-lehi and Enhakkore. (Judges 15:9,14,17,19) The name Etam was
held by a city in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, (2 Chronicles 11:6) which is known to have been
situated in the extremely uneven and broken country round the modern Urtas.
Etham
(bounded by the sea), one of the early resting-places of the Israelites when they quitted Egypt;
described as “in the edge of the wilderness.” (Exodus 13:20; Numbers 33:6,7) Etham may be placed
where the cultivable land ceases, near the Seba Biar or Seven Wells, about three miles from the
western side of the ancient head of the gulf.
Ethan
(enduring).
•Ethan the Ezrahite, one of the four sons of Mahol, whose wisdom was excelled by Solomon. (1
Kings 4:31; 1 Chronicles 2:6) His name is in the title of (Psalms 89:1)
•Son of Kishi or Kushaiah; a Merarite Levite, head of that family in the time of King David, (1
Chronicles 6:44) and spoken of as a “singer.” With Heman and Asaph, the heads of the other two
families of Levites, Ethan was appointed to sound with cymbals. (1 Chronicles 15:17,19)
•A Gershonite Levite, one of the ancestors of Asaph the singer. (1 Chronicles 6:42) Hebr 27. (B.C.
1420.)
Ethanim
[Month]
Ethbaal
(with Baal), king of Sidon and father of Jezebel. (1 Kings 16:31) Josephus represents him as a
king of the Tyrians as well as of the Sidonians. We may thus identify him with Eithobalus, who,
after having assassinated Pheles, usurped the throne of Tyre for thirty-two years. The date of
Ethbaal’s reign may be given as about B.C. 940-908.
Ether
(abundance), one of the cities of Judah in the low country, the Shefelah, (Joshua 15:42) allotted
to Simeon. (Joshua 19:7)
Ethiopia
(burnt faces). The country which the Greeks and Romans described as “AEthiopia” and the
Hebrews as “Cush” lay to the south of Egypt, and embraced, in its most extended sense, the modern
Nubia, Sennaar, Kordofan and northern Abyssinia, and in its more definite sense the kingdom of
200
William Smith