LEBAOTH

LEOPARD

as vines. Many of the views in the Lebanon are of most romantic beauty, and the climate of many parts is superb. Wild animals are certainly scarcer than in olden days. In the time of Tiglath-pileser i. the elephant was hunted here, but it has long been extinct. Jackals, gazelles, hysenas, wolves, bears, and panthers (in order of commonness) are found and, inland from Sidon, the coney (Hyrax) abounds.

Politically the Lebanon rejoices in a freer and better government than any other part of Syria, as, since the massacres of 1860, a Christian governor, appointed with the approval of the European Powers, rules on behalf of the Sultan. The district, except in the N., is now extensively supplied with excellent carriage roads, and the range is crossed by the French railway from Beyrout to Damascus, the highest point traversed being 4880 feet above sea-level.

Between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon is the great hollow known to the Greeks as Ccele-Syria, and to-day called Buqa' el-' Aziz. Considered geologically, this wide valley is a product of the same great 'fault' as produced the deep Jordan valley. It is now a great, fertile, but little cultivated, plain, from 3 to 6 miles wide, and in its rise, not far from Baalbek, two famous rivers, the Lilani (Leontes), which flows S., and the Nahr el-' Asi or Orontes, which flows N., and enters the sea near Antioch. This hollow plain, besides being crossed transversely by the Damascus railway and road, is traversed over more than half its length by the new line past Baalbek, Horns, and Hamath to Aleppo Some part of this plain, 'the valley of the Lebanon, would appear to have been conquered by the IsraeUtes (Jos 11").

The Anti-Lebanon is to-day known as Jebd esft-Sherki or 'the east mountain,' the equivalent of 'Lebanon towards the sun-rising' of Jos 13^ In Ca 7* it is referred to as ' the tower of Lebanon that looketh towards Damascus.' In Dt 1' 3^5 11^, Jos 1* 9', the Heb. 'Lebanon' is in the LXX tr. 'Anti-Lebanon.' Anti-Lebanon is somewhat arbitrarily divided from Hermon, which is structurally its S. extremity, by a, pass (along which the French diUgence road runs), and especially by the Wqdy Barada. In the N. it terminates in the plain around Homs. Its highest point is Tola' at MUsa (8755 feet), but several other peaks are almost as lofty. A valley, like the Buqa' in miniature, traverses the S. part of the range from N. to S., and in this rises the Nahr Yaf'Ufeh, which empties its waters down the Wady Yafufeh to join the LUani; and the Nahr Barada, which, after rising in a beautiful pool at the S.W. extremity of this plain, runs down the Wady Barada to Damascus. The N. part of this range is very bare and wild. E. W. G. Masterman.

LEBAOTH.— See Beth-biri.

LEBBaiUS.— See Thadd^us.

LEB-KAMAI.— In Jer 51' is a phrase 'in the midst of them which rise up against me' (Heb. leb-qamai). This is generally recognized as being an example of the KabbaUstic rule of hermeneutics whereby a cipher word was obtained by taking the letters of the alphabet in the reverse order, the last for the first, the last but one for the second, and so on. By this process (known as Atbash), leb-qamai gives us Kasdim (the Chaldseans).

W. F. Cobb.

LEBONAH. — A place near Shiloh on the way to Shechem (Jg 21"). It is prob. the ruin Khan d-Lubban, about 3 miles W.N.W. of SeUan (Shiloh).

LEO AH.— The 'son' of Er (1 Ch 42').

LEEKS. — The Heb. word chatSvr, which is elsewhere tr. 'grass' or 'herb,' is rendered 'leeks' in Nu 11', and in this passage, owing to the association with onions and garUc, the tr. is probably correct, leeks being the herb par excellence. The leek {Allium porrum) is much grown in Palestine, where it is a general favourite.

E. W. G. Mabterman.

LEES. — The sediment which settled at the bottom of the wine-jars, composed of morsels of husks, stalks, etc.; in OT only in figures. See Wine and Sthonq Drink, § 3.

LEG, — 1. kera' ayim, a fem. dual, in which form alone it appears (Ex 12' etc.). It denotes the legs from knee to ankle (Geseniua). 2. regd (1 S 17'), ht. 'foot.' 3. shoq, the leg, apparently including the thigh, for which it stands in Ex 2922- ", Lv 7^- ''■ » S^"- 921 lO'"-, Nu 62» 18", 1 S 92«, in all of which AV tr. 'shoulder,' but RV, correctly, 'thigh.' In Ps 147'" shoqi ha-Uh may mean 'toot-soldiers.' The proverbial phrase 'liip and thigh,' is Hterally 'leg upon thigh' (Jg 15^), descriptive of the confusion of severed limbs. 4. shBbel (Is 47^) means 'train' (RV, correctly, 'strip off the train'). 5. skelos (Jn lO^'^). To hasten the death of the cruci-fied, it was customary to break their legs. W. Ewinq.

LEGION. — This term, which means literally 'a gathering,' looks back to the early days of the Roman citizen army. In the time of the Empire it indicated a force of about 6000 infantry, together with com-plements of other arms. The infantry proper were divided into ten cohorts (the word is tr. ' band ' [wh. seel in Mt 27", Mk 15", Jn 183- «, Ac 10' 213' 27'), each containing about 600 men, and each commanded on occasion by a miUtary tribune. Of these tribunes there were six to a legion. A cohort was itself subdivided into ten centuries, each commanded by a centurion. It is not necessary to remember all these facts in studying the NT use of the word 'legion' (Mt 26", Mk 59- ", Lk 8"). What chiefly impressed Semites was apparently the size of the legion, and 'legion' appears to have become a proverb among them for a large number of persons in orderly combination. A. Souteb.

LEHABm, occurring only in Gn 10" ( = 1 Ch 1"), are descendants of Mizraim, the Egyptian eponym. The general opinion is that they are the same as the Lubim (wh. see), whether the word is an alternative traditional pronunciation of the name of this people, or whether, as is more probable, the form here given is due to textual corruption. The fact that Lubim or Libyans is a fairly common word, and that it is not found in the ethno-logical list of Gn 10, where it would naturally appear in the place of Lehabim, adds something to the evidence of identity. Perhaps Ludim (wh. see) in the same verse is another variant. J. F. M' Curdt.

LEHI Cjawborie'). — The scene of Samson's well- known adventure with the jawbone of an ass (Jg 15'- "■ "). The site has been placed in Judah, between the Cliff of Etam and the country of the Philistines.

LEMUEL. — The name of a king, otherwise unknown, to whom Pr 31'-' is addressed by his mother. His identity has been much discussed; he has been identi-fled (by the Rabbinical commentators) with Solomon, (by Grotius) with Hezekiah. Cf. alsoMassa. It is pos-sible that the name is a fanciful title to represent any virtuous king, invented for the purpose of conveying certain maxims. T. A. Moxon.

LENDING.— See Debt.

LENTILS Cadashlm, Gn 25«, 2 S 17" 23", Ezk 4»).— These are without doubt the Arab, 'adas — a kind of small reddish bean, the product of Ervum lens, a small leguminous plant 6 or 8 inches high, much cultivated in Palestine, and ripening in June or July. It is the bean from which the well-known revalenta, a food tor invalids, is made. In Palestine a kind of 'pottage' known as mujedderah, universally popular, is made from it. It is of a reddish-brown colour, and is certainly the original ' red pottage' of Esau (Gn 25'»). E. W. G. Masterman.

LEOPARD (na??ier).— Thisanimal (Fdispardus, Arab. nimr) is still found at times in the wilder parts of Pales- tine. Its beautiful spotted skin (Jer 5^) is from time to time brought into the towns for sale. Some dervishes clothe

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