Chest (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. In order to defray the cost of certain repairs of the temple, the priest Jeho'ada placed in the court (our authorities are not agreed as to the exact location ; cf. 2 K 12" '«""■ '"i, 2 Ch248, with LXX in each case) a chest (pK), in the lid (Heb. door) of which a hole had been bored, for the reception of the offerings of the worshippers, as recorded 2 K 12"i- m'"- »'■> (LXX (ci;Son-6s, Vulg. gazuphylacium), and, with variations, 2 Ch 24'>- (■yXuaabKoiiov, area). The ark (of the covenant) is also invariably denoted by j^tn, either alone or with q^ualilications (see Ark i.). So, too, the coffin in which Joseph's mummy was placed (Gn 50-"). The feature common to all three is the rectangular shape ; the first two certainly, the third most probably, were of wood. VXniaabKo/wv, used by the LXX translator of Chron. as a synonym of Ki^t>rris, is freq. employed by the later Gr. translators as the rendering of [nx in all the three applications given above, as by Aquila in Gn 50^, where the so-called Tare, of Jonathan also renders KDpoi^a. Jos. further uses it {Ant. VI. i. 2) to denote the ' coffer ' (EV, inx 1 S b""-) or small chest in which the Phil, princes deposited the golden mice, while in NT it is applied to the cash-box of which Judas Iscariot had charge (Jn 12" 13'^). In the temple of Herod, 13 chests stood in the court of the women, to receive the various kinds of money gifts, in shape resembling a trumpet (if the treatise Shelfalim vi. 5 may be trusted), wide at the bottom but gradually narrowing towards the top, hence called ni-i£iB>. It wa-s into one of these chests that the widow cast her slender offering (Mk 12', Lk21i). 2. In AV and RV we find in Ezekiel's inventory (27"*) of the merchandise of Tyre ' chests (O'lja) of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar.' But the sense ' chests ' for this word is without sufficient support (see comm. of ComUl, Davidson, Smend), and the word rendered ' made of cedar ' must mean 'strong, durable,' so that we should probably render ' cloths of cords twined and durable.' A. R. S. Kennedy. CHESTNU'T ^ TREE (pcny 'armdn, »-XilTai<of platantis). — 'Armun is mentioned twice in OT j once as one of the trees in which Jacob ' pilled white strakes ' (Gn 30"'), and set them before the flocks at the watering troughs, and again as one of the trees ivith which the cedar of Lebanon, sym- bolical of Assyria, is compared (Ezk 31"). Tlie chestnut tree, which is the rendering of the Rabbis and of AV, is not indigenous in any part of Syria and Pal. , and does not succeed in cultivation. It has probably never grown there except as ao exotic. The plane tree of LXX, Vulg., and RV, Platanus Onentalis, L., on the contrary, grows everywhere by, and in, watercourses, and is one of the finest trees of the country. It has a trunk which is often 6 to 10 ft. in diameter, and 50 to 100 ft. high, spreading branches, and large palraate- lobed leaves. The monoecious flowers are in pendulous, spherical heads, the fertile becoming as large as a small walnut. The name 'armon sigui- iies naked, and probably refers to the fact that the outer layers of bark scale off as in the Eucalyptus globulus, leaving a smooth surface. When peeled, it would leave a white streak. Plane trees grow in Mesopotamia. Chestnut trees do not. 'I'here can be no reasonable doubt that the 'armOn is the plane tree. It is called in Arab. dilb. In Sir 24" wisdom is compared to a plane tree by the water. G. E. Post. CHESDLLOTH (n'l^psn), Jos IQ".— The same as Chisloth-tabor, Jos 19'-. A place on the border of Zebulun. Now the ruin of Iks&l at the foot of the Nazareth hills, in the fertile plain W. of Tabor. In the 4th cent. A.D. {Unoma^ticon, s.v. Chasalath) the site was known as near Tabor, but it was also wTongly identified with Achshaph (see Onomasticon, s.v. Acsaph and Achaseloth). 'The ruin is chiefly remarkable for a cemetery of tombs apparently mediieval. See SWP vol. i. sheet v. C. R. CONDER. CHETH or HETH (n).— Eighth letter of Heb. alphabet, and as such used in the 119th Psalm to designate the 8th part, each verse of which begins with this letter. CHEZIB, Gn 38'.— See Achzib.