EGYPT, RIVER OF

Called the Osiris Apis— Osirapis or Serapis. With some modification, this Serapis, well known and popular amongst natives and foreign settlers alike, was chosen by Ptolemy Soter to be the presiding deity of his kingdom, lor the Egyptians, and more especially for the Greeks at Alexandria. He was worshipped as a form of Osiris, an infernal Zeus, associated with Isis. His acceptance by the Greek world, and still more enthusiastically by the Romans and the western half of the Roman world, spread the Osiris Passion — otherwise the Isiac mysteries —far and wide. This Isiac worship possessed many features in common with Christianity: on the one hand, it prepared the world for the latter, and influenced its symbols; while, on the other, it proved perhaps the most powerful and stubborn adversary of the Christian dogma in its contest with paganism. F. Ll. Gkiffith.

EGYPT, RIVER (RV 'brook,' better 'wady') OF.— The S.W. boundary of Palestine (Nu 3#, Is 27'^ etc.; cf. 'river (nahar) of Egypt,' Gn IS's, and simply 'the wady,' Ezk 47" 482S). It is the Wady d-Arish, still the boundary of Egypt, in the desert half-way between Pe usium and Gaza. Water is always to be found by digging in the bed of the wady, and after heavy rain the latter is filled with a rushing stream. El- Arish, where the wady reaches the Mediterranean, was an Egyptian frontier post to which malefactors were banished after having their noses cut off; hence its Greek name Rhino-corura. See also Shihoe, Shuk. F. Ll. Griffith.

EGYPTIAN, THE. — An unnamed leader of the 'Assassins' or 'Sicarii' for whom Claudius Lysias took St. Paul (Ac 21^8). This man is also mentioned by Josephus as a leader defeated by Felix, but not as con-nected with the 'Assassins' (Ant. xx. viii. 6). The Egyptian escaped, and Lysias thought that he had secured him in St. Paul's person. The discrepancies between Josephus and St. Luke here make mutual borrowing Improbable. See Theudas. A. J. Maclean.

EGYPTIANVERSIONS.— See TextofNT,§§ 27-29.

EHI. — See Ahikam.

EHUD. — 1. The deliverer of Israel from Eglon, king of Moab (Jg 312-30). The story of how Ehud slew Eglon bears upon it the stamp of genuineness; according to it, Ehud was the bearer of a present from the children of Israel to their conqueror, the king of Moab. On being left alone with the king, Ehud plunges his sword into the body of Eglon, and makes good his escape into the hill-country of Ephraim. Israel is thus delivered from the Moabite supremacy. 2. Son of Bilhan, a Benjamite (1 Ch 7'", cf. 8«). W. O. E. Oestebley.

EKER.— A Jerahmeelite (1 Ch 2").

EKREBEL (Jth 7").- Apparently the town of 'Akrabeh, E. of Shechera, the capital of Akrabattine.

EKRON. — A city in the Philistine Pentapolis, not conquered by Joshua (Jos 13'), but theoretically a border city of Judah (15") and Dan (19«); said, in a passage which is probably an interpolation, to have been smitten by Judah (Jg l"). Hither the captured ark was brought from Ashdod (1 S 5'"), and on its restoration the Philistine lords who had followed it to Beth-shemesh returned to Ekron (1 S 6'"). Ekron was the border town of a territory that passed in the days of Samuel from the Philistines to Israel (1 S 7"), and it was the limit of the pursuit of the Philistines after the slaying of Goliath by David (17'^). Its local numen was Baal-zebub, whose oracle Ahaziah consulted after his accident (2 K 1'). Like the other Philistine cities, it is made the subject of denunciation by Jeremiah, Amos, Zephaniah, and the anonymous prophet whose writing occupies Zee 9-11. This city is commonly . identified with ' Akir, a village on the Philistine plain between Gezer and the sea, where there is now a Jewish colony. For the identification there is no basis, except the coincidence of name; there are no remains of antiq-uity whatever at 'Akir. K. A. S. Macalistek.

ELAM

EL.— See God.

ELA.— 1. 1 Es 9"=Elam, Ezr 10". 2. 1 K 4i8,

father of Solomon's commissariat officer in Benjamin.

ELAH.— 1. A 'duke' of Edom (Gn 36", 1 Ch 1=2).

2. Son of Baasha, king of Israel. He had nominal possession of the throne two years or fractions of years (1 K 16*-"). He gave himself to drunken dissipation, until Zimri, one of his generals, revolted and killed him. The usual extirpation of the defeated dynasty followed.

3. Father of Hoshea (2 K 15=" 17' IS'- »). 4. Second son of Caleb (1 Ch 4"). 6. A Benjamite (1 Ch 9').

H. P. Smith.

ELAH ('terebinth'). — A valley in the ShephSlah, the scene of the battle between David and GoUath (1 S 17. 21'). It is most likely the modern Wady es-Sunt, which, rising in the mountains about Jeba, about 11 miles due S.W. of Jerusalem, runs westward, under various names, till it opens on the Maritime Plain at Tell es-Safi. In the middle of the valley is a watercourse which runs in winter only; the bottom is full of small stones such as David might have selected for his sling. R. A. S. Macalisteh.

ELAM.— 1. A son of Shem (Gn 10«=l Ch 1"), the eponymousancestoroftheEIamites (see following article). 2. A Korahite (1 Ch 26'). 3. A Benjamite (1 Ch 8^).

4. The eponym of a family of which 1254 returned with Zerub. (Ezr 2', Neh 712, 1 Es 5") and 71 with Ezra (Ezr 8', 1 Es 8"). It was one of the BenS-Elam that urged Ezra to take action against mixed marriages (Ezr 102), and six of the same family are reported to have put away their foreign wives (Ezr lO^"). Elam ace. to Neh 10" 'sealed the covenant.' 6. In the parallel lists Ezr 2»i, Neh 7*" ' the other Elam ' has also 1254 descend-ants who return with Zerubbabel. 6. A priest who took part in the dedication of the walls (Neh 12«).

ELAM. — An important country of Western Asia, called Blamtu by the Babylonians and Elymais by the Greeks (also Susiana, from Shushan or Susa the capital). It corresponds nearly to the modern Chuzistan, lying to the east of the lower Tigris, but including also the mountains that skirt the plain. The portion south of Susa was known as Anshan (Anzan). In Gn lO^^ (1 Ch 1") Elam is called a son of Shem, from the mistaken idea that the people were of the Semitic race. They belonged to the great family of barbarous or semi-barbarous tribes which occupied the highlands to the east and north of the Semites before the influx of the Aryans.

Historically Elam's most important place in the Bible is found in Gn 14"-, where it is mentioned as the suzerain of Babylonia and therewith of the whole western country Including Palestine. The period there alluded to was that of Elam's greatest power, a little later than B.C. 2300. For many centuries previous, Elam had upon the whole been subordinate to the ruling power ot Babylonia, no matter which of the great cities west of the Tigris happened to be supreme. Not many years later, Hammurabi of Babylon (perhaps the Amraphel of Gn 14) threw oft the yoke of Elam, which henceforth held an inferior place. Wars between the two countries were, however, very common, and Elam frequently had the advantage. The splendidly defensible position of the capital contributed greatly to its Independence and recuperative power, and thus Susa became a repository ot much valuable spoil secured from the Babylonian cities. This explains how it came about that the Code of Hammurabi, the most important single monument of Oriental antiquity, was found in the ruins of Susa. A change in relations gradually took place after Assyria began to control Babylonia and thus encroach upon Elam, which was thenceforth, as a rule, in league with the patriotic Babylonians, especially with the Chaldseans from the south-land. Interesting and tragic is the story of the combined efforts of the Chaldseans and Elamites to repel the invaders. The last scene of the drama was the capture

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