ka'-bris (Abris, Chabreis): Son of Gothoniel, one of the three rulers of Bethulia in the time of Judith (Judith 6:15; 8:10; 10:6).
ka'-di-as, ka'-di-a-si; (the Revised Version (British and American) Codex Alexandrinus, Chadasai; Codex Vaticanus, hoi Chadiasai): The inhabitants of the city here referred to returned with Zerubbabel, along with the Ammidioi (1 Est 5:20). The name is not found in Ezra and Nehemiah. The Chadiasai have been taken for the people of Kadesh and the Ammidioi for the people of Humtah (Josh 15:54). Possibly the place is identical with Kedesh of Josh 15:23.
ke'-re-as (Chaireas; the King James Version Chereas): Brother of Timotheus, the Ammonite leader against Judas Maccabeus (1 Macc 5:6). He held the fortress of Gazara (the "Jazer" of 1 Macc 5:8) to which Timotheus fled from Judas. The latter pursued him and captured the fortress after a vigorous siege. In the slaughter which followed the two brothers, Chaereas and Timotheus, were killed (2 Macc 10:32,37).
chaf (mar, "bitter"; hence, bitter of soul, deadly, destructive, ferocious, "as a bear robbed of her whelps"): Occurs only in 2 Sam 17:8; used by Hushai to characterize David's supposedly fierce mood at the time of Absalom's armed rebellion.
chaf: Four different words have been translated "chaff" in the Old Testament:
(1) mots, is found in Job 21:18; Ps 1:4; 35:5; Isa 17:13; 29:5; 41:15; Hos 13:3; Zeph 2:2.
(2) chashash, occurs in two verses (Isa 5:24 and 33:11). Compare "chashish," an Arabic word which, as commonly used, denotes grass either standing or cut, green or dry, although, strictly speaking, dry or cut grass alone. In the Revised Version (British and American) Isa 5:24 the translation is "dry grass."
(3) tebhen, is translated "chaff" in the King James Version (Jer 23:28). The same word is rendered "straw" in the Revised Version (British and American) (compare Arabic tibn).
(4) 'ur, a Chaldaic word, occurs in Dan 2:35.
In the New Testament achuron, is found in Mt 3:12 and Lk 3:17.
In the process of winnowing, as it has been carried on in the East for thousands of years, the grain is tossed into the air so that the wind may cause a separation of chaff and straw. The light husks from the wheat and fine particles of straw are dispersed by the wind in the form of a fine dust; the heavier straw which has been broken into short pieces by the threshing process falls near at hand on the edge of the threshing-floor, while the grain falls back upon the pile. In Syria and Palestine, that which falls near at hand as cut straw is called tibn. This word occurs in the Arabic translation of Mt 3:12 and Lk 3:17. This straw is ordinarily saved and fed as "roughage" to the animals. It could easily be gathered and burned, as indicated in the above-mentioned verses, while the chaff is blown away beyond recovery, a strong figure to depict complete annihilation (Job 21:18; Isa 29:5; 41:16; Hos 13:3, Dan 2:35).
See AGRICULTURE ;STRAW ;WINNOWING .
JAMES A. Patch
chan, chanz: Chains were used by the Hebrews:
(1) As ornaments: 'ets`adhah, neTiphah, `anaq, rabhidh, sharsherah, rattoq. As ornaments for the person they were worn about the ankles (Nu 31:50; Isa 3:20) and about the neck (Song 4:9; Ezek 16:11). They were used as ornaments for the ephod and breastplate of the high priest (Ex 28:14; 39:15). These chains were of pure gold. Solomon placed chains before the oracle in the temple (1 Ki 6:21), and these were also of pure gold. They were used as ornaments for graven images (Isa 40:19) and around the necks of prized animals. This was true of the camels taken from the Midianites by Gideon (Jdg 8:21,26).
(2) As marks of distinction: rabhidh, hamunekh (hamnikh): That seems to be true of the chain which Pharaoh placed about the neck of Joseph (Gen 41:42), and of the one which the king of Babylon promised to the wise men (Dan 5:7).
(3) As means of confining prisoners: nechosheth; halusis: A number of passages that were translated "chains" in the King James Version are translated "fetters" in the Revised Version (British and American) (See Jdg 16:21; 2 Sam 3:34). Among the Romans the prisoner was chained to one or two guards (Acts 12:6,7; 21:33; Eph 6:20; 2 Tim 1:16). These chains were perhaps made of copper or an alloy of copper and tin.
(4) As a figurative expression: `anaq. The Psalmist likens pride to a chain about the neck (Ps 73:6), and in Prov it is stated that the young man who hears the instruction of his father and forsakes not the law of his mother shall find that they are chains about his neck (1:9). In Rev 20:1 the angel is described as descending with a great chain in his hand. According to the King James Version Peter speaks of the fallen angels as having been delivered into "chains of darkness" (2 Pet 2:4), seira, and Jude speaks of them as being reserved in "everlasting chains" (Jude 1:6, the Revised Version (British and American) "bonds"), desmos.
See also PUNISHMENTS .
A. W. Fortune
char.
kal-sed'-o-ni, kal'-se-do-ni.
kal'-kol.
See CALCOL .
kal-de'-a, kal-de'-anz (kasdim, 'erets kasdim; Chaldaia, Chaldaioi):
1. Geographical Position
Seats of the Chaldeans
2. Originally Sumero-Akkadian
3. History of the Chaldean Tribes
4. Merodach-baladan and Sargon of Assyria
5. Suzubu
6. Musezib-Marduk
7. Merodach-baladan's Son
8. Na'id-Marduk
9. Palia
10. Nabu-bel-sumati and Others
His Tragic End
11. The Chaldeans Forge Ahead
12. Nabopolassar's Revolt against Assyria
13. The Chaldeans as Learned Men
"Kasdim," "land of Kasdim" or "the Chaldeans," is the usual designation, in the Old Testament, for the land and the people (Jer 50:10; 51:24; 24:5; 25:12). The corresponding Greek form with l for s follows the Assyr-Bab Kaldu, mat Kaldi, "Chaldean, land of the Chaldeans." Kasdim is possibly connected with the name of Kesed (Kesedh), nephew of Abraham (Gen 22:22), and may be derived from the Assyr-Bab root kasadu, "to capture," suggesting that the Chaldeans were originally tribes of nomadic plunderers (compare Job 1:17).
Seats of the Chaldeans:
In its widest acceptation, Chaldea is the name of the whole of Babylonia, owing to the fact that the Chaldeans had given more than one king to the country. In the strict sense, however, their domain was the tract at the Northwest end of the Persian Gulf, which was often called by the Assyro-Babylonians mat Tamtim, "the Land of the Sea," a province of unknown extent. When these tribes migrated into Babylonia is uncertain, as is also their original home; but as they are closely related to the Arameans, it is possible that their first settlements lay in the neighborhood of the Aramean states bordering on the Holy Land. Tiglath-pileser IV (742 BC) speaks of the ra'asani or chiefs of the Kaldu, and the mention of numerous Aramean tribes in Babylonia itself shows that their example of settling there soon found imitators, as did the Anglo-Saxons when they invaded Britain. Among the Chaldean tribes in Babylonia may be mentioned Bit Amukkani, whose capital was Sapia; Bit Yakin which furnished the dynasty to which Merodach-baladan II belonged; and probably also Bit Dakkuri, as all three lay near the Persian Gulf. Sargon of Assyria excludes Bit-Amukkani and Bit-Dakkuri, and speaks of "the whole of the land of Chaldea, as much as there is; the land of Bit-Yakini, on the shore of the Salt River (the Persian Gulf), to the border of Tilmun" (the island of Bahrein and the adjacent mainland) (Pavement Inscr., IV, ll. 82, 83, 85, 86). It was probably the influence of theBabylonians among whom they settled which changed these nomads into city-dwellers. Sennacherib refers to 75 (var. 89) strong cities and fortresses of Chaldea, and 420 (var. 800) smaller towns which were around them; and there were also Chaldeans (and Arameans) in Erech, Nippur (Calneh), Kis, Hursag-kalama, Cuthah, and probably Babylon.
2. Originally Sumero-Akkadian:
The "land of the sea" (mat Tamtim)is mentioned in the chronicle of the early Babylonian kings (rev. 14) as being governed by Ea-gamil, contemporary of Samsu-Titana (circa 1900 BC), but at that period it was apparently one of the original Sumero-Akkadian states of Babylonia. It is doubtful whether, at that early date, the Chaldeans had entered Babylonia and founded settlements there, though the record mentions Arameans somewhat later on.
3. History of the Chaldean Tribes:
One of the earliest references to the Chaldeans is that of Shalmaneser II of Assyria, who, on invading Babylonia in the eponymy of Belbunaya (851 BC), captured the city Baqani, which belonged to Adini of the Chaldean tribe of Dakuri. After plundering and destroying the place, Shalmaneser attacked Enzudi, the capital, whereupon Adini submitted and paid tribute. On this occasion Yakini of "the Land of the Sea," also paid tribute, as did Musallim-Marduk, son of Amukkani (the Bit-Amukkani mentioned above). The next Assyrian ruler to mention the country is Adadnirari III (810 BC), who speaks of all the kings of the Chaldeans, which evidently refers to the various states into which the Chaldean tribes were divided. Later on, Sargon of Assyria, in his 12th year, decided to break the power of Merodach-baladan, who had made himself master of Babylon. To effect this, he first defeated the Gambulians, who were the Chaldean king's supporters, and the Elamites, his allies over the border. The Chaldean, however, did not await the Assyrian king's attack, but escaped to Yatburu in Elam, leaving considerable spoil behind him.
4. Merodach-baladan and Sargon of Assyria:
Though extensive operations were carried out, and much booty taken, the end of the campaign seems only to have come two years later, when Dur-Yakin was destroyed by fire and reduced to ruins. In the "Annals of Hall XIV" Sargon claims to have taken Merodach-baladan prisoner, but this seems doubtful. Merodach-baladan fled, but returned and mounted the throne again on Sargon's death in 705 BC. Six months later Sennacherib, in his turn, attacked him, and he again sought safety in flight.
A Chaldean chief named Suzubu, however, now came forward, and proclaimed himself king of Babylon, but being defeated, he likewise fled. Later on, Sennacherib attacked the Chaldeans at Nagitu and other settlements in Elamite-territory which Merodach-baladan and his followers had founded.
After the death of Merodach-baladan, yet another Chaldean, whom Sennacherib calls likewise Suzubu, but whose full name was Musezib-Marduk, mounted the Babylonian throne. This ruler applied for help against Sennacherib of Assyria to Umman-menanu, the king of Elam, who, taking the bribe which was offered, supported him with an armed force, and a battle was fought at Chalule on the Tigris, in which Sennacherib claims the victory--probably rightly. Musezib-Marduk reigned 4 years, and was taken prisoner by his whilom ally, Umman-menanu, who sent him to Assyria.
In the reign of Esarhaddon, Nabu-zer-napistilisir, one of the sons of Merodach-baladan, gathered an army at Larsa, but was defeated by the Assyrians, and fled to Elam. The king of that country, however, wishing to be on friendly terms with Esarhaddon, captured him and put him to death.
This prince had a brother named Na'id-Marduk, who, not feeling himself safe in the country which had acted treacherously toward his house, fled, and made submission to Esarhaddon, who received him favorably, and restored to him the dominion of the "Land of the Sea." This moderation secured the fidelity of the Chaldeans, and when the Elamite Urtaku sent inviting them to revolt against their suzerain, they answered to the effect that Na'id-Marduk was their lord, and they were the servants of the king of Assyria. This took place probably about 650 BC, in the reign of Esarhaddon's son Assur-bani-apli (See OSNAPPAR ).
Hostility to Assyria, however, continued to exist in the tribe, Palia, grandson of Merodach-baladan, being one of the prisoners taken by Assur-bani-apli's troops in their operations against the Gambulians (a Babylonian, and perhaps a Chaldean tribe) later on. It was only during the struggle of Samas-sumukin (Saosduchimos), king of Babylon, Assur-banl-apli's brother, however, that they took sides against Assyria as a nationality. This change was due to the invitation of the Babylonian king--who may have been regarded, rather than Assur-bani-apli, as their overlord.
The chief of the Chaldeans was at that time another grandson of Merodach-baladan, Nabu-bel-sumati, who seized the Assyrians in his domain, and placed them in bonds. The Chaldeans suffered, with the rest, in the great defeat of the Babylonian and allied forces, when Babylon and the chief cities of the land fell. Mannu-ki-Babili of the Dakkurians, Ea-sum-ikisa of Bit-Amukkani, with other Chaldean states, were punished for their complicity in Samas-sum-ukin's revolt, while Nabu-bel-sumati fled and found refuge at the court of Indabigas, king of Elam. Assur-bani-apli at once demanded his surrender, but civil war in Elam broke out, in which Indabigas was slain, and Ummanaldas mounted the throne.
His Tragic End:
This demand was now renewed, and Nabu-bel-sumati, fearing that he would be surrendered, decided to end his life. He therefore directed his armor-bearer to dispatch him, and each ran the other through with his sword. The prince's corpse, with the head of his armor-bearer, were then sent, with some of the Chaldean fugitives, to Assyria, and presented to the king. Thus ended, for a time, Chaldean ambition in Babylonia and in the domain of eastern politics.
11. The Chaldeans Forge Ahead:
With the death of Assur-bani-apli, which took place about 626 BC, the power of Assyria fell, his successors being probably far less capable men than he. This gave occasion for many plots against the Assyrian empire, and the Chaldeans probably took part in the general movement. In the time of Saracus (Sin-sarra-iskun of Assyria, circa 620 BC) Busalossor would seem to have been appointed general of the forces in Babylonia in consequence of an apprehended invasion of barbarians from the sea (the Persian Gulf) (Eusebius, Chronicon, book i).
12. Nabopolassar's Revolt against Assyria:
The new general, however, revolted against the Assyrians, and made himself master of Babylonia. As, in other cases, the Assyrians seem to have been exceedingly faithful to their king, it has been thought possible that this general, who was none other than Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadpolassar's rezzar, was not really an Assyrian, but a Babylonian, and probably a Chaldean. This theory; if correct, would explain how Babylonia, in its fullest sense, obtained the name of Chaldea, and was no longer known as the land of Shinar (Gen 10:10). The reputation of Merodach-baladan, the contemporary of Hezekiah, may have been partly responsible for the change of name.
13. The Chaldeans as Learned Men:
It was not in the restricted sense, but as a synonym of Babylonian, that the name Chaldean obtained the signification of "wise man." That the Chaldeans in the restricted and correct sense were more learned than, or even as learned as, the Babylonians in general, is unlikely. Moreover, the native inscriptions give no indication that this was the case. The Babylonians in general, on the other
hand, were enthusiastic students from very early times. From their inscriptions, it is certain that among their centers of learning may be classed Sippar and Larsa, the chief seats of sun-worship; Nippur, identified with the Calneh of Gen 10:10; Babylon, the capital; Borsippa in the neighborhood of Babylon; Ur of the Chaldees; and Erech. There is, also, every probability that this list could be extended, and will be extended, when we know more; for wherever an important temple existed, there was to be found also a priestly school. "The learning of the Chaldeans" (Dan 1:4; 2:2; 4:7; 5:7,11) comprised the old languages of Babylonia (the two dialects of Sumerian, with a certain knowledge of Kassite, which seems to have been allied to the Hittite; and other languages of the immediate neighborhood); some knowledge of astronomy and astrology; mathematics, which their sexagesimal system of numeration seems to have facilitated; and a certain amount of natural history. To this must be added a store of mythological learning, including legends of the Creation, the Flood (closely resembling in all its main points the account in the Bible), and apparently also the Temptation and the Fall. They had likewise a good knowledge of agriculture, and were no mean architects, as the many celebrated buildings of Babylonia show--compare not only the descriptions of the Temple of Belus (seeBABEL ,TOWER OF ) and the Hanging Gardens, but also the remains of Gudea's great palace at Lagas (Tel-loh), where that ruler, who lived about 2500 BC , is twice represented as an architect, with plan and with rule and measure. (These statues are now in the Louvre.) That their architecture never attained the elegance which characterized that of the West, is probably due to the absence of stone, necessitating the employment of brick as a substitute (Gen 11:3).
T. G. Pinches
chok'-ston ('abhneghir (compare Eben-ezer, 'ebhen ha-`ezer, "stone of the help," 1 Sam 7:12)): In Isa 27:9 we have: "Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, so that the Asherim and the sun-images shall rise no more." 'Abhne-ghir is compounded of 'ebhen, "stone," which occurs in many passages, and gir or gir, "lime" (compare Arabic jir , "gypsum" or "quicklime"), which occurs only here and in Dan 5:5: "wrote .... upon the plaster (gir) of the wall of the king's palace." Nearly all the rock of Palestine is limestone. When limestone is burned, it is converted into lime, which is easily broken into pieces, and, if allowed to remain open to the air, becomes slaked by the moisture of the atmosphere and crumbles into dust. The reference is to the destruction of the altar. It may mean that the altar will be burned so that the stones will become lime, or, more probably, that the stones of the altar will be broken as chalkstones (i.e. lumps of quicklime) are broken. There is no doubt that lime was known to the Egyptians, Assyrians and Hebrews, though clay, with or without straw, was more commonly used in building. Even bitumen ("slime") appears to have been used for mortar.
Alfred Ely Day
chal'-enj: Only in Ex 22:9, where the King James Version has taken Hebrew 'amar, "say," in the sense of "claim." the Revised Version (British and American) "whereof one saith, This is it," points more definitely to the idea of identification of the stolen personal property.
kal'-fi (Chalphi; the King James Version Calphi): Father of Judas, who, along with Mattathias, steadily supported Jonathan at the battle of Gennesar when the hosts of Demetrius' princes were routed (1 Macc 11:70).
cham'-ber (the translation of the following Hebrew words: chedher, chuppah, yatsia`, yatsua`, lishkah, nishkah, `aliyah, tsela`, and the Aramaic word `illith): For the most part the word chamber is the expression of an idea which would be adequately expressed by the English word "room," in accordance with an earlier use of the word, now little employed. For the arrangement of rooms in a Hebrew house, See HOUSE . Chedher is a word of frequent occurrence, and designates a private room. Chuppah is translated "chamber" only in Ps 19:5, where it is used in connection with "bridegroom," and means a bridal chamber. The same Hebrew word used of the bride in Joel 2:16 is rendered "closet." Yatsia` and yatsua` are found only in 1 Ki 6:5,6,10 (the King James Version only in all the passages), yatsua` being the reading of Kethibh and yatsia` of Kere in each ease. Here the meaning is really "story," as given in the Revised Version (British and American), except in 1 Ki 6:6, where doubtless the text should be changed to read ha-tsela`, "the side-chamber." Lishkah, a frequent word, and the equivalent nishkah, infrequent, are used ordinarily of a room in the temple utilized for sacred purposes, occasionally of a room in the palace. `Aliyah and the equivalent Aramaic `illith signify "a roof chamber," i.e. a chamber built on the flat roof of a house. Tsela`, when used of a chamber, designates a side-chamber of the temple. It is usually rendered "side-chamber," but "chamber" in 1 Ki 6:5,8 (the King James Version), where the Revised Version (British and American) has "side-chamber."
George Ricker Berry
See CHAMBER .
cham'-ber-ing: Illicit intercourse; the rendering in English Versions of the Bible since Tyndale of koitias (literally "beds," Rom 13:13). The Greek usage is paralleled in classic authors and the Septuagint; like the English participle, it denotes repeated or habitual acts. The word is not recorded elsewhere in English literature as verb or participle in this sense; in Othello, iii, 3, a chamberer is an intriguer, male wanton, in Byron, Werner, IV, 1, 404, a gallant or carpet knight, and in Chaucer, Clerk's Tale, 766, a concubine.
cham'-ber-lin: In the Old Testament the word rendered chamberlain, caric, is more properly "eunuch," an officer which oriental monarchs placed over their harems (Est 1:10,12,15; 2:3,14,21; 4:4 f; 6:2,14; 7:9; 2 Ki 23:11). This officer seems also to have had other duties. See underEUNUCH . In the New Testament (1) oikonomos, literally manager of the household, apparently the "treasurer" as in the Revised Version (British and American) "Erastus the treasurer of the city saluteth you" (Rom 16:23). Compare adapted use as applied to Christian apostles and teachers, bishops, and even to individual members; in which cases, rendered "stewards" (1 Cor 4:1; Tit 1:7; 1 Pet 4:10). (2) In Acts 12:20, "Blastus the king's chamberlain" (ho epi toa koitonos tou basileos, "he who is over the king's bed-chamber"), not treasure-chamber, as above; here praefectus cubiculo, or chief valet de chambre to the royal person, a position involving much honor and intimacy.
Edward Bagby Pollard
See ASTRONOMY ;DIAL OF AHAZ .
See ASTRONOMY ;SOUTH ,CHAMBERS OF THE .
im'-aj-ri, im'-a-jer-i (maskith): The reference (Ezek 8:12) is to chambers in the temple where the elders of Israel were wont to assemble and practice rites of an idolatrous character. What the imagery consisted of, we may gather from 8:10: symbolic representations of beasts and reptiles and "detestable things." It is thought that these symbols were of a zodiacal character. The worship of the planets was in vogue at the time of the prophet among the degenerate Israelites.
ka-me'-le-un (koach, the Revised Version (British and American) LAND CROCODILE (Lev 11:30); tinshemeth, the King James Version mole, the Revised Version (British and American) CHAMELEON (Lev 11:30)):
Koach, which in the King James Version is rendered "chameleon" and in the Revised Version (British and American) "land crocodile," means also "strength" or "power," as in Gen 4:12; 1 Sam 2:9; Ps 22:15; Isa 40:29, and many other passages. The Septuagint has chamaileon, but on account of the ordinary meaning of the word, koach, it has been thought that some large lizard should be understood here. The desert monitor, Varanus griseus, one of the largest of lizards, sometime attaining the length of 4 ft., is common in Palestine and may be the animal here referred to. The name "monitor" is a translation of the German warnen, "to warn," with which has been confused the Arabic name of this animal, waran or waral, a word of uncertain etymology.
The word tinshemeth in the same verse is rendered in the King James Version "mole" and in the Revised Version (British and American) "chameleon." The Septuagint has aspalax (= spalax, "mole"). Tinshemeth also occurs in the lists of unclean birds in Lev 11:18 and Dt 14:16, where it is rendered: the King James Version "swan"; the Revised Version (British and American) "horned owl"; Septuagint porphurion (i.e. "coot" or, according to some, "heron"); Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) cygnus, "swan." It appears to come from the root nasham, "to breathe"; compare neshamah, "breath" (Gen 2:7; Job 27:3 the King James Version, etc.). It has therefore in Lev 11:30 been referred to the chameleon on account of the chameleon's habit of puffing up its body with air and hissing, and in the other passages to the pelican, on account of the pelican's great pouched bill.
The common chameleon is abundant in Palestine, being found also in North Africa and in Spain. The other species of chameleons are found principally in Africa and Madagascar. It is not only a harmless but a decidedly useful creature, since it feeds upon insects, especially flies. Its mode of capturing its prey is most interesting. It slowly and cautiously advances until its head is from 4 to 6 inches from the insect, which it then secures by darting out its tongue with great rapidity. The pigment cel ls in its skin enable it to change its color from pale yellow to bright green, dark green and almost black, so that it can harmonize very perfectly with its surroundings. Its peculiar toes and prehensile tail help to fit it for its life in the trees. Its prominent eyes with circular lids, like iris diaphragms can be moved independently of each other, and add to its striking appearance.
See LAND-CROCODILE ;MOLE ;SWAN ;OWL ;PELICAN .
Alfred Ely Day
sham'-i, sha-mwa', sha-moi' (zemer; kamelopdrdalis): Occurs only once in the Bible, i.e. in the list of clean animals in Dt 14:5. Gesenius refers to the verb zamar, "to sing," and suggests the association of dancing or leaping, indicating thereby an active animal. M'Lean in Encyclopedia Biblica cites the rendering of the Targums dica', or "wild goat." Now there are two wild goats in Palestine. The better known is the ibex of the South, which may well be the ya`el (English Versions, "wild goat"; Job 39:1; Ps 104:18; 1 Sam 24:2), as well as the 'aqqo (English Version, "wild goat," Dt 14:5). The other is the pasang or Persian wild goat which ranges from the Northeast of Palestine and the Syrian desert to Persia, and which may be the zemer (English Versions "chamois"). The accompanying illustration, which is taken from the Royal Natural History, shows the male and female and young. The male is distinguished by its larger horns and goatee. The horns are in size and curvature very similar to those of the ibex (See GOAT , section 2) , but the front edge is like a nicked blade instead of being thick and knotty as in the ibex. Like the ibex it is at home among the rocks, and climbs apparently impossible cliffs with marvelous ease.
Tristram (NHB) who is followed by Post (HDB) suggests that zemer may be the Barbary sheep (Ovis tragelaphus), though the latter is only known to inhabit the Atlas Mountains, from the Atlantic to Tunis. Tristram supports his view by reference to a kebsh ("ram") which the Arabs say lives in the mountains of Sinai, though they have apparently neither horns nor skins to show as trophies, and it is admitted that no European has seen it. The true chamois (Rupicapra tragus) inhabits the high mountains from t he Pyrenees to the Caucasus, and there is no reason to suppose that it was ever found in Syria or Palestine.
Alfred Ely Day
sham-pan', sham'-pan (`arabhah, biq`ah): A champaign is a flat open country, and the word occurs in Dt 11:30 the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "the Arabah") as a translation of `arabhah, for which the King James Version has in most places "the plain," and the Revised Version (British and American) "the Arabah," when it is used with the article and denotes a definite region, i.e. the valley of the Jordan from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea (Dt 2:8; 3:17; 4:4:9; Josh 3:16; 8:14; 11:16; 12:1,3,1; 2 Sam 2:29; 4:7; 2 Ki 14:25; 25:4; Jer 39:4; 52:7), and also the valley running southward from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah (Dt 1:1). Ezek 47:8 has for ha-`arabhah "the desert," the King James Version margin"plain," the Revised Version (British and American) "the Arabah." The plural is used in Josh 5:10; 2 Ki 25:5, "the plains of Jericho," and in Nu 22:1 and 26:3, "the plains of Moab." Elsewhere `arabhah is rendered in English Versions of the Bible "desert" or "wilderness" (Job 24:5; 39:6; Isa 33:9; 35:1,6; 40:3; 41:19; 51:3; Jer 2:6; 17:6; 50:12). At the present day, the Jordan va lley is called the Ghaur (compare Hebrew `ur, "to dig," me`arah, "cave," and Arabic magharah, "cave"). This name is also applied to the deltas of streams flowing into the Dead Sea from the East, which are clothed with thickets of thorny trees and shrubs, i.e. Ghaur-ul-Mezra`ah, at the mouths of Wadi-Kerak and Wadi-Beni-Chammad, Ghaur-uc-Cafiyeh, at the mouth of Wadi-ul-Hisa. The name "Arabah" (Arabic al-`Arabah) is now confined to the valley running southward from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akabah, separating the mountains of Edom from Sinai and the plateau of at-Tih.
See ARABAH .
Ezek 37:2 the King James Version margin has "champaign" for biq`ah, which is elsewhere rendered "vale" or "valley." Biq`ah seems to be applied to wide, open valleys, as: "the valley of Jericho" (Dt 34:3), "the valley of Megiddo" (2 Ch 35:22; Zec 12:11), "the valley of Lebanon" (Josh 11:17). If Baal-Gad be Ba`albeq and "the valley of Lebanon" be Coele-syria, the present name of Coele-syria, al-Biqa` (plural of buq`ah, "a low, wet place or meadow"), may be regarded as a survival of the Hebre w biq`ah.
Alfred Ely Day
cham'-pi-un ('ish habenayim): In 1 Sam 17:4,23 this unusual expression occurs in the description of Goliath. It means literally "the man of the two spaces," "spaces," or "space between," and is perhaps to be explained by the fact that there was a brook flowing through the valley separating the two armies. In 1 Sam 17:51 the word champion is the rendering of the Hebrew gibbor, "mighty man."
ka'-nan, ka'-na-an, ka'-nan-it (Chanaan), the King James Version in the Apocrypha (Judith 5:3,16) and New Testament (Acts 7:11; 13:19) for the Revised Version (British and American) CANAAN, CANAANITE (which see).
chans: The idea of chance in the sense of something wholly fortuitous was utterly foreign to the Hebrew creed. Throughout the whole course of Israel's history, to the Hebrew mind, law, not chance, ruled the universe, and that law was not something blindly mechanical, but the expression of the personal Yahweh. Israel's belief upon this subject may be summed up in the couplet,
"The lot is cast into the lap;
But the whole disposing thereof is of Yahweh" (Prov 16:33).
A number of Hebrew and Greek expressions have been translated "chance," or something nearly equivalent, but it is noteworthy that of the classical words for chance, suntuchia, and tuche, the former never occurs in the Bible and the latter only twice in the Septuagint.
The closest approach to the idea of chance is found in the statement of the Philistines that if their device for ascertaining the cause of their calamities turned out a certain way they would call them a chance, that is, bad luck (miqreh, 1 Sam 6:9). But note that it was a heathen people who said this. We have the same Hebrew noun and the verb, from which the noun is taken, a number of times, but variously rendered into English: Uncleanness that "chanceth him by night" (Dt 23:10). "Her hap was to ligh t on the portion of the field" (Ruth 2:3). "Something hath befallen him" (1 Sam 20:26). "One event happeneth to them all" (Eccl 2:14,15); "that which befalleth the sons of men" ("sons of men are a chance," the English Revised Version, margin) (Eccl 3:19). "There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked" (Eccl 9:2,3). Here the idea certainly is not something independent of the will of God, but something unexpected by man.
There is also qara', "If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way" (Dt 22:6). Both the above Hebrew words are combined in the statement "As I happened by chance upon Mount Gilboa" (2 Sam 1:6). "And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David" ("met the servants," 2 Sam 18:9, the King James Version). "And there happened to be there a base fellow" (2 Sam 20:1).
We have also pegha`, "Time and chance happeneth to them all," meaning simply occurrence (Eccl 9:11). "Neither adversary, nor evil occurrence" (1 Ki 5:4).
In the New Testament we have sugkuria, "coincidence," a meeting apparently accidental, a coincidence. "By chance a certain priest was going down that way" (Lk 10:31). Also ei tuchoi. "It may chance of wheat, or of some other kind," i.e. we cannot tell which (1 Cor 15:37). "It may be" (1 Cor 14:10).
If we look at the Septuagint we find tuche used twice. "And Leah said, (En tuche) With fortune" ("a troop cometh," the King James Version; "fortunate," the Revised Version (British and American); "with fortune," the Revised Version, margin, Gen 30:11). Note, it was no Israelite, but who said this. "That prepare a table for Fortune, and that fill up mingled wine unto Destiny" ("fate," Isa 65:11). In this passage tuche stands or the Hebrew meni, the god of destiny, and Fortune is for Gad, the old Semitic name for the god of fortune found in inscriptions, private names, etc. Note here, however, also, that the prophet was rebuking idolatrous ones for apostasy to heathen divinities.
We have also in the Apocrypha, "these things which have chanced," the Revised Version (British and American) "to be opened unto thee" (2 Esdras 10:49).
George Henry Trever
chan'-sel-er: The rendering in Ezr 4:8,9,17 of the Hebrew be`el Te`em; Septuagint Baal (4:9), Balgam (4:17), the latter being an incorrect translation of Hebrew `ayin. In 1 Esdras 2:16,25, Beeltethmos (compare Ezr 4:8) occurs as a corruption, doubtless of be`el Te`em. The term in question designates an Assyrian office, namely, that of the "master or lord of official intelligence," or "postmaster" (Sayce).
chanj: A word which seeks to express the many shades of meaning contained in 13 variations of 9 Hebrew words and 5 Greek. These signify, in turn, "to change" "to exchange," "to turn," "to put or place," "to make other" i.e. "alter," "to disguise oneself." chalaph, and its derivatives, occuring often, indicates "to pass away," hence, alter, renew, e.g. (1) "changes of raiment" (Gen 45:22; Jdg 14:12,13,19); (2) "changed my wages ten times" (Gen 31:7,41); (3) heavens changed "as a vesture" (Ps 102:26); (4) "changes and warfare" (Job 10:17), i.e. relays of soldiers as illustrated in 1 Ki 5:14 (the Revised Version, margin "host after host is against me"); (5) "till my change come" (the Revised Version (British and American) "release"), i.e. death (Job 14:14); (6) "changed the ordinances" (the American Standard Revised Version "violated the statutes"), i.e. disregarded law (Isa 24:5); (7) change of mind (Hab 1:11 the King James Version). Used also of change of character, haphakh: (1) of leprosy, "changed unto white" (Lev 13:16); (2) figuratively of the moral life, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin?" (Jer 13:23); so also mur, and derivatives, "changed their gods" and "their glory," etc. (Ps 106:20; Jer 2:11; Hos 4:7). Other words used to indicate change of name (2 Ki 24:17); of day and night (Job 17:12); of times and seasons (Dan 2:21); of countenance. (Dan 7:28); of behavior (1 Sam 21:13); God's unchangeableness, "I, Yahweh, change not" (Mal 3:6).
In the New Testament the word has to do chiefly with spiritual realities: (1) metatithemi, of the necessary change of the priesthood and law under Christ (Heb 7:12); (2) allatto, of His changing the customs of Moses (Acts 6:14); (3) of moral change, e.g. debasement (Rom 1:23,25,26); (4) of bodily change at the resurrection (1 Cor 15:51,52; metaschematizo, Phil 3:21 the King James Version); (5) metaballo, of change of mind in presence of a miracle (Acts 28:6); (6) of the change to come over the heavens at the great day of the Lord (Heb 1:12; compare 2 Pet 3:10,12).
Figurative uses indicated separately in the course of the article.
Dwight M. Pratt
ra'-ment.
See DRESS .
chan'-jer (kollubistes, "money-changer," and so rendered Mt 21:12; Mk 11:15): A banker or other person who changes money at a fixed rate. Indignant at the profane traffic in the temple Jesus "poured out the changers' money" (Jn 2:15). So used only here. For fuller treatment See BANK ;MONEY-CHANGERS .
chan'-el ('aphiq (root 'aphaq, "to hold or contain," "to be strong"; compare Arabic 'afaq "to overcome" and 'afiq, "preeminent"); shibboleth (shabhal, "to go," "to go up or grow," "to flow"; compare Arabic 'asbal, "to flow," "to rain," "to put forth ears"; sabalat, "an ear of grain"; sabil, "a road," "a public fountain")): In Job 12:21; 40:18; 41:15 we have 'aphiq in the sense of "strong" (but compare 40:18, the Revised Version (British and American) "tubes" (of brass)). Elsewhere it is translated "river," "brook," "stream," "channel" or "watercourse." Shibboleth (in the dialect of Ephraim cibboleth (Jdg 12:6)) means "an ear of grain" (Gen 41:5 ff; Ruth 2:2; Isa 17:5) or "a flood of water" (Ps 69:2,15; Isa 27:12). In 2 Sam 22:16 (compare Ps 18:15) we have:
"Then the channels of the sea appeared,
The foundations of the world were laid bare,
By the rebuke of Yahweh,
At the blast of the breath of his nostrils."
This is reminiscent of "fountains of the deep" (Gen 7:11; 8:2; Prov 8:28). It is a question how far we should attribute to these ancient writers a share in modern notions of oceanography, but the idea seems to be that of a withdrawal of the water of the ocean, and the laying bare of submarine declivities and channels such as we know to exist as the result of erosion during a previous period of elevation, when the given portion of ocean floor was dry land.
The fact that many streams of Palestine flow only during the rainy season seems to be referred to in Job 6:15; and perhaps also in Ps 126:4.
Alfred Ely Day
(paraT): Occurs only once in the King James Version in Am 6:5, and the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain. ParaT corresponds to an Arabic root meaning to anticipate. It may therefore signify to improvise, to sing without care or preparation. the Revised Version (British and American) "to sing idle songs" suits the context. See Driver, Joel and Amos.
ka-nun'-e-us (Chanounaios; the King James Version Channuneus): A Levite in the list of 1 Esdras 8:48, probably corresponding to "Merari" in Ezr 8:19.
chap'-el (miqdash, "a holy place"; the Revised Version (British and American) SANCTUARY, which see): "It is the king's chapel" (Am 7:13 the King James Version), an expression indicative of the dependence of this sanctuary on the court.
ka-fen'-a-tha (Chaphenatha; the King James Version Caphenatha): A name apparently given to part of the eastern wall of Jerusalem or a fort in that neighborhood which is said (1 Macc 12:37) to have been repaired by Jonathan Maccabeus. The place cannot now be identified. Various speculations have been made as to the origin of the name, but they can hardly be said to throw any light on the passage cited.
chap'-i-ter.
See ARCHITECTURE ;JACHIN AND BOAZ ;TEMPLE ,II , 4.
chap'-man (plural 'anshe ha-tarim): Word used only once in the King James Version (2 Ch 9:14, the American Standard Revised Version "the traders"; compare also 1 Ki 10:15 the Revised Version (British and American), where the Hebrew uses the same expression). The English word means "merchant"; compare the verb "to chaffer," and the German Kaufmann. The Hebrew means "those who go about" as merchants.
(chathath): The Hebrew term chathath means "broken," "terrified" or "dismayed." This term as it occurs in Jer 14:4 is rendered "chapt" in English Versions of the Bible, "cracked" in the American Standard Revised Version, and "dismayed" in the Revised Version, margin. Inasmuch as the Hebrew term means "broken," it is not incorrectly rendered "chapt" or "chapped," which means to be cracked Open.
kar-a-ath'-a-lan (Charaathalan; the King James Version Charaathalar (1 Esdras 5:36)): Most probably a corruption of the text. The names "Cherub, Addan, and Immer" in the lists of Ezr 2:59 and Neh 7:61 are presented in the text cited as "Charaathalan leading them, and Allar."
kar'-a-ka.
See CHARAX .
kar'-a-shim (charashim, "craftsmen").
See GE-HARASHIM .
kar'-ax, kar'-a-ka; (eis ton Charaka; the King James Version Charax): A place mentioned only in 2 Macc 12:17. It lay East of the Jordan and is said to be 750 stadia from Caspis, and to be inhabited by Jews called Tubieni, that is, of Tobie (Tob) in Gilead (1 Macc 5:9,13; 2 Macc 12:17). There is no clue as to the direction in which Ch. lay from Caspis. Possibly Kerak (Kir-moab), in post-Biblical times called Charamoba and Moboucharax, may represent the place. It lay about 100 miles South of el-Mezerib, Southeast of the Dead Sea.
kar'-ke-mish.
See CARCHEMISH .
kar'-kus.
See BARCHUS .
kar'-re-a (Charea): Head of a family of temple-servants (1 Esdras 5:32); called "Harsha" in Ezr 2:52; Neh 7:54.
charj, char'-ja-b'-l (from Latin carrus, "a wagon," hence, "to lay or put a load on or in," "to burden, or be a burden"):
Figurative: (1) of a special duty mishmereth, "thing to be watched"), "the charge of Yahweh" (Lev 8:35), the injunctions given in Ex 29; "the charge of the tabernacle" (Nu 1:53); "the charge of the sons of Getshon" (Nu 3:25); (2) of the burden of expense (kabhedh, "to be, or make heavy"; adapanos, "without expense"), "lest we be chargeable unto thee" (2 Sam 13:25 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "burdensome"); "The former governors .... were charge unto the people" (Neh 5:15 margin "laid burdens upon"); "that .... I may make the gospel without charge" (1 Cor 9:18; See CHARGES ); (3) of oversight, care, custody, "Who gave him a charge over the earth?" (Job 34:13); "to have the charge of the gate" (2 Ki 7:17); "charge of the vessels of service" (1 Ch 9:28); "cause ye them that have charge (pequddoth, "inspectors") over the city" (Ezek 9:1); "who had the charge of all her treasure" (Acts 8:27 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "was over"); (4) of a command, injunction, requirement, "He gave him a charge" (Gen 28:6); "His father charged the people with the oath" (1 Sam 14:27); "Jesus strictly (m "sternly") charged them" (Mt 9:30); "I charge you by the Lord" (1 Thess 5:27 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) "adjure"); "having received such a charge" (Acts 16:24, paraggelia, "private or extra message"); "This charge I commit unto thee" (1 Tim 1:18); (5) of blame, responsibility, reckoning, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:60); "nothing laid to his charge" (Acts 23:29); "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" (Rom 8:33).
M. O. Evans
char'-jer (the American Standard Revised Version "platter"): A word which meant in the older English speech a flat dish or platter. It is used in the Bible as the translation (1) of qe`arah, which in Nu 7:19 the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "platter") and repeatedly in that chapter denotes one of the gifts made by the several princes at the dedication of the tabernacle; (2) of 'agharTal, a word of uncertain derivation used in Ezr 1:9 (the King James Version) twice to designate certain temple vessels which might better be called "libation bowls"; (3) of pinax, used Mt 14:8,11; Mk 6:25,28 (EV) for the dish in which the head of John the Baptist was presented.
David Foster Estes
char'-jiz (dapanao, "to spend"): "Be at charges for them" (Acts 21:24, the King James Version "with them"), i.e. pay the sacrificial expenses of these poorer Nazirites (compare Josephus, Ant, XIX , xvi, 1).
char'-i-ot (merkabh, merkabhah, "riding-chariot," rekhebh, "war-chariot"; harma):
1. Chariots of Egypt
2. Chariots of the Canaanites
3. Chariots of Solomon and Later Kings
4. Chariots of the Assyrians
5. Chariots of Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks
6. In the New Testament
7. Figurative Use
LITERATURE
It is to the chariots of ancient Egypt that reference is first made in Scripture. Joseph was honored by being made to ride in the second chariot of King Pharaoh (Gen 41:43). Joseph paid honor to his father on his arrival in Goshen by meeting him in his chariot (Gen 46:29). In the state ceremonial with which the remains of Jacob were escorted to Canaan, chariots and horsemen were conspicuous (Gen 50:9). In the narrative of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt and of Pharaoh's futile attempts to detain them the chariots and horsemen of Pharaoh figure largely (Ex 14:17,18,23,15; 15:4,19). It was with the Hyksos invasion, some centuries before the Exodus, that the horse, and subsequently the chariot, were introduced for purposes of war into Egypt; and it may have been the possession of chariots that enabled those hated shepherd warriors to overpower the native Egyptians. The Egyptian chariot was distinguished by its lightness of build. It was so reduced in weight that it was possible for a man to carry his chariot on his shoulders without fatigue. The ordinary chariot was made of wood and leather, and had only two occupants, the fighting man and his shield-bearer. The royal chariots were ornamented with gold and silver, and in the battle of Megiddo Thothmes III is represented as standing in his chariot of electrum like the god of war, brandishing his lance. In the battle the victorious Egyptians captured 2,041 horses and 924 chariots from the Syrian allies.
2. Chariots of the Canaanites:
The Canaanites had long been possessed of horses and chariots when Joshua houghed their horses and burnt their chariots with fire at the waters of Merom (Josh 11:6,9). The chariots of iron which the Canaanites could maneuvere in the plains and valleys proved a formidable obstacle to the Complete conquest of the land (Jdg 1:19). Jabin had 900 chariots of iron, and with them he was able to oppress the children of Israel twenty years (Jdg 4:3). The Philistines of the low country and the maritime plain, of whom we read in Judges and Samuel, were a warlike people, were disciplined and well armed and their possession of chariots gave them a great advantage over the Israelites. In the war of Michmash they put into the field the incredible number of 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, only in the end to suffer a grievous defeat (1 Sam 13:5; 14:20). In the battle of Gilboa, however, the chariots and horsemen of the Philistines bore down all opposition, and proved the destruction of Saul and his house. Of these chariots there have come down to us no detailed description and no representation. But we cannot be far wrong in turning to the chariot of the Hittites as a type of the Canaanite and Philistine chariot. It is not from the monuments of the Hittites themselves, however, but from the representations of the Kheta of the Egyptian monuments, that we know what their chariots were like. Their chariotry was their chief arm of offense. The Hittite chariot was used, too, for hunting; but a heavier car with paneled sides was employed for war. The Egyptian monuments represent three Hittites in each car, a practice which differed from that of Egypt and attracted attention. Of the three, one guided the chariot, another did the fighting with sword and lance, and the third was the shield-bearer.
3. Chariots of Solomon and Later Kings:
The Israelites living in a mountainous country were tardy in adopting the chariot for purposes of war. David houghed all the chariot horses of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and "reserved of them for a hundred chariots" (2 Sam 8:4), and Adonijah prepared for himself chariots and horsemen with a view to contest the throne of his father (1 Ki 1:5). But Solomon was the first in Israel to acquire chariots and horses on a national scale, and to build cities for their accommodation (1 Ki 9:19). In Massoretic Text of the Old Testament we read that Solomon had agents who received droves of horses from Egypt, and it is added: "And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150; and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means" (1 Ki 10:29). On the strength of a warrantable emendation of the text it is now proposed to read the preceding (1 Ki 10:28): "And Solomon's import of horses was from Mucri and from Kue; the king's traders received them from Kue at a price"--where Mucri and Kue are North Syria and Cilicia. No doubt it was Egypt out of which the nation was forbidden by the Deuteronomic law to multiply horses (Dt 17:16), but on the other hand the statement of Ezek (27:14) that Israel derived horses, chargers and mules not from Egypt but from Togarmah--North Syria and Asia Minor--agrees with the new rendering (Burney, Notes on Hebrew Text of the Books of Kings, in the place cited.). From Solomon's time onward chariots were in use in both kingdoms. Zimri, who slew Elah, son of Baasha, king of Israel, was captain of half his chariots (1 Ki 16:9). It was when sitting in his chariot in disguise beside the driver that Ahab received his fatal wound at Ramoth-gilead (1 Ki 22:34). The floor of the royal chariot was a pool of blood, and "they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria" (1 Ki 22:35,38). It was in his war-chariot that his servants carried Josiah dead from the fatal field of Megiddo (2 Ki 23:30). The chief pieces of the Hebrew chariot were (1) the pole to which the two horses were yoked, (2) the axle--resting upon two wheels with six or eight spokes (1 Ki 7:33)--into which the pole was fixed, (3) a frame or body open behind, standing upon the axle and fitted by a leather band to the pole. The chariots of iron of which we read (Jdg 4:3) were of wood strengthened or studded with iron. Like that of the Hittite, the Hebrew chariot probably carried three men, although in the chariot of Ahab (1 Ki 22:34) and in that of Jehu (2 Ki 9:24 f) we read of only two.
In the later days when the Assyrians overran the lands of the West, the Israelites had to face the chariots and the hosts of Sennacherib and of the kings (2 Ki 19:23). And they faced them with chariots of their own. An inscription of Shalmaneser II of Assyria tells how in the battle of Karkar (854 BC) Ahab of the land of Israel had put into the field 2,000 chariots and 10,000 soldiers. But the Assyrian chariotry was too numerous and powerful for Israel. The Assyrian chariot was larger and heavier than the Egyptian or the Hebrew: it had usually three and sometimes four occupants (Maspero, Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, 322). When we read in Nahum's prophecy of "chariots flashing with steel," "rushing to and fro in the broad ways" (Nah 2:3,4), it is of the Assyrian chariots that we are to think being hastily got together for the defense of Nineveh.
5. Chariots of Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks:
In early Babylonian inscriptions of the 3rd millennium before Christ there is evidence of the use of the war-chariots, and Nebuchadrezzar in his campaigns to the West had chariots as part of his victorious host (Jer 47:3). It was the Persians who first employed scythed chariots in war; and we find Antiochus Eupator in the Seleucid period equipping a Greek force against Judea which had 300 chariots armed with scythes (2 Macc 13:2).
In the New Testament the chariot is only twice mentioned. Besides the chariot in which the Ethiopian eunuch was traveling when Philip the evangelist made up to him (Acts 8:28,29,38), there is only the mention of the din of war-chariots to which the onrush of locusts in Apocalyptic vision is compared (Rev 9:9).
In the figurative language of Scripture, the chariot has a place. It is a tribute to the powerful influence of Elijah and Elisha when they are separately called "the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof" (2 Ki 2:12; 13:14). The angelic hosts are declared to be God's chariots, twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands (Ps 68:17). But chariots and horses themselves are a poor substitute for the might of God (Ps 20:7). God Himself is represented as riding upon His chariots of salvation for the defense of His people (Hab 3:8). In the Book of Zec, the four chariots with their horses of various colors have an apocalyptic significance (Zec 6). In the worship of the host of heaven which prevailed in the later days of the kingdom of Judah, "the chariots of the sun" (see article) were symbols which led the people into gross idolatry and King Josiah burnt them with fire (2 Ki 23:11).
LITERATURE.
Nowack, Hebrew Archaeology, I, 366 f; Garstang, Land of the Hittites, 363 f; Maspero, Struggle of the Nations and Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria; Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies, II, 1-21.
T. Nicol.
(markebhoth ha-shemesh): These, together with "horses of the sun," are mentioned in 2 Ki 23:11. They are said to have stood in the temple, a gift of the kings of Judah. Josiah removed the horses from the precincts of the temple and burned the chariots. Among the Greeks, Helios was endowed with horses and chariots. Thus the course of the sun as he sped across the skies was understood by the mythological mind of antiquity. The Babylonian god Shamash (= Hebrew Shemesh) likewise had his chariot and horses as well as his charioteer. The cult of the sun and other heavenly bodies which was particularly in vogue during the latter days of the Judean monarchy (compare 2 Ki 23:5; Ezek 8:16 f; Dt 17:3; Jer 8:2) seems to have constituted an element of the Canaanitish religion (compare the names of localities like Beth-shemesh and the like). The chariots of the sun are also referred to in Enoch 72:5,37; 75:4, and Greek Apocrypha of Baruch 6.
Max L. Margolis
char'-i-ta-bli (kata agapen): The Revised Version (British and American), which substitutes "love" for "charity" regularly, removing the latter word from the vocabulary of Scripture, makes a like change in Rom 14:15, the only occurrence of "charitably" in the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "in love."
See CHARITY .
char'-i-ti (agape):
1. A New Word
2. A New Ideal
3. An Apostolic Term
4. Latin Equivalents
5. English Translation
6. Inward Motive
7. Character
8. Ultimate Ideal
9. Almsgiving
10. Tolerance
In the King James Version in 26 places from 1 Cor 8:1 onward. The same Greek word, which appears in the New Testament 115 times, is elsewhere translated by "love."
The substantive agape is mainly, if not exclusively, a Biblical and ecclesiastical word (see Deissmann, Bible Studies, 198 ff), not found in profane writings, although the verb agapan, from which it is derived, is used in classical Greek in the sense of "love, founded in admiration, veneration, esteem, like the Latin diligere" (Grimm-Thayer), rather than natural emotion (Latin, amare).
It is a significant evidence of the sense of a new ideal and principle of life that permeated the Christian consciousness of the earliest communities, that they should have made current a new word to express it, and that they should derive that word, not from the current or philosophical language of Greek morality, but from the Septuagint.
In the New Testament the word is apostolic, and appears first and predominantly in the Pauline writings. It is found only twice in the Synoptics (Mt 24:12; Lk 11:42), and although it is in both places put in the mouth of the Saviour, it can easily be understood how the language of a later time may have been used by the narrator, when it is considered that these gospels were compiled and reduced to writing many years after the spread of the Pauline epistles. The word is not found in James, Mark or Acts, but it appears in Paul 75 times, in John 30 times, in Peter 4 times, in Jude twice and in Hebrews twice. Jesus Christ gave the thing and the spirit in the church, and the apostles (probably Paul) invented the term to express it.
When Jerome came to translate the Greek Testament into Latin, he found in that language no word to represent agape. Amor was too gross, and he fell back on dilectio and caritas, words which, however, in their original meanings were too weak and colorless to represent agape adequately. No principle seems to have guided him in the choice of the one word or the other in particular places.
Caritas in English became "charity," and was taken over by the English translators from the Vulg, though not with any regularity, nor as far as can be judged, according to any definite principle, except that it is used of agape only in man, never as it denotes a quality or action of God, which is always translated by "love." When agape is translated by "charity" it means either (1) a disposition in man which may qualify his own character (1 Cor 8:1) and be ready to go forth to God (1 Cor 8:3) or to men; or (2) an active and actual relation with other men, generally within the church (Col 3:14; 1 Thess 3:6; 2 Thess 1:3; 1 Tim 1:5; 4:12; 1 Pet 4:8; 5:14), but also absolutely and universally (1 Cor 13). In the earlier epistles it stands first and unique as the supreme principle of the Christian life (1 Cor 13), but in the later writings, it is enumerated as one among the Christian virtues (1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 2:22; 3:10; Tit 2:2; 2 Pet 1:7; Rev 2:19).
In Paul's psalm of love (1 Cor 13) it is set forth as an innermost principle contrasted with prophecy and knowledge, faith and works, as the motive that determines the quality of the whole inner life, and gives value to all its activities. If a man should have all gifts of miracles and intellect, and perform all the works of goodness and devotion, "and have not love, it profiteth nothing," for they would be purely external and legal, and lacking in the quality of moral choice and personal relation which give life its value (1 Cor 13:1-3). Love itself defines men's relation to men as generous, tolerant and forgiving.
"Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not" (1 Cor 13:4). It determines and defines a man's own character and personality. It is not boastful and arrogant, but dignified, pure, holy, courageous and serene. Evil cannot provoke it nor wrong delight it. It bears cheerfully all adversity and follows its course in confident hope (1 Cor 13:4-7). It is final virtue, the ultimate ideal of life. Many of life's activities cease or change, but "love never faileth."
To it all other graces and virtues are subordinated. "Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:8-13). In one passage only in the New Testament (3 Jn 1:6) agape seems to have a meaning that comes near to the later, ecclesiastical meaning of charity as almsgiving.
With the growing legalism of the church and the prevalence of monastic ideals of morality, caritas came to mean the very opposite of Paul's agape--just "the giving of goods to feed the poor," which "without love profiteth nothing." At present, the word means either liberality to the poor, or tolerance in judging the actions of others, both qualities of love, but very inadequate to express its totality.
The Revisers have therefore accurately dropped the word and substituted "love" for it in all passages. It is interesting to note that in Welsh the reverse process has occurred: cariad (from Latin caritas) was used throughout to translate agape, with the result that, in both religious and ordinary speech, the word has established itself so firmly as almost to oust the native word "serch."
T. Rees
charm: Definition.--The word charm is derived from the Latin carmen, "a song," and denotes strictly what is sung; then it comes to mean a magical formula chanted or recited with a view to certain desired results. Charm is distinguished from amulet in this, that the latter is a material object having as such a magical potency, though it is frequently an inscribed formula on it that gives this object its power (See AMULET ). The word charm stands primarily for the incantation, though it is often applied to an inscribed amulet.
A charm may be regarded as having a positive or a negative effect. In the first case it is supposed to secure some desired object or result (See AMULET ). In the second, it is conceived as having the power of warding off evils, as the evil eye, the inflictions of evil spirits and the like. In the last, its negative meaning, the word "countercharm" (German, Gegenzauber) is commonly used.
Charms are divisible into two general classes according as they are written (or printed) or merely spoken:
(1) Written charms--Of these we have examples in the phylacteries and the mezuzah noticed in the article AMULET. In Acts 19:13-20 we read of written charms used by the Ephesians, such as are elsewhere called (ephesia grammata). Such magical formulas were written generally on leather, though sometimes on papyrus, on lead, and even on gold. Those mentioned in the above passage must have been inscribed on some very valuable material, gold perhaps, or they could not have cost 2,000 British pounds (= 50,000 drachmas). Charms of the kind have been dug up from the ruins of Ephesus. In modern Egypt drinking-bowls are used, inscribed with passages from the Koran, and it is considered very lucky to drink from such a "lucky bowl," as it is called. Parts of the Koran and often complete miniature copies are worn by Egyptians and especially by Egyptian soldiers during war. These are buried with the dead bodies, just as the ancient Egyptians interred with their dead portions of the Book of the Dead or even the whole book, and as the early Abyssinians buried with dead bodies certain magical texts. Josephus (Ant., VIII, ii, 5) says that Solomon composed incantations by which demons were exorcised and diseases healed.
(2) Spoken charms are at least as widespread as those inscribed. Much importance was attached by the ancients (Egyptians, Babylonians, etc.) to the manner in which the incantations were recited, as well as to the substance of the formulas. If beautifully uttered, and with sufficient frequency, such incantations possessed unlimited power. The stress laid on the mode of reciting magical charms necessitated the existence of a priestly class and did much to increase the power of such a class. The binding force of the uttered word is implied in many parts of the Old Testament (See Josh 9:20). Though the princes of Israel had promised under false pretenses to make a covenant on behalf of Israel with the Gibeonites, they refused to break their promise because the word had been given. The words of blessing and curse were believed to have in themselves the power of self-realization. A curse was a means of destruction, not a mere realization (see Nu 22 through 24, Balaam's curses; Jdg 5:23; Job 31). In a similar way the word of blessing was believed to insure its own realization. In Gen 48:8-22 the greatness of Ephraim and Manasseh is ascribed to the blessing of Jacob upon them (see further Ex 12:32; Jdg 17:2; 2 Sam 21:3). It is no doubt to be understood that the witch of Endor raised Samuel from the dead by the recitation of some magical formula (1 Sam 28:7 ff).
The uttering of the tetragrammaton (~YHWH] was at a very early time (at latest 300 BC) believed to be magically potent, and hence, its ordinary use was forbidden, so that instead of Yahweh, the Jews of the time, when the earliest part of the Septuagint was translated, used for this Divine name the appellative 'adhonai = "Lord." In a similar way among the Jews of post-Biblical and perhaps of even Biblical times, the pronunciation of the Aaronic blessing (Nu 6:24-26) was supposed to possess great efficacy and to be a means of certain good to the person or persons involved. Evil spirits were exorcised by Jews of Paul's day through the use of the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:13). In the Talmud (Pecachim 110a) it is an instruction that if a man meets a witch he should say, "May a pot of boiling dung be stuffed into your mouth, you ugly witch," and her power is gone.
For literature See AMULET .
T. Witton Davies
kar'-me (so the Revised Version (British and American); the King James Version Carme; Charme): A Greek transliteration of Hebrew charim. The name of a priestly family in the list of those who returned from the Exile (1 Esdras 5:25 = Harim in Ezr 2:39 = Neh 7:42).
kar'-mis (Charmeis, Charmeis, A, Chalmeis): The son of Melchiel, one of the three elders or rulers of the town of Bethulia (Judith 6:15; 8:10; 10:6).
kar'-an (Charrhan): Greek form of HARAN (which see) (Acts 7:2,4).
chas.
See HUNTING .
kas'-e-ba (Chaseba): The name of a family of temple-servants in the list of those who returned from Babylon (1 Esdras 5:31). The name is not given in the parallel passages in Ezra and Nehemiah.
chast, chas'-ti-ti.
chas'-'-n-ing, chas'-tiz-ment: These two words corresponding to Hebrew mucar, and Greek paideia, are distinguished in English use, in that "chastisement" is applied to the infliction of pain, either as a punishment or for recalling to duty, while "chastening," is a wider term, indicating the discipline or training to which one is subjected, without, as in the other term, referring to the means employed to this end. The narrower term occurs in the Revised Version (British and American) but once in the New Testament and then in its verbal form, Lk 23:16: "I will therefore chastise him." the King James Version uses it also in Heb 12:8.
The meaning of the word paideia grows with the progress of revelation. Its full significance is unfolded in the New Testament, when reconciliation through Christ has brought into prominence the true fatherhood of God (Heb 12:5,10). In the Old Testament, where it occurs about 40 times, the radical meaning is that simply of training, as in Dt 8:5: "As a man chasteneth his son, so Yahweh thy God chasteneth thee." But, as in a dispensation where the distinguishing feature is that of the strictest justice, retributive punishment becomes not only an important, but a controlling factor. in the training, as in Lev 26:28: "I will chastise you seven times for your sins." In this sense, it is used of chastisements inflicted by man even unjustly: "My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions" (1 Ki 12:11). As, therefore, the thought of the suffering inflicted, or that of the end toward which it is directed, preponderates, the Psalmist can pray: "Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure" (Ps 6:1), and take comfort in the words: "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest" (Ps 94:12). Hence, it is common in both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) to find the Hebrew mucar, and Greek paideia translated as "instruction." Illustrations are most numerous in Prov.
In the New Testament the Greek paideia is used with a variety similar to its corresponding Hebrew in the Old Testament. Examples of the fundamental idea, namely, that of "training," are found in such passages as Acts 7:22; 22:3, where Moses and Paul are said to have been "instructed," and 2 Tim 3:16, where Scripture is said to be "profitable .... for instruction" (compare 1 Tim 1:20; 2 Tim 2:25; Tit 2:12; Rom 2:20). A similar, but not identical, thought, is found in Eph 6:4: "Nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord." But when paideia is described as bringing pain, the mystery of suffering, which in the Old Testament is most fully treated in the Book of Job, at last finds its explanation. The child of God realizes that he cannot be beneath God's wrath, and hence, that the chastening which he endures is not destructive, but corrective (1 Cor 10:13; 11:32; 2 Cor 6:9; Rev 3:19). In Heb 12:5-11, such consolation is afforded, not, as in the above passages, by incidental allusions, but by a full argument upon the basis of Prov 3:11 f, an Old Testament text that has depth and richness that can be understood and appropriated only by those who through Christ have learned to recognize the Omnipotent Ruler of heaven and earth, as their loving and considerate Father. On the basis of this passage, a distinction is often drawn between punishment and chastisement; the former, as an act of justice, revealing wrath, and the latter, as an act of mercy, love. Since to them that are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation (Rom 8:1) they can suffer no punishment, but only chastisement. Where there is guilt, there is punishment; but where guilt has been removed, there can be no punishment. There being no degrees of justification, no one can be forgiven in part, with a partial guilt still set to his account for which he must yet give a reckoning, either here or hereafter. If, then, all the righteousness of Christ belongs to him, and no sin whatever remains to be forgiven, either in whole or in part, all life's sorrows are remedial agencies against danger and to train for the kingdom of heaven.
H. E. Jacobs
chat'-er (tsaphaph): This word, which means to "peep," "twitter" or "chirp," as small birds do, is translated "chatter" only in Isa 38:14, "Like a swallow or a crane, so did I chatter."
See CHIRP .
ka'-va Septuagint Zoe): A transliteration of the Hebrew chawwah or chavvah, which means "life giver" "living" and appears in our English versions as Eve (Gen 3:20, see the King James Version margin).
ke'-bar (kebhar, "joining" (Young), "length" (Strong); Chobar): The river by the side of which his first vision was vouchsafed to Ezekiel (1:1). It is described as in "the land of the Chaldeans," and is not, therefore, to be sought in northern Mesopotamia. This rules out the Habor, the modern Chabour, with which it is often identified. The two names are radically distinct: chabhor could not be derived from kebhar. One of the great Babylonian canals is doubtless intended. Hilprecht found mention made of (naru) kabaru, one of these canals large enough to be navigable, to the East of Nippur, "in the land of the Chaldeans." This "great canal" he identifies with the rood. shaTT en-Nil, in which probably we should recognize the ancient Chebar.
W. Ewing
(mucar): Occurs in Job 20:3 the King James Version, "I have heard the check of my reproach" (the Revised Version (British and American) "the reproof which putteth me to shame"), i.e. a check or reproof, such as that which closes the last speech of Job (chapter 19), and intended to put Zophar to shame.
chek'-er-wurk (sebhakhah): This was a kind of ornamentation used on the tops of the pillars of Jachin and Boaz before the porch of the Temple (1 Ki 7:17). Its exact form is not known. See TEMPLE . For "a broidered coat" (Ex 28:4 the King James Version), the Revised Version (British and American) gives "a coat of checker work."
See BROIDERED ;EMBROIDERY .
ked-or-la-o'-mer, ked-or-la'-omer (kedhorla`omer; Chodollogomor):
1. was He the Elamite King Kudur-lahgumal?
2. Kudur-lahgumal and the Babylonians
3. The Son of Eri-Ekua
4. Durmah-ilani, Tudhul(a) and Kudur-lahmal
5. The Fate of Sinful Rulers
6. The Poetical Legend
7. Kudur-lahgumal's Misdeeds
8. The Importance of the Series
The name of the Elamite overlord with whom Amraphel, Arioch and Tidal marched against Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other cities of the plain (Gen 14:1 ff). The Greek (Septuagint) form of the name is Chodollogomor, implying a different vocalization, the assimilation of "R "with "L", and the pronunciation of "`o" as "gho" (Codorlaghomer). This suggests that the Elamite form, in cuneiform, would be Kudur-lagamar, the second element being the name of a god, and the whole therefore meaning "servant of La`omer" (Lagamar), or the like. A Babylonian deity worshippeal at Dilmu, Lagamal, may be the same as the Elamite Lagamar. This name is not found in the cuneiform inscriptions, unless it be, as is possible, the fancifully-written Kudur-lah(gu)mal (or Kodorlahgomal) of three late Babylonian legends, one of which is in poetical form. Besides this Elamite ruler, two of these tablets mention also a certain Eri-Aku or Eri-Akua, son of Durmah-ilani, and one of them refers to Tudhul(a) or Tidal.
See ERI-AKU , 4.
1. Was He the Elamite King Kudur-lahgumal?:
Objections have been made to the identification of Chedorlaomer with the Kudur-lah(gu)mal of these texts, some Assyriologists having flatly denied the possibility, while others expressed the opinion that, though these names were respectively those with which they have been identified, they were not the personages referred to in Gen 14, and many have refrained from expressing an opinion at all. The main reason for the identification of Kudur-lah(gu)mal(?) with Chedorlaomer is its association with the names Eri-Eaku and Tudgul(a) found on two of the documents. No clear references to the expedition against the Cities of the Plain, however, have been found in these texts.
2. Kudur-lahgumal and the Babylonians:
The longer of the two prose compositions (Brit. Mus., Sp. II, 987) refers to the bond of heaven (extended?) to the four regions, and the fame which he (Merodach?) set for (the Elamites) in Babylon, the city of (his) glory. So (?the gods), in their faithful (or everlasting) counsel, decreed to Kudur-lahgumal, king of Elam (their favor?). He came down, and (performed) what was good to them, and exercised dominion in Babylon, the city of Kar-Dunias (Babylonia). When in power, however, he acted in a way which did not please the Babylonians, for he loved the winged fowl, and favored the dog which crunched the bone. "What(?) king of Elam was there who had (ever) (shown favor to?) the shrine of E-saggil?" (E-sagila, the great temple of Belus at Babylon).
A letter from Durmah-ilani son of Eri-Ekua (?Arioch) is at this point quoted, and possibly forms the justification for the sentences which had preceded, giving, as they do, reasons for the intervention of the native ruler. The mutilation of the inscription, however, makes the sense and sequence very difficult to follow.
4. Durmah-ilani, Tudhul(a) and Kudur-lahmal:
The less perfect fragment (Sp. III, 2) contains, near the beginning, the word hammu, and if this be, as Professor F. Hommel has suggested, part of the name Hammurabi (Amraphel), it would in all probability place the identification of Kudur-lahgumal(?) with Chedorlaomer beyond a doubt. This inscription states, that Merodach, in the faithfulness of his heart, caused the ruler not supporting (the temples of Babylonia) to be slain with the sword. The name of Durmah-ilani then occurs, and it seems to be stated of him that he carried off spoil, and Babylon and the temple E-saggil were inundated. He, however, was apparently murdered by his son, and old and young (were slain) with the sword. Then came Tudhul(a) or Tidal, son of Gazza(ni?), who also carried off spoil, and again the waters devastated Babylon and E-saggil. But to all appearance Tudhul(a), in his turn, was overtaken by his fate, for "his son shattered his head with the weapon of his hands." At this point there is a reference to Elam, to the city Ahhea(?), and to the land of Rabbatum, which he (? the king of Elam) had spoiled. Whether this refers to some expedition to Palestine or not is uncertain, and probably unlikely, as the next phrase speaks of devastation inflicted in Babylonia.
But an untoward fate overtook this ruler likewise, for Kudur-lahmal (= lahgumal), his son, pierced his heart with the steel sword of his girdle. All these references to violent deaths are apparently cited to show the dreadful end of certain kings, "lords of sin," with whom Merodach, the king of the gods, was angry.
The third text is of a poetical nature, and refers several times to "the enemy, the Elamite"--apparently Kudur-lahgu(mal). In this noteworthy inscription, which, even in its present imperfect state, contains 78 lines of wedge-written text, the destruction wrought by him is related in detail. He cast down the door (of the temple) of Istar; entered Du-mah, the place where the fates were declared (See BABEL ,BABYLON ), and told his warriors to take the spoil and the goods of the temple.
He was afraid, however, to proceed to extremities, as the god of the place "flashed like lightning, and shook the (holy) places." The last two paragraphs state that he set his face to go down to Tiamtu (the seacoast; See CHALDEA ), whither Ibi-Tutu, apparently the king of that district, had hastened, and founded a pseudo-capital. But the Elamite seems afterward to have taken his way north again, and after visiting Borsippa near Babylon, traversed "the road of darkness--the road to Mesku" (?Mesech). He destroyed the palace, subdued the princes, carried off the spoil of all the temples and took the goods (of the people) to Elam. At this point the text breaks off.
8. The Importance of the Series:
Where these remarkable inscriptions came from there ought to be more of the same nature, and if these be found, the mystery of Chedorlaomer and Kudur-lahgumal will probably be solved. At present it can only be said, that the names all point to the early period of the Elamite rulers called Kudurides, before the land of Tiamtu or Tamdu was settled by the Chaldeans. Evidently it was one of the heroic periods of Babylonian history, and some scribe of about 350 BC had collected together a number of texts referring to it. All three tablets were purchased (not excavated) by the British Museum, and reached that institution through the same channel. See the Journal of the Victoria Institute, 1895-96, and Professor Sayce in Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (1906), 193 ff, 241 ff; (1907), 7 ff.
T. G. Pinches
(methalle`ah, transposed from malta`ah (only in Ps 58:6), literally "the biter," "crusher," "molar," "jaw-teeth," "great teeth" (Job 29:17 m; Joel 1:6)).
Figurative: The word is used as a synonym of reckless strength and cruelty.
chek, chek'-bon:
(1) lechi; siagon, "the jaw," "jaw-bone," "side of the face." The Hebrew word denotes originally freshness and rounded softness of the cheek, a sign of beauty in youth and maiden (Song 1:10; 5:13). The oriental guards with jealous care his cheek from touch or defilement, therefore a stroke on the cheek was, and is to this day, regarded as an act of extreme rudeness of behavior, a deadly affront. Our Saviour, however, teaches us in Mt 5:39 and Lk 6:29 that even this insult is to be ignored and pardoned.
Jawbones of animals have been frequently used as tools and weapons among primitive people. We see this sufficiently proven from cave deposits in many parts of the world, and from recent ethnological researches, especially in Australia. In the light of this evidence it is interesting to note that Samson used a jawbone of an ass with success against his enemies the Philistines (Jdg 15:15).
(2) malqoach (Ps 22:15), is a dual form indicative of the two jaws, to which a parched tongue seems to cleave.
(3) methalle`ah (Job 29:17), better "cheek teeth" (which see).
H. L. E. Luering
cher, cher'-fool-nes: The English word "cheer" meant (1) originally face, countenance (Greek kara, "head," through Old French, chere, "face"), (2) then the expression on the face, especially (3) the expression of good spirits, and finally (4) good spirits, without any reference to the facial expression. The noun "cheer" in English Versions of the Bible is only found with adjective "good" (except 1 Esdras 9:54, "great cheer"), the word not having quite lost its earlier neutral character (any face expression, whether joyous or otherwise). In Old Testament, Tobh, is translated "cheer," "let thy heart cheer thee" (See GOOD ); sameach, "to rejoice" is so translated in Dt 24:5, "shall cheer his wife" (the King James Version "cheer up his wife"), and Jdg 9:13, "wine, which cheereth God ('elohim) and man." The phrase "of good cheer" occurs in Old Testament in Job 9:27 (the King James Version "comfort"); in Apocrypha, 1 Esdras 9:54; The Wisdom of Solomon 18:6; Baruch 4:5,30; Sirach 18:32 the King James Version (the Revised Version (British and American) "luxury"); in New Testament for Greek euthumeo, euthumos, in Acts 27:22,25,36, and for tharseo in Mt 9:2,22. (the King James Version "comfort"); 14:27; Mk 6:50; 10:49 (RV; "comfort" in the King James Version); Jn 16:33; Acts 23:11. "Cheer" as verb transitive occurs in Eccl 11:9; Deut 24:5; Jdg 9:13.
Cheerful occurs in Prov 15:13,15 (the King James Version "merry"); Zec 8:19; 9:17 the King James Version; Sirach 30:25; 2 Cor 9:7.
Cheerfully, Acts 24:10.
Cheerfulness, Rom 12:8.
D. Miall Edwards
chez.
ke'-lal (kelal, "perfection"): One of the bene Pachath-Mo'abh who took "strange wives" (Ezr 10:30).
kel'-si-as.
kel'-i-anz: The people of "Chellus" (Judith 2:23) (which see).
kel'-u.
See CHELUHI .
kel'-us (Chellous), a place named (Judith 1:9) among those West of the Jordan to which Nebuchadnezzar sent his summons. It is mentioned along with "Kades," and as it lay North of the "children of Ishmael" it may with some probability be taken as lying Southwest of Jerusalem. It has been conjectured that it may be Chalutzah (Reland, Palestine, 717), a place under the form Elusa well known to the ancient geographers.
ke'-lod (Cheleoud, Cheleoul): In Judith 1:6 it is said that "many nations of the sons of Chelod assembled themselves to the battle." They are mentioned as obeying the summons of Nebuchadnezzar to his war against Arphaxad. No very probable suggestion has been made as to the meaning of Chelod.
ke'-lub:
(1) kelubh, father of Mehir (1 Ch 4:11); the name is probably a variation of Caleb. Wellhausen (De gentibus et familiis Judaeis) reads kalebh ben chezron].
(2) Father of Ezri (1 Ch 27:26), one of the officers of David.
See GENEALOGY .
ke-loo'-bi (kelubhay): Another form of Caleb used in 1 Ch 2:9; compare 2:18,42. Caleb is here described as the brother of Jerahmeel, and son of Hezron, a remote ancestor, instead of as the son of Jephunneh.
See CALEB .
kel'-oo-hi (keluhi, Kt.; keluhu, Qere; the Revised Version, margin Cheluhu; the King James Version Chelluh): Mentioned in the list of persons with foreign wives (Ezr 10:35 = 1 Esdras 9:34).
kem'-a-rim (kemarim, a plural whose singular komer is not found in the Old Testament): Occurs only once in the text of English Versions of the Bible (Zeph 1:4, the King James Version Chemarims), though the Hebrew word is found also in 2 Ki 23:5 (English Versions "idolatrous priests") and Hos 10:5 (English Versions "priests," English Versions margins, however, having "Chemarim" in both places). Some regard the word as an interpolation in Zeph 1:4, since the Septuagint omits it and its presence disturbs the parallelism. The word, which is of Aramaic origin (kumra, priest), is used in the Old Testament only in an unfavorable sense, its origin and associations naturally suggesting Syriac affinities. In the Syriac, however, no such connotation is involved. In the Peshitta version of the Old Testament it is used indifferently of idolatrous priests and of priests of Yahweh, while in the same version of the New Testament it is used of the Levitical priests and of our Lord (e.g. Heb 2:17; 3:1; 4:14,15, and often) and in Acts 19:35 it is the rendering of neokoros (the Revised Version (British and American) "temple-keeper," the King James Version "worshipper"). The question of the root idea of the word remains unsettled. The traditional supposition, which finds some support even among modern scholars, is that the verbal form means "to be black," the priests being supposed to have been clad in black. But it is doubtful whether the root had this meaning. Another conjecture takes the root to mean "to be sad," the priest being a man of a sad countenance, an ascetic. Cheyne would relate the word to the Assyrian kummaru, having the sense of "a clean vesture." It is at all events probable that the priests, both in Israel and in the surrounding nations, employed white vestments, rather than black, when in the performance of their official functions. According to the Mishna, Middoth, verse 4, a Levitical priest who had become disqualified for service put on black garments and departed, while the others put on white garments and went in and ministered. The reference to the Baal worship in 2 Ki 10:22 seems more congruous with this view; hence, probably blackrobed priests (Chemarim) of Baal and the unfaithful priests of Yahweh shall be cut off together. G. A. Smith (BTP, II, 56) reads "the priestlings with the priests."
J. R. Van Pelt
ke'-mosh (kemosh; Chamos):
1. Moabites, the People of Chemosh
2. Solomon and Chemosh Worship
3. Josiah Putting Down Chemosh Worship
4. Chemosh and Ammonites
5. Moabite Stone
6. Mesha's Inscription and the Old Testament
7. Chemosh in the Inscription
8. Parallels between Inscription and Old Testament Record
9. Ethical Contrast
LITERATURE
1. Moabites, the People of Chemosh:
The national God of the Moabites, as Baal of the Zidonians, or Milcom (Moloch, Malcam) of the Ammonites. The Moabites are apostrophized in an old Hebrew song as the "people of Chemosh" (Nu 21:29). Jeremiah in his oracle of doom upon Moab has recourse to the same old song and calls the people "the people of Chemosh." The impotence of the god to deliver his people is described by the prophet in figures representing him as going into captivity with them, his priests and princes together, and Moab is to be ashamed of him as Israel was of the Golden Calf of Bethel, which did not avail to save the Northern Kingdom from the conquering Assyrian power (Jer 48:7,13,16).
2. Solomon and Chemosh Worship:
For Chemosh, "the abomination of Moab," as for Moloch, "the abomination of the children of Ammon," Solomon, under the influence of his idolatrous wives, built a high place in the mount before Jerusalem (1 Ki 11:7). It was natural that they should desire to worship still after the manner of the gods of their native land, but although the effect of all this was seen in the moral and spiritual deterioration of Solomon himself there is no indication that the immoralities and cruelties associated with such worship were then practiced in Jerusalem. In the days of Ahaz and Manasseh, even as early as the days of Abijam of Judah, they were (1 Ki 15:12,13).
3. Josiah Putting Down Chemosh Worship:
Josiah found these abominations of alien worship, which had been introduced by Solomon and added to by Ahaz and Manasseh, flourishing when he came to the throne. Moved by the prohibitions of the Book of the Law (Dt 12:29-31; 18:10), Josiah pulled down and defiled the high places and the altars, and in order to make a clean sweep of the idolatrous figures, "he brake in pieces the pillars," or obelisks, "and cut down the Asherim," or sacred poles, "and filled their places with the bones of men" (2 Ki 23:1-20).
There is one passage where Chemosh is designated the god of the Ammonites (Jdg 11:24). Jephthah is disputing the right of the Ammonites to invade territory which belongs to Israel because Yahweh has given it to them by conquest. And he asks: `Shouldst thou not possess the territory of those whom Chemosh, thy god, dispossesses, and we the territory of all whom Yahweh, our god, dispossesses?' It may be that he is called here the god of the Ammonites by a mere oversight of the historian; or that Moab and Ammon being kindred nations descended from a common ancestor, Lot, Chemosh may in a sense belong to both. We notice, however, that Jephthah's argument in meeting the claim preferred by the king of Ammon passes on to Israel's relation to the Moabites and makes mention only of well-known Moabite cities. Chemosh is accordingly named because of his association with Moab, the cities of which are being spoken of, although strictly and literally Milcom should have been named in an appeal addressed as a whole to the Ammonites (Jdg 11:12-28; compare Moore at the place).
The discovery of the Moabite Stone in 1868 at Dibon has thrown light upon Chemosh and the relations of Moab to its national god. The monument, which is now one of the most precious treasures of the Louvre in Paris, bears an inscription which is the oldest specimen of Semitic alphabetic writing extant, commemorating the successful effort made about 860 or 850 BC by Mesha, king of Moab, to throw off the yoke of Israel. We know from the Old Testament record that Moab had been reduced to subjection by David (2 Sam 8:2); that it paid a heavy tribute to Ahab, king of Israel (2 Ki 3:4); and that, on the death of Ahab, Mesha its king rebelled against Israelite rule (2 Ki 3:5). Not till the reign of Jehoram was any effort made to recover the lost dominion. The king of Israel then allied himself with the kings of Judah and Edom, and marching against Moab by the way of the Red Sea, inflicted upon Mesha a defeat so decisive that the wrath of his god, Chemosh, could be appeased only by the sacrifice of his son (2 Ki 3:6 ff).
6. Mesha's Inscription and the Old Testament:
The historical situation described in the Old Testament narrative is fully confirmed by Mesha's inscription. There are, however, divergences in detail. In the Book of Kings the revolt of Mesha is said to have taken place after the death of Ahab. The inscription implies that it must have taken place by the middle of Ahab's reign. The inscription implies that the subjection of Moab to Israel had not been continuous from the time of David, and says that `Omri, the father of Ahab, had reasserted the power of Israel and had occupied at least a part of the land.
7. Chemosh in the Inscription:
It is with what the inscription says of Chemosh that we are chiefly concerned. On the monument the name appears twelve times. Mesha is himself the son of Chemosh, and it was for Chemosh that he built the high place upon which the monument was found. He built it because among other reasons Chemosh had made him to see his desire upon them that hated him. It was because Chemosh was angry with his land that `Omri afflicted Moab many days. `Omri had taken possession of the land of Medeba and Israel dwelt in it his days and half his son's days, but Chemosh restored it in Mesha's days. Mesha took `Ataroth which the king of Israel had built for himself, slew all the people of the city, and made them a gazing-stock to Chemosh and to Moab. Mesha brought thence the altar-hearth of Dodo, and dragged it before Chemosh in Kerioth. By command of Chemosh, Mesha attacked Nebo and fought against Israel, and after a fierce struggle he took the place, slaying the inhabitants en masse, 7,000 men and women and maidservants, devoting the city to `Ashtor-Chemosh and dragging the altar vessels of Yahweh before Chemosh. Out of Jahaz, too, which the king of Israel had built, Chemosh drove him before Mesha. At the instigation of Chemosh, Mesha fought against Horonaim, and, although the text is defective in the closing paragraph, we may surmise that Chemosh did not fail him but restored it to his dominions.
8. Parallels between Inscription and Old Testament Record:
Naturally enough there is considerable obscurity in local and personal allusions. Dodo may have been a local god worshipped by the Israelites East of the Jordan. Ashtor-Chemosh may be a compound divinity of a kind not unknown to Semitic mythology, Ashtor representing possibly the Phoenician Ashtoreth. What is of importance is the recurrence of so many phrases and expressions applied to Chemosh which are used of Yahweh in the Old Testament narratives. The religious conceptions of the Moabites reflected in the inscription are so strikingly like those of the Israelites that if only the name of Yahweh were substituted for that of Chemosh we might think we were reading a chapter of the Books of Kings. It is not in the inscriptions, however, but in the Old Testament narrative that we find a reference to the demand of Chemosh for human sacrifice. "He took his eldest son," says the Hebrew historian, "that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land" (2 Ki 3:27). This appears to indicate that the Israelites had to give up their purpose to fasten the yoke of bondage again upon Mesha and that they returned empty-handed to their own land. But this fortunate result for Moab was due to the favor of Chemosh, and in particular to the human sacrifice by which he was propitiated.
If we find in these representations of Chemosh in the Old Testament narrative and in Mesha's inscription a striking similarity to the Hebrew conception of Yahweh, we cannot fail to notice the lack of the higher moral and spiritual elements supplied to the religion of Israel by the prophets and indeed from Moses and Abraham downward. "Chemosh," says W. Baudissin, "is indeed the ruler of his people whom he protects as Yahweh the Israelites, whom he chastises in his indignation, and from whom he accepts horrible propitiatory gifts. But of a God of grace whose long-suffering leads back even the erring to Himself, of a Holy God to whom the offering of a pure and obedient heart is more acceptable than bloody sacrifices, of such a God as is depicted in Israel's prophets and sweet singers there is no trace in the Moabite picture of Chemosh. While Mesha is represented as offering up his own son in accordance with the stern requirements of his religion, Old Testament law-givers and prophets from the beginning condemned human sacrifice" (RE3, article "Kemosh").
LITERATURE.
RE3, article "Kemosh"; Cooke, Text-Book of North-Semitic Inscriptions, "Moabite Stone," 1-14; W. Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel, 49 ff; Sayce, Sayce, Higher Criticism and the Monuments, 364 ff.
T. Nicol.
ke-na'-a-na (kena`anah, feminine form of "Canaan," though others explain it as "toward Canaan"): The name of two men:
(1) The fourth-named of the seven sons of Bilham, son of Jediael, of the tribe of Benjamin, a leading warrior in the time of David (1 Ch 7:10).
(2) Father of the false prophet Zedekiah, who encouraged Ahab against Micaiah (1 Ki 22:11,24; 2 Ch 18:10,23).
ke-na'-ni (kenani, "planted"): One of the names mentioned in Neh 9:4, in connection with the constitution of "congregation." If the names represent houses or families, eight Levitical houses probably sang some well-known psalm on this occasion. If they are names of individual representatives, they were probably deputed to recite or chant some special prayer in order to lead the worship of the people.
ken-a-ni'-a (kenanyahu, and kenanyah, literally "established by God"): Chief of the Levites who was over "the songs," or "the carrying" (namely, "of the ark") from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem (1 Ch 15:22,27; 26:29).
ke-far-am'-o-ni (the King James Version Chephar-haammoni; kephar ha`ammoni; Codex Vaticanus, Kepheira kai Monei; A, Kapherammin, "village of the Ammonites"): A place in the territory of Benjamin (Josh 18:24). It may be identical with Kefr `Ana, a ruined site about two miles to the Northeast of Bethel.
ke-far-ha-am'-o-ni.
See CHEPHAR-AMMONI .
ke-fi'-ra (ha-kephirah; Codex Vaticanus, Kapheira (Josh 9); Codex Alexandrinus has Chepheira, Codex Vaticanus has kai Pheira (Josh 18)): One of the cities of the Hivites who by guile made alliance with Israel (Josh 9:17). It was in the lot of Benjamin (Josh 18:26), and was reoccupied after the return from Babylon (Ezr 2:25; Neh 7:29). It is represented by the modern Kefireh, to the Southwest of Gibeon, and North of Karyat el-`Anab. It stands on high ground, with many ancient remains.
ke'-ran (keran): A Horite clan-name, occurring in the genealogy of Seir, the Horite (Gen 36:26), and in the parallel list in 1 Ch 1:41. Dillmann derives it from kar, "a lamb."
ker'-e-thits (kerethim, ha-kerethi; Chelethi "executioners," "life-guardsmen"): A people in South Palestine whose territory bordered upon that of Judah (1 Sam 30:14). In 1 Sam 30:16 this land is apparently identical with that of the Philistines. In Ezek 25:16 the Philistines and the Cherethites are threatened together; while in Zeph 2:5 the Cherethites are evidently the dwellers in "the land of the Philistines," "the inhabitants of the seacoast." Septuagint in both Ezekiel and Zephaniah renders the name "Cretans." The translators may have been "guided only by the sound." But Zeus Cretagenes in Gaza suggests a connection with the island of Crete. See, however, CAPHTOR. It may be taken as certain that the Cherethites were a Philistine clan. In conjunction with the Pelethites they are frequently named as forming the guard of David (2 Sam 8:18, etc.). It was the custom of many ancient monarchs to have a guard of foreign mercenaries.
W. Ewing
cher'-ish (cakhan; thalpo): Cakhan, "to act the friend," "to be useful," is translated "cherish" (1 Ki 1:2,4); thalpo, "to warm," "to make warm," "to foster" (Eph 5:29), said of the regard the husband should have for his wife, even as his own flesh which he "nourisheth and cherisheth, even as Christ also the church," and in 1 Thess 2:7, of Paul amongst his converts, "as when a nurse cherisheth her own children."
ke'-rith (nachal kerith; Cheimarrhous Chorrhath): The place where Elijah hid and was miraculously fed, after announcing the drought to Ahab (1 Ki 17:3). It is described as being "before," that is "east," of Jordan. It cannot therefore be identified with Wady el-Kelt, to the West of Jericho. The retreat must be sought in some recess of the Gilead uplands with which doubtless Elijah had been familiar in his earlier days.
ke'-rub (kerubh, Cheroub, Charoub): A place in Babylonia from which people whose genealogies had fallen into confusion went up at the return from exile (Ezr 2:59; Neh 7:61); unidentified. In 1 Esdras 5:36 we read "Charaathalan leading them, and Allar," a phrase that seems to have arisen through confusion of the names in the passages cited above.
CHERUBIC, FORMS IN THE CONSTELLATIONS
che-roo'-bik.
See ASTRONOMY .
cher'-u-bim, cher'-oo-bim (kerubhim, plural of cherub, kerubh): Through the influence of the Septuagint, "cherubim" was used in the earlier English versions, also as a singular, hence, the plural was made to sound "cherubims." The etymology of the word cannot be ascertained.
In Gen 3:24 the cherubim are placed by God, after the expulsion of Adam from the garden of Eden, at the east thereof, together with the flaming sword "to keep the way of the tree of life." In their function as guardians of Paradise the cherubim bear an analogy to the winged bulls and lions of Babylonia and Assyria, colossal figures with human faces standing guard at the entrance of temples (and palaces), just as in Egypt the approaches to the sanctuaries are guarded by sphinxes. But the Babylonian colossi go by the name of lamassu, or shedu; no designation at all approaching the Hebrew kerubh has so far been found in the Assyrian language. Nor are thus named the winged figures, half human and half animal, which in Babylonian and Persian art are found on both sides of the "sacred tree." Thus, a Babylonian origin of the Hebrew cherubim is neither proved nor disproved. If we look for further analogies which, of course, do not indicate a borrowing on the part of the Hebrews, we may mention the fabulous griffins (grupes), usually represented as having the heads and wings of an eagle and the body and hind quarters of a lion; they were believed by the Greeks to inhabit Scythia, and to keep jealous watch over the gold of that country.
2. The Garden as the Abode of the Gods:
If we read between the lines of the Paradise account in Gen (compare 3:8), the garden of Eden, the primeval abode of man, reveals itself as more than that: it was apparently the dwelling-place of God. In the polytheistic story of the creation of the world and early life of man, which, while in several respects analogous (compare 3:22), is devoid of the more spiritual notions of Hebraism, the garden was the abode of the gods who alone had access to the tree of life from the fruit of which they derived their immortality. Adam, before the fall, is conceived as a superhuman being; for while he is forbidden to taste of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, the way to immortality is open to him; for it is only after transgressing the Divine command that he merits death and becomes mortal. The choice of immortal innocence and mortal knowledge lay before him; he elected death with knowledge.
3. The Cherubim as Attendants of the Deity:
The mythical elements of the Paradise story are still more patent in Ezek 28:13 ff, where the fall of the king of Tyre is likened to that of primeval man. The garden is situated on a holy mountain of Elohim(= God to Ezekiel, but gods in the primitive source), the `mountain of assembly' of Isa 14:13, high above the stars in the recesses of the North. It is a wonderful place, adorned with all manner of precious stones. There man, perfect from the day he was created, resplendent with beauty, excelling in wisdom, walks among the fiery stones, like a cherub with outstretched wings. The cherubs are apparently the attendants of the Deity, beauteous angels, of whom man was to be one: but he fell from glory and was hurled from the sanctuary which he had polluted. Some of the angelic attendants of the Deity within are placed in Genesis without, to do service as guardians of the unapproachable holy garden.
As attendants of God, they bear the throne upon which He descends from His high abode. Thus in the description of a theophany in Ps 18, we read:
"He bowed the heavens also, and came down;
And thick darkness was under his feet.
And he rode upon a cherub and did fly;
Yea, he soared upon the wings of the wind."
(Ps 18:9,10)
Hence, the Lord, or, as the fuller title goes, the Lord of Hosts, is repeatedly styled "He that sitteth (throned) above the cherubim" (Ps 80:1; 99:1; 1 Sam 4:4, and elsewhere). There is certainly no trace here of bull figures: bulls do not fly. The underlying conception is, it seems, rather that of the storm cloud. Compare Ps 104:3:
"Who maketh the clouds his chariot;
Who walketh upon the wings of the wind."
The Hebrew for "chariot" is rekhubh, a sort of inverted kerubh.
But the function of the cherubim as bearers and movers of the Divine throne is brought out most clearly in the vision of Ezekiel (chapter 1, with which compare chapter 10). In chapter 1 the prophet designates them as "living creatures" (chayyoth); but upon hearing God's words addressed to the "man clothed in linen" (10:2) he perceives that the living creatures which he saw in the first vision were cherubim (10:20); hence, in 9:3 the chariot or throne, from which the glory of God went up, is spoken of as a cherub. The following is a description in detail of the cherubim as seen by Ezekiel. They are represented as four living creatures, each with four faces, man, lion, ox (replaced in the parallel chapter by cherub), and eagle (1:10; 10:14), having the figure and hands of men (1:5,8), and the feet of calves (1:7). Each has four wings, two of which are stretched upward (1:11), meeting above and sustaining the "firmament," that is, the bottom of the Divine throne (1:22; 10:1), while two are stretched downward, conformable the one to the other, so as to cover their bodies (1:11,23). In appearance, the living creatures resemble coals of fire (compare 10:2,6 f, where the "man clothed in linen" is bidden fill both his hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim), burning like torches, the fire flashing up and down among the creatures, a bright fire out of which lightning goes forth (1:13). Thus the creatures run and vanish as the appearance of a flash of lightning (1:14). The cherubim do not turn as they change direction, but always go straight forward (1:9,17; 10:11), as do the wheels of the cherubic chariot with rings full of eyes round about (1:18; 10:12). The cherubim represent the spirit, or will, in the wheels: at the direction of the spirit, the wheels are lifted up from the bottom and the chariot moves upward (1:19 f; 10:16 f). The cherubim are thus the moving force of the vehicle.
6. Relation to Seraphim and Other Angels:
Ezekiel's cherubim are clearly related to the seraphim in Isaiah's inaugural vision (Isa 6). Like the cherubim, the seraphim are the attendants on God as He is seated upon a throne high and exalted; they are also winged creatures: with twain they cover their faces, and with twain they cover their feet, and with twain they fly. Like the Levites in the sanctuary below, they sing a hymn of adoration: "Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory." In the Book of Enoch, the cherubim, seraphim, and ophannim (wheels), and all the angels of power constitute the "host of God," the guardians of His throne, the singers of praise ascribing blessedness to "the Lord of Spirits," with the archangel Gabriel at their head (see 20:7; 40; 61:10 f; 71:7). And so in the Jewish daily liturgy the seraphim, ophannim, and "living creatures" constitute the heavenly choir who, the elect ministers of the Living God, ready to do the will of their maker with trembling, intone in sweet harmony the Thrice-holy. In the Talmud, the cherubim are represented as having the likeness of youths (with a fanciful etymology, ke plus rubh, "like a youth"; Cukk 5b; Chag 13b), while, according to the Midrash, they have no definite shape, but appear indifferently as men or women, or as spirits and angelic beings (Gen rabba' 21).
The "four living creatures" of Rev 4:6 ff are clearly modeled upon Ezekiel, with supplementary touches from Isaiah. Full of eyes before and behind, they are in the midst of the throne, and round about it. One resembles a lion, the other a calf, and the third a man, and the fourth a flying eagle. Each of the creatures has six wings. "They have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come."