THE DIAMOND POCKET DICTIONARY OF THE HOLY BIBLE: CONTAINING AN HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAI ACCOUNT OF THE PERSONS AND PLACES, AND AN EXPLANATION OF THE VARIOUS TERMS, DOCTRINES, LAWS, PRECEPTS, ORDINANCES, INSTITUTIONS, AND FIGURES, IN THE SACRED ORACLES; SELECTED AND ARRANGED FROM CALMET, BROWN, NEWTON, HURD, &c. BY THE REV. WILLIAM GURNEY, A. M. Rector of St. Clement Danes, Strand, &c. &c. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE; R. GRIFFIN AND CO., GLASGOW; AND J. AND S. A. TEGG, SYDNEY AND HOBART TOWN. PREFACE. No Volumes equally deserve our attentive perusal as the inspired Oracles of God. By these men live, and in them is the life of our soul. They are the inestimable Testament of God our Saviour; the blessed means of all true and spiritual wisdom, holiness, comfort, and eternal felicity. Let us then daily search the scriptures, and understand what we read; for these are they that testify of Christ. Since they are one of the most valuable talents committed to us, and for which we must give an account at the great day of the Lord, let us, with all our getting, get the understanding of them; let us hide them in our hearts, believing what they assert, receiving what they offer, and doing whatsoever they command us. To assist in the perusal of these divine Volumes, is the following work offered to the public. How far it differs from these of the kind, published by Illyricus, or Wilson, in ope, or by Simon in two, or by Ravanell, or Calmet, in three volumes folio: and of the last of which, a kind of abridgment has been lately published at London, will be easily perceived, by a comparison of a small part of any of them herewith; especially on the larger articles of Angels, Antichrist, Apocrypha, Arabia, Church, God, Gospel, Hebrents, &c. The principal significations of emblematic words are here briefly hinted. The gospel signification of types, personal or real, is shortly touched. Whatever, I know of, in history, correspondent to scripture-predictions, relative to persons, nations, churches, or cities, is briefly related; and except where the predictions were exceeding numerous, as in the article Christ, Church, Hebrews, have quoted the prophetic passages, that the readers, by viewing them in their Bibles, and comparing them with the history here exhibited, may perceive the exactness of their accomplishment. Perhaps it may be necessary to observe, (1.) That I have only hanced the significations which words have in the Bible. (2.) That I have omitted many words, which could be rendered no plainer: or that expressed the name of a person or city, of which almost nothing was known; or no more than is plainly hinted in the inspired passage where it is found. (3.) That the mark......at the end of an article, signifies, that there are other persons, or things of the same name, but of which nothing important is known. (4.) That a word, different from that of the article, printed in capitals, often refers the reader to its own article. (5). That the mark in quotations, signifies a marginal reading. (6.) That, by observing what words in the text are most hard to be understood, and ob serving the first three letters of a word, and their order in the alphabet, and seeking for the like word in the same order, one is to expect to have it explained. (7.) Where two or more words, and names of persons or places, are almost alway connected, one will ordinarily find the explication or account, under the word that is first in order in the scripture-text; and where the same person or thing has different names, the explication is to be expected under that which is most common, or which comes first in the order of the alphabet. (8.) Few fancies of the Christian fathers, or of the Jewish or Mahometan writers, are here inserted, as I knew not how they could be of use; nor have I insisted on criticisms of the original words, as these could have been of small use to many of the readers; and the learned can find plenty of them in the latter editions of Leigh's Critica Saera; or in Gussetius' Hebrew Commentaries; Hiller's Onomasticon; Glassius, Whitby, &c. (9.) I have not wilfully kept back the solution of any difficulty; but it is often given, especially in historical articles, without the least critical noise or parade. I have bestowed no small pains in rendering this edition consi. derably more perfect than the former. if God bless it for promoting the knowledge of his word, and the editication of his church, 1 chail esteem my labour richly rewarded. A DICTIONARY OF THE HOLY BIBLE. A. AARON, a Levite, the son of ing for victory to them. id. xvii. 10 Amram, and brother of Mo- 13. At Sinai,he, with his two eld ses and Miriam. He was born in est sons, and seventy of the elders the year of the world 2430, about of Israel, accompanied Moses part a year before Pharaoh ordered of his way up to the mount: and, the male infants of the Hebrews without receiving any hurt, had to be slain. When he was grown very near and distinct views of up he married Ilisheba, the the glorious symbols of the divine daughter of Aminidab, a chief presence, when the Lord talked prince of the tribe of Judah, and with Moses, id. xxiv. 1, 2.9---11. had by her four sons, Nadab and Almost immediately after, he Abihu, Eleazer and Ethanar, and his posterity were divinely Exod. vi. 20, 23. He was an holy chosen, to execute the office of and compassionate man, an ex-priesthood among the Jews, till cellent speaker, and appointed of the coming and death of the proGod to be spokesman for his bro-mised Messiah, id. xxix. Scarce ther Moses to Pharaoh and the was this distinguished honour Hebrews; id. iv. 14-16. Along assigned him, when, to mark with his brother, he intimated his personal insufficiency for re God's gracious purpose of their conimending others to the favour speedy deliverance to his dis-of God, he himself fell into the tressed kinsman: and in the name most grievous crime. The Heof God, demanded of Pharaoh an brews solicted him to make thein immediate allowance for them, gods, to be their directors, instead to go into the wilderness of Ara- of Moses, who still tarried in the bia, to serve the Lord their God. mount, He ordered them to bring Pharaoh ordered Aaron and Mo-him all their pendants and earses to be gone from his presence, rings: these were brought, perhaps and increased the Hebrew servi- more readily than he expected; tude, denying them straw where- having collected them into a bag, with to make their bricks. Aa-[he caused them to be melted down ron and Moses were hereupon into a golden calf, in imitation of upbraided and cursed by their the ox Apis, which the natives, brethren, for asking their dismis- and probably too many of the sion, and so occasioning their Hebrews, had adored in Egypt. aggravated labour and misery, This idol he ordered them to id. v. place on a pedestal, to render it About two months after, while the more conspicuous: he apthe Hebrews, newly delivered pointed a solemn feast to be obfrom Egypt, fought with Amalek served to its honour; and caused in Rephidim, Aaron and Hur at- to proclaim before it, "These be tended Moses to the top of an adja." thy Gods, O Israel, which cent hill, and held up his hands," brought thee out of the land while he continued encouraging" of Egypt." While he was thus the struggling Hebrews, and pray-occupied, Moses descended from B |