Ethan (Hastings' Dictionary)

1. 'The Ezrahite' of 1 K 4' ETHANIM ETHICS 777 and Ps 89 (title). In the first of these passages lie U mentioneJ alon^ with other contom]ioraries(?) of Solomon, who were all surpjissed in wisdom by the Jewish monarch. In 1 Ch 2" he is .said to have been a Judican of the family of Zcrah, which is prob. another form of Ezrah (hence the patronymic EzrahUe). Instead of ' the Ezrahite ' it has been proposed to render 'n-ji^ of 1 K 4" 'the native,' i.e. the Is'^Mlite, in opposition to some of the other wise men named, who were foreigners (Cheyne, Job and Solomon, p. 131). The ascribing of Ps 89 to B. occasioned one of the curiosities of Rabbinical exej,'esig. ''X^,]>< was connected with m,ip (the east), then 'the man from the east' of Is 4P was inter- preted of Abraham, and Ethan the Ezrahite was identified with the patriarch, who thus became the author of the psalm (Driver, LOT p. xxxiii, n.). 2. An ancestor of Asaph (1 Ch 6"). In v." he is called Joah. 3. The eponj'raous ancestor of a guild of temple-singers (mentioned along with Heman and Asaph in 1 Ch 6** 15"-" etc.). His genealogy is traced by the Chronicler back to Merari, one of the sons of Levi. He is generally identified with Jeduthun. (See Jedutiiun.) J. A. Selbie. ETHANIM (c'lTNij, 'ABafuLr B, 'Aea»tl)i A, Ethanim, 1 K »'). See Time. ETHANUS, one of the ' swift scribes ' who wrote to the dictation of Ezra (2 Es H"). The name occurs in the MSS variously as Ecanus, Ecbanus, Elkana, etc. ETHBAAL (Sv^nn 'with Baal,' i.e. enjoying hi« favour and protection ; 'Ie0f()da\ B, 'la^daX A, 'I(9Sdii\ Luc.).— King of the Sidonians, and father of Jezebel wife of Ahab king of Israel (1 K 16''). According to Jos., Ittobaal ('IW/SaXoi, EiBui- PaXot, i.e. Vyj'iBK ' Baal is with hira,' a form of the name preferred by Thenius, Stade, etc.) was king of the Tynans and Sidonians {Ant. VIII. xiii. 1), and is stated by Menander the Eiihesian to have been a priest of Astarte who attained to the throne by the murder of the usurper Phelles (C. Ap. i. 18). This identification with the Etlibaal of K is allowed by modems. The Taylor cylinder, col. ii. 48, mentions a later king of Sidon of the same name ; Assyr. Tuba'lu (Schrader, COT, on Gn 10"). C. F. BlTRNEY. ETHER (vii;), Jos 15" 19'.— A tovra of Judah noticed with Libnah, apparently near the plain of Philistia, given to Simeon, and near Rimmon. The site is unknown.