3. Beeroth-bene-Jaakan, the wells of the sons of Jaakan,' in the Desert; Deut. x. 6. In Numb. xxxiii. 31, "Bene-Jaakan" only.

4. Beeroth, "Wells,' one of the cities of the Gibeonites. Josh. ix. 17; Ezra ii. 25, &c.

5. Beer, the well dug by the children of Israel close to the border of Moab (Num. xxi. 16), and therefore probably the same as

6. Beer-elim, 'Well of heroes;' Isai. xv. 8.

7. Beer; Judges ix. 21.

8. Baalath-beer, the sanctuary of the well;' Josh. xix. 8.

9. Berothah; Ezekiel xlvii. 16; and

10. Berothai, 2 Sam. viii. 8, both apparently the same place; which has been conjectured to be the city Berytus. See Gesenius, p. 176.

Three wells digged by Isaac's herdsmen, and called Esek (strife), Sitnah (hatred), and Rechoboth (room), are named in Gen. xxvi. 20, 21, 22; and a memorable well in the court of a house at Bahurim is mentioned in 2 Sam. xvii. 18 (LXX, λáккos).

In our version Beer is throughout rendered "well," with four exceptions. These are Gen. xiv. 10; Ps. lv. 23; lxix. 15; and Prov. xxiii. 27, where it is translated 'pit.' In the LXX it is generally ppéap. Vulg. Puteus.

§ 57.

AGAM, D, 'pond,' of stagnant water: from DN, to be warm like boiling water: specially of the pools left by the inundations of the Nile. Exod. vii. 19; viii. 5. LXX, dıúpvyas. Such pools were reedy, and thus in Jer. li. 32, the word is put for "reeds." Ps. cvii. 35, and cxiv. 8, "standing water."

§ 58.

MIK VEH, ?, or (once) Mikvah,, 'reservoir'; a place where waters flow together from, to be collected. This word occurs as follows in relation to water :

B'RECAH,, 'pool' or artificial tank; (derivation uncertain); hence the Arabic Birket, and the Spanish Al-berca. The pools still remaining at Hebron are actual examples of the meaning of the word. In the

English Version it is uniformly rendered "pool." Such tanks existed

The LXX have translated the word oftenest by коλνμẞhера; but also by κρήνη, and once by λίμνη.

$ 60.

C'ROTH,, cisterns,' or dug wells, for sheep; from, to dig: only used once, Zeph. ii. 6, and there translated "cottages." From the same root is derived

§ 61.

MIC'REH,, which likewise occurs but once, in Zeph. ii. 9, where it is rendered (salt) "pit."

§ 62.

MASH'ABIM, : from , to draw water: used only in Judg. v. 11, probably for the troughs into which the water for the cattle was poured (the verb is used with this special signification in Gen. xxiv. 19, 20, 44, 45, &c.). LXX, vdpevóμeva; De Wette, schöpfrinnen; E. V. "the places of drawing water."

§ 63.

BÔR, N, and 792, 'a cistern' or 'pit:' from the same root as Beer, and with nearly the same signification. Bôr, however, is often used for a pit not containing water, a sense in which Beer is only once found (possibly 2 Sam. xvii. 18).

Such was the "pit" into which Joseph was cast, Gen. xxxvii. 20: Pits without water are also named in 1 Sam. xiii. 6; 1 Sam. xxiii. 20; 1 Chron. xi. 22; and the house of the pit' occurs with the meaning of dungeon in Gen. xl. 15; xli. 14; Exod. xii. 29; and in Jer. xxxvii. 16

and xxxviii. In Zech. ix. 11, "the pit "dungeon. (Compare puteus, which also has this double meaning.)

Bor is however used for a receptacle for water-whether springing or collected is not indicated-though the "broken cisterns" of Jer. ii. 13, and the "stones of the pit," in Isaiah xiv. 19, go to show that such cisterns were sometimes built, and not always digged," as in Deut. vi. 11; 2 Chron. xxvi. 10; Exod. xxi. 33.

The name is borne by

1. “The’great well in Sechu,” 1 Sam. xix. 22; Tou ppéatos. TÔI CÁC THI ἐν τῷ Σεφί.

2.

"The well of 'Ha '-Sirah," 2 Sam. iii. 26; pрéap тoû Zeeιpáμ.

3. "The well of Bethlehem," 2 Sam. xxiii. 15, and 1 Chron. xi. 17.

4. "The pit" at Mizpah, Jer. xli. 7, 9, (comp. 2 Kings xxv. 25).

The word is extensively used in the poetical parts of the Scripture; as Ps. vii. 15; Isaiah, xiv. 15; Ezek. xxvi. 20, &c. In Jer. vi. 7, it is translated "fountain."

The word Hepher (Chepher) from, Chaphar, to dig, Gen. xxi. 30, appears as the proper name of a place in Josh. xii. 17. It is also found in Gath-Hepher, 2 Kings xiv. 25 (rendered Gittah-Hepher, Josh. xix. 13); "the land of Hepher," 1 Kings, iv. 10; and Haphraim, 'two pits,' a city of Issachar, Josh. xix. 19. As a simple appellative the word does not occur.

Other words of this class, but not employed with topographical exactness, are—

§ 64.

PACHATH,, a 'hollow'; used in 2 Sam. xvii. 9, and xviii. 17; and also figuratively in Isaiah, xxiv. 17, 18; Jer. xlviii. 43, 44. In these passages it is rendered "pit;" in Jer. xlviii. 28, “hole"; and in Lam. iii. 47, “snare," which indeed seems to be the idea at the root of the word.

§ 65.

GEB, 2, or N, a' ditch' or 'trench.' 2 Kings, iii. 16; Isaiah, xxx. 14; Jer. xiv. 3; Ezek. xlvii. 11, (“marshes "). A place of this name, Gebim, near Jerusalem, is mentioned in Isaiah, x. 31. From the same root is derived Gob, the scene of two encounters with the Philistines; mentioned in 2 Sam. xxi. 18, 19.

§ 66.

SHUCHAH or SHACHATH,

or , a pitfall'; i.e. a trap: used frequently, but only in the poetical books, and figuratively; e.g. Psalm ix. 15; Prov. xxvi. 27; Jer. ii. 6; xviii. 20. It is variously rendered pit, ditch, destruction, corruption, and grave.

§ 67.

GOOMMATZ, Y, a sunk pit'; from y, to dig: a Chaldaic word of late introduction, and only used once, viz., in Eccl. x. 8. LXX, Bółpov.

DOTHAN, 1 or 7, Gen. xxxvii. 17, and 2 Kings vi. 13, is treated by Gesenius and the other lexicographers as meaning "two wells," from an ancient root, Doth a well or cistern. In the Book of Judith the name appears as Dothaim; iv. 6; vii. 3, 18; viii. 3. It is now Dotan; for its situation, see Chapter V., p. 245.

V. CAVES, &c.

§ 68.

M'ARAH, 77, a 'cave'; from , to excavate. Arabic, Meghara.
The Caves of Palestine are,

1. The cave of Adullam, in which David lived with his followers; 1 Sam.
xxii. 1; 2 Sam. xxiii. 13.

2. The cave of Makkedah, in which the five kings of the Amorites took refuge from Joshua; Josh. x. 16, &c.

3. The cave in the wilderness of Engedi, in the 'thighs' of which David and his men remained undiscovered by Saul; 1 Sam. xxiv. 3.

4. The cave in which Obadiah hid fifty prophets of Jehovah from the vengeance of Jezebel; 1 Kings xviii. 4.

Besides the above, are the cave over Zoar, Gen. xix. 30; of Machpelah, Gen. xxiii. xxv. xlix.; "the' cave" in Horeb'-the scene of the vision of Elijah-1 Kings xix. 9; and a cave in the north of Palestine, near Sidon, literally rendered "Mearah," Josh. xiii. 4.

The word is rendered "holes" in Isai. ii. 19; and "den" in Isai. xxxii. 14, and Jer. vii. 11.

CHOR, in, or

§ 69.

and CHUR, , a hole': from, to bore (see 2 Kings xii. 9). Hence, a hole in the rock or earth, as in 1 Sam. xiv. 11, and Job xxx. 6, ("caves"),-a passage containing a remarkable description of the wretched fate of an early people who must have been

See p. 47 note.

2 See Ewald's Geschichte, 2nd. Edit. i. 304.

similar to the Chorim (Horim, Hori, Horites, of the Authorised Version -the Troglodytes, or dwellers in holes and caverns; LXX, Xoppaîoı)— who appear from Gen. xxxvi. 20 to have been the original inhabitants of Palestine, living in the cavities of the sandstone rocks of Petra until "the children of Esau destroyed them before them, and dwelt in their stead," to be in their turn dispossessed by Israel; Deut. ii. 12.

The district of Chauran (Hauran, Auran, Avpavītis) Ezek. xlvii. 16, north-east of Hermon, derived its name from similar caves, many of which are found to the present day in use as habitations. (See Burckhardt, Syria, i. 110.)

The word is found in the following names of places :—

Beth-horon, the house of holes,' Josh. x. 10, xvi. 3, 5, &c.

Horonaim, 'two holes,' Isai. xv. 5; Jer. xlviii. 3, 34; whence Horonite,
Neh. ii. 10, &c.

Hor-ha-gidgad, 'the hole of thunder,' one of the Stations of the Wanderings
in the Desert, Num, xxxiii. 32.1

$70.

M'CHILLOTH, лn, fissures' or caverns: from ", to dig open. Only used once, Isai. ii. 19, and there in contrast with Mearah; "go into the 'caves' of the rocks, and into the 'fissures' of the earth."

§ 71.

MIN'HAROTH,, only occurs once, viz., in Judges vi. 2, to describe the hiding-places, or burrows,' in which the Israelites took refuge from Midian,—at least such is the meaning given to it in the Targum. LXX, тpvμaríai.

For the remainder of the words for caves or clefts, see Tzur § 28, Sela § 29.

VI. FORESTS AND TREES.

§ 72.

CHORESH,, 'a wood; ' indeed a thick growth of vegetation, whether in a single tree or in a copse. Thus in Ezek. xxxi. 3, it is used for the thick foliage the "shadowing shroud" of the cedar. Elsewhere the word is employed for a wood, though apparently never like Jaar (§ 73) for a tract of any extent.

1 Rendered in LXX and Vulgate, rò opos radyád, in montem Gadgad; by confusion of Chor with Hor, § 23.

L L