ALTAR

(1 S 6») the transition was easy to an altar built of unhewn stones (Ex 20^5, Dt 27"- RV), which continued to be the normal type of Hebrew altar to the end (see 1 Mac 4"; Jos. BJ V. v. 6).

2. Another type of pre-historic altar, to which much less attention has been paid, had its origin in the primitive conception of sacrifice as the food of the gods. As such it was appropriately presented on a table. Now the nearest analogy to the disc of leather spread on the ground,which was and is the table of the Semitic nomad, was the smooth face of the native rock, such as that on which Manoah spread his offering (Jg 13i"-, of. 6^"). The well-known rock-surfaces, in Palestine and else-where, with their mysterious cup-marks — typical speci-mens are iUustrated PEFSt, 1900, 32 ff., 249— to receive the sacrificial blood, can scarcely be other than pre-historic table-altars. The similarly marked table-stones of Syrian dolmens also belong here. A further stage in the evolution of the table altar is seen in the elaborate structures recently discovered within the West-Semitic area. In these the rock Is cut away so as to leave the altar standing free, to which rock-cut steps lead up, an arrangement forbidden, from motives of decency, by the earliest legislation (Ex 20^, with which cf. 28"'- and parall. from a later date). The uppermost step served as a platform for the ofiiciating priest. Some show cup-hollows for libations of blood (see illust. in Moore's 'Judges' in SBOT p. 83), while that first discovered at Petra has a depression for the altar- hearth {PEFSt, raOO, 350 ff. with sketch; see also Ariel). Its dimensions are 9 ft. by 6, with a height above the platform of 3 ft. The altars of the more important sanctuaries under*the debrew monarchy, such as Bethel, were probably of a similar nature. A description of 'the altar of burnt-offering' of the Tabernacle will be given under Tabeknacle ; for the corresponding altars of the Temple of Solomon and its successors, and of Ezekiel's sketch, see Temple.

3. A third variety of primitive altar is the mound of earth (Ex 20^^), a copy in miniature of the hill-tops which were at all times favourite places of worship (see High Place).

4. All the types of altar above described were intended for the ordinary open-air sacrificial service, details of which will be found under Sacrifice. There is no clear reference earlier than Jeremiah to the use of incense, and no reference at all to any altar of incense in the legitimate worship before the Exile, for 1 K 7*' in its present form is admittedly late, and the altar of 1 K e^" must be the table of shewbread (see Temple, Shew-bread).

5. From what has already been said, it is evident that an altar was the indispensable requisite of every place of worship. It was not until the 7th cent. b.c. that Josiah succeeded in abolishing 'the high places' and destroying or desecrating their altars (2 K 23'ff), in accordance with the fundamental demand of the Deuteronomic law-code (Dt la'"). In the older his-torical and prophetical writings, however, and even in the earliest legislation (see Ex 202* RV), the legitimacy of the local altars is never called in question. On the contrary, religious leaders such as Samuel and Elijah show their zeal for the worship of J" by the erection and repair of altars.

6. As altars to which a special interest attaches may be mentioned that erected by David on the threshing floor of Araunah (2 S 24"" ■), the site of which is marked by the present mosque of ' the Dome of the Rock ' ; the altar erected by Ahaz after the model of one seen by him at Damascus (2 K W^'^); the sacrificial and incense altars to the host of heaven in the courts and probalbly even on the roof of the Temple (2 K 23", Jer 19'') ; and finally, the altar to Olympian Zeus placed by Antiochus Epiphanea on the top of the altar of burnt-offering (1 Mac 1").

7. Reference must also be made to altars as places of

AMALEK, AMALEKITES

refuge for certain classes of criminals, attested both by legislation (Ex 21'".) and history (1 K 1" 2^«; see more fully, Refuge [Cities of]). The origin and precise significance of the horns of the altar, of which the refugee laid hold (1 K !!.cc.), and which played anlmportant part in the ritual (Ex 2912, Lv 4'«-), have not yet received a satisfactory explanation. A small Umestone altar, show-ing the horns in the form of rounded knobs at the four corners, has just been discovered at Gezer (PEFSt, 1907, p. 196, with illust.). A. R. S. Kennedy.

AL-TASHHETH.— Pss 57. 58. 69. 65. (titles). See Psalms.

ALXJSH.— A station in the journeyings (Nu 33"- ").

ALVAN.— Son of Shobal, a Horite (Gn 36»); called in 1 Ch 1" Aliau, in Gn 36" Alvah, 1 Ch 1" Aliah, one of the 'dukes' of Edom.

AMAD (Jos 19*8 only).— A city of Asher. The site is doubtful; there are several ruins called 'Amud in this region.

AKIADATHUS (Est 126 leio. n).— See Hammedatha.

AMAL.— A descendant of Asher (1 Ch 7=*).

AMALEK, AMALEKITES.— A tribe which roamed, from the days of the Exodus till the time of king Saul, over the region from the southern boundary of Judah to the Egyptian frontier and the peninsula of Sinai. They are not counted among the kindred of the Israelites, and probably were among the inhabitants of the region whom the Hebrew and Aramsean immigrants found already in the land. With this agrees the statement of a poem quoted in Nu 242» 'Amalek was the first of the nations.'

Israel first met with the Amalekites in the region near Sinai, when Amalek naturally tried to prevent the entrance of a new tribe into the region (cf . Ex 17'-"). The battle which ensued produced such a profound im-pression, that one of the few things which the Pentateuch claims that Moses wrote is the ban of Jahweh upon Amalek (Ex 17"). It appears from Dt 25"-" that Amalek made other attacks upon Israel, harassing her rear. On the southern border of Palestine the Amalekites also helped at a later time to prevent Israel's entrance from Kadesh (Nu 13" 142*).

During the period of the Judges, Amalekites aided the Moabites in raiding Israel (Jg 3"), and at a later time they helped the Midianites to do the same thing (63. 33 712). This kept alive the old enmity. King Saul attempted to shatter their force, and captured their king, whom Samuel afterwards slew (IS 15). Although Saul is said to have taken much spoil, the Amalekites were still there for David to raid during that part of Saul's reign when David was an outlaw (1 S 27'). The boundaries of the habitat of the Amalekites at this time are said to have been from Telem, one of the southern cities of Judah (Jos 15^), to Shur on the way to Egypt (1 S 15*). Most modern critics also read Telem for Havilah in 1 S 15', and for 'of old' in 1 S 27'.

It was formerly supposed, on the basis of Jg 5" and 12", that there was at one time a settlement of Amale-kites farther north, in the hill country of Ephraim. That is, however, improbable,, for in both passages the text seems to be corrupt. In 5" ' Amalek' is corrupted from the Hebrew for 'valley,' and in 12" from the proper name 'Shalim.' Individual Amalekites, nevertheless, sojourned in Israel (2 S 1'- ").

In 1 Ch 4«B- there is a remarkable statement that a remnant of the Amalekites had escaped and dwelt in Edom, and that 600 Simeonites attacked and smote them. Perhaps this accounts for the priestly genealogies which make Amalek a descendant of Esau and a sub-ordinate Edomite. tribe (cf. Gn 36i2- " and 1 Ch l»)

24

Perhaps here we learn how the powerful Amalek of the earlier time faded away. Pa 83'— a late composition —refers to the Amalekites as still aiding Israel 's enemies •