Ex Libris C. K. OGDEN THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES »*&rj '^Fl ^<% -*>'>'"? ^O ■ I ■■ ■ ;:^; v M B ."•./Vv.-.'Vt. /I, I BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE TRADITIONS AND BELIEFS OF ANCIENT ISRAEL A NEW STUDY OF GENESIS AND EXODUS Demy 8vo. Cloth. Price 15s. net. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH Demy 8vo. Cloth. Price 7s. 6d. net. THE TWO RELIGIONS OF ISRAEL WITH AN EXAMINATION OF THE PROPHETIC NARRATIVES AND UTTERANCES Demy 8vo. Cloth. Price 12s. 6d. net. CRITICA BIBLICA Demy 8vo. Cloth. Price 15s. net. OR MAY BE HAD IN SEPARATE TARTS, VIZ. Part I. Isaiah and Jeremiah, price 2s. 6d. net. ,, II. Ezekiel and Minor Prophets, price 3s. net. ,, III. The Books of Samuel, price 3s. net. ,, IV. The Books of Kings, price 3s. net. V. Joshua and Judges, price 3s. net. THE MINES OF ISAIAH RE-EXPLORED Demy 8vo. Cloth. Price 5s. net. PUBLISHED BY A. AND C BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY AGENTS Amfrica . . The Macmillan Company 64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, New York Australasia The Oxford University Press 205 Flinders Lane, Melbourne Canada . . The Macmillan Company of Canada, Ltd. St. Martin's House, 70 Bond Street, Toronto. India . . . Macmillan & Company, Ltd. Macmillan Building, Bombay 309 Bow Bazaar Street, Calcutta THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY A FURTHER ATTEMPT TO LIFT IT BY The Rev. T. K. CHEYNE, D.Litt. HONORARY D.D. EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF INTERPRETATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE AT OXFORD HONORARY FELLOW OF ORIEL AND WORCESTER COLLEGES FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK 1913 3>£ } Z I TO MY DEAR PUPIL, FRIEND, AND NOW SUCCESSOR GEORGE ALBERT COOKE AUTHOR OF NORTH SEMITIC INSCRIPTIONS AND TO ALL FREE-MINDED AND YOUNG-HEARTED SCHOLARS OF THE HEAVILY BURDENED BUT GREATLY HONOURED TWENTIETH CENTURY J409 PREFACE Verily through much tribulation of critical research must we of the present age enter into the kingdom. Verily, when criticism hath had its perfect work, we shall see — as never before — how indifferent are critical results to spiritual kingship. This work, like its predecessors, consists partly of certainties, partly of pioneering conjectures. Its object is to get behind the existing tradition, and so to recover, in an earlier and much more correct traditional form, what was believed by the Israelites respecting their past, or, as one might say, to dig down to the foundations of Israelite history. If the author's preceding works (since the Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. ii.) be considered, the reader will have a tolerably complete idea of what the author regards as important, and, on the whole, trustworthy, for historical purposes. The principal omission in this series of researches viii THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY is the reconstruction of the most essential parts of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel. That the original text of these portions ran differently from the later and now received text, hardly (in the author's opinion) admits of a doubt. But he has only been able to offer a few suggestions to the radical critics of the future. He wishes, with all his heart, that he had been able to give a sketch of Israelite history in accord- ance with his present critical results. The sketch given in the Historians History of the World is several years old ; besides, the interests of popu- larity have dictated the omission of a critical sub- stratum such as that which oaves so much value to Winckler's study of Israelite history in the third edition of Die Keilinschriften und das Alte- Testament. If the author may express a preference for one part of the book above another, he would incline to favour the chapter on Solomon, though it may be true that no page in the present work is without some original suggestions, which point the way to historical reconstruction. The treatment of place- names in this volume calls, in the author's opinion, for much ' searching of heart.' PREFACE ix That fresh discoveries will confirm many of the author's most decried results, is to him a conviction. The Elephantine papyri should be a warning to his learned opponents (see Mines of Isaiah Re-explored). Egypt has done her best for us ; it remains for Arabia to contribute fresh light where it is so much wanted. That Aryan tradition should have had some influence on the Hebrew stories, is not at all an unreasonable view, but the fact has hardly been made out by that enthusiastic scholar, Herr Martin Gemoll, for whose able work (Grundsteine), however, the present writer professes an unfeigned admiration. But enough has been said about points of view in Mines of Isaiah. It is time to launch out into the deep in the same little ship — la navicella del mio ingegno — which has weathered so many storms. May the results find a fair, an intelligent, and even, if it be possible, a generous reception ! Advent, 19 12. CHAPTER VI Shekem .... xi PAGE CONTENTS CHAPTER I The Tradition of Early N. Arabian Influence on Israel. ...... CHAPTER II Early Relations between Israel and the Ethbalites 13 CHAPTER III Jerusalem and Rabbah ; David, a North Arabian ; His Sieges of Jerusalem and Rabbah . -25 CHAPTER IV David and Uriah ; Siege of Rabbah ; David and Absalom; True Situation of the Battle-field . 47 CHAPTER V Solomon's Buildings — His Empire — His Commerce — His Enemies — His Religion . . -63 93 xii THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY CHAPTER VII PAGE Baal-Gad, Migdal-Gad, Migdal-Eder, Migdal-Shekem 97 CHAPTER VIII Samaria (?) ...... 101 CHAPTER IX TlRSAH . . . . . . .107 CHAPTER X Shiloh ....... 109 CHAPTER XI Bethel . . . . . . 1 1 3 CHAPTER XII Hebron . . . . . . . 115 CHAPTER XIII Akrab, Akrabbim . . . . .121 CHAPTER XIV Gibeon . , . . . . .123 CHAPTER XV The Gibeonite Cities . . . . .127 CONTENTS CHAPTER XVI PAGE Jericho and Jordan . . . . . 131 CHAPTER XVII Gath . . . . . • -i37 CHAPTER XVIII Ramah and Ramoth-Gilead . . . .141 CHAPTER XIX Jephthah . . . . . • ■ M5 CHAPTER XX On Nahash, Hagab, Ah'ab, and other Strange Names 147 CHAPTER XXI Ephraim — Yoseph — Yehudah . . . .153 CHAPTER XXII ESCHATOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY . . . -155 INDEX . . . . . . 159 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY CHAPTER I THE TRADITION OF EARLY N. ARABIAN INFLUENCE ON ISRAEL The strongest determining element in the Palestinian population and culture was N. Arabian. This applies, not only to the Israelites, but to the race which preceded them. The evidence of local and personal names is too abundant for us to deny this, supported as it is to so great an extent by the available evidence respecting religious ideas and practices. 1 To admit this is not to be blind to the influence of the cultures of Egypt, Crete, Babylonia, Iran, which was probably felt in Palestine in very early times, and the two latter of which cultures still exercised a fertilizing power at a later period. It would be a fascinating subject to collect the evidence for all these varied influences, but the 1 See T. and B.j D. and F.J Two Religions j Ps.® ; Crit. Bib. j and many articles in Ency. Bib. by the present writer. i i 2 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY time for this is not yet, whereas the N. Arabian influence can to some extent already be estimated, on condition that the traditional Old Testament texts — and we may add the Phoenician inscriptions — be treated more critically, and the necessary historical conclusions drawn. I shall not now enter into questions of higher criticism, and shall leave it undecided whether any parts of our traditional material may belong to writers of the northern kingdom. It is, at any rate, safe to assume that if we had traditional sagas of the origins which undoubtedly came from the northern kingdom, and not merely from that kingdom's southern territory, though they would differ from ours in many details, they would agree in giving the legends a N. Arabian setting. For could they give better proof of their predominant interest in the ' Holy Land ' than by fighting for it against such warlike competitors as the Arammites ? That the scenery of the legends of the early books of the Old Testament is largely N. Arabian, has been abundantly shown. I will however venture to mention a few illuminative facts. And first, as to the story of the origination of the first man. Of these the account of Adam and Eve is, of course, the most remarkable, because it contains the myth of Paradise. For our present purpose, this story is particularly important for the light which it throws on the origin of the Israelites and EARLY N ARABIAN INFLUENCE ON ISRAEL 3 their kinsfolk. A careful study of the description (Gen. ii. 10-14) of the four streams of the garden shows convincingly where the Israelites located their Paradise, and from whence they supposed themselves to have come. It was N. Arabia. This is expressed very clearly first of all in v. 10, which, treated critically, should probably run thus, — 1 A river goes forth from Eden to water the garden (that is, Ishmael of Arabia ; that is, with reference to Arabia of the Asshurim).' So an old tradition represented ; Wonderland was still open to those who walked in heavenly light. In spite of the large amount of wilderness in N. Arabia, to seeing eyes a river still went forth to water the garden, and it should, in the latter days, again be objec- tively visible. Of Eden, the present text only says vaguely that it lay eastward x (v. 8a). Certainly, if this was correct, it made it all the more necessary for scribes to be more communicative in the sequel. It is extremely probable, however, that the original reading of v. 8a was, — ' And Yahweh Elohim planted a garden in Eden of the Rakmites,' 2 and that a scribe or redactor, whose copy of the Eden- story had become in parts illegible, changed this into ' . . . a garden in Eden eastward.' It may well have been the same too clever scribe who produced this substitute for the original but now illegible text 1 mpa sometimes, and Dip often, is corrupt. Cp. T. and B. p. 88. 2 The Rakmites are the Yerahme'elites. Cp. Ezek. xxxi. and see T. and B. p. 457 ; Two Religions, pp. 99, 164. 4 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY of v. 10b, 'and from thence it parts itself, and becomes four heads.' Evidently he had heard the tradition of the four streams of Paradise which were Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Perath. The first three streams, it is hardly reasonable to doubt, were located by the redactor, and pre- sumably also by the narrator, in N. Arabia. Of Pishon it is said, 'that is it which encircles the whole land of Havilah' (v. 13); of Gihon, the same, except that ' Kush ' takes the place of ' Havilah.' Since, however, Havilah is a son of Kush (Gen. x. 7), and Kush is placed next before Misrim (the N. Arabian Musri) among the sons of Ham {i.e. Yarham or Yerahme'el), this is surely a distinction without a difference. Elsewhere Havilah is represented as the country of the Ishmaelites and of the Amalekites or rather Yerahme'elites (Gen. xxv. 18, 1 S. xv. 7), and the Kushites in Am. ix. 7 are parallel to the Israelites, the Philistines (Ethbalites), and the (southern) Arammites. The name of the first stream has been corrupted from Yishbon ( = Yish- mon) i.e. ' Ishmaelite stream.' The second is also corrupt, and comes probably from Haggiyyon. Hag, which forms an element of some personal names (such as Haggi, Haggith, Haggai, Haggiah, Hagagu 1 ) is probably a shortened form of Hagar, a spelling which we may assume by the side of 1 Hagagu (in Sinaitic and Palmyrene inscriptions) may be the original of Agag. On Haggith, see Crit. Bib. pp. 256/ EARLY N. ARABIAN INFLUENCE ON ISRAEL 5 Hagar, just as Haran co-exists with Haran, and Hadad with Hadad. The name Hagar (whence ultimately Gihon) or Hagar was probably the designation of as wide a N. Arabian region as Kush (see Gen. x. 7). The statement that Havilah and Kush were surrounded by streams (wadies ?) need not here be discussed. Even prosaic supple- menters, dealing with Wonderland, involuntarily indulged their fancy. Of the third stream we are told (v. 14) in the gloss that it ' goes eastward of Asshur.' Critics are wont to assume that Asshur means Assyria, and jump at the conclusion that Hiddekel must be identical with Idiklat, which is the Babylonian name for the Tigris. The difficulties are — (1) the initial syllable Hid, and (2) the incorrectness of the description of the course of the streams (if the Tigris be meant). But must 'Asshur' mean 1 Assyria ' ? The ancient city of Asshur (which Gunkel thinks of) is not likely (even from a con- servative point of view) to have been known to the writer, but a N. Arabian Asshur was, if I am not much mistaken, familiar to him, 1 and a per- fectly regular explanation of Hiddekel can be given on this easy assumption. 2 The name is a com- pound, and means ' Hadad of Yerahme'el,' from the region through which it flowed. Hadad was the name of a section of the Ishmaelite race. 1 D. and F. pp. xi /, xxix, 40, 57, etc. ; T. and B. pp. 23, etc. ; Two Re!igio?is, pp. 26/ 2 T. and B. pp. 92, 456 (n. 1). 6 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY The fourth was apparently too well known to need an explanatory gloss. Its name is Perath. It is strange but true that even ancient students of the Old Testament went wrong here ; they supposed Perath to be the Euphrates, whereas there is no passage except Jer. li. 63, where such an identification is at all plausible. The familiar phrase, 'the great river, the river Euphrates' (Gen. xv. 18, Deut. i. 7, etc.), must give place to 1 the river of Gilead, the river Perath/ Appar- ently the Perath was known as a Gileadite stream. Hence it is said of the Reubenites that they had their tents ' from the river Perath,' their cattle being numerous in the land of Gilead (1 Chr. v. 9). It is a N. Arabian Gilead which is meant ; 1 in olden times it was the realm of Akish, and the centre of that of ' Ishbosheth.' The fuller form of the name of the Gileadite stream was doubtless Ephrath. It denoted primarily a region, and may well be equivalent to Ephraim (a popular and very early distortion of ' Arab-Yaman,' i.e. Yamanite Arabia 2 ). Considering that one of the boundaries of the Joseph-tribe — including Ephraim — was the stream called either Yardan or Yarhon, 3 it would seem not improbable that Perath or Ephrath might be this stream (see ' Jordan'). There is a striking passage in old Hebrew 1 T. and B. pp. 91, 262, and cp. 197, 385^; D, and F. p. 2,7 ; Crit. Bib. p. 374. 2 T. and B. pp. 90, 472/ 3 Ibid. pp. 228, 456 (on Josh. xvi. 1). EARLY N. ARABIAN INFLUENCE ON ISRAEL 7 hagiography which throws fresh light on the Paradise streams. Paradise had disappeared, but some believed that the streams, or at least two of the streams, remained, and that their water had still an inherent supernatural virtue. The original story of Naaman (general of the king of Aram), most probably, simply related the command of the prophet to bathe seven times in the stream Yardan or Yarhon, and the uttering by Elisha of a prayer- spell, and there stopped. The substitution of Yarden for Yardan or Yarhon (?) required a corre- sponding alteration in the story, and the scribe was fully equal to the demand. The sacred streams, however, of which he had heard, were the Abana (Amana) and the Parpar. 1 One essential thing, however, in the original Paradise myth is not mentioned here, viz. that the divine garden was on a mountain with a city and a king. 2 And we cannot fail to recognize how favourable this is to the claim of N. Arabia to comprise within its limits the Holy Land. Surely the mountain must have been Horeb, not indeed as it is, but as it was in the age when God communed daily with man. But where was Horeb ? Opinions differ, but most probably it was the famous mountain where Abraham was willing to offer up his ' only son ' Isaac. That mountain was traditionally called Asshur-Yerahme'el. 3 It is likely that 'Horeb' has 1 Two Religions, pp. 1 52, 1 54/ 2 T. and B. pp. 14, 72. 3 Ibid. p. 328. 8 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY sprung from the very similar name Hur-Rab, i.e. Ashhur-Arab, which we shall find to be virtually the name of the city best known as Hebron. It would be fitting that Abraham and Sarah should be buried at the foot of the holy mountain of God. For Abraham was the progenitor of the Yerahme'elite peoples, and, very possibly, in one version of the N. Arabian Paradise - story, he was the First Man. It may indeed provoke dispute, but, as it seems to me, is a conclusion almost forced upon us by the textual phenomena, that there are several names of ' first men ' or sons of ' first men ' underlying the composite genealogies of the early chapters of Genesis. For instance, there is good reason to think that Enoch (Hanok) was originally represented as a first man, 1 and why should not the great comprehensive N. Arabian race have its own special first men, Aram-Asshur, Yerahme'el-Asshur, Ishmael, and — Abraham ? The passages which seem to point to this conclusion are : (a) Gen. ii. 23. 'And Aram said, This one is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : this one shall be called Ashhurah, for out of Ashhur has she been taken.' 2 (b) Gen. iii. 20. ' And Aram called his wife's name Ashhurah.' [Gloss, for she has become the mother of (the race of) Yerahme'el-Ashhur 2 ). (c) Gen. iv. 25. 'And Aram knew his wife, and 1 T. and B. pp. 49, 116. 2 Ibid. p. 99. EARLY N. ARABIAN INFLUENCE ON ISRAEL 9 she conceived, and bore a son, and called his name Ashtar.' 1 (Gloss, for he was the offspring of Asshur.) (d) Gen. iv. 26. 'And to Ashtar 2 [he too is Arab] a son was born, whose name he called Eshmun ' [Aram - Yerahme'el, with reference to Ashkar, Arab-Ishmael] . (e) Gen. xvii. 5. • And thy name shall no more be called Ab-ram, but thy name shall be Ab-raham, for the father of Rahmon I appoint thee.' (Gloss on Rahmon, 'nations.') It will be seen here that there are at least three ' first men ' in the Hebrew traditions ; I might indeed have reckoned six, for 'Lot,' i.e. Galoth, is no doubt the Gileadite ' first man,' 3 and Hanok and Kayin have also claims not to be disregarded. Furthermore, all these traditions have to do with N. Arabia, 4 for the Gilead, symbolized by Lot, is certainly the southern Gilead, i.e. the land of the bene Yarham or Yerahme'el. The only way to evade this conclusion is to show that the criticism which it presupposes is inadequate, or that the 1 T. and B. pp. 110-112. 2 Ibid. Ashtar (the masc. of Ashtart) is the equivalent of Asshur ; the popular speech shortened it into Sheth. It is also = Eshmun ; this we see by comparing the parallel passages Num. xxiv. 17, Jer. xlviii. 45. Sha'on (Jer. l.c.) = Shim'on = Ishmael. The name of the Phoenician god Eshmun has been greatly misunderstood. See p. 11, n. 1. 3 See T. and B. p. 307, and for the origin of Lot see T. and B. p. 211. 4 See ibid. p. 205. In fact, when we have once shown that the Paradise story is N. Arabian, the presumption becomes very strong that the legends in general are also N. Arabian. io THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY books on Genesis which have appeared the last five years have strengthened the case of moderate criticism. This task has hardly yet been accom- plished. In this connexion I may add a brief statement respecting the first man Abraham and the first woman Sarah his sister. The true form of the man's name has obviously been altered. Ab-raham cannot be right. The alteration was the consequence of the corruption of rahmon 1 ( = Yerahme'el) into hamon. Nor can ' father of Raham ' be the true meaning of Abraham, for numerous parallels show that Ab or Abi in proper names has come from 'Arab' {i.e. Arabia). Nor can m r to (Sarah) be the right form of the name of the woman. Just as Ab-raham corresponds to Aram (restored for Adam), so whatever name has been corrupted into Sarah must correspond to some N. Arabian regional ; and if Ab-raham indicates that the husband was the progenitor of Yerahme'el, the name which underlies Sarah ought to record a similar dignity for the wife. mtD (Sarah) therefore should be corrected into mti (Shurah), a shortened form of rn$». We may compare fnm from ptDN (Asshuron or Asshuran 2 ). The son of Abraham and Shurah was, we may presume, originally Ishmael, just as the son of 1 One may suspect that the Jewish and Moslem title of God, ra/iwdn, came ultimately from Raham, i.e. Yerahme'el. An interesting evolution from Yerahme'el, the War-god, to the source of Pity and Compassion. 2 D. and F. p. 141. EARL Y N. ARABIAN INFL UENCE . ON ISRAEL 1 1 Aram and Asshurah was Ashtar and their grandson Eshmun, 1 i.e. Ishmael, Abraham, Ishmael, and Ashtar, all had the same meaning. They were personifications of the old home of the Israelites, i.e. of N. Arabia, or — which is the same thing — the mythical first man. 1 We now see the origin of the Phoenician god Eshmun. Ishmael is the equivalent of Yerahme'el, who was the N. Arabian healing od (T. and B. pp, 37, 41/). CHAPTER II EARLY RELATIONS BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE ETHBALITES By stages which we cannot pause to describe certain warlike Israelite clans had gained the mastery of a considerable part of the N. Arabian border-land. It is equally certain that their possession of the land was not uncontested, and that Saul and David (if these were really the names of early dynasts) were extremely hampered by the people wrongly called Philistines. Circumstances which can only be guessed at had favoured the development of the martial Ethbalite people, which was one of the many offshoots of the great Arammite or Yerahme'elite race. 1 It may be repeated here that the confusion between Pelethites (Ethbalites) and Philistines (Pelishtim), however early it arose, has been the greatest obstacle to the right appreciation 1 D. and F. pp. xxi /, 19. We now see how the so-called Philistines had such a fellow-feeling with the Geshurites and the Amalekites (1 S. xxvii. 8, 11), how a 'Philistine' king came to be called Akish ( = Ashhur), and how an Israelite warrior could take service with a ' Philistine.' 13 14 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY of the story of Saul and David, and should be opposed by all the means in our power. Now there was a favourite battle-field of the Arammites in a region which we can see from the recorded place-name (Aphek 1 — Arabian Ashhur) to have been long occupied by men of their stock. There, more than once, the Israelite army was defeated by the Ethbalites, and the second time the son 2 of the priest of Shiloh was slain, and the sacred stone, or one of the stones, symbolic of Israel's god, which had accompanied the Israelites to the battle, was carried away by the victors, and placed in Dagon's temple at Ashdod. This was not at all meant as an insult to the Israelites, as if this stone object was no longer a symbol and vehicle of divine powers, but only a serious and reverential degrada- tion (so far as this was possible) of the god Yerahme'el-Yahweh from the first to the second rank. Ethbalites, indeed, were bound to think that Dagon had proved himself to stand alone in the first rank of deities — alone capable of directing affairs in the Ethbalite land. 1 On the meaning of Ah'ab, see Two Religions, pp. 228, 240, etc. Aphek, like Aphiah in 1 S. ix. 1, comes from this compound regional. On its situation, see Crit. Bib. p. 206. There may have been more than one place of the name. This one is in the southern border-land; evidently it is in the 'land of Hepher' which is Gileadite (Josh. xvii. 3) and Ashhurite (1 Chr. iv. 5 /). Esar- haddon speaks of the city of Apku in Samena {KAT [ ; Gemoll, pp. 56/). 78 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY Ba'al, i.e. Yerahme'el or Ishma'el. That this place was famous for its wisdom, is pointed out above. It was probably conquered by Saul and David, 1 and partly re-settled by an Israelite aristocracy. The new colonists were perhaps Danites, and one of the Danite towns or districts in this region was Dan-Ya'an (2 S. xxiv. 6) or rather Dan-Ya'ar expanded into Dan-Yarkon (cp. Me-Yarkon, Josh. xix. 46), and known also — the Ethbalites having preceded the Danites — as Ethbal, a place-name which was popularly re-coined as Beth-el. 2 The Israelite colonists were evidently well aware of the value of the Maakathite 'wisdom.' Such insight was the greatest gift of God, covering as it did both moral or religious lore and material or artistic. This is what a woman endowed with strong practical ' wisdom ' is reported to have said : ' Men were wont to say in Asshur- Yerahme'el {i.e. in N. Arabia), " Let them ask (counsel) in Abel and in Dan." Have the trustworthy ones in Ishmael {gloss, Israel) come to an end [that] thou seekest to destroy a mother-city in Ishmael?' Most probably, therefore, the artificer Hiram was not an Israelite, but a Yerahme'elite of pure 1 See on I S. xiv. 47 ; 2 S. viii. 2. ' Maakath ' may lurk under ' Moab ' (Gemoll). On the text, see Crit. Bib. 2 See on 1 K. xii. 29/, and cp. E. Bib. ' Sharezer,' 2. The name niyo, like Mika'el and Mikaiah, is a popular distortion of Amalek or Yerahme'el ; see the textual facts collected and explained in E. Bib. ' Maachah.' Bethel for Ethbal is also a god-name (see Mines of Isaiah, p. 115). THE SOLOMON TRADITIONS 79 race. We cannot venture to say much more. How far his architectural and artistic details were in accordance with N. Arabian models, and whether the Hebrew account of those details can be trusted, is beyond our power to divine. Even the place where his buildings were erected is by no means free from doubt. Probabilities seem to me to point to the southern Jerusalem. These buildings, even if not so elaborate as is represented, must have involved a large expenditure. Commerce, too, had to be developed, if Solomon was to carry out worthily the role of a great Oriental king, and a supply of the precious metals had to be obtained to start the adventure. Three passages relative to Solomon's naval expeditions must here be mentioned — i K. ix. 26-28, x. 11, x. 22. Let us take them in order : (a) 1 K. ix. 26-28. A revised text may be rendered thus, — ' And king Solomon made a fleet in Sib'on-Argab 1 which is by Elath, on the shore of the sea of Suph in the land of Edom. And he sent rowers 2 in the fleet, shipmen acquainted with the sea, and they came to Urpal (?) 3 with the servants of Solomon, and brought thence gold.' (Glosses, ' Arab-Ethmael, Asshur-Yaman, Ashkar.') Compare 2 Chr. viii. 17 f. (b) 1 K. x. 11. 'Also the fleet of rowers, which brought gold from Urpal (?), fetched from Urpal (?) 1 The familiar Ezion-Geber. 2 Read D"inn (Jon. i. 13). 3 The better-known Ophir. So THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY abundance of almug-timber and ashkar-stones.' * Compare 2 Chr. ix. 10. (c) 1 K. x. 22. ' For the king had a fleet on the sea, a fleet of rowers ; once in three years the Ashtar-ships came back, bringing gold and silver.' [Glosses, ' Shin'abbim, 2 Akrabbim, Ma'akathim.') Compare 2 Chr. ix. 21. Here, as so often, the key to the problems of exegesis is in the names. Unfortunately, the names are commonly disguised, and much experience is needed to cope with the difficulties thus produced. Who would think, for instance, that, in 1 K. xxii. 47 /., n^D Di~r« and *m j'pss could cover over ditn psis and nnN psis respectively ? 3 Yet there is no escaping from this result of criticism which is supported by so many parallels. In the passage referred to, the meaning probably is that Jehosha- phat's ship was constructed at a maritime town called Edom Sib'on. In 1 K. the same place, perhaps, is called Sib'on-Argab, which, be it noted, is the place where Jehoshaphat's ship (it^n) was wrecked. Solomon's fleet seems to have been more fortunate. If the traditional text may be trusted, a friend and ally of Solomon helped him by sending expert seamen on the newly constructed ships. This was 1 ' Precious ( = ornamental, Ezek. xxviii. 30) stones ' would be possible here and in x. 2, but not in v. 31, vii. 9-1 1. 2 Cp. itov, Gen. xiv. 2. 3 Cp. Crit. Bib. p. 352. Is the modern Akaba a descendant of Kab = Akab ? THE SOLOMON TRADITIONS 81 Hiram, king of Sor, a place-name which may either denote Tyre in Phoenicia, or Missor in N. Arabia. It may be questioned, indeed, whether the text is correct. Expert seamen were surely to be had for the asking in the Edomite seaport. There is, however, something which we do expect to find mentioned, and yet is not mentioned, and that is the supply of rowers (cp. Isa. xxxiii. 21 J ). I have ventured to restore such a mention, and suppose the original reading to have been obscured through the growing interest in the legend of Hiram, king of Tyre. The idea which led to the corruption probably was the same which the Second Isaiah expresses poetically — that kings should be Zion's 'nursing fathers' (Isa. xlix. 23). Hence, in 1 K. x. 22, the expert seamen are imagined to be supplied by Hiram, and the Chronicler (2 Chr. viii. 18), consistently enough, makes the Tyrian king supply both ships and shipmen. In reality, the king of Sor or Missor, having no seaboard, had neither ships nor mariners to lend. And what was the goal of this bold naval enterprise ? One of the glosses (probably) explains the name of the emporium as Asshur-Yaman, and one of the traditions describes the fleet of Solomon as a Tarshish-fleet. 2 Now Tarshish has been shown to be a perfectly regular corruption of Ashtar, which we know to be the equivalent of Asshur. We should expect therefore that one part of the name of the 1 See T. and B. p. 362. 2 Cp. D. and F. p. 155. 6 82 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY emporium might be Ur (a shortened form of Asshur), and that another part should be bal (the short for Ethbal = Ishmael). And the material furnished by Ophir l (tdin) may without violence be rearranged as Urpal = Asshur-Ethbal (/and b are often interchanged). An alternative for Ophir is perhaps Uphaz (Jer. x. 9 ; Dan. x. 5), which may come from Ur-Sib f on (through Ur-Ziphion) ; one remembers that, in Jer. x. 9, Tarshish and Uphaz are parallel. In fact, we can well afford to leave the origin of ' Ophir ' uncertain, knowing that Ophir and Tarshish ( Ashtar) are virtually equivalent. The goal of Solomon's naval enterprise was some part of the N. Arabian coast where silver and gold were common objects of merchandise. According to Jer. x. 4 (cp. Ezek. xxvii. 1 2) silver came from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz ( = Ophir). This may be correct, and yet both Tarshish (Ashtar) and Uphaz (Ur-Sib'on) may be districts of N. Arabia. It is stated in 1 K. x. 1 1 that Solomon's fleet fetched not only gold and silver, but abundance of almug-timber and ashkar-stones. We may doubt whether this was really so. When mention is made of Solomon's building materials (1 K. v. 13-18), nothing is said of their being brought by sea. Indeed, why should the Lebanon timber be conveyed by sea? 1 K. v. 9 and 2 Chr. ii. 16 belong clearly to the Hiram legend. There was, however, something which Solomon 1 For other views see E. Bib. 'Ophir.' THE SOLOMON TRADITIONS 83 coveted not less than silver and gold, namely, horses and chariots. Tradition states positively that his desire was gratified, and that the merchants with whom he had relations were those of the N. Arabian regions of Misrim and of Maakath. 1 The breeding- ground is not expressly mentioned, but we may assume that the horses were reared in the highlands of Arabia. 2 In Ezek. xxvii. 14 another name is mentioned in connexion with the N. Arabian horse- traffic — Togarmah (i.e. Tubal-garmah). 3 Altogether, there is no theory explaining the tradition respect- ing Solomon's acquisition of horses better than that which is here once more reaffirmed. The passage 1 K. x. 28 should run thus : 'And the exportation of Solomon's horses was from Misrim, and [from] Maakah were fetched the suhirs 4 (gloss, Maakah in Yarham, 5 Ethbaal). And a chariot was exported from Misrim for six hundred pieces of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. And on these terms were they exported to the kings of the Ashhartites 6 and to the kings of Aram (gloss, in Yarham 7 ).' 1 On these regions see T. and B. pp. 167, 171. That nzyD may underlie mpo can hardly be denied. Cp. pip (Ezek. xxiii. 23), pay (Judg. vii. 1, 8, 12, xviii. 28 ; Ps. lx. 8), jnpn. 2 See T. and B. p. 462. 3 Ibid. pp. 163/ 4 On suhirs see Crit. Bib. p. 334, note. 5 Read onm. So 2 S. xxiv. 24 ; Isa. xlv. 13, lii. 3 ; Jer. xv. 13 ; and cp. T3D. 6 nn = mn = mn^N. 7 MT. DT3. See Two Religions, p. 333 (on Isa. x. 5). 84 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY I fear that many or most of my readers may be prejudiced on the opposite side. All the more do I urge the student to give a careful consideration to the Biblical evidence here produced. I will only add an argument from a book which, if not in any strict sense Arabian, is yet not uninfluenced by the old Arabian wisdom, and may perhaps have been represented (like Prov. xxv.-xxix.) as translated, or copied out, from a genuinely Arabian source. 1 In one of the very interesting passages inserted later into the original poem, there is a kind of picture- gallery of the natural wonders most familiar to the writer. They are wonders of the Arabian wilderness, and among them is the war-horse (Job xxxix. 19-25). Horses, then, were common sights in Arabia, and I can well believe the prophet's statement (Jer. vi. 23) that the Asshurites rode upon horses. But had they also chariots ? Certainly. Asshur, Misrim, and Aram all (according to tradi- tion) had chariots ; and how should Solomon have consented to be behind-hand ? Naturally, he pro- cured his chariots as well as his horses from N. Arabia. Ishmaelite chariots were famous; 2 the popular wit, however, altered the designation, so that ' chariots of Rabshal ( = ' Arabia of Ishmael ') became 'chariots of barzel' (iron). But the notion 1 That the Yerahme'elites were the models of the Israelites in the Wisdom literature is shown in T. and B. p. 40 (with note 3). The Babylonian influence which Dr. Langdon (of Oxford) traces, appears to be indirect. 2 T. and B. p. 466 ; D. a?ni F. p. 39 ; Crit. Bib. p. 449. THE SOLOMON TRADITIONS 85 of 'chariot-cities' (1 K. x. 26) will not bear investiga- tion, rrano being most naturally taken as a corrup- tion of m-ON, 'Akrabbath.' I doubt if my friend Prof. Robertson Smith would have adhered to his old opinion about 'chariot-cities.' One may perhaps wonder why Solomon did not send for model agricultural waggons. Certainly at a later time such waggons do appear to have been imported from N. Arabia 1 (Num. vii. 3). We can hardly think that this was the case in the territories which after Solomon's death formed the kingdom of (northern) Israel. But the culture of Israel in the border-land seems to have had a distinctly N. Arabian colour. That the king himself favoured the N. Arabian connexion is shown by the fact that he had a Misrite wife, and two 'sons of Shisha'as scribes (1 K. iv. 3; see p. 19 2 ). And yet the gravest political dangers which, so far as we know, Solomon had to encounter were from N. Arabia — dangers connected with the names of Hadad, Rezon, and Jeroboam. The first-mentioned of these was of pure Yerahme'elite descent, 3 the son (probably) of the king of the same name whose record is in Gen. xxxvi. 39/ While still young, this Hadad had had to flee to Misrim for his life, 1 ' Sib'onite waggons' is the phrase; cp. D'as, Isa. lxvi. 20. 2 See E. Bib. « Shisha.' 8 See Crit. Bib. p. 337. 4 T. and B. p. 432, and cp. Crit. Bib. (on 1 K. xi.), E. Bib. < Hadad.' 86 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY after David's conquest of the southern Aram. 1 Here he was hospitably received, and married the sister of the queen-consort, by whom he had a son, whose name, 2 like that of his mother, suggests that he may have been admitted into the Misrite tribe of the Naphtuhim (Gen. x. 13). He lived quietly among the Misrites till the deaths of David and Joab. Then his hour struck, and he returned to his old home, ready for any opportunity of damaging Solomon. The second was Rezon (a form of Resin, i.e. Arabia of Sib'on 3 ), son of Eliada. He too was a Yerahme'elite, and may have had patriotic grievances against David and Solomon. He was not averse, however, to make capital out of his own king's misfortunes. He not only left 'his lord' Hadad- Ezer to his fate, but carved out a new kingdom for himself, the current name of which was Aram-Sobah or Aram-Ramshak. From his strong capital (the border-city of Ramshak) Rezon issued forth, defeat- ing the Israelites, and raiding their N. Arabian land. This went on, we are told, 'all the days of Solomon.' Certainly this unmartial king was ill-chosen as a type of the Messiah! A third enemy was a subject and a highly-placed 1 Read 'Aram' for 'Edom,' as Cheyne and Winckler. 2 Two Religions, p. 346. Genubath should rather be Nubath, a popular corruption of Naphtah (cp. Nebat, below) ; the initial g comes from a dittographed n. Tahpenes should be Tahpanhes. 3 Resin is a curtailment of Barsin, where Bar comes from Arab, and Sin, through Siyyon, from Sib'on. THE SOLOMON TRADITIONS 87 servant of Solomon himself (1 K. xi. 26). He is called ' an Ephrathite of Seredah,' but it is the southern Ephrath that is meant. Seredah ((& aapeipa) is hardly correct. Klostermann suggests Tirsah as the underlying name, but there is reason to think that Tirsah (which apparently means ' agreeable,' but is not at all likely to have such a commonplace signification) is a corruption of Sarephath. ' Sarethan ' may also belong to the same group, and the name of Jeroboam's town, Seredah, most probably has the same origin. 1 At any rate, on his mother's side Jeroboam was a Yerahme'elite, or more particularly a Misrite, for there is no doubt but that the descriptive passage in 1 K. xi. 26 should continue thus, — ' whose mother's name was ... a Misrite, a Yerahme'elite woman.' 2 I have left the patronymic of Jeroboam, and the name 'Jeroboam' itself, to the last, because of the great difficulties which they present till we have got the right key. Jeroboam has nothing to do with multiplication of the people ; it (dmt) is simply a popular corruption of Yerahme'el (^dfit) through the linking form Yarba'al (Siqt). And 'son of Nebat' comes from 'son of Naphtuhim' 3 (ftlD from Vidd ; see p. 86, n. 2). This name, it will be remembered, is borne, in Gen. x. 13, by one of the sons (tribes) of Misrim, and we know (from the 1 See the chapter on Tirsah, also E. Bib. ' Tirzah,' ' Zarethan,' ' Zeredah.' 2 See T. and B. p. 44 (top) ; E. Bib. ' Zeruah.' 3 It is a mere coincidence that una is the name for the Nabateans. 83 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY gloss in i K. xi. 26) that Jeroboam was, on his mother's side, a Misrite. Solomon, however, evi- dently regarded Jeroboam as an Israelite, and so did the Israelites in N. Arabia. The former, recognis- ing his ability, appointed him superintendent of the whole of the forced labour of the tribe of Joseph. Such at least is the traditional account, which presupposes that the corvee was exacted, not merely of subject Yerahme'elites, but of the Israelite clans- men. We have seen, however, that this view of Solomon's treatment of the Israelites is probably incorrect. It was perhaps dictated by the wish to account plausibly for the great rent between Israel and Judah (see 1 K. xii.). There are traces of another view, which confines the corvee practically to non-Israelites, and it is on the face of it a much more probable view that Jeroboam was royal com- missioner for levying the corvde on the subject Yerahme'elites of the N. Arabian border-land. If so, the question presents itself whether in the literary source from which 1 K. xi. 26 is derived, *|DV TO Sid bfb should not rather be TO biw bib bsvr. bzw TO will be a gloss on byar bi. (Ishbal or Ishpal is of course a shortened and corrupted form of Ishmael.) We may suppose, then, that Jeroboam's office was that of ftakid, or governor, of all Ishmael, i.e. of all the N. Arabian territory occupied by the Israelites. 1 This accounts for his being able to fortify Seredah (see the additional 1 See Crit. Bib. p. 297. THE SOLOMON TRADITIONS 89 passage in (3). It was Jeroboam's ambition to erect a new kingdom on the ruins of the old. This was indeed ' lifting up his hand against the king ' (1 K. xi. 26; cp. 25, xx. 21), and accounts for his flight to Shishak (Ashhur), king of Misrim. We shall have to return to this important personage presently. It will be remembered that, according to a trust- worthy tradition, the trouble with Rezon went on ' all the days of Solomon.' This casts a lurid and a painful light on the traditional prosperity of the early years of this king. One may even suspect that the king of Sor (Missor) was not nearly as friendly as he has been represented, at any rate after the first few years of Solomon's reign. Perhaps a new king arose who saw the difference in warlike ability between David and his successor. It may even be that he reduced Solomon to vassalage. The story of the twenty cities offered to Hiram (1 K. ix. 10-13 1 ) should perhaps, as Winckler has suggested, be taken in combination with a neigh- bouring passage (ix. 14) according to which (correct- ing the text) 'the king sent to Hiram six score talents of gold.' Surely this was not a friendly gift ; it was tribute to Solomon's suzerain. It was not therefore Solomon's asserted uxorious- ness, but the bitter taste of misfortune, which turned away his heart from Yahweh as Guardian of Israel 1 ^33 from ^3 pi, 'no better than a stump.' Really, however, Si33T is a corrupt form of Ss'onr. 90 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY and Director of the Divine Company. It may have seemed to the king as if Yahweh were either unable or unwilling to give any further help to his servants. And so Solomon turned to the God of the Abrahamic peoples, to whom he erected two great pillars, called respectively Yakin (Yakman) and Boaz (Azbul), 1 and intimating that the adjoining temple was dedicated to the N. Arabian or Abrahamic deity (see below). And what was Solomon's religion? Not, certainly, of a very high type. His god and he had to be bound together by ties of mutual advantage. His advantage, however, and that of his people did not coincide. The cowde, if tradition may be trusted, pressed hard on the Israelites of the border-land, and cannot have been less felt by those in the northern realm (Israel and Judah). The favour of the priests and prophets, however, was doubt- less bought by concessions to their wishes or demands; and to a well-built stone temple, such as Yerahme'elite kings were wont to have, there was added, presumably, a regular service of sacrifices. Yahweh, as the .older prophets assured him, had, in his father's time, declared that he would dwell in Yerahme'el, and it was the privilege of David's heir to build a palace 2 for his divine father. Not that Solomon can have neglected either the ancient god 1 See E. Bib. ' Jachin and Boaz.' 2 See i K. viii. 12. ^nn = ^NDm\ ^131 n-i = Snjjeb" n-a ' an Ishmael- house ' = a stone-built house. THE SOLOMON TRADITIONS 91 Yerahme'el, or the goddess, as great and perhaps even more ancient, Ashtart. Indeed, the two mass- ive pillars in the porch of the temple were called respectively (according to the original form of the text) Yerakman (Yerahme'el) and 'Azba'al (Ish- mael) ; i.e. both were dedicated to the ancient god of N. Arabia, under one or the other of his names. That such a rich man as Solomon should have had a large harem was only natural, but no early writer would have made the palace-women amount to 1 0,00 1, 1 or asserted that they turned his heart away from Yahweh ! For Yahweh was never Solomon's only god, nor was he indeed always even his chief divinity. 1 See 1 K. xi. 3. The Misrite wife would stand alone. CHAPTER VI SHEKEM That there was a land of Shakmi (Shekem) in N. Palestine in remote antiquity, which probably included the site of the modern Nablus, we know from one of the Amarna Tablets, but it may be added that before this there was a district and a city so called in the land of Yerahme'el, i.e. in N. Arabia. This follows from a careful criticism of several O.T. passages — Num. xxvi. 31 ; Gen. xii. 6, xiii. 12, xxxiii. 18, xxxiv. 2, xlvii. 1, 22; Judg. ix. ; 1 K. xii. 1. Let us take these passages in order. (a) Num. xxvi. 31. A tradition evidently stated that Shekem was a Gileadite city. This is not indeed the general view of the O.T. writers, but its singularity may be taken as a guarantee of its correctness. It also, when regarded in the context, implies the important fact that the original Gilead was in the land from which the Israelites migrated, i.e. the N. Arabian border-land. A tradition in the Book of Jubilees (xii. 1) confirms this ; it states that it was into the land of Asshur that Jacob had entered, 94 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY when he started on the fateful journey connected with the name of Shekem. The importance of this passage (already quoted in T. and B.) will, I hope, be admitted. (b) Gen. xii. 6 1 supplies a fresh confirmation of the preceding tradition. It says, if I mistake not, that the full name of Shekem was Mekom Shekem ; Mekom, like Yekum, comes from Yarkam. Now, Yarkam ( = Yerahme'el) was that wide region, a part of which was called Kena'an (to be grouped with Anak, Amalek, Kain). This regional name signifies, not 'lowland,' 2 but (properly at least) the Yerahme'elite land, N. Arabia. 3 In usage, however, it is applied to various parts of the region, such as Phoenicia. In one of these more limited Kena'ans was Shekem, originally Shakram. (c) Gen. xxxiii. 18. Jacob, we are told, 'came to Shalem, a city of Shekem.' Evidently an important place. Possibly the same as Sukkoth ( = Salekath), but much more probably the southern Jerusalem (Uru-Salem). There is no reason why any reader should be surprised at this. Asshur-Ishmael or Asshur- Yerahme'el was a standing name in early Hebrew tradition for N. Arabia, 4 and so it is quite credible that we should find such a name as this in 1 T. and B. p. 408 ; D. and F. p. 67. 2 This theory has been disproved by Prof. G. F. Moore. 3 Cp. Gen. ix. 18, 'Ham ( = Yarham) is Arab- Kena'an.' In Zeph. ii. 5, Kena'an is = land of the Ethbalites {Two Religions, p. 41 1 ; D. and F. p. 95). 4 T. and B. Index, ' Asshur-Ycrahme'el.' SHEKEM 95 different geographical districts, either virtually in the fuller form or in a shortened and corrupted form such as Shalem 1 (i.e. Ishmael). Nor need we be per- plexed if different equivalent names are used for the same place in our much-edited Biblical texts. Thus, in Gen. xxxiii. 18, the city which the Jacob-clan visits is called Shalem, and in allusion to this a glossator in xxxiv. ^%, says, ' They were Shalemites ' (or, Ishmaelites 2 ). But in xxxiv. 20, 24, textual criticism suggests that the name of the city, concurrently with Shekem, was Asshur-Aram. It is true, this is but a translation of Shakram. For Shalem as an alternative for Ur-Salem I refer, but not dogmatically, to Gen. xiv. 18, and Ps. lxxvi. 3, 3 and to the at any rate plausible Egyptian evi- dence. We may also illustrate by the use of Yabesh ( = Salem), as a name for the southern Jerusalem, and perhaps by the mention (in the Gideon-Abimelek story) of a mountain called Salmon near Shekem ; s and sh are doubtless different sounds, but in the ancient names, both regional and local, s and sh are interchangeable. The first part of the name has to be consistent with this. As the text stands, it is Ur, but Ur is almost certainly, both in the name ' Ur-Salem ' and elsewhere (especially in ' Ur-Kasdim '), and in proper 1 For Shalem = Ishmael, see Judg. vi. 24, Mic. v. 4 (mfo), 1 S. ix. 4 (o^yv px). 2 T. and B. p. 414. 3 T. and B. p. 250; Ps.( 2 ) ii. 6. 96 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY names like Uriah and Uriel, the short for Asshur. We have had occasion to refer already to the Shekem-problems in the chapter headed ' Jerusalem,' where it is shown that Shakram and Shalem are the same, and I will only add here that, if we rightly understand the form Shakram (Shekem), we must be struck by its resemblance in meaning to the name of the great southern sanctuary, Asshur Yarham (the city indicated in the original Deut. x. as that of the appointed central sanctuary). See above, p. 34 ; and cp. Decline and Fall of the Kingdom of Judah, pp. 115, 152. CHAPTER VII BAAL-GAD, MIGDAL-GAD, MIGDAL-EDER, MIGDAL-SHEKEM Baal-gad (Josh xi. 17) and Migdal-gad (Josh. xv. 2,j) are place-names compounded respectively of the regional Baal = Yerahme'el and the tribal designation Gad, and of the regional Migdal ( = Ramgal) and the same tribal name Gad. For Baal, we may compare Yarba'al (vocalized wrongly Yerubbaal, but really a popular distortion of Yerahme'el, the other name of the hero Gideon), and for Ramgal [gal or gil is an old regional, 1 cp. Gallim, Gilgal, Gilead) we naturally think, for a parallel, of Ramshak ( = Aram-Ashhur). Baal I have often had occasion to speak of, but Ramgal is, I think, now recovered for the first time. It is true, the Migdal, or Tower, was a characteristic feature of Palestine from the earliest known times, 2 and to us it may seem plaus- ible to suppose that these towers gave their names to places. 3 But a sure parallel for such a place- name as 'Tower of El,' or 'Tower of Gad,' is 1 T. and B. p. 389 ; Two Religions, p. 306. 2 E. Bib. col. 1556 ('Fortress'). 3 See ibid. 97 7 93 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY wanting, and experience suggests that in the Migdal of place-names we have rather an instance of the popular wit exercising itself on an archaic regional. It is no valid objection to this that the existence of Migdal as a place-name can be traced both in very early and in very late times, i.e. that we find Magdali in the Amarna letters, and him in the Talmudic literature. 1 Our conception of historical time has been widened, and Palestinian matters must partake of the benefit. We find a Migdol or Migdols, without any appendix to the name, in the traditional text of Jer. xliv. i, xlvi. 19, Ezek. xxix. 10. It is, how- ever, very improbable that a mere tower can be meant in any of these passages. 2 A careful study of the larger contexts to which the passages belong, shows that not Misraim (Egypt) but Misrim (the N. Arabian Musri) is meant. ' Migdol,' as well as ' Migdal,' is surely a miswritten form of Ramgal. We have still to refer to Migdal -Eder and Migdal-Shekem. The former occurs in Gen. xxxv. 21 and Mic. iv. 8. The first of these is in an account of the conquest of a N. Arabian district by Reubenites, which was attended apparently by circumstances of special offensiveness to more advanced tribesmen. 3 The name of the district, 1 See Neubauer, Gtographie du Talmud (index). 2 See especially Jer. xliv. u, xlvi. 14, where, at least as most think, Memphis is mentioned with Migdol. 3 See T and B. pp. 421/. BAAL-GAD, MIGDAL-GAD, ETC. 99 as given in the traditional text, was Migdal-Eder, but the scene of the narrative being in N. Arabia, we cannot avoid accepting the correction Ramgal. Eder might be = Edrei, the name of the district where Og resided (Deut. i. 4). 1 But the correction 3ns is easy, and yields a better sense. Another name, I may add, was probably Bilshan = Bashan. It is corruptly represented by twi^D nrhi? Mic. iv. 8 is hard. But it is clear that the ■ hill of the community of Sion ' is parallel to Migdal- Eder. It is hopeless to find a natural and suitable sense for Migdal-Eder. If, however, the Sion intended is that of the southern border-land, we cannot hesitate to read : ' And thou, Ramgal of Arabia, Hill of the community of Sion.' The writer of this part of ' Micah ' evidently regards the Sion, or Sib'on, of the N. Arabian border-land as having superior claims to be honoured as the religious and secular capital to those of the better- known Jerusalem. Let us now pass on to Migdal-Shekem, and refer to Judges ix. 46 (Rev. Ver.). We read here that ' when all the men of the tower of Shechem heard thereof, they entered into the hold of the house of El-berith.' Clearly, however, 'the tower of 1 D. and F. p. 138. E. Meyer (Die Israeli ten, p. 276) compares Eder in the Negeb (Josh. xv. 21). 2 PifiVa is an early conjecture. v&Qssfrv *:x = ^kjfdb" r$. Cp. T. and B. I.e. ioo THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY Shechem ' cannot be right ; Shechem itself must have had not only walls and gates, but a tower. When Gideon ' broke down the tower of Penuel,' he also ' slew all the men of the city ' (Judg. viii. 17). Similarly, when Abimelek 'beat down the city of Shekem ' (Judg. ix. 45), he must inclusively have broken down any tower or fort there may have been at Shekem. Migdal-Shekem (if the reading be correct) must therefore be the name of some other place where the clan of Shekem dwelt, or rather Migdal should be Ramgal. Ramgal-Shekem (or, more correctly, Ramgal-Shakram) must there- fore have been the name of a settlement near the city of Shakram, famous for a specially honoured and specially fortified temple of El-berith or Baal- berith, or rather Yerahme'el-Arbith. ' Arbith ' is doubtless a title of the great goddess Ashtart, who seems to have been par excellence an Arabian deity. CHAPTER VIII SAMARIA (?) There is evidence enough that the Shomeron or Shimron which plays such an important part in the history of Israel from the time of Omri to that of King Hoshea was not in the centre of Palestine, but in the N, Arabian border-land. Let us take the Biblical passages in order. (a) i K. xvi. 24 (revised text). ' And he (Omri) acquired the mountain Kashmeron from Kashram (glosses, in Kikkar of Yaman; Kasrab), and fortified the mountain ; and he called the name of the city which he fortified after the name of Kashram, the lord of the mountain, Kashmeron.' The trivial origin assigned to Omri's capital must have surprised many readers. Textual criti- cism lifts the whole passage to a higher level. The possessor of the mountain Kashmeron was the lord of one of the minor 'kingdoms of Yerahme'el.' Omri, who felt the need of consolidating his power in N. Arabia, acquired — how, we know not — this strategically important site from its Arabian lord, 102 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY and turned the unwalled village, which he probably found there, into a fortified city, retaining the old name. In the popular speech, however, Kashmeron became Shimron, just as, in the same speech, the analogous name Ramshak became Meshek, and Shakram became Shekem. In the first of the two glosses kikkar is the expansion of kar, i.e. eshkar (see pp. 30, 52), and yam is the short for yaman. In the second Kashrab ( = Ashhur-Arab) is analo- gous to Ashrab and 'Ahberon (Hebron). The city referred to is probably identical with Shekem. (b) 2 K. xvii. 6. ' In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Asshur took Shimron (Kashmeron), and carried Israel away to Asshur, and placed them by Halah and by Habor (gloss, rivers of $ib'on), and in the cities of Madai.' The 'cities of Madai' are not those of Media. There was a southern Madai as there was a southern Elam. 1 To this phrase corresponds 'the cities of Shimron (Kashmeron),' v. 24. 'Gozan' was no doubt written by the scribe under the influence of the name of the Assyrian province Guzanu, but it is most probably a corruption of Bozan, which has come from Zib'on, i.e. Sib f on ; cp. "on "in©, Ezr. v. 3, vi. 6, 13. Sib'on must be taken here in a wide sense. The ' rivers of Sib'on ' may perhaps be the same as the 'rivers of Ramshak' (2 K. v. 12), while ' Madai ' may have originated in a literary error ; no for pro (Midyan). 1 Two Religions, p. 165. SAMARIA (?) 103 • (c) Mic. i. 5. ' What is the transgression of Jacob ? Surely (it is) Shimron. What is the sin of the house of Judah? Surely (it is) IshmaeL' The reading owes much to ©, but we are in advance of our guide when we emend Yerushalem into Yishmal (i.e. Ishmael). We must be right, however, in taking this forward step. The pro- phecies of Hosea and Isaiah are full of reproaching speeches in which Israel or Judah is taxed with addiction to pernicious N. Arabian practices, and the case cannot be different with the prophecies of Micah. For 'Ishmael' we might perhaps read 'Shalem.' Both names (which really are but one) are designations of N. Arabia, where the most popular deity was certainly Ashtart. Shimron, one of the leading cities of the Yerahme'elite or Ishmaelite border-land — indeed, it was the leading city of the Israelite portion — was naturally one of the most conspicuous for loyalty to the great goddess 1 (Am. viii. 14). Note that in v. 13 Ashkal 2 (disguised as Lakish) is described as ' the beginning of sin to the community of Sion.' This need not mean that a city called Ashkal shall be punished 1 Two Religions, pp. 212, 367. Note that, in Hab. i. 12, an early glossator affirms the identity of Asham and Ishmael {ibid. p. 400). not™, of course, is the feminine of db'n. 2 A frequently used name for N. Arabia. See Two Religiotis, pp. 202/ 104 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY for infecting Israel with impurity ; it probably means that a region so designated shall pay the penalty. The chief of the guilty N. Arabian cities was Shimron, which, in vv. 6, 7, is threatened with destruction. Yet not all the inhabitants even of the guilty city shall be a prey to the conqueror. See (d). (d) Am. iii. 9-1 1, and 12. Most interesting fragments of prophecies of Amos. 1 It is remark- able that no religious offences are spoken of (cp. Am. iv.). Religion to him is the practice of the civic virtues, and in this the Shimronites are conspicuously deficient. Apparently Amos thinks the Ashdulites ( = Asshurites) and Misrites more righteous and humane than the Israelites of Shimron. The second fragment should run — ' Thus saith Yahweh : As the shepherd rescues From the lion's mouth (only) two shin-bones, So (meagrely) shall the bene Israel be rescued — Those that dwell in Shimron and in Ramshak of Asshur.' A very small remnant, then, shall be saved — enough, at any rate, to serve as the foundation of a new human race, of a new Israel. One of the glosses which have penetrated into the text of this fragment 2 states that 'in Shimron' means 'in Ephrath of Hamath.' Ephrath is the feminine of Epher, a place-name which lies at the root of the 1 Two Religions, pp. 177 f. 2 Ibid. pp. 181/ SAMARIA (?) 105 regional which came to be pronounced Ephraim, but we may shrewdly suspect that the original of Ephraim is Epher-Yam (=Yaman), i.e. Yamanite Epher. It will be remembered that 'Ephraim' and ' Shimron ' are combined in ix. 9. The former name, in fact, belongs to the territory which was claimed by Israel in the N. Arabian border-land. (e) Isa. xxviii. 1-4. I shall content myself with quoting the first verse in a revised text (cp. Two Religions, 32, 340). 1 Ha ! the proud crown of Ashhur-Ephraim, And the flowerage of Yarbel — his brave adornment.' Certainly the text as it stands will not do. As in the case of Am. iii. 12 and many other passages, geographical glosses have made their way into the text. These glosses are of great value, but we can only recover the true text of the glosses by a keen criticism. One gloss relates to the situation of the doomed city ; it is ■ on the highest point of the valley of the Ishmannites,' which is as much (so the other glosses inform us) as to say ' the valley of Yerahme'el,' or 'of Yaman.' The text of the prophecy itself, however, gives all that it is abso- lutely essential to know. ^iD» ('drunkards') should of course be -oar, i.e. nnmi*, i.e. a city in the southern Ephraim called Ashhur. It is difficult to resist the conviction that Ashhur-Ephraim is Isaiah's name for the southern Shomeron or Shimron. As we have seen, this city had two names, viz. io6 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY Shimron and Kashmeron ; the former is a modified and corrupted form of the latter. We have also seen that Kashmeron means, it is ' belonging to Ashhur-Aram.' On this analogy we may venture to postulate for the city a third name — Ashhur- Ephraim. I may add that hii, in /. 2, seems to me plainly wrong. We want a parallel to Ashhur- Ephraim, and that parallel should underlie bll. 3 and t are interchangeable. Should we not read blT ? by2 for Sit, as, in Judg. xvii. 3, ^ib stands for hyv ( = Sucrrr), a gloss on mm Other passages bearing on Shimron are Am. iv. 1, vi. 1, 3-j, viii. 14 (already mentioned). Isa. ix. 10, x. 9 equally deserve attention. See T. and B., Two Religions, Mines of Isaiah. The Jewish papyri from Elephantine also attest Asham (for Ishmael). Recent scholars, forgetful of the present writer, are waking up to the existence of Asham = Ashima. Why not go a step further, and recognize the identity of Asham, Ashima, and Ishmael ? CHAPTER IX TIRSAH This ancient city (see Josh. xii. 24) was gifted with a comparatively late prosperity by Jeroboam, whose home and, afterwards, royal residence it was. The authority, however, to which this statement is due, also indicates that the city of Tirsah is N. Arabian. Jeroboam, of course, made his home in the land with which he was officially connected, and though he is said, in our present text, to have been set over all the 'labour' of the house, of Joseph (1 K. xi. 26), yet it is probable that the true text said something different (see p. 88), and implied that the corvee was only levied on non- Israelites. If so, Jeroboam naturally resided in that part of Solomon's dominion where the population was largely non- Israelite, i.e. in part of N. Arabia. Similarly, when we are told that Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, made a diversion to help Asa, king of Judah, and that Jeroboam consequently went and dwelt at Tirsah, we interpret this in the light of the fact that Ben- Hadad was a N. Arabian king, and that the 107 108 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY districts which he raided, though occupied largely by Israelites, were geographically N. Arabian. Most probably the name points in the same direc- tion. It may seem indeed to mean 'the agreeable,' but this trivial, commonplace explanation ought surely to be rejected. Like Sarethan and Seredah (the incorrectly written name of Jeroboam's city), it may be traced to Sarephath, which means the settlement of the Sareph-clan. 1 From Num. xxvii. i we gather that Tirsah was a Gileadite community, and from 2 K. xv. 16 that Tirsah was not far from Tiphsah, 2 the origin of which name may be traced to Tahpanhes, 3 i.e. Naphtah-has ( Naphtah- Ashhur). Another reading for ' Tiphsah ' is ' Tappuah,' which is a corruption either of Tahpanhes, or, at least, of Nephtoah. Now, perhaps, we can see why Jeroboam resided at Tirsah. Tirsah was near Naphtah or Nephtoah, 4 and Jeroboam (see chapter on Solomon) was a ' son ' of Naphtah. 1 The clan-name, in slightly different forms, was widely spread. See p. 19, n. 3. 2 Tiphsah also occurs as the name of a border city in 1 K. iv. 24 (v. 4). 3 Two Religions, p. 346, and cp. E. Bid. 'Tappuah,' 'Tiphsah.' 4 We also find Naphath-Dor ( 1 K. iv. 11 ), if we should not read Naphath-Dod. CHAPTER X SHILOH In the composite article ' Shiloh ' in the Encyclopaedia Biblica (cols. 4468/!) I have advocated the view- that there are two Shilohs, one of which was in the (relatively) northern territory of Ephraim, and to be identified with the modern Seilun, and the other in the N. Arabian border-land. The only interest, however, which we can have in maintaining the existence of a northern Shiloh is drawn from the assumption that the most sacred symbols of the Israelites were, at any rate for a time, preserved in the sanctuary of this city. This assumption I have myself expressly repudiated. It is, of course, not impossible that one or another reference to Shiloh may have been connected with a geographical error on the part of the narrator ; but this is not much worth arguing for, considering how long the N. Arabian tradition persisted. I will, therefore, not deny the probability that there were two or more Shilohs, but will renounce the liberty of connecting any of the Old Testament traditions with a northern city of this name. 109 no THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY It is true, Prof. W. R. Smith held that the description in Judg. xxi. 19 'gives certainty' to the identification with Seilun. 1 ' Certainty,' however, is too strong a word. From our present point of view it would seem that the statement of the original narrator was as follows. ' Shiloh (*\bw) is in the land of Kena'an ( = Ethbal, p. 30), near the border of the (southern) land of Ben-Yamin, north of Bethel (Ethbal), east of the road from Bethel to Shakram, south of Libnah.' That there was a southern Ephraim we have seen already ; the name, however, is properly a distortion of Arab-Yaman, so that Shiloh may easily be N. Arabian. And if any doubt as to the fact of this situation is still possible, it should be removed by 1 S. i. 9, where the seeming reference to drink- ing is really an intrusive and corruptly written gloss, statins: that Shiloh is in Ashhur or Ashtar ; 2 i.e. in N. Arabia. It is most strange that O.T. references to Shiloh should so abruptly come to an end. Herr Gemoll 3 has already called attention to this, and suggested that the same place may often be referred to under another name. This may easily have happened, for the root of ithe name Shiloh is a popular con- traction of Ishmael. 4 Probably Shiloh was the 1 E. Bib. col. 4468 (in ' Shiloh '). '-' T. mid B. p. 362, n. 3 ; Two Religions, p. 120. 3 P. 188 (identifying Shiloh and Bethel). 4 Cp. Two Religions, p. 118. SHILOH in same as Shalem, i.e. that sacred city in the south called Asshur-Ishmael ( = Asshur-Yarham), and also Shiloh. It is, therefore, not necessary, though not unplausible, in Gen. xlix. 10, to emend if?» into Cihm ; we need only correct bib> into ftDQ), and vbyi into Tnra, and nnp^ into iinn»\ and render the whole verse thus — 1 Redressers (of wrong) shall not cease from Judah, And marshals from among his (fighting) bands, Until he entereth Shiloh, And the peoples do obeisance unto him.' In Jer. xli. 5, too, no correction of the text is necessary. As I hope to have shown elsewhere, 1 Gedaliah was governor of the Judaite territory in Yerahme'el. Shekem, Shiloh, and Shimron 2 in that strange story are all N. Arabian Judaite cities. 1 D. and F. p. 28. 2 This is the most probable vocalization. CHAPTER XI BETHEL One of the most important references to ' Bethel ' is in i K. xii. 26-30. It is generally represented as a specimen of Jeroboam's political sagacity that he sought to divert the crowd of Israelite pilgrims from Jerusalem in Judah to Bethel in Israel (or Bethel and Dan). ' Long enough,' he is thought to say, ' have ye gone up to a comparatively distant city to worship your delivering god ; Bethel (or Bethel and Dan) will do as well as Jerusalem ; behold, there is thy god (Yahweh), O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Misraim.' A reinterpretation of the passage, however, is urgently needed. Bethel, as has been shown, is a popular form of Ethbaal ; Ethbaal is in the N. Arabian borderland ; Misraim should be Misrim ; and the elokim spoken of are specially the two N. Arabian deities Yahweh and Yerahme'el (or Ashhur). 1 The new and most probable view is that Jeroboam set (or gave fresh 1 D. and F. p. 106 ; T. and B. p. 16, etc. Another form is Asshur. 113 8 ii 4 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY sanction to) two sacred symbolic carved stones in a place of primeval sanctity, originally called Ethbaal. Verse 21, critically treated, should most probably run thus — ' And he set Yah-Asshur in Yithbaal ( = Ethbaal).' A gloss on this runs — 1 Now Yah-Asshur is in Dan.' Judaite redactors, however, were bound to look on this narrative with repugnance. One of them inserted this statement (v. 30) — 1 And this thing became a sin, for the people went before Yah-Asshur.' To this two glosses l are appended : (a) Now Yah- Asshur is (in) Nathan ( = Ethan) ; and (b) (In) Arabia of Dan. That Beth-el was a N. Arabian place, should now be clear. Another gloss on the situation is in v. 3, where the very strange in^n Nil ~imN covers over two glosses: (1) lis "i#n, ' Asshur of Arabia,' and (2) btpi, ' Rambul,' i.e. 'Aram-Baal.' 1 The glosses are geographical. Nathan comes from Mathan = Ithman ; cp. D'rnj = Ithmannim. ij? = aij7 (see on Isa. xlvii. 7, Mines of Isaiah, p. 142). CHAPTER XII HEBRON Hebron ! Name of romantic sound, and apparently of easy explanation. But appearances are pro- verbially deceptive, and so it is here. Analogy requires us to derive Hebron, either from Rehobon, 1 or directly from the original of Rehobon, viz. Ahberon or Ahrebon, 2 ' one belonging to Ashhur- Arab.' The alternative name of the same city is given as Kiryath-Arba, and that almost certainly comes from Ashhoreth-Arab, so that the two names are really equivalent. It may be interesting to see what Old Testament writers say about Hebron, according to a thoroughly revised text. (i) Gen. xxiii. 2. ' And Sarah died in Ashhoreth- Arab ' ; the rest of the verse is a gloss, ' that is, Ahberon in the land of Canaan ' ( = Anak). • Ash- horeth ' is sometimes shortened into Heth, and 1 Crit. Bib. p. 438; T. and B. pp. 335 / ; cp. E. Bib. < Rehoboth.' 2 Ah is often the first element in N. Arabian regionals, and Bar and Rab are equally attested as shortened forms of Arab. This throws a new light on the name Rehab'am. ii5 n6 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY accordingly in v. 3 we are introduced to the citizens as 'sons of Heth.' The masc. form of this racial name is, of course, Ashhur. This appears in Isa. xiv. 12 as Shahar ; but various other corruptions might be collected, and among them Sohar, for ' Ephron son of Sohar,' in v. 8, is presumably = ' Ephron the Ashhurite.' Hebron, then, was reckoned a N. Arabian city. There may, however, have been, in very early times, a second Hebron 1 or Ahberon, on or near the site of the traditional Hebron, the modern el-Halil. (2) Num. xiii. 22. ' And they went up by Angab, and came to Ahberon, and there were Ahiyamin, Asshuri, and Ethmal (glosses, Yerahme'el, Anak ; Sheba of the Ishmannites). Now Ahberon and its daughter-cities were on the east of Misrite Sib'on.' For ' by Angab ' the traditional text has ' by the Negeb.' H3N, that is, was early altered into l33rr, and 113 was, perhaps as early, interpreted to mean 'the dry south land.' We may trace this theory in the common text of Judg. i. 15, 2 but it is an error. 113 should be grouped with h*in (Deut. iii. 13 ; 1 K. iv. 13), which means 'Aram of Ah'ab,' and with 111 (2 S. xxi. 18), which is a popular corruption of int™ 3 (cp. Ipip). The initial 3 in 113 is a trace of p3i? ; we know that Hebron was supposed to be 1 T. and B. p. 230. 2 The gift which Aksah asked for was not D'b rta but D'JD' -ij/^j, ' Gilead of the Yamanites.' nVj and (presumably) n'Vj are well attested corruptions of "ij^j. 3 See Two Religions and Mines of Isaiah (index, Ah'ab). HEBRON "7 peopled with Anakites. That the region in which Hebron was, should have been reckoned as Ash- hurite, is not surprising ; both Hebron and Kiryath- Arba signify as much. Our old authority also informs us that Hebron and its dependencies were 'to the east of Misrite Sibon.' No doubt there were more than one Sib'on ; the one meant in Num. xiii. 22 was that in the N. Arabian land of Misrim (cp. Isa. xix. 11, xxx. 4; Ps. lxxviii. 43). Such geographical glosses are common in the O.T., whereas archaeological glosses are the reverse of common. We may compare Gen. xxv. 18, where Shur is defined as being ' to the east of Misrim ' ; Shur (Asshur), of course, is a regional, and Hebron (Ahberon) a city name. Hebron, as I have said, was Asshurite. According to Gen. xxiii. 2, it was in the land of Canaan. But there is no real inconsistency. There was a "southern Canaan in the N. Arabian border-land, sometimes called Anak. Now, we are expressly told (Num. I.e. gloss) that Hebron was an Anakite city, Yerahme'el and Anak being equivalent. But are not mm lain and nnm decisive as to the character of the gloss ? By no means. We have no right to trust appearances, when our trustfulness involves our admitting an improbable pseudo- historical gloss. ' Seven years ' is not, indeed, a purely imaginary detail. Underneath d^bj no is D^oar si» (' Sheba of the Ishmannites '), and under- neath nriDiD lies rrron ('and her daughters'). It nS THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY is noteworthy that among the 'sons' of Hebron, in i Chr. ii. 43, is Shema ( = Sheba). (3) Josh. xiv. 1^ f. 'Hebron therefore became the possession of Kaleb ( = ' Yerakbal ' ), the son of Yephunneh the Kenizzite, to this day ; because he wholly followed Yahwe the God of Israel. And the name of Hebron formerly was Ashhoreth-Arab ' (gloss, Ahrab-Gilead among the Anakim). The poverty of the thought in MT. is only equalled by the poverty of the expression. To correct both we must remember that a geographical gloss is to be expected ; also that ha-adam in the story of the creation of man has most probably come from Ahram, and that gadol in a group of passages has come from gil'ad. It should also be borne in mind that there was an extensive southern Gilead. (4) ' And to Kaleb, son of Yephunneh, he gave a part among the bene Yehudah . . . Ashhoreth- Arab (glosses, ' Arab-Anak,' ' that is, Hebron '). And Kaleb drove thence the three sons of Anak (namely), Ishmael, and Ahiyaman, and Ethmal ' (gloss, ' Yerahme'el-Anak '), Josh. xv. 13 f. Cp. Judg. i. 10, where the conquest is assigned to Judah. (5) 'And the sons of Kaleb (Ashhur-Yerah- me'el), Mesha-Rakbul 1 (gloss, Arab-Ziph), and Mareshah (Arab - Hebron). And the sons of 1 T. and B. pp. 194 (on Gen. x. 15), 558 (on Ex. xv. 1) ; Two Religions, p. 251 (on Hos. vii. 6). HEBRON 119 Hebron, Rah[am], and Naphtoah, 1 and Rekem, and Shema,' 1 Chr. ii. 42 f. Kaleb, then, was not an Israelite by blood, and only a member of the Judaite community by adoption. But one may wonder how large a portion of the old Israelites could be said to have been strictly homogeneous. Even those who left the land of Misrim were, according to tradition, a mixed concourse of aliens 2 (Ex. xii. 38 ; Num. xi. 4), though it is presumable that they had a common stock. In this medley, however, the Kalebites or Rakbulites were dis- tinguished by their martial zeal for Yahwe, and the community sanctioned their acquisition of Hebron and part of Gilead. But why was this solemn sanction necessary ? Surely Hebron must have been immemorially a sacred city — sacred from ancient theophanies and from its containing the burial-place of the great Yerahme'elite patriarch Abraham. (6) ' So he sent him out of the vale of Ahberon, and he came to Shakram,' Gen. xxxvii. 14. See T. and B. pp. 439/! ' Shakram' is a regional. (7) 'And all the elders of Israel came to the king to Ahberon, and king David made a compact with them before Yahwe. And they anointed David king over Israel,' 2 S. v. 3. The ' tribes ( = elders) of Israel' is a conventional expression. 1 Korah ('baldness ') and Tappuah (' citron ') are popular modifica- tions of Rah[am] and Naphtoah. 2 T. and B. pp. 545/1 120 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY In the original Judaite literature it means the Israelite clans settled in the N. Arabian border- land. To one of these David belonged, a kin- ship which the ' tribes ' fully recognise, using the characteristic Hebrew phrase, ' We are thy bone and thy flesh' (2 S. v. 1). The sanctuary of Hebron (' before Yahweh ') may have included the traditional sepulchre of Abraham and Sarah ; possibly, however, Hebron and Gibeon are religi- ously, and once were locally, one, and David and Solomon were both anointed as kings in the ' high place ' of Gibeon. That the original Hebron was in N. Arabia is indicated by the gloss ' Yerahme'el' (2 S. v. 1) underlying the superfluous "ionS (as in v. 6). (8) 'If Yah we shall bring me back indeed to Urushalem, then I will do service to Yahwe. . . . So he arose and went to Ahberon,' 2 S. xv. 9. Surely Urushalem and Ahberon are both N. Arabian. (9) ' And cause Solomon my son to ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Hebron ; and let Sadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel,' 1 K. i. 33 /• The sacred tent was at Gibeon, or rather at the sanctuary of Gibeon, which appears to have been in a part of the city — perhaps the citadel — called Ahberon or Hebron. For 'bring down' read 'bring,' as in v. 38. CHAPTER XIII AKRAB, AKRABBIM A much more important name than might be expected, as we have already found (see 'David,' p. 50; 'Jerusalem,' p. 40; ' Gibeonite Cities,' p. 127; and cp. T. and B. 432, 447. Heber and Hebron may perhaps come from a (partly) more original form Ahbar. tin and -on (Gen. x. 10; Am. v. 16) presuppose -Q3n. One Akrab seems to have been on the border of Aram, for a tradition (Judg. i. 36) states that the territory of the Aram- mites (so read) was 'from the ascent of Akrabbim,' etc. 1 In the following verse (Judg. ii. 1) D"O~0n has become DOl, which Gemoll (p. 287) would correct into d^DI, ' Tranenbaume,' but unconvincingly. It is no tree that we have before us in 2 S. v. 23/!, but a walled town (see p. 24). It is also more than probable that Akrab, or rather Ahrab, comes from Ashhur-Arab. 1 See 71 and B. p. 247 ; Two Religions, p. 140. CHAPTER XIV GIBEON The site of ' the greatest high place ' must have an interesting history. It is not, however, of this that I would now speak, but of the name, which seems to have been much misunderstood, but really comes from Agab ( = Ah'ab; see p. 40, n. 2). It may also underlie several corrupt place-names, such as Nebo, Nob, Nobai, Gob. It is usual to suppose that Nebo is the same as Nabu, the name of the divine associate of the Babylonian God Marduk. This view, however, though so popular, is far from probable. That certain isolated Reubenite and Judaite places should borrow these names from the Babylonian Pantheon, and in particular that a Palestinian mountain should acquire such a designation, who can believe this ? The parallel (Sin) adduced for a mountain called Nebo ( = Nabii) is unsound, for 'Sin' is one of the fragmentary and corrupt names derived from 1 Ishmael.' To quote Isa. xlvi. 1 in support of the theory of the wide acquaintance of the Israelites 123 124 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY with the divine name Nebo is precarious, for the passage is corrupt, 1 and the larger context precludes us from expecting a reference to the God Nabu. In Ezra ii. 29 (Neh. vii. 33) we find the strange phrase nm TO which most (with MT.) render 'the other Nebo,' but contrary to 0. As I have often shown, however, inn represents nntDN (Ashhur), i.e. there was an Ashhurite Nebo, outside the limits of Palestine. Nebo, however, as a place-name is incorrect ; it is probably a corruption either of psn or of HDD. 2 The situation commonly given to Mt. Nebo is altogether untenable {D. and F. p. 183). Mesha, king of Moab, is also reckoned among the authorities for a Reubenite Nebo. In lines 14- 17 of the inscription he boasts of having taken mu from Israel, and exterminated its people. It will be noticed that in 1 S. xxi. 2, xxii. 9 we also find hid. Surely nil (not ms) must be a contraction of mm. The ' city of the priests ' must have been called indifferently Gibeon and Gibeah (cp. 2 S. xxi. 6). We pass on to Nob. The name occurs in the early story of David (1 S. xxi. xxii.), in a prophecy assigned to Isaiah (Isa. x. 32), and in a critically suspicious list of cities of Benjamin (Neh. xi. 32). A fuller form is probably 'Anab; and both Nob and f Anab most probably come ultimately from Gib'on, but more directly from 'Agob or Gob ( = Argob ; see p. 80, n. 2). According to tradition, the greatest 1 Mines of Isaiah, pp. 135-137. 2 See D. and F. p. 163 ; Mines of Isaiah, pp. 47, 136. GIB EON 125 high place was that at Gibeon (1 K. iii. 4). It was probably in the tent of Yahweh (not in his tent) at Gibeon that David deposited the sword of Goliath (1 S. xvii. 54, revised text). From 2 S. xxi. 6 we learn that Gibeon stood on or near a mountain of Yahweh. It would seem important to add that the act of vengeance related in 2 S. xxi. was probably- called forth by the dreadful massacre of the priests related in 1 S. xxii. See Ency. Bib. ' Nob,' Poels (referred to in Ency. Bib.), and Gemoll (pp. 194^). Nobai is apparently an expansion of Nob, or rather Gobai is an expansion of Gob ( = 'Agob or 'Argob). CHAPTER XV THE GIBEONITE CITIES Kiryath - Ye'arim, or rather Ashhoreth - Ye'arim or Akrabbath - Ye'arim, was one of a group of Hierwite or Horite {i.e. Ashhurite) towns in the N. Arabian border-land. The traditional statement (Josh. ix. 17) is, ' Now their cities were Gibeon, and Kefirah, and Mispah, and Beeroth, and Kiryath- Yearim.' The people of all these places were in a large sense Gibeonites, i.e. they belonged to the pre- Israelite population of Ah'ab or Akrab (Ashhur- r Arab) ; and two of the place-names in the list are records of Akrabbite origin. These place-names are disguised as Kefirah and Beeroth ; the true forms are respectively Akrabbah (cp. Kefar-Ammoni, Josh, xviii. 75, i.e. Akrab- Ammonim) and Akrabbath (cp. Arubboth, 1 K. iv. 10, i.e. Akrabbath). The chief difficulty will perhaps be felt in the explanation here given of Beeroth. Note, however, that, in 2 S. iv. 2, one of the two assassins (both are Beerothites) is called Rekab, which is clearly a mutilated and adapted 127 128 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY popular form of Arkab ( = Akrab). In such popular forms a letter is often let slip {e.g. Aher from Ashhur). Note also that Beeroth was ' reckoned to Benjamin' {i.e. the N. Arabian Benjamin), and that it is in Gilead of Yaman 1 that the assassins seek refuge (2 S. iv. 3). Beeroth (Akrabbath), therefore, cannot have been far from the southern Gilead, just as the Gilead mentioned in 2 S. ii. 9 cannot have been far from Asshur-Yaman. 2 There still remain Mispah and Kiryath-Ye'arim. 1 cannot help reminding the reader that there was a Gileadite Mispah ; this fits in excellently well with the inference just now drawn from 2 S. iv. 3. Much more important is it, however, to sum up the traditional statements respecting ' Kiryath-Ye'arim,' in continuation of what has been said already. In 2 S. vi. 2 the latter place receives another name, viz. Baal-Judah, or, as another form of the same tradition (1 Chr. xiii. 6) has it, ' Baalah which belonged to Judah,' on which we may remark that Baal is shortened from Yarbaal, and that Yehudah must have been corrupted from Yerahme'el. 3 That Kiryath - Ye'arim ( = Ashhoreth-Ye f arim) was in the N. Arabian border-land appears from 1 Chr. ii. 50, 52, where abi (prefixed to Kiryath- Ye'arim) means, not ' father ' or ■ founder,' but ' Arabia ' ( = 132). From the context we learn that 1 cm is a contracted form of c nbi = jd' ij?Vj. 2 'Asshurim' should be ' Asshur-Yam,' i.e. Asshur-Yaman. 3 1 S. xxii. 5 ; Am. vii. I 2. THE GIBEONITE CITIES 129 'Arabia of Kiryath-Ye'arim' was equivalent to Shobal {i.e. Ishmael), the name of a member of the family of Kaleb, Ephrathah, and Hur. There is also, as most think, a reference to Kiryath-Ye'arim in Ps. cxxxii. 6, which, if MT. may be followed, runs — 1 Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah ; We found it in the fields of Ya'ar.' This obscure statement, however, cannot be correct; and we should almost certainly read thus — ' Behold, ye Shimeonites in Ephrathah, Ye Shimeonites (miswritten ' Simeonites ') in the highlands of Ya'ar.' The speaker is some prominent Israelite in N. Arabia, who, being himself a partisan of the N. Arabian temple, 1 summons the Israelites in its vicinity to attend the solemn ceremony of the dedication consequent on its rebuilding. 2 It is implied that the temple was in Ephrathah, or, more definitely, in the highlands of Ya'ar (see p. 134), and it is noteworthy that in v. 13 the holy city is called Siyyon (see p. 39). In Josh. xv. 60 Kiryath - Baal is expressly identified with Kiryath - Ye'arim. The name is followed by Rabbah, i.e. Akrabbah. And in Josh, xviii. 28 Gibeath and Kiryath are combined. The former is = Gibeon ; the latter, Kiryath-Ye'arim. 1 Mines of Isaiah, pp. 14, 182. 2 I!? (^- 7) refers to 'we will go' in v. 8. 9 130 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY In Jer. xxvi. 20-23 we hear of an unfortunate prophet named Uriah, who prophesied destruction to the Judaite Jerusalem and the temple, 1 and who was of Kiryath - Ye'arim, i.e. of the N. Arabian Jerusalem. Whether this Uriah was in favour of the central N. Arabian sanctuary we cannot tell, but it would be only natural if he were. 1 But cp. Gemoll, p. 342, n. 2. CHAPTER XVI JERICHO AND JORDAN One of the most important events in the period of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites was, according to tradition, the capture and destruction of Jericho. There are, however, good reasons for thinking that the account in the Book of Joshua (which is admittedly composite) arose out of the blending of two traditions, 1 one that of the capture of a city called originally (after its river) Yarhon (modified into Yeriho), and the other Rehoboth, the city ' by the river,' from which came one of the older kings of Aram 2 (Gen. xxxvi. 35). To which tradition the supernatural crossing of the river belongs it is not easy to say. Both cities, as, from our present point of view, may be presumed, were in the N. Arabian territory conquered by Israel ; and it does not greatly matter which city was originally mentioned in connexion with the semi- mythological 3 crossing. Another point to notice is 1 E. Bib. 'Jericho.' - T. a?id B. pp. 429, 431. 3 E. Bib. I.e. The Yarhon was probably one of the four Paradise streams. 131 132 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY that the city of Yarhon was also called — probably by Judaites, 'the city of Ramathites,' x which may remind us that in Jer. 1. 21 North Arabia receives the similar title, ' the land of Ramathites ' ; in both cases ■ Ramathites ' means ' inhabitants of Ram ' {i.e. the southern Aram). It is true, Yarham and Ramah are not very much alike in their present forms. But the restoration of a single letter produces a marked difference ; Raham is not at all unlike Yerah ! The confusion of Rehoboth and Yarhon may seem, to some, improbable ; but the fact is that Rehoboth, written Vn, can be quite easily mistaken for Yarhon, written '"lrrp ; and the name of the city Rehoboth would readily suggest the otherwise mysterious figure of Rahab (irn). Indeed, Rahab is the equivalent of Rehob, 2 which, in turn, is most probably a modification of Ahrab. 3 But why should Rahab be called a zonah ? Was she really regarded as one of the class of harlots (mil)? Or may not the strange reference to the harlot be due to a preceding corruption of the text ? 4 That the restoration of Yarhon as the original reading 1 Corrupted into ' the city of palm-trees ' (tvon vy). See Deut. xxxiv. 3 ; Judg. I. 16, iii. 1352 Chr. xxviii. 15; and cp. T. and B. p. 448 ; D. and F. p. 184. 2 Hence, in Ps. lxxxvii. 5, Rahab is coupled with the N. Arabian Babel. See Ps. {2) and Mines of Isaiah, pp. 117/ 3 Ed. Konig, however, considers arn to be the short for ^Jjarn ( Handwdrterbucli). 4 See p. 145, n. 2 (on Judg. xi. 1) ; T. and B. p. 19 (n. 1) ; D. and F> PP- 33/- JERICHO AND JORDAN 133 for Yeriho is not really violent, I have shown else- where; 1 passages like Num. xxii. i, Josh. xx. 8, appear incontrovertibly to prove it. And it is hardly less indubitable that zonah has come from sd'anah, i.e. sib'onah (Sib'onitess). ' Sib'on ' and ' Rehob ' must in early times have been equivalent, so that rahctb, a modification of Rehob, might easily be used as a personification of the city, and be explained as Sib' on or Sib'onah. Rehob must originally have been a regional, but it would easily become a city-name. There must have been an important N. Arabian city, which, like Gibeon, submitted to the Israelites, and therefore escaped the fate which overtook other cities such as that properly called Yarhon. The strong city of Rahab we can now see to have been Rehob ; it belonged to the region of Sib'on, i.e. Ishmael or N. Arabia (the original Canaan). For a similar combination of names, we may compare the description of Hadad-Ezer as 'son of Rehob, king of Zobah' (2 S. viii. 3), for Zobah, like zonah, is a popular corruption of Sib'onah. It remains an open question whether the Jericho so well known to us is, or is not, mentioned in the fragments of the old Judaite literature. At any rate, Yarhon seems to have been chiefly known as a river-name, 2 though in Josh. xix. 46 we do find mention of a place called [Me] - Yarkon and Rakkon, under which may perhaps lie Yarhon. 3 True, this place is said to be 1 T. and B. pp. 229, 456. 2 Ibid. pp. 228, 262, 456, etc. 3 There is an alternative view, for which see Mines oj Isaiah, p. 54. 134 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY Danite, but the seat of the Danites must once have been N. Arabian, as we infer from the true text of Judg. v. ijb, 'and Dan — why did he remain in Ethan ? ' l Not much can be added here to the argument for regarding pr as a possible corruption of prrr ; but that little should be of interest. It was not a pure accident that the corruption of Yarhon took the form of Yardan, because there seems to have been a district of the N. Arabian border- land occupied by the Danites, and called by the name of Ya'ar. This wild, rocky country was very probably bounded by a stream, which would naturally be called ' stream of the Ya'ar of Dan.' The evidence for this view being so slender, I do not offer it as more than a conjecture. But even if a conjecture, it is at least a very probable one. The passages are but two, but what can they possibly mean if my conjecture be neglected ? They are 2 S. xxiv. 6 and xviii. 6. The former passage is in an account of the census of the inhabitants of the N. Arabian territory claimed by David. ' They came to Gilead, and *o the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and came to Dan- ya'an, and made a circuit to Sidon.' Four places are here mentioned ; of two, the names are rightly read, and of two wrongly. The two wrong names 1 |jvk for MT.'s nnx ; ' Ethan ' probably comes from ' Ethman,' i.e. 'Ishmael' ( = N. Arabia). The parallel line should probably be read, ' Gilead abode in Arab-Yarhon.' The corruption of prrr into |TV was facilitated here by the circumstance that pi follows. Note that Gilead and Dan were not far apart. JERICHO AND JORDAN 135 are 'the land of Tahtim-hodshi,' which should be 'the land of Naphtah-Ashhur ' (cp. 'the land of Tappuah,' 1 Josh. xvii. 8), and ' Dan-yaan ' which should be either ' Dan-Ya'ar,' or ' Ya f ar-Dan.' The latter reading — Ya'ar-Dan — furnishes a plausible origin for the name of the stream Yardan ; in popular forms of names $ is often omitted. It is true, in 2 S. xviii. 6 the ya'ar is said to have been in Ephraim. That may have been strictly correct, and yet the district may also have been in Dan, for Dan was probably once a much more important tribe than in later times. There are also some other passages which, rightly explained, throw great light on the subject. The most important of all the illustrations is, of course, Num. xxii. 1 (Josh. xx. 8), which I have already more than once referred to. But, as it seems to me, Josh. iii. 17 and xix. 34 are almost equally significant. (a) In Josh. iii. 17 the narrator tells us how the priests stood still on dry ground in the midst of Jordan till all the people had passed over on dry ground. The important words are ]Dn \rpi Tin}, and before pn is a Pasek, indicating that the text is not free from doubt. In fact, prs would give by no means the right meaning for this context. No qualification of 'the priests stood on dry ground' is at all wanted, and if the narrator chose to give one, 1 Tappuah ('apple,' 'quince') is a witty popular corruption of Naphtah. 136 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY it would not be the obscure pn. <3 and Pesh. do not express the word, a neglect which on the part of <3 is very significant. The remedy is plain, pn is an imperfectly written p3Tri. If so the case is precisely parallel to that of lnr pr in Num. xxii. i, i.e. the error and its correction are put side by side. (b) The other passage occurs in a definition of the boundaries of Naphtali. The important words are prr mirm, out of which it is difficult to get a natural sense. Light streams in, however, when we observe that rmrr sometimes in the Old Testa- ment must have come from VrT = ^NDm\ The meaning is, ' and (it strikes) the Yarhon on the east.' The reference is to the Israelite territory in the N. Arabian border-land. CHAPTER XVII GATH We have seen that the place-name m (Gath) is not to be explained (however obvious the explanation may be) as 'Winepress-town,' but as a shortened form of Golath, or the like, and that Golath and its congeners have come by various stages from Gilead. 1 Let us see the consequences of this admission. The Ethbalite champion with whom David (or Elhanan ?) contended, was not a native of an unimportant city, but of a region which we may presume to have been one of the most desirable in the N. Arabian border-land. It was, further, with the king of this district — Akish ( = Ashkar) son of Maok ( = Maakah), — that David took temporary service, and who in recognition gave to David the fortified town of Siklag [i.e. Sedek-gilead). It was also from Gilead that Ittai brought six hundred men for David's service, after David had become king. One can easily believe that ' Gilead ' was a place - name as well as a 1 See p. 1 6, n. i, and Two Religions, p. 166, n. 3. 137 138 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY regional ; the fuller form of the place-name may- have been Ramath-Gilead. The Chronicler (2 Chr. xi. 8) declares that Rehoboam fortified Gath (Gilead), presupposing that that city was in Rehoboam's possession. Yet in Uzziah's time the same writer represents it as a Philistine (Ethbalite) city (2 Chr. xxvi. 6). At an earlier period Hazael, king of (the southern) Aram, had made a de- vastating inroad into ' all the land of Gilead ' (2 K. x. 33), and in another raid had besieged and taken the city called (most correctly) Gilead or (as in MT.) Gath (2 K. xii. 17) 1 on his way to Jerusalem(?). An obscure statement may be added from 1 Chr. vii. 21. It is to the effect that certain 'sons' ( = clans) of Ephraim were slain by the men of Gath that were born in that land, because they came down to take away their cattle. Clearly 1 Gath ' here stands for ' Gilead.' But this is not the whole of our gains. Akish was king of Gath, i.e. of Galath, a name corrupted from Gilead (cp. Goliath) ; and Akish is equivalent to Nahash. Therefore the Nahash stratum of narra- tive must be interpreted on the supposition that the city spoken of in 2 S. as besieged by Joab (Rabbah) is Gileadite. A valuable corroboration of this view is disclosed by a keener textual criticism 1 How Gath can have been on Hazael's way to Jerusalem, assuming the ordinary views of Old Testament geography, is not easy to understand (Gemoll, p. 321). GATH 139 of the so-called 'Table of Peoples.' 1 See Gen. x. 1 if., where the ' seeing eye ' cannot fail to recognize the statement that ' Akrabbath, the city of Yewanah,' was in Gilead.' 2 See further, p. 46. 1 See T. and B. pp. 185-7, but note the alteration of view now made, viz. that Akrabbath takes the place of Rehoboth. In fact, Rehoboth and Markaboth seem both to be popular alterations of Akrabbath, and Rehob and Rekab to be transformations of Akrab (see Jericho chapter). Rabbah may be explained in like manner. 2 Read ' that is the city of Gilead,' — a gloss on ' Akrabbath, the city of Yewanah.' CHAPTER XVIII RAMAH AND RAMOTH-GILEAD The latter name should rather be Ramath-Gilead. Ramah is most probably a contraction of Rahamah, just as Abram is a contraction of Abraham. It simply means, therefore, ' Yerahme'elite settlement,' and points to the pre-Israelitish time when the population was more purely Yerahme'elite than at present. There were doubtless several places which bore this name ; the MT. mentions Ramath- Negeb, Ramath-Mispeh, Ramath-Lehi, besides the Ramah in the tribe of Benjamin, near which was the tomb of Rachel, and the Ramah in the hill- country of Ephraim which was the home of Samuel, and of his father before him, and others. The latter may perhaps have been once called Ramath- Yaman, though the MT. gives its name as Rama- thaim. It may there be identical with Ramath- Lehi, i.e. Ramath-Yerahme'el. 1 It may, however, be purely accidental whether Ramah had a denning name such as Lehi (Yerahme'el) attached to it, or 1 See T. ami B. p. 270. 141 142 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY not. And I must say that it seems to me very uncertain whether any of the Ramahs of the Old Testament were in Israel or Judah proper, except perhaps that mentioned in i K. xv. 17 as fortified by Baasha king of Israel with the view of isolating Jerusalem, 'that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.' And yet even here the obvious explanation may not be the true one. For the context is about the N. Arabian land. Surely it is a N. Arabian king to whom Asa sends for help against Baasha. 1 It is also highly probable (see chapter on Tirsah) that the strong city, in which, after the collapse of his plan of fortifying Ramah, Baasha resided, was N. Arabian, because Jeroboam, who, before Baasha, resided in Tirsah, had an official connexion, first as governor and then as king, with N. Arabia. It is certainly even more than probable that some border-city would be chosen for the residence of Solomon's chief representative. In fact, one of that king's prefects did reside in Ramath-Gilead (1 K. iv. 13), which may perhaps be identified either with the Ramah of king Baasha or with Tirsah. Both 1 The difficulty of harmonizing the non-Israelite notices of the kings of (the northern) Aram and the story of Aram in the Books of Kings, is well known. To those who have taken part in the controversy we may now add Luckenbill in AJSL, and Langdon in Exp. Times, both in 191 1, and writing with reference to a newly discovered inscription. The way out of the trouble is to recognize that the Old Testament notices refer to the southern Aram (see Crit. Bib.). Ben-hadad comes from Ben-hadad. Originally, how- ever, the name was surely Bar-hadad, i.e. ' Arabia of Hadad.' RAM AH AND RAMOTHGILEAD 143 Ramah and Tirsah were probably border-cities ; the former protected the Israelites of N. Arabia against the southern Jerusalem, the latter against the southern Aram. It is very possible that Ramath-Gilead was the Gilead which under the disguise of ' Gath ' is so indelibly connected with the story of David. It may at any rate have been a border-city in southern Gilead. A precise identification is as impossible from our point of view as it is from the point of view which is supported by the Massoretic text. CHAPTER XIX JEPHTHAH As long as Iphtah (Jephthah) was supposed to be the original form of the name, it was natural to inter- pret it mythologically as ' the opener of the cosmic egg.' In this case Iphtah was originally the name of the divine creator, worshipped by the clan of the Iphtahites under the name Iphtah (cp. Kain, which, if this means ' the divine fabricator,' will be the name of the tribal god of the Kenites 1 ). But in reality the name Iphtah has most probably been filed down by the mouth of the people, and comes from Yaphlithah 2 (nn^D 1 ), or the like, just as Yepheth ( Yapheth) comes from Yaphlith ; the root of all such forms is Ithbal ( = Ishmael). His father, we are told (Judg. xi. i), was Gilead, i.e. the clan or tribe represented by Iphtah had been from the first settled in the district called Gilead. But the clan or tribe referred to had not been able to keep its racial purity, and other clans of purer blood (as 1 See E. Bib. 'Cain,' ' Iphtah-el,' 'Jephthah.' 2 The final n is a fragment of nx, i.e. "trw* (Ashhur). rmi still more certainly comes from rmyas. See p. 133 ; T. and B. p. 19, n. 1. 145 10 146 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY was supposed) looked down on Iphtah accordingly. Was not the mother of Iphtah a Sib'onite, 1 or (an equivalent term) an Ashhurite ? 2 So Iphtah ( = the Iphtahites) had to seek a refuge where he best could. This would naturally be in his mother's country, called in i K. xi. 3 ' the land of Tob.' No doubt this is the same as Ash-Tob (2 S. x. 18), i.e. Asshur-Tubal, or Asshur-Ethbaal. Recalled in time of need by the elders of Gilead, he became the head of the Gileadites, and eventually a judge of all the Israel in the border-land (xii. 7). His abode was at Mispah (doubtless in Gilead, Judg. xi. 34), and he was buried in Arabia of Gilead (Judg. xii. 7). The expulsion of Jephthah, like that of David, was equivalent to the summons, ' Go, serve another god' (1 S. xxvi. 19). Israel and Yerahme'el were closely akin, but they were parted on the great question, Who is the supreme in the inner circle of great gods ? — the older nation being in favour of the god Yerahme'el, and the younger of the god Yahweh. See Traditions and Beliefs ; it can hardly be necessary to repeat here the manifold grounds for this conclusion. I may add that the expulsion of Jephthah is parallel to the expulsion of Abimelech, who, like Jephthah, had a non-Israelite for his mother. 1 mriN from rnriBW. 2 ny from 3"ij\ CHAPTER XX ON NAHASH, HAGAB, AHAB, AND OTHER STRANGE NAMES Among the most singular personal or clan-names in the Old Testament, and those which have most strained the powers of interpreters, are Par'osh (flea?), Huldah (weasel?), Hagab (locust?), Nahash (serpent ?), Ah'ab (the Father is a Brother ?). The two former of these I have already sought to explain ; x the two latter have now to be considered from the newer point of view. Much has been said about the serpent-clan among the Ammonites (see i S. xi. 1,2 S. x. 2), but one can now see that Nahash and Akish are closely akin, 2 hash and kish both being popular abbreviations of Ashhur or Ashkar. The initial letters (n and a) are inserted, again at the popular will, to produce an expansion. We shall presently find other instances of this. We now pass to the so-called locust-clan. This is really another case of the expansion of a popular 1 D. and F. pp. xxv, iy. 2 See E. Bib. 'Nahash' ; Gemoll, pp. 29, 348 (with n.). 147 10 a 148 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY regional name by the prefixing of another letter (A). Hagab (Ezr. ii. 46) and Hagabah (v. 45) are simply expansions of gad, which, in turn, is a condensed and modified form ofa/iad, i.e. Ashhur-Arab, a phrase for N. Arabia. It will be noticed that the n in n^na often, in derivatives, appears as p or d (cp. y\ps>, ipT, 311, p»m, mm). For the expansion of 11 by the prefixing of n, we may compare Habakkuk. We see therefore that names were modified, not only by curtailment, but by expansion. I may add that the object of such modifications was either euphonic or to produce a name of a more tempting or even perhaps a humorous signification. 1 Thus the class to which the clans of Hagab and Hagabah, and also that of Akkub belonged, is called Nethinim. This should mean ' given ones,' and allude to the fact that in the old days Yahweh had ' given up ' the enemies of Israel before them as servants to Israel and its temple. But the true form of the class-name was Ethanim or more accurately Ethmannim ( = Ishmael- ites). And not to linger again on Nahash (see p. 46), precisely similar is the case of Negeb, a tract which was not, in ancient times, the ' dry land ' par excellence ; surely the favourite view of lexico- graphers is not the correct one. The initial letter of naa is, in my judgment, simply expansive, while m is a fragment of iin = iNrrN. Originally it was a 1 An instance is Hamor (ass), which probably comes from Hamu-Rabu, i.e. Yerahme'el-Arab. Cp. Delitzsch, Wo lag das Paradies, pp 280/. NAHASH AND OTHER NAMES 149 transparent regional name, and indicated that the land to which this name was given, was the first part of the N. Arabian border-land to be conquered and occupied by the Israelites. The passage in Judges (i. 15) which may most plausibly be quoted in favour of the explanation of Negeb as ' dry land ' has been inaccurately transmitted (see ' Hebron '). Nor is it only Negeb, but a large number of other names, primarily regional, but in usage often personal, which disclose their meaning to those who have assimilated the discovery of the true meaning of ab, ah, and — may I not here add ? — ham. Among those names are Yo'ab, Yobab, Iyyob, Hobab, Yo'ah, Hamutal, Hamor. (1) Yo'ab. There are four Yo'abs. One is the son of David's sister Seruiah (a corruption of Misriyyah l ). Another is closely connected with the personified Ge-Harashim (1 Chr. iv. 14), a cor- ruption of Ge-Ashhurim. A third is one of the two families of Naphtah 2 -Mo'ab in the long post-exilic list of Judaean clans (Ezr. ii. 6). A fourth is an element in a compound place-name, though con- verted by the Chronicler (1 Chr. ii. 54) into a clan-name, Ashtart-beth- Yo'ab. We may assume that there were several clans which boasted of their sanctuaries of the great goddess ; one of these was probably called ' House of Yo'ab.' And what is the origin of Yo'ab (inv) ? In doubtless is a curtailed and otherwise modified form of ms, 1 E. Bib. 'Zeruiah.' - T. and B. pp. 190 f. 150 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY 1 Arabia ' ; while r (equally with irr" 1 ) is an abridg- ment of irrT ( = ^Norm). (2) Yobab. This name belongs to one of the thirteen Yokbanite tribes ; 1 also to a king of Edom, or rather Aram 2 (Gen. xxxvi. 33 /.), and to a king of Madon, or perhaps rather Midian (the N. Arabian ' Madai '), an ally of Yabin ( = Ishmael), king of Hasor (Josh. xi. 1 ). Also to two Benjamites, one a son of Shaharaim ( = Shahar-Yam, i.e. Ashhur- Yaman), the other a son of Elpaal (1 Chr. viii. 9-18). Yobab is probably = Yo'ab. The doubling of b has well-attested parallels. (3) Iyyob. It is pointed out in the Ency. Bib. (art. 'Job') that in all probability the name has its parallel in the name-lists of Genesis. If so, we have hardly any choice but to identify Iyyob and Yobab. (4) Hobab, 'son of Reuel the Midianite, father-in- law of Moses ' (Num. x. 29). As in the case of Yobab, the repeated b may be disregarded. There remains hob, which may be a contraction of Ashhur- Arab (through Ah'ab). It is noteworthy that, in (& cod. A gives twa/3, and Lucian ico/3a{3. (5) Yo'ah (2 K. xviii. 37) is clearly Yarhu- Ashhur, an intimation of the district of N. Arabia from which Yoah's family came. (6) Hamutal (2 K. xxiii. 31) is Yarham-Ethbal. 8 The impossibility of ' my husband's father is the 1 T and B. p. 200. 2 Ibid. p. 430. 3 Cp. D. and F. p. 45. NAHA SH AND O THER NAMES 1 5 1 dew ' (see E. Bib. ' Hamutal ') needs no showing. Cp. hn in compound place-names (Tel-Assur, Tel- Abib, etc.), which must be a short way of writing some popular form of Ethbaal or Ethmul ( = Ishmael). (7) Hamor (Gen. xxxiii. 19), from Hamu-Rabu (p. 148, n. 1). Cp. the Canaanite name of the Babylonian king Hamurabi, to which we have now at length the key. CHAPTER XXI EPHRAIM YOSEPH — YEHUDAH ' Gather up the fragments that remain.' It is natural to explain Ephraim as the fruitful land (cp. Hos. ix. 13), a fitting and natural expres- sion for the Hebrew immigrants. Just so, it is observed, the Arabs called the fertile plain of Damascus the Guta, which has come to be used as a proper name. 1 The analogy of other regionals and clan-names, however, favours the view that d^idm is = d? 1*15. -qn may be a dialect form of ns (see Two Religions, P- 2 59). The tribal name Yoseph is clearly connected with Asaph (*idn). In 1 Chr. xxv. 2 Yoseph is the name of one of the sons of Asaph. See T. and B. pp. 381 f. Possibly both Asaph and Yoseph may be popular modifications of Eshbal and Yishbal respectively. Cp. on beth Yoseph 1 K. xi. 28 the remarks on p. 88. 1 E. Bib. col. 131 1 ('Ephraim'). 153 154 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY Yehudah is difficult. The masculine form -pirn is once found as a Danite place-name (Josh. xix. 45). It may possibly be (like Ehud) from -nnum ; cp. inr from -itt>N. Or it may come from Tin or Tin. See T. and B. p. 376, and cp. E. Bib. ' Judah.' CHAPTER XXII ESCHATOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY One fresh point that has arisen out of these re- searches and those of Gemoll is that the same place often bears different names, and that the same name is often given to different places. An example of this is furnished by the leading people of N. Arabia, or the N. Arabian land, which is some- times called Asshur, sometimes Babel, sometimes Paras, names which are really popular abbrevia- tions of Ashhur, Rakbul, 1 Pathras 2 ( = Sophereth or Sarephath) respectively. It is equally certain, in my opinion, though equally disputed by the majority, that N. Arabia is often designated by Yerahme'el, and that this is frequently shortened into Yaman (through Yakman), another form of which is Yawan. I have been struck, in reading Dr. Gray's Isaiah, by the esteemed author's failure to do justice to these discoveries, and I fear that the same may be said of Dr. H. Mitchell, author 1 Traditions and Beliefs, p. 184. 2 Ibid. pp. 189/; Two Religions, pp. 302, 354. 155 156 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY of Haggai and Zechariah, in the same series of commentaries. Thus, the former keeps the familiar but surely impossible reading of Isa. xxiv. 14A 'cry aloud from the sea,' and the latter, while rightly retaining ' Yawan ' (Zech. ix. 13), gives it the unsuitable meaning ' Greece.' A similar want of insight mars Dr. Gray's exegesis of Isa. xxiv.- xxvii. In fact, both he and Dr. Mitchell are astray on the question of Asshur, which has rather serious consequences. It is, in fact, N. Arabia which furnishes the setting of this composite eschatological prophecy. Though seemingly it refers to the earth (pa), in reality the seer thinks of the peoples most nearly related to the Judaites, i.e. those of N. Arabia, and the city which is to be 'broken' (Isa. xxiv. 10) is the capital of the leading people of that region. Only thus can we understand the singular phraseology of Isa. xxiv. 5, 'because they have transgressed laws, over- stepped statutes, broken the eternal covenant.' From the time of the patriarch Abraham God had communicated with these favoured peoples, but, with the very partial exception of the Israelites, they rejected His revealed will. Yet the voice of later prophecy declared that N. Arabia was still, par excellence, the Holy Land, and one of its mountains was hallowed in a special degree. In the Two Religions (pp. 294-7) I have explained how the text of Isa. ii. 2-4 came to be altered, and how far it is, in its present form, from ESCHATOLOGICAL GEOGRAPHY 157 representing the quatrains of the original poem. In that wonderful little poem the holy mountain is described as the centre of a great educational enter- prise. All the neighbouring peoples resort to Mount Sion, or Sib'on ( = Ishmael), to be instructed in the mode of life most pleasing to Yahweh. Truly a noble dream, and far nobler than that other dream of the extirpation of the oppressive peoples ! No doubt there were two classes of religious thinkers among the Judaites. There were those who thought the N. Arabians irredeemably bad, and there were those who believed that they might become faithful subjects of Yahweh, who would, in the latter days, admit them to his coronation feast 'on this mountain.' Not perhaps all of them. So many of the N. Arabians would be destroyed that one might even say that the N. Arabian peoples, as vehicles of a true national life, had disappeared, or, in the words of the poet (Isa. xxv. 8), that 'he hath swallowed up ( = annihilated) Ishmael for ever.' I am, of course, aware that many readers will object to what they will denominate the arbitrary tamper- ing with the text of a most noble warrant for our faith in immortality. Isaiah xxv. in the traditional text has, in fact, been regarded as a miraculous flash in the surrounding darkness — a flash which, alas! found the Jewish race unprepared to receive it. But how can we possibly accept such a marvel ? The context, at any rate, is opposed to this view, for surely the ' covering ' and the ' veil ' in xxv. 7 158 THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY are thrown upon 'all the peoples' of N. Arabia as well as Judah by their conqueror (the N. Arabian Asshur), and the ' tears in v. 8 are those which are drawn forth by the brutal conduct of the same foe. It must be plain, therefore, that the 'annihila- tion ' spoken of in v. &a must refer to the object of the later Israelites' most profound longing — the retribution of the N. Arabian oppressor. And so it more than probably does, for mn, which seems to mean 'death,' is really miswritten for 'ion, i.e. hyar\ ( = fnnnN). Temul and Ethmul are among the current popular distortions of Ishmael. 1 Cp. the proper names Azmaweth and Hasar-maweth (p. 56, n. 4). In this connexion we may also refer to Eshtaol and Eshtemoa, both of which come from Asshur- Ethmael. Such, in the main, is the Hebrew eschatological geography, apart from some unlooked-for contribu- tions, especially in the Book of Ezekiel, at which I have glanced in Critica Biblica, but which require further study. I trust that some thoroughly sym- pathetic younger scholar may be able to undertake the task which will probably soon fall from my hands. 1 Review of Gray's Isaiah in Expositor, June 19 12, p. 556. INDEX (The Index is imperfect, owing to the author's ill-health, but may yet be helpful.) Abraham and Sarah, 9 Abram, 41, 43 Absalom, scenes of his revolt from David, ififf, his vow, 49 his body-guard, 51 Adam. See First Man Adoni-Bezek and Adoni-Sedek, 29, 42 Adullam, 19 Ah'ab, 50, 150 Akish, 6, 13 (n. 1 ), 46, 137, 147. See Nahash Akrab, Akrabbath, Akrabbim, 16 ff., 23/. 2 7#. 36. 45/ Amarna Tablets, 28 (n. 1 ), 93, 98 Amnion, 47 f. Amos on the Kushites, 4 Anakites, 17/., 51 (n. 1 ) Aphek, 14 (b. 1 ), 19 Aram, the southern, 26, 48, 64, 128 Araunah the Yebusite, 44 Arbel, region of Yahweh's temple, 65 Argob, Argab, 50 («. 2 ), 67 Arman, the Holy Symbol, 2\ff., 34, 53- 6 4/ Asham-Ishmael, a god-name, 103 (n. 1 ) Asher, god and tribe, 15-17 Asherah, 17 Ashhartites, 47, 52 Asshur, a city in Assyria, 5 ; or in N. Arabia, 5, 48 in compound names, 49/. god-name, 17, 34 Ashhur, god-name, 113 -Ephraim, 105 -Yerahme'el, 78 Ashkal, 103 Ashkar, 30/, 38/., 53, 64 Ashtar, 56/. Ashtart, goddess, 17, 34, 100, 103 Azmaweth, 156 Baal-Gad, 15, 17, 97 Bahurim, 58 Bathsheba, 46/! Beer-sheba, 54 Ben-Hadad, 107, 142 (n. 1 ) Bethel, place-name, 33, no, 113./. god-name, 78 Beth-Shemesh, 22 Burkitt, F. C, 66 (n. 1 ) Canaan. See Kena'an City-names, 31 Dagon, 14/. Dan, 55, 77/., 113/., 134/ David, origin of, 18/; recovers the Holy Symbol, 20 his body-guard, 52 his N. Arabian scribes, 19 his conquest of Jerusalem, 23^ , 36/. his conquest of Rabbah, 46/. resides (sometimes) in the southern Jerusalem, 36, 39, 54 Deuteronomy, the God of, 34 Dod, Dodah, divine names, 16 (w. 1 ), 17 a regional, 30, 38 Eden, 3 Egyptian list of place-names, 22 («.-), 2 5 Eli, his son, 14 Ephraim, the southern, 40, 55, 105 origin of name, 8, 153 Ephrath, 71, 87, 104 Esar-haddon, 14 («.') Eschatological geography, 155 159 i6o THE VEIL OF HEBREW HISTORY Eshmun, Phoenician god, 9 («. 2 ), 11 («.l) Eshtaol and Eshtemoa, 158 Ethbaal, Ethbal, Ethbalites, 13/"., 52. 71. "3 Evolution of concept of God, 10 (n. 1 ) Ezer, clan-name, 16 («.*), 21 («. 3 ), 72 («. 2 ) First Man, Biblical stories of, 8- 11 Gad, 16 (n. 1 ). See Baal-Gad Gadon, 14 Gath, Gittites, 16 (n. 1 ), 52 («. 4 ), 137^ Gemoll, M. , 19 (?z. 2 ), 20 (n. 1 ), 30 («. 2 ), 49, 51 (w. 1 ), 54> 55 ("- 1 ). 60 K 1 ), 70 (w. 2 ), 78 (w. 1 ), no, 147 (w. 2 ) Geshur, Geshurites, 73, 86 Gibeah, 50 Gibeon, 49, 127 Gideon, 32 («. 2 ), 97 Gilead, the southern, 68, 145/-. etc - Gilead-Lot, 9 Gray, G. B., 155^. Hadad, regional, 5 enemy of Solomon, 85/ Hagar, 4/ Hamath, 72 Hanok, 8/. Hanokites, 52 Haran, 5 Hashram, or Kashram, 41/., 55, 66, 101 Hebron, 49/., iisff- Hiram, king of Sor, 81 Hittites, the, 47 Horeb, Mount, 7 f. Horse-traffic. See Solomon Immortality in Isaiah (?), 157 Indian folk-lore (Nala and Damayanti), 24 (n. 1 ) Jebusites. See Yebusites Jehoshaphat, 80 Jephthah, 145/. Jerahme'el. See Yerahme'el Jericho, 131^ Jeroboam, 87, 113/, 14 2 his mother, 87 Jerusalem. See Urushalem Jordan, 7. See Yardan Joseph. See Yoseph Jubilees, Book of, 93 Kena'an, 30, 43, 94, no Kashmeron, 101 Kashram. See Hashram Kerethites and Pelethites, 47, 52/ Kiryath-Arba, 50 -Ye'arim, 128/". Kush, 4/ Langdon, Stephen, 142 (n. 1 ) Lot, 9 Luckenbill, 142 («. ') Maakah, 77 f. Madai, 102 Mahanaim, 59 /. Marduk, 123 Mesha, king of Moab, 16 (ft. 1 ) Meyer, E. , 99 (w. 1 ) Migdal-Eder, 99 -Gad, 97 -Shekem, 99/ Misrim, 87, 113, 119 wady of, 74 Moore, G. F. , 94 (». 2 ) Mountains named after races or clans, 57 Naaman, 9 Nabu, 123 Nahash. See Akish Naphtuhim, 40, 48, 68 (n. 1 ), 86 Nebo, Mount, 124 place-name, 124 Negeb, the, 116, 148 Nob, 124 Og, N. Arabian king, 48 (n. 2 ) Omri, 35, 1 01 Ophir. See Solomon Palestine culture, influences on, 1 Paradise, situation of, 2-8 Pathrasim, 52 (ra. 8 ), 69 Perasim, Mount, 19, 45 Perath, N. Arabian stream, 6, 58 Philistines, 13. See Ethbal Pinhasites, 36, 40 Porasites, 52, 69 Psalm exxii. , background of, 35 Rabshak, or Ramshah, 42, 86, 97 Ramath-Gilead or Ramoth G. , 141^ Ramgal, 97 Ramshahites, 42, 51, 69 Rephaim, 19 Resin, 86 Rogelim, 59 Samaria. See Shimron Sedek, regional and clan-name, 42/. Shakram, 25^, 31/, 96 Sbalem, 23, 27, 40 Shekem, 93^ INDEX 161 Shiloh, 14, 109-111, 119-122 Shimron or Shomeron, 104^. Shur, Book of, 65 Sinai, Mount, 57 {?i}) Sion, the N. Arabian, 64 Sodom, 41 Solomon, anointed at Gibeon, 49 his N. Arabian residence, 36 his N. Arabian wife, 85 his buildings, 63^ his prefects in N. Arabia, 67 f. his corvie, 75 his naval expeditions, 79-81 his horses and his chariots, 83, 85 his chariot cities (?), 70 limits of his empire, 67-75 his religion, 90/". 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