he, "my guide had nothing to oppose; the dread of drawing upon himself, by resistance, the wrath of Haroun, completely silenced him. The sun had already set when we arrived on the plain (called Szetouh Haroun, or Aaron's terrace), at the foot of the mount on which his tomb is situated. It was too late to reach the tomb, and I was excessively fatigued; I hastened, therefore, to kill the goat in sight of the tomb, at a spot where I found a number of heaps of stones, placed there in token of so many sacrifices in honour of the saint. While I was in the act of slaying the animal, my guide exclaimed aloud, 'O, Haroun, look on us! it is for you we slaughter this victim. O, Haroun, protect us and forgive us! O, Haroun, be content with our good intentions, for it is but a lean goat! O, Haroun, smooth our paths, and praise be to the Lord of all creatures!' This he repeated several times, after which he covered the blood that had fallen upon the ground with a heap of stones; we then dressed the best part of the flesh for our supper as expeditiously as possible, for the guard was afraid of the fire being seen, and of its attracting hither some robbers." (Travels in Syria and the Holy Land.) Burckhardt did not ascend to the tomb at the summit of Mount Hor, but it was afterwards visited by Mr. Legh, in company with Captains Irby and Mangles, who gives the following account of his visit.

"The ascent was rugged and difficult in the extreme, and it occupied us one hour and a half to climb up the almost perpendicular sides. A crippled Arab hermit, about eighty years of age, the one half of which he had |

spent on the top of the mountain, living on the donations of the few Mahommedan pilgrims who resort thither, and the charity of the native shepherds, who supply him with water and milk, conducted us into the small white building, crowned by a cupola, that contains the tomb of Aaron. The monument is of stone, about three feet high; and the venerable Arab, having lighted a lamp, led us down some steps into a chamber below, hewn out of the rock, but containing nothing extraordinary. Against the walls of the upper apartment, where stood the tomb, were suspended beads, bits of cloth, and leather, votive offerings left by the devotees. side, let into the wall, we were shown a dark-looking stone, that was reputed to possess considerable virtues in the cure of diseases, and to have formerly served as a seat to the prophet." Legh's Journey into Syria, in Dr. M'Michael's Journey from Moscow to Constantinople.

The annexed plate, copied from Laborde's Voyage en Arabie Pétrée, represents the summit of Mount Hor, apparently taken from the plain mentioned by Burckhardt. The tomb of Aaron is hewn in the rock beneath the small building, which is shown to travellers as his burial-place, and which is distinguishable in this view of the mountain. There seems to be no doubt of its identity. Josephus, Eusebius, and Jerome, all speak of Mount Hor, near Petra, as the place of Aaron's sepulture, and the spot has always been held in reverence on that account by the natives of the country. See Josephus, Ant. IV., 47; Euseb. Onomast., Art. "2p, and Jerome's Version.

AARONITES.-These were the priests of the family of Aaron, whose duty it was to take charge of the sanctuary. The other families of the tribe of Levi were appointed to the care of the tabernacle, and other subordinate offices. In the time of David, the Aaronites were a numerous body; for when Jehoiada, their chief, went over to join David in Hebron, on the death of Saul, he took with him 3700 men, commanded by Zadok, and 22 captains of his father's house. (1Chron. 12. 27; Numb. 4. 5.)

AB, N is the Hebrew word for father, and enters very frequently into the composition of proper names, as Absalom, Abijah, &c.

AB is the name of one of the Hebrew months; it is the fifth month of the sacred year, and the eleventh

of the civil year; and, according to Michaëlis and Jahn, (Bibl. Arch. sec. 103,) is reckoned from the new moon. of July. (See CALENDAR and MONTH.) The Jews observe the first of this month in memory of Aaron's death; and the ninth they keep as a fast, as the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar. Josephus informs us, that the second Temple was destroyed by Titus on the very same day.

ABADDON. This is the Hebrew name of the angel of the bottomless pit, mentioned in the Book of Revelation, (9.11,) as the king of the destructive locusts which arose out of the abyss, upon the sounding of the fifth trumpet. APOLLYON is the Greek name of this angel of darkness. Both the Hebrew and the Greek names have the same meaning, namely, the destroyer.

ABAGARUS

ABEL.

7

ABAGARUS. See ABGAR.

Palestine. This local worship seems to be distinctly.

It

ABANA; the name of a river of Damascus. occurs only once in the Bible, (2Kings 5. 12,) where Naaman, the captain of the host of the king of Assyria, having been ordered by the prophet Elisha to wash himself in the Jordan, to be cured of his leprosy, exclaimed, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?" The Hebrew marginal reading of this name is AMANA, which is also the name of one of the summits of Lebanon, or rather of Anti-Libanus, noticed in Solomon's Song, (4. 8.) For this reason, Gesenius considers the modern Barrady to be the Amana, or Abana; for this river, which was the Chrysorrhoas of the Greeks, rises in Anti-Libanus, and flows through Damascus. This supposition is confirmed by the discovery of the ruins of Abila on the banks of the Barrady: for the medals of that city have on them the name of the Chrysorrhoas. (See ABILENE.) The Pharpar is considered to be the modern Fijih, or Fege, a very remarkable river, which is described by Dr. Richardson as issuing from a limestone rock in a deep rapid stream of about thirty feet wide, pure, and cold as iced water. It rises near a village of the same name, in a pleasant valley, about fifteen or twenty miles N.W. of Damascus, and falls into the Barrady, after a course of only about a hundred yards.

ABARIM, or AVARIM, Day This is the general name of a ridge of mountains on the east of the Jordan. (Numb. 27. 12; 33. 47; Deut. 32. 49.) The name is also found in the Hebrew text of Jer. 22. 20, where the words "cry from the passages," should be rendered "cry from Abarim." Among these mountains the most celebrated are Mount Nebo, Mount Peor, and Mount Pisgah. Eusebius and Jerome place Nebo near the Jordan, opposite to Jericho, six or seven miles west of Heshbon, and seven east of Livias. They also mention that, near Heshbon, one part of the ridge still retained its old name of Abarim. Dr. Shaw describes them as "an exceedingly high ridge of desolate mountains, no otherwise diversified than by a succession of naked rocks and precipices, rendered, in some places, the more frightful by a multiplicity of torrents, which fall on each side of them. This ridge is continued all along the eastern coast of the Dead Sea." (Travels, p. 277.) Ije-Abarim, (heaps or heights of Abarim,) where the Israelites encamped in the desert of Moab, seems to have been an eastern branch of this ridge. (See Numb. 21. 11.)

destroy the molten images, and quite pluck down their high places." Beth-abara, beyond Jordan, may have been the place where a temple, or high-place, stood.

ABBA, is a Chaldee word, which signifies father. It seems to have been used as a term of endearment by children, in speaking to their father, and was retained even after the Jews adopted the Greek language. When, therefore, St. Paul said, "Ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father," he seems to have meant, that they had been enabled to address their Heavenly Father as his adopted and affectionate children in Christ. (Rom. 8. 15.) The word is used by our Lord in Mark 14. 36, as the beginning of a prayer. Winer supposes that the Chaldee word was so much used, because the Jewish prayers commonly began with Abba, and that the Greek was added for the sake of those who did not understand the Chaldee. Abba is also found in Gal. 4. 6. Abba is the title given to the bishops of the Oriental churches, and from it was derived the English title of abbot, given to the superior of an abbey.

ABDA, Servant, one of the Levites who assisted in the service of God in the second Temple, after the return from the Babylonish captivity. (Nehem. 11. 17.) Another person of this name is mentioned. (1 Kings 4. 6.)

I. ABDON, the name of the tenth Judge of Israel, who lived about 1160 B.C. He was the son of Hillel, the Pirathonite. Having succeeded Elon, he judged. Israel eight years. Nothing remarkable is related of Abdon, except that he had forty sons and thirty grandsons, or nephews, who rode upon seventy asses' colts. (Judges 12. 13,15.)

II. ABDON, the son of Micah, was one of the persons sent by King Josiah to Huldah, the prophetess, upon the discovery of a copy of the book of the Law, to inquire of the Lord what was to be done by him and his people, to avoid the punishments which were written against them. In the Second Book of Kings, 22. 12, he seems to be the person called Achbor, the son of Michaiah.

III. ABDON, one of the four cities within the limits of the tribe of Asher, which were given to the Levites of the family of Gershom for their residence, together with the suburbs, or surrounding country, for their cattle. (Joshua 21. 30.)

ABEDNEGO, the Babylonian name given by Nebuchadnezzar's chief eunuch to Azariah, one of the three captive princes, who were companions of Daniel at the court of Babylon. He was one of the three Jewish captives who were miraculously preserved, when thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to worship the golden image, set up by Nebuchadnezzar in the plain of Dura. (Daniel 3. 12.) Azariah has been supposed to be the same person as Ezra; but that could not be the case, Ezra being not of the blood-royal of Judah, but a priest of the tribe of Levi. (Ezra 7. 5.) His Babylonian name seems to have been altered from Abed-nebo,(which signifies Abode of Nebo,) into Abednego, either by an error of the transcribers, or because the historian did not

like to affix the name of an idol to that of so holy a

person.

and, consequently, was an inheritor of their nature after it had been corrupted by sin. He is, however, the first recorded example, after the fall, of man's acceptance and favour with God. And he became so eminent for his piety, that he is honoured by Christ himself with the title of "Righteous Abel." He is also remarkable, as the first of the human race who paid the penalty of death. His very name appears to be prophetical of his early fate; for it is supposed, by the best authorities, to mean "short continuance," and he early fell a victim to the envy of his brother Cain. The sacred narrative tells us, that, "in process of time," or, as it is in the margin of the English Bible, at the "end of days," (meaning, probably, at the end of the week, on the Sabbath,) they both came to make their offerings to the Lord. Cain, as a tiller of the ground, brought an offering of its fruits; but neither the offering nor the worshipper found favour with God. Abel, as a keeper of sheep, had brought the firstlings of his flock; "and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering." This excited the envy and wrath of Cain, "who was of that wicked one," by whom his parents had been first led into sin; and he slew his brother as they were talking together in the field.

The Samaritan version says expressly, that Cain invited his brother to go with him into the field, and the Septuagint agrees with it; but there is no such clause in the Hebrew.

Jewish tradition places the scene of Abel's murder in the neighbourhood of Damascus; and a tomb is still shown, between Damascus and Baalbec, in which they pretend that he was buried. The name of the ancient city of Abel, which was in this neighbourhood, may have given rise to the tradition.

Whether Abel's offering was more acceptable, on account of its being more agreeable to any particular Divine command, is a point not decided in Scripture. Many commentators are of opinion, that it was more acceptable on account of its reference to the "Lamb of God," slain from the foundation of the world. At all events, there was a great difference between the worshippers; and the ground of this difference is explained by St. Paul, (Heb. 11. 4,) who tells us that, "by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts;" and our Lord has placed him at the head of those who have suffered for righteousness' sake. (Matt. 23. 35.) With regard to the manner in which the Divine acceptance of Abel's sacrifice was manifested, neither the words of the narrative in Genesis, nor the allusions in the New Testament, give us any certain information; but we may infer, from the circumstance of its having been perceived by Cain, that it was a visible manifestation. The most ancient commentators are of opinion, that it was manifested by fire from heaven consuming the sacrifice, as on many occasions in after-times.

Archbishop Magee, in his learned treatise on atonement, supposes that the superiority of Abel's faith consisted not merely in the greater degree of its strength, but in its being directed to the promise of the Great Redeemer, which God had made to his parents immediately after the fall; the animal sacrifice which he offered being typical of the method by which the Deliverer was to effect the redemption of mankind.

called a mother city (Metropolis, in the Septuagint,) in the reign of David. It was besieged by Joab, the general of that monarch, on account of its having sheltered Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite, who had rebelled against the king, but was saved from an assault by the prudence of a "wise woman" of the place, who persuaded the men to put the traitor to death, and to throw his head over the wall: upon which the siege was immediately raised. (2Sam. 20. 14-22.) It seems to have been also called Abel-Maim. (2Chron. 16. 4.) And Gesenius suggests that Belmen, mentioned in Judith 4. 4, is a corruption of the latter name. Josephus (Antiq. vii. 11,) calls it Abel-Machea.

There has been great difference of opinion respecting the situation of Abel-Beth-Maachah. Calmet considers it to be the same as Abila of Lysanias, and Gesenius has adopted the same opinion. But it was evidently within the land of Naphtali; and Reland is clearly right in denying that the territory possessed by the tribes could ever have included a place situated to the northwest of Damascus. In 1Kings 15. 20, it is mentioned after Ijon and Dan, among the cities of Naphtali, which were taken by Benhadad, on his way from Damascus, when he invaded Israel. Now the city of Dan is stated by Eusebius to have been four miles from Paneas, near the sources of the lesser Jordan. It might, therefore, be reasonably supposed that Abel was not far from that neighbourhood. And accordingly we find from Eusebius that there was a city, which he calls Abila of Phoenicia, situated between Damascus and Paneas. Eusebius does not identify it with Abel-Beth-Maachah, but there is little doubt remaining of their identity; and as the site of Paneas is well known, that of Abel may hereafter be determined.

II. ABEL-CARMAIM, or Abel of the Vineyards; called in the English Bible the plain of the vineyards, though the word would seem rather to mean the rock or hill. (Judges 11. 33.) It was originally a village of the Ammonites, but afterwards became an important city. Eusebius (Onomast. in voc.) mentions two places of this name, both of them celebrated for their vineyards, one of which was six Roman miles from Philadelphia, or Rabbath Ammon. The other was Abila of the Decapolis, situated twelve miles east of Gadara. This is mentioned by Pliny as one of the cities of the Decapolis, and Josephus speaks of it as having been given to Agrippa by Nero, but it does not seem to be noticed in Scripture. Its ruins are still extant, and there is a curious inscription relating to it in Lord Besborough's collection, in Greek and Palmyrene. Quart. Review, xxvi.

There is a medal extant of Abila, with a bunch of grapes on the reverse; a copy of which is annexed.

It bears the inscription Abil. Leuc., and is referred by the last Editor of Calmet to Abila of Lysanias; but Vaillant has shown that the date will not allow of such an appropriation. The grapes seem to refer us to Abel of the vineyards, but we have no doubt that it belongs to Abila of the Decapolis. Burckhardt discovered the ruins of Rabbath Ammon about fifteen miles S. E. of the modern town of Szalt, and by this the situation of Abel-Carmaim may be pretty nearly ascertained.

III. ABEL-MEHOLAH, (Place of Dancing,) was the birth-place of the Prophet Elisha. (1 Kings 19. 16.)

According to Eusebius, it was situated about sixteen miles to the south of Scythopolis, or Bethshan. (See 1Kings 4. 12; Judges 7. 22.)

IV. ABEL-MIZRAIM, (the Mourning of the Egyptians,) a place so called by the Canaanites because there Joseph and his brethren, and the Egyptians, "mourned with a great and very sore lamentation" over the patriarch Jacob, when they brought him out of Egypt to bury him in the field of Machpelah, in the sepulchre of his fathers. (Gen. 50. 11.) The name of this place, before this event, was the "threshing-floor of Atad," which, according to Gesenius, means a thorn, (Rhamnus paliurus, Linn.) Jerome says it was situated between Jericho and the Jordan, two miles from the city and three from the river, on the spot where Bethagia afterwards stood. (Onomast. in voc. Area Atd.)

V. ABEL-SHITTIM, (the Place of Acacias,) a place in the plains of Moab, where the Israelites encamped before they entered the promised land. (Numb. 33. 49.) It was here (says Josephus, Antiq. iv. 8, 1,) that Moses gathered the congregation together near Jordan, where the city Abila now stands; " which place is full of palm-trees." And he mentions (Antiq. v. 1) that it was sixty stadia from the Jordan. This is the place where the Israelites were seduced by the Moabitish women into the idolatrous worship of Baal-Peor, and into fornication. They were punished for these offences by the execution of the principal offenders, and by a plague which destroyed 24,000. (Numb. 25. 1-9.) In this passage, and in Micah 6. 5, this place is called Shittim only.

ABGAR, or ABGARUS, was the name of many of the kings of Edessa, in Syria. There are none of them mentioned in the Bible; but one of them, the seventeenth of that name, is celebrated in ecclesiastical history, on account of a very ancient legendary story, which brings him into connexion with the personal history of Christ. The tradition says, that Abgar wrote a letter to our Saviour, requesting him to come and heal him of the leprosy. This, however, he declined to do, but sent Thaddeus instead. The letters are evidently apocryphal, though they have been considered genuine by Cave and a few other writers. They are curious as specimens of very early forgeries, but are of no historical value. They will be found in the Codex Apocr. Novi Test. of Fabricius, and in the folio edition of Calmet.

ABI, or ABIJAH, was the mother of Hezekiah. (2 Kings 18. 2.)

ABIA, in the New Testament, is the Greek form of the name Abijah in the Old Testament.

ABI-ALBON, the Arbathite, was one of the thirty distinguished men in David's army. (2Sam. 23. 31.)

ABIAH, the second son of the Prophet Samuel, by whom he was appointed one of the judges over Israel. But he and his brother Joel were so corrupt and partial in their judgments, that they excited great discontent among the people ; and, in the end, the elders demanded to be governed by a king. (1 Sam. 8. 2-5.)

ABIATHAR, the son of Abimelech, or Ahimelech, was the tenth high-priest of Israel, and lived in the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon. His father, and the rest of his family, were put to death by Doeg the Edomite, at the command of Saul, on account of

-ABIDAN.

their having favoured David in his flight. Abiathar, having escaped from the slaughter, fled to David, who protected him, and seems to have appointed him highpriest in the room of his father. (1Sam. 22. 9-23.) But Saul appears at the same time to have raised Zadok to that office. Thus, there were two high-priests at the same time; and they appear to have been both continued in that office by David, after the death of Saul, for they are both mentioned as having the charge of the ark during the rebellion of Absalom. (2Sam. 15. 29.) On the accession of Solomon, Abiathar joined the party of Adonijah, and was on that account deprived of his office. Solomon spared his life, on account of his services and sufferings in the cause of David, but would not allow him to remain high-priest. This event fulfilled the prediction which Samuel delivered to Eli, that his family should be deprived of the priesthood; for Abiathar was the last of Eli's family who held it, Zadok being of the family of Eleazar, in which the priesthood afterwards remained. (1 Kings 2. 27; 1Sam. 2. 30,36.)

Two difficulties have been noticed in the history of Abiathar. It would appear, from the foregoing passages, that Abiathar continued in the office of high-priest till the reign of Solomon; but in 2Sam. 8. 17, and IChron. 24. 3, Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, is mentioned as being high-priest with Zadok during the reign of David; and in Mark 2. 26, Abiathar is said to have given David the shew-bread, though it appears from 1Sam. 21. 1, to have been done by his father, Ahimelech. Commentators have endeavoured to remove these difficulties, by the supposition that the two high-priests bore each of them the two names of Ahimelech and Abiathar. But this is mere conjecture; nor has any very satisfactory solution of these difficulties been given. Bishop Middleton interprets the words of St. Mark, eml 'ABadap Ton apytepews, " in the time of Abiathar, the person who was (afterwards) high-priest." This would remove the difficulty with regard to the passage in St. Mark,

66

but it leaves the other untouched.

ABIB, the name of one of the Hebrew months. It was reckoned the first month of the sacred, or ecclesiastical year, because, on the fifteenth day of it, the departure of the Israelites from Egypt took place. The name signifies green corn, probably in reference to the corn of Egypt; for we are told that the barley was then "in the ear," and was smitten by the miraculous hail, which God sent upon the land as a punishment for the tyranny and obstinacy of Pharaoh and his subjects. (Exod. 9. 31.)

This month was afterwards called Nisan. (Nehem. 2. 1.) According to the best authorities, the sacred year, and consequently the month Abib, began with the new moon of April, though the Jewish rabbins say that the year began in March. In latter times this appears to have been the case, but the change was, most probably, owing to the authority or example of the And the Romans, who began their year in March. reckoning of the rabbins is not only opposed to Josephus, but to the prescribed observances of the three great festivals. Jahn, Bibl. Arch. § 103. Michaëlis, Comment. de Mensib. Hebr.

The Feast of the Passover was observed in this month, in commemoration of the destroying angel passing over the houses of the Israelites, when the first-born of the Egyptians were destroyed. It began on the fourteenth, "between the two evenings," that is, between three and six o'clock. (Exod. 12. 6.)

ABIDAN, the son of Gideoni, was the prince of the children of Benjamin, when Moses set up the tabernacle in the wilderness. On this occasion, Abidan made C

ABIEL, the father of Kish, and grandfather of Saul, the first king of the Hebrews. (1Sam. 9. 1.)

ABIEZER, (Father of Help,) was one of the thirty valiant chiefs in David s army. He was a native of Anathoth, a city belonging to the tribe of Benjamin. (2Sam. 23. 27.)

ABIGAIL, the Carmelitess, was the wife of Nabal, ABIGAIL, the Carmelitess, was the wife of Nabal, a rich man, whose possessions were in Carmel, a place in the southern part of Judah, which, according to Eusebius and Jerome, was about ten miles east of Hebron, and, consequently, was a different place from the celebrated Mount Carmel, on the coast of the Mediterranean. Abigail, as the sacred historian informs us, was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance," but Nabal " was churlish and evil in his doings," and this evil disposition was, in the end, fatal to its possessor. For it so happened that David, in his flight and banishment from Saul, took refuge in the mountains where Nabal's flocks were fed. The presence of David and his troops was so great a protection to the property of Nabal, that during the whole time he lost none of his cattle. And as protection of this kind in those countries is either purchased at a high price, or requited by handsome presents, David sent to Nabal a peaceful and complimentary message, reminding him of this, and requesting him to send such a present as he thought proper for him and his young men. The request was not only refused, but an insulting message was returned to David, treating him as a runaway servant of Saul. This irritated David exceed ingly, and, in his anger, he vowed that he would destroy Nabal and all his house before the morning. From this act of vengeance he was dissuaded by Abigail, who, having heard of the insulting message, came herself to bring him the present, and made him an apology. Her husband was unaware of his danger, and was revelling in a drunken feast; but, when he was made acquainted with it, he became so frightened, that "his heart died within him, and he became as a stone." In ten days he died, and David, who had been highly pleased with the conduct of Abigail, demanded her in marriage. The The offer was accepted, and, after the days of mourning were over, she returned with the messengers and became his wife. (1Sam. 25.)

ABIHAIL. There are several persons of this name mentioned in Scripture.

I. ABIHAIL, the son of Huri, one of the heads of families of the tribe of Gad, who settled in Bashan. (1Chron. 5. 14.)

II. ABIHAIL, the father of Zuriel, the father of the Levitical families of Merari. (Numb. 3. 35.)

III. ABIHAIL, the father of Queen Esther, and the brother of Mordecai. (Esther 2. 15.)

IV. ABIHAIL, the wife of Rehoboam, king of Judah. She is called the daughter of Eliab, David's elder brother; but as David began to reign more than eighty years before her marriage, and was thirty years old when he became king, it most probably means that she was a descendant of Eliab, the words son and daughter being often used in this general sense. (2Chron. 11. 18.)

ABIHU, one of the sons of Aaron, who was consecrated to the priesthood with his father, but afterwards was consumed by fire from heaven, together with his

with strange fire; that is, with fire not procured, according to the commandment, from the altar of burntofferings. (Levit. 10. 1,2.) The cause of their offending in this manner has been supposed by the rabbins, and by some Christian commentators, to have been their having drunk too much wine. This opinion is grounded upon a law which we find in the same chapter, ver. 8; "The Lord spake to Aaron, saying, 'Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die."" Mr. Blunt considers this to be one of those undesigned coincidences, which prove the authenticity of the sacred narrative; and it is exceedingly probable, that there was a relation between this general law and the particular offence of Aaron's sons. But, at all events, it is quite clear, that this awful example of Nadab and Abihu was intended as a caution in future to the priests of the Lord, that they should strictly observe all the commands and ordinances of God, without consulting their own opinions, such an offence, and of such a punishment, affords no or their own convenience. And the faithful record of slight argument for the veracity of the sacred historian.

I. ABIJAH (Will of Jehovah) was the name of a son of Jeroboam, who died in his childhood. During his son's illness, Jeroboam sent his wife in disguise to consult Abijah, the prophet, whether the child would recover. The answer was not only unfavourable, but the prophet, who was not deceived by the disguise, foretold that Abijah should be the only person of Jeroboam's house who should come to the grave, and be mourned for by the people. (1Kings 14. 1-18.)

II. ABIJAH, or Abijam, king of Judah, was the son of Rehoboam and of Maachah, the daughter of Absalom. He began to reign B.C. 958, and reigned only three years. (1 Kings 15. 1,2.) Abijah was not a good king; he followed too closely the bad example of his father, Rehoboam, yet he did not, like some of his successors, forsake the worship of the true God. He acknowledged the sovereignty of JEHOVAH, and kept up the services of the temple at Jerusalem; and in the war which broke out between him and Jeroboam, king of Israel, he rested his cause upon the assistance of JEHOVAH. In his address to the men of Israel at Mount Zemaraim, he reproached them with having forsaken the Lord, and declared that God himself was with the men of Judah as their Captain; and this trust in God was followed by a great and important victory, which humbled the king of Israel, and gave Judah the ascendancy. (2Chron. 13. 1-20.)

III. ABIJAH was the name of King Hezekiah's mother. She was the wife of Ahaz, and the daughter of Zechariah. (2Chron. 29. 1.) If this Zechariah be the person of that name who is mentioned in 2Chron. 26. 5, as one who "had understanding in the visions of God," his daughter, Abijah, was most probably faithful to the God of her fathers, though she was the wife of Ahaz; and we may reasonably suppose that Hezekiah derived some of his personal piety from the instructions

of his mother.