DABBESHETH

DAMASCUS

D

DABBESHETH. — A town in the westward border of Zebulun (Jos 19"). identified with Dabsheh, E. of ' Acca. • R. A. S. Macalister.

DABERATH.— A city said in Jos 1912 to belong to Zebulun, but in Jos 2128 and 1 Ch 6« to be a Levitical city in Issachar. Probably it was on the border between the two tribes. It has been identified with Daburieh at the foot of Tabor. R. A. S. Macalister.

DABBIA. — One of the five scribes who wrote to the dictation of Ezra (2 Es 142*).

DACUBI, 1 Es 528 = Akkub, Ezr 2". Neh 7«.

DAGGER.— See Armour, Arms, § 1 (c).

DAGOIf . — A god whose worship was general among the Philistines (at Gaza, Jg le^^, 1 Mac 10»»- « Hi; at Ashkelon, 1 S 5^; prob. at Beth-dagon [wh. see], which may at one time have been under Philistine rule). Indeed, the name Baal-dagon inscribed in Phoenician characters upon a cylinder now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the modern place-name Beit Dajan (S.E. of Nablus), indicate an existence of his cult in Phcenicia and Canaan. An endeavour to identify the god with Atargatis (wh. see) is responsible for the explanation of the name as a diminutive (term of en-dearment) of dag ('fish'), and also for the rendering of 'only Dagon was left' (1 S 6«) as 'only the fishy part was left.' Though there is nothing to contradict the supposition that Dagon was a fish-god, it is more probable that originally he was an agricultural deity (named from d!a5ran=' grain,' cf. 1 S 6'- '), from which position he developed into a war-god (1 Ch 10'") and apparently even into a national deity (1 S 5'-6"). An identification of this god with the Babylonian Dagan is doubtful (see Jensen, Kosmologie, 449 ff . ; and Jastrow, Bel. of Bab. and Assyr., Index). N. Koeniq.

DAISAN, 1 Es 52i = Rezin, Ezr 2", Neh 7". The form in 1 Es. is due to confusion of Heb. r and I.

DALAN, 1 Es 5" = Delaiah, Ezr 2^'.

DALETH. — Fourth letter of Heb. alphabet, and as such used in the 119th Psalm to designate the 4th part, each verse of which begins with this letter.

DALMANUTHA.— Hither Christ sailed after feeding the four thousand (Mk 8"). In Mt 15»» Magadan is substituted. No satisfactory conjecture has yet been offered as to the explanation of either name, or the identification of either place. R. A. S. Macauster.

DALMAXIA. — A mountainous district on the E. coast of the Adriatic Sea. More exactly used, it is the southern half of the Roman province lUyricum (wh. see). The writer of the Second Epistle to Timothy makes Titus journey there (2 Ti 41°). A. Souteb.

DALFHON (Est 9').— The second son of Haman, put to death by the Jews.

DAMARIS.— A convert at Athens (Ac 17«). As women of the upper classes were kept more in the background there than in Macedonia or Asia Minor, she was probably not of noble birth (cf. 17'- ''). The name is perhaps a corruption of Damalis, 'a heifer.' The Bezan MS omits it. A. J. Maclean.

DAMASCUS.— 1. Situation, etc.— The chief city of N. Syria, situated in lat. 33° 30' N. and long. 36° 18' E. It lies in a plain east of the Anti-Lebanon, famous for its beauty and fertility, and watered by the Barada River, the Abanah (wh. see) of the Bible. The luxuri-ance of its gardens has long been renowned: the EngUsh traveller W. G. Browne in 1797 noted that the fruit-trees were so numerous that those which died and were cut down were sufficient to supply the town with firewood. Its population is estimated at from 150,000 to 220,000. It derives its modern

importance from local manufactures (woodwork, furni-ture, artistic metal and textile work), from its situa-tion and convenience as a market for the desert tribes, and from its religious significance as the starting- point of the annual Syrian pilgrim caravan to Mecca. Railways run from Damascus to Haifa, Beyrout, and Mezerib, and the important Une to Mecca, begun in 1901, is expected to be finished in 1910. The writer of Canticles, in his appreciation of the sensuous beauty of scenery, has not forgotten Damascus: the nose of the Shulammite is compared to the ' tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus' (Ca 7').

The history of Damascus begins in remote antiquity : the time of its foundation is quite unknown; but that a settlement should have been founded in so desirable a locality was inevitable from the very beginning of human association. It was probably already an ancient city at the time of the Tell el-Amarna tablets, on which we meet with its name more than once. It also appears in the tribute lists of Thothmes iii. as Demesku.

2. OT references. — In the Biblical history we first meet with the name of Damascus as a territorial indi-cation in defining the line of Abram's pursuit of the five kings (Gn 14"). In Gn 15^ the name of Abram's steward is given in the MT as Dammesek Bliezer (so RV) — a name probably corrupt. It is explained in the Aram., Targum, and Syr. as 'Eliezer the Damascene,' which gives sense, though it presupposes a most improbable corruption in the Hebrew text. We must therefore pass this passage by with the remark that it is not un-Ukely that Abram's servant was a native of Damascus. We hear nothing more of Damascus till 2 S 8'- «, which describes David's capture of the city as a reprisal for its assistance given to Hadadezer, king of Zobah; David garrisoned it and reduced it to a tributary condition (cf. 1 Ch 18'). The general of Hadadezer, however, Rezon by name, succeeded in establishing himself as king in Damascus in the time of Solomon, and made himself continuously a very troublesome neighbour (1 K 1123- M). In the wars between Asa and Baasha (1 K 15"«-, 2 Ch 1622) the king of Judah invoked the aid of Ben-hadad, king of Syria, whose royal city was Damascus, against his Israelite enemy. By gifts he persuaded him to break the truce already existing between Ben-hadad and Israel, and to join partnership with Judah. Accord-ingly Ben-hadad proceeded to harass Baasha on his northern borders, and so induced him to desist from his plan of erecting border fortifications between the two Hebrew kingdoms. Hostilities continued between Syria and Israel till the days of Ahab: Ahab's sparing of Ben-hadad after the battle of Aphek and his making a truce with him, were the cause of a prophetic denun-ciation (1 K 20"). In the reign of Jehoram, the Syrian general Naaman came to be cleansed of leprosy (2 K 5), and Elisha's directions led to his famous depreciating comparison of the muddy Jordan with the clear-flowing Abanah and Pharpar (v.«). The Chronicler (2 Ch 24") reports a victorious invasion of Judah by Damascus in the days of Joash. The city of Damascus was re-taken by Jeroboam 11. (2 K 14^8), though the circumstances are not related ; but must have been lost again immediately, for we find the Syrian king Rezin there (2 K 16) oppress-ing Ahaz, so that he was led to the policy, which (as Isaiah foresaw, 7. 10'-") proved suicidal, of calling in the aid of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, and submitting himself as a vassal of that great king. Prophetic denunciations of Damascus, as of the other enemies of the Hebrews, are found in Is 17, Jer 49", Am 1'-', and Zee 9'. Damascus as a commercial centre was always of great importance, and Ezekiel (27") alludes to its trade in vines and wool. It is, of course, included in the imaginary restoration of the kingdom (Ezk 47").

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