teaches man's dependence upon circumstances. The third demonstrates the insufficiency of riches and the common liability to adversity and death. The fourth leads on to the triumph of faith.

Many other schemes have been devised, but the best of them amount to much the same thing, and resolve the book into a gradual progress from despondency, and the feeling that man and his efforts are vain, to the confidence and satisfaction of faith and obedience towards God; to the removal of doubts, and the solution of difficulties; and to peace in the knowledge of truth, and submission, or obedience.

It is a much disputed question whether Solomon was the actual writer of this book. The prevalent opinion is that he was; and in support of this view, appeal is made to the identification of coheleth with him as the speaker, and to the resemblance between portions of the book and portions of the Proverbs. It is regarded as the production of Solomon's later years, and the fruit and proof of his repentance.

Those who deny the authorship of Solomon, regard it as more modern. They say that Solomon is not called its author, and that there are indications in the opinions and in the style of the Hebrew original fatal to the popular view. Thus in chap. i. 12, it is said, "I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem." The first verse is a title "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem "-and therefore furnishes no proof. The name of Solomon nowhere occurs in the book. The word Jehovah, or Lord, so common in the Proverbs, is not found in this book. There are words, and forms of words in the original, which were not introduced into Jewish use until after Solomon's time. Allusions to circumstances quite incompatible with the reign of Solomon are frequent. It is admitted, however, that the speaker sometimes uses language that points to Solomon, and suggests that it was intended he should be understood. At the same time, all confess that the chief support of the claim for Solomon is tradition. The speaker everywhere uses a fictitious designation; for coheleth is not a proper name. It is, therefore, within the lawful province of criticism to inquire whether Solomon is ineant by this term. Without committing ourselves to all the arguments just enumerated, we may remark that a careful examination of the book has shown that there are very serious objections to the usual opinion; and, considering that it would lose none of its dignity by being proved anonymous, we are not so anxious upon this point as some have been. A great difficulty arises from the fact, that if Solomon wrote it after his repentance, he writes less as a penitent than as a religious philosopher; less from a broken heart than an enlightened mind.

Mr. Plumptre, Mr. Ayre, Dr. Keil, Dr. Hengstenberg, and many other orthodox critics, more or less incline to the belief that Solomon was not the author of Ecclesiastes. The Solomonic authorship is defended by the Rev. C. Bridges and a few other recent writers. We do not pronounce dogmatically upon the subject; but, as the result of some careful inquiry, we must state our belief that the Book of Ecclesiastes is of uncertain authorship and date, but that its canonical claims are equal to those of any other portion of the Old Testament. It is a book of great value and importance, and it has always been accepted as canonical, both by Jews and Christians-the exceptions being certainly very few, and unimportant. We cannot discuss individual passages, and we must not enlarge further upon the vexed question of authorship.

As it regards the date, we may notice that those who object to Solomon's authorship fix upon all dates from Manasseh, who reigned from B.C. 698 to B.C. 644, to about B.C. 200. The last of these dates must be regarded as altogether imaginary and indefensible; and we are inclined to believe that, whoever was its author, it was written not much later than the age of Solomon. The fullest account of this book, in our language, is contained in Dr. Ginsburg's "Coheleth; or the Book of Ecclesiastes," which contains a great variety of erudition; and, although the author's views are not always to be approved, is a very able work. It contains a very full list of authors who have written upon Ecclesiastes. Since Dr. Ginsburg wrote, the subject has been discussed by Bleek, Stähelin, and Davidson, in their introductions to the Old Testament.

ED, a witness; the name given to the altar which was built near the Jordan by the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh [Josh. xxii. 34], and which caused great dissatisfaction to the remainder of the children of Israel [ver. 12], until the purpose of it was shown to be "for a witness," and not for "sacrifice" [vs. 28, 29]. The word "Ed" is found in this passage only in some manuscripts and versions.

E'DAR, a flock. The "tower of Edar," which was probably a watch tower, is mentioned as the first place at which Jacob stopped on his journey from Bethlehem to Hebron [Gen. xxxv. 21]. The expression occurs again in Micah iv. 8, in the margin, but it is translated in the text "tower of the flock," and is applied metaphorically to Jerusalem or the Temple. It was near Bethlehem, and, according to Jerome, one thousand paces from it.

E'DEN, ('eden); Tapáčewos (paradisos). 1. The Hebrew word occurs as a common noun, though only in the plural number, in three passages-2 Sam. i. 24 ("delights"), Ps. xxxvi. 8 ("pleasures"), and Jer. li. 34 (" delicates"). It plainly signifies pleasantness, delightfulness; and with this meaning it was, no doubt, used as the proper name of a particular country, characterised by singular pleasantness. In this country, one particular spot was selected to be the habitation of our first parents. So we read in Gen. ii. 8, The Lord God planted a garden in Eden eastward," i.e., in the eastern part of Eden. This garden is described, in ver. 9, as abounding with every kind of tree pleasant to the sight, and good for food, and as containing the mysterious trees of life, and of the knowledge of good and evil. This description presents to our minds the conception of a park, rather than of what we most commonly mean by a garden. And with this conception agree the various passages in which "Eden," and "the garden of the Lord," or "of God," are spoken of. [Comp. Gen. xiii. 10; Isa. li. 3; Ezek. xxviii. 13; xxxi. 8, 9, 16, 18; Joel ii. 3.]

We may conjecture from Gen. iv. 16, that our first parents, after they were expelled from the gurden of Eden, still dwelt in the land of Eden; for when it is there stated that "Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, eastward of Eden," or "before Eden," the last words "eastward of," or "before Eden," are apparently intended not so much to describe the local position of Nod, as to indicate that Cain was now removed from the land in which he had before lived with his progenitors, and in which he had enjoyed a certain "presence of the Lord."

the view of Calmet and Keil, is the Gihon of the text, Cush being identified with Cossæa, a country, according to ancient geographers, near Media and the Caspian. Gesenius adopts the ancient view given by Josephus ["Antiq.," i. 1, 3], and supported by the unanimous consent of the Christian fathers, that the Nile is meant. These authorities would, of course, be swayed to this opinion by the Septuagint, who in Jer. ii. 18, for Sihor (that is, the Nile) put Geon; and the Son of Sirach, belonging to the Alexandrian school, in the Apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus [xxiv. 27], seems to make a similar use of the word. In favour of this opinion, we may observe that Cush was regarded as abounding with precious stones and wealth [Job xxviii. 19; Isa. xliii. 3; xlv. 14]; hence, supposing the Nile to be meant, we may explain the reference to the Ethiopian part of its course in the same way as we have already accounted for the stress laid upon the wealth of Havilah. Yet, if the Nile was meant, why was not the Hebrew word Yor, or the more poetical term Sihor, employed instead of Gihon? The Ethiopians, it is true, give their Nile the name of Geion, as do also the Copts; but the term, as Gesenius observes, may have come to them from the Alexandrine exposition of the text before us. Yet what, again, led to

this last?

Some Biblical scholars regard the single river in Paradise as being the Shat al Arab, the river formed by the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates; this united stream, they tell us, divides again into two rivers, by which it flows into the Persian Gulf. One of these mouths is supposed to be the Pishon, the Phasis or Phasitigris of Curtius (?), and the other the Gihon. But even if this division of the Shat al Arab into two streams could be clearly made out, which does not appear to be the case, these debouchures will not answer the description given of the Pishon and Gihon in the text; and it is a still more fatal objection, that the division of the river which watered Paradise into four heads can be understood only as taking place after the stream had left the garden.

It will be seen that it has hitherto proved impossible to identify the description of these four rivers with any rivers existing either now or within the historical period. It is indeed true that the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Araxes, and the Kur rise in Armenia, at comparatively no great distance from one another. But these rivers are not branches diverging from one common stream; neither can Havilah and Cush be satisfactorily identified with the countries watered by the two last. The Phasis is further off. If we still regard the passage literally in the light of a geographical description which is to be construed strictly, we are driven to conjecture that the surface of the earth has undergone such changes, that the description is no longer applicable to any existing localities.

2. Another Eden, spelt a little differently, 17 ('eden), is mentioned in Ezek. xxvii. 23, with Haran and Canneh, as being among the "merchants" of Tyre. Again, the children of Eden, which were at Thelasar, are specified in the boastful message of Sennacherib [2 Kings xix. 12; Isa. xxxvii. 12], in conjunction with Gozan, and Haran and Rezeph, as having been subjugated by the king of Assyria. There is little doubt among critics that the place of this Eden is to be sought somewhere north-west in Mesopotamia. It is conjectured by some to be the same as Ma'dan, in the province of Diarbekr, but its precise position is unknown.

3. A Levite, son of Joah; one of those who, in the

reign of Hezekiah, assisted in cleansing the house of the Lord [2 Chron. xxix. 12].

4. A priest, or Levite; one of those who, under Kore, had charge of the "freewill offerings," by the appointment of Hezekiah [2 Chron. xxxi. 15]. EDEN, HOUSE OF [Amos i. 5]. [See BETH-EDEN.] E'DER, a flock. 1. One of the southern border cities of the tribe of Judah, towards Edom [Josh. xv. 21]. Its position is not known. 2. One of the sons of Mushi, of the family of Merari, and among those who served the Temple in the time of David [1 Chron. xxiii. 23], and whose duties were appointed by lot [xxiv. 30].

ED'IFY, EDIFICATION, &c. These words, derived from the Latin edificare, "to build," are used in Scripture in the sense of the encouragement to virtue and piety afforded to others by our example, &c. E'DOM, etymologically connected with the word Adam, conveys the idea of red or ruddy. It is used in the Bible to describe a man, a country, and the people of a country. 1. The man Edom is Esau, to whom the name was applied as a memento of his coveting his brother's pottage of red lentiles, and foolishly giving up his birthright in exchange. Esau said to Jacob, "Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom" [Gen. xxv. 30]. The Hebrew text shows the reduplication of the word "red," not retained in our version: "Feed me, I pray thee, with hā-ūdom, hā-ūdom (the red, the red): therefore was his name called Edom." [See ESAU.]

2. Edom, as a country, is also called Idumea, a mode of writing the word adopted by the Greeks, and occasionally found in the English version [Isa. xxxiv. 5, 6; Ezek. xxxv. 15; xxxvi. 5; Mark iii. 8]. It was occupied by Esau and his descendants: "the land of Seir, "the field of Edom" [Gen. xxxii. 3]; "the land of Edom [Gen. xxxvi. 16; Numb. xxxiii. 37]. Mount Seir, or Seir, was previously inhabited by the Horims, who were destroyed by the race of Esau [Deut. ii. 12, 22], after which Edom seems to have been the its occupants. The name is applied to the mountainous more common appellation for the whole territory and country which lies between Moab on the north and the Elanitic Gulf on the south. Its western border is usually considered to have been the Wady Arabah, and its eastern limit, though not very well defined, does not seem to have extended very far in that direction. At a later period, the name was used of a wider range of territory, and included the country of the Amalekites and other portions of the Sinaitic peninsula. The general character of the whole region was wild and rugged, affording limited scope for agriculture, but supplying a certain amount of pasturage. Its old capital was Bozrah, mentioned in Isa. lxii. 1: “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?" Another of its cities was Selah, which afterwards became its capital, and is known best by the Greek translation of its name Petra. This place was captured by Amaziah, who called it Joktheel [2 Kings xiv. 7]. It is impossible to gather anything like a connected history of this country from the Scripture allusions to it, although they are frequent. At first it was under the rule of the princes called "dukes" in our version; then of kings, then of dukes again; and, almost before these disappear, we again find mention of a "king" [Exod. xv. 15; Numb. xx. 14]. The monarchical line was interrupted by occasional foreign domination [1 Kings xxii. 47]. A king of Edom was in alliance with Jehoram and Jehoshaphat [2 Kings iii. 9-27: Amos ii. 1 seems to refer to this period]. The

kings and princes of Edom are mentioned by Ezekiel [xxxii. 29]. In the reign of Solomon, Hadad is named as one of the royal family of Edom who escaped the general massacre by Joab in the time of David. There was evidently frequent hostility between Edom and the kings of Judah and Israel. In course of time the Edomites enlarged their borders, especially across the districts adjoining the northern frontiers of Judah, and even came into contact with Egypt. Such was the position they attained that Idumea was made by some

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["Evidence of Prophecy "]. Isaiah, Amos, Juol, Obadiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Malachi, and others of the sacred writers, utter the most positive declarations of the devastation of the land and the overthrow of its power [Isa. xxxiv.; Jer xlix. 7-18; Ezek. xxv 13; xxxv. 115; Joel iii. 19; Amos i. 11; Obad.; Mal. i. 3,4]. Upon these prophecies and their fulfilment, the author just named says, "The territory of the descendants of Esau affords as miraculous a demonstration of the inspiration of the Scriptures as the fate of the children of

writers to include Judea itself. On the other hand, | the term "Palestine" is sometimes made to include Idumea. The power of Edom, however, itself declined, and its eastern and original provinces fell into the hands of the Arabian tribe of Nabateans, or descendants of Nebaioth. [See NEBAIOTH.] For a time its western parts were held by the Maccabean princes; but, later, they fell under the all-absorbing domination of Rome, and eventually became the desolation which they are at the present day.

Of the state of the arts, sciences, religion, &c., of the old Edomites, we have but scanty memorials. To some extent they engaged in commerce, but their ports of Elath and Ezion-geber were often held by foreigners. They were doubtless fond of war and predatory excursions; and hence would not be distinguished for learning, or skill in the arts. Most of the architectural remains, of which traces are now found in Edom, are probably due to the Nabateans, to the Romans, and to others. They degenerated from their primeval worship of one God into idolatry, the nature of which is not described, although it was, in one instance at least, adopted by a Jewish king [2 Chron. xxv. 14-20], after he had conquered the country.

The prophecies concerning Edom are numerous and remarkable, and they have been fulfilled in a surprising manner. They occur in several of the books of the Bible, and have been illustrated with much industry and skill by Dr. Keith, in a well-known work

Israel." Many centuries passed away after the utterance of the last of these predictions before their fulfilment began to be very apparent. The Gospel was preached in the cities of Edom, and churches were gathered from among its inhabitants; even bishops were appointed within its limits. These and other details of its later history are collected from ancient authorities by Reland. Many modern writers have described the actual state of the country; and especially have given careful descriptions of the present appearance of Petra. The names of these authors and extracts from their works may be seen in Dr. Keith's book, which has been already mentioned, and from which we extract the following passage "The aliens of Judah ever look with wistful eyes to the land of their fathers; but no Edomite is now to be found to dispute the right of any animal to the possession of it, or to banish the owls from the temples and tombs of Edom. But the house of Esau did remain, and existed in great power, till after the commencement of the Christian era, a period far too remote from the date of the prediction [Obad. 18] for their subsequent history to have been foreseen by The Idumeans were soon after mingled with the Nabateans. And in the third century their language was disused, and their very name, as designating any people, had utterly perished; and their country itself, having become an outcast from Syria, among whose kingdoms it had long been numbered, was

man.

united to Arabia Petra. Though the descendants of the twin-born Esau and Jacob have met a diametrically opposite fate, the fact is no less marvellous and undisputed, than the prediction in each case is alike obvious and true. While the posterity of Jacob have been dispersed in every country under heaven,' and are scattered among all nations,' and have ever remained distinct from them all, and while it is also declared that a full end will never be made of them,' the Edomites, though they existed as a nation for more than 1,700 years, have, as a period of nearly equal duration has proved, been cut off for ever; and while Jews are in every land, there is not any remaining, so far as is known, on any spot on earth, of

the house of Esau.

“Idumea, in aid of a neighbouring state, did send forth, on a sudden, an army of 20,000 armed men: it contained many towns and villages long after the Christian era-successive kings and princes reigned in Petra-and magnificent tombs and temples, whose empty chambers and naked walls of wonderful architecture still strike the traveller with amazement, were constructed there at a period unquestionably far remote from the time when it was given to the prophets of Israel to tell that the house of Esau was to be cut off for ever, that there would be no kingdom there, and that wild animals would possess Edom for a heritage. And so despised is Edom, and the memory of its greatness lost, that there is no record of antiquity that can so clearly show us what once it was in the days of its power, as we can now read in the page of prophecy its existing desolation. But in that place where kings kept their court, and where nobles assembled-where manifest proofs of ancient opulence are concentrated-where princely mausoleums and temples, retaining their external grandeur, but bereft of all their splendour, still look as if fresh from the chisel' -even there no man dwells; it is given by lot to birds, and beasts, and reptiles; it is a court for owls,' and scarcely are they ever frayed from their lonely habitation' by the tread of a solitary traveller from a far distant land, among deserted dwellings and desolated ruins." [See SELAH.]

3. Edom, as the name of the people, requires no separate consideration.

E'DOMITES, the people of Edom, or Idumcans. [See EDOM.]

mascus.

ED'REI, probably signifying a plantation; the name of two cities. 1. A chief city of Bashan [Numb. xxi. 33; Deut. i. 4; iii. 1, 10; Josh. xii. 4; xiii. 12, 31]. It was one of the cities in which Og dwelt, and is only mentioned in connection with his history. [See OG.] Eusebius says it was twenty-five Roman miles from Abila, and nine from Bozrah. It fell to the lot of Manasseh. It is believed to be represented by the modern Draa or Edra, on the western frontier of the province of Argob, about forty miles south of DaThe site is rocky and elevated, and difficult Its ruins are described by Mr. Porter ["Hand-book of Syria and Palestine," pp. 532, 533] as nearly three miles in circumference, having a strange, wild look, rising up in black, shattered masses from the midst of a wilderness of black rocks. "A number of the old houses still remain; they are low, massive, and gloomy, and a few of them appear to be half buried beneath heaps of ruins." The site thus fixed upon does not agree with that given by Eusebius, which was at Dera, or Adraha, eighteen or twenty miles more to the south. Several eminent

of access.

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writers do not accept Mr. Porter's view. Thus Van de Velde prefers Dera ["Memoir," p. 308], which accords with the Arabic version, Adra'at. 2. A town in the tribe of Naphtali [Josh. xix. 37], placed between Kedesh and En-Hazor. Probably it was near the Lake Huleh, but its precise position is unknown.

EG'LAH, heifer, is mentioned in 2 Sam. iii. 5, and 1 Chron. iii. 3, as "David's wife," in conjunction with others, and as the mother of Ithream. Nothing more is known of her, though a Jewish conjecture. identifies her with Michal, the daughter of Saul.

unknown.

EGLA'IM, double fountain, is mentioned in Isa. xv. 8, as at the extreme borders of Moab, but its site is It is possibly the same as En-eglaim, "the fountain of Eglaim," in Ezek. xlvii. 10. EG'LON, a strong calf. 1. The name of a king of Moab, who was employed by Divine Providence to scourge the Israelites for their disobedience. We learn from Judg. iii. 12-30, that he collected a large army of Ammonites and Amalekites, and crossing the Jordan, captured "the city of palm trees," that is, Jericho. Here, according to Josephus ["Antiq.," v. 4, 1-3], he built his palace. Chud, a Benjamite, who is represented by Josephus as likewise residing at Jericho, and as enjoying opportunities of frequent intercourse with the conqueror, having occasion to bring a present of homage from the children of Israel, obtained from the king a private audience, and availed himself of the opportunity to plunge a dagger, which he had concealed about his person, into Eglon's belly. Eglon was so fat that the dagger went into his body, haft and all, and could not be taken out again. Upon Eglon's death, the Moabites who were on that side of the Jordan were all put to the sword. 2. A city in the low country of Judah, which was the seat of an Amorite king, called Debir, who united with the kings of four neighbouring cities in offering resistance to Joshua [Josh. x. 3, 12-17, 34, 36]. Its ruins are recognised at the modern Ajlan, about ten miles east of Beit Jibrin, the ancient Eleutheropolis.

E'GYPT, 0787 (Mitzraïm). In the Bible Egypt holds a place second only to that of Palestine. It was the country into which God brought the ancestors of his people by a providential guidance, and from which he led their descendants out by great signs and wonders. It was also the land of that people's childhood, to which, notwithstanding the commands of the Law and the warnings of the prophets, they always fondly looked back.

Egypt stands at the north-eastern angle of Africa, and connects together that country and Asia. To the Asiatics it has always been the key to the riches of the unknown continent; to the Africans, the door of civilisation. Anciently, and always with its inhabitants, Egypt has been limited to the valley and plain watered by the Nile, but the older Pharaohs had mining establishments in the peninsula of Sinai. On the north the Mediterranean, on the west the Great Desert, on the east the desert of the Philistines, and then that of the Red Sea, and on the south the First Cataract, are the distinct natural boundaries of Egypt, which embrace, as we descend from the south, first, a long narrow valley, the course of the Nile; then an everwidening triangular plain, inclosed between the extreme branches of the river. This valley and plain are Upper and Lower Egypt. Besides this, there is a common division into Upper, Lower, and Middle Egypt.