Nehum (Hastings' Dictionary)

One of the twelve heads of the Jewish community, Neh 77, This form of the name, ., -, , -. ο Ἅ,07ὔ07. it μὰν “κω NEIEL NEIGHBOUR 511 mind with nd/hdsh, perhaps in the signification ‘the [sacred] serpent’ or ‘the serpent’ par ex- cellence (cf. for form and So 19).* (2) The reason for the destruction of the Ne- hushtan is clearly stated. Whatever may have been its a eae inquire into this would be to anticipate the article SERPENT (BRAZEN) in vol. iv.

—it had in recent times become an object of idolatrous worship. Incense was offered to it as to a divine being. Its continued existence, there- fore, was incompatible with, and would have been a constant menace to, that purer form of the religion of J” which it was the aim of Hezekiah and his spiritual advisers to introduce. A. R. 5. KENNEDY. NEIEL (ὅν; Β Ἰναήλ, A ᾿Ανιήλ).,, Α place on the borders of Zebulun and Asher, apparently north of Cabul, Jos 1957; possibly the same place as Neah of v.

¥%. The site is uncertain. NEIGHBOUR (τεῷ shakhén, Arab. sdken, γείτων ‘inhabitant’; ain2 kardbh, Arab. karib, ὁ πλησίον, weplocxos ‘near’; yr rea’, may ‘amith, φίλος ‘ friend ’). —The law of neighbourhood is of great importance and influence in the East. It takes rank after family life with regard to the number and authority of the customs created and regulated by it.

Neigh- bourhood is not an occasional incident, but a con- stant necessity of Oriental social life, and the latter cannot be understood apart from it. The importance of neighbourhood is due to the fact that there are no farmhouses scattered over the agricultural districts of Palestine. For pur- poses of common safety, the population is congre- gated in the villages, following in this respect the custom of the pastoral tribes in their encampments.

From these villages, where the houses are generally built quite close to each other, the peasants go out to their daily labours in the surrounding fields. Domestic life is thus touched at every point by the larger circle of neighbourhood. Originating under circumstances of common danger, this social con- dition has now passed into a kindly preference of use and wont. Such village life is now regarded as a convenience.

The Oriental dislikes silence and solitude ; very rarely takes a solitary walk for leasure ; chooses summer lodgings where neigh- urs are numerous; and, in renting, buying, or building a house, considers first of all the character of the neighbours. Among the modern inhabitants of Palestine the Arab. karib, ‘near,’ on account of the surviving similarity of social circumstance, means, like the Heb. karébh, both ‘neighbour’ and ‘relative.

’ The sense of religious protection and union that en- shrined the family life is seen in expanded form in large towns such as Damascus and Jerusalem, where Christians, Jews, and Moslems occupy different parts of the town. All the Bible references to neighbourhood indi- cate that it was an institution of high social value, with privileges to be enjoyed ait duties to be discharged. 1.

Its helpfulness is stated in the maxim of Pr 2710 ‘Better is a neighbour that is near than a brother that is afar off.’ The Arabs have a familiar proverb to the same effect, and they further happily indicate the service that can be rendered by a friend or neighbour by saying, ‘ You * It seems to us safer not to hazard any further conjecture as to the form of the word. Both Néldeke's and Klostermann’s attempts in this direction are open to serious objection. The former (ZDM@ xlii. p.

482, note) suggests that [ΓΦ ΠΣ may be sompounded of W}+]5 (=]'2B, see the Lexx.), while the latter asserts categorically that ΤΠ Π) is similarly a compound of wn3 and jn’ (=]D'X ; see this root [nin Oxf. Heb, Lex.), as if denoting the ‘everlasting or the primeval serpent’ (Kurzgef. Komm, in loc.) cannot cla with one hand.

’ There are, however, unhelpful iends, who flatter and ruin the man who seeks popularity by lavish entertainment, Pr 18%, With these is contrasted the true friend who ‘sticketh closer than a brother.’ This is often and becomingly referred to the Heaveuly Friend, but the original sense is a comparison between the bond of family life and that of mere neighbour- hood, and a declaration that in certain cases the latter is superior.

Similarly, an Arab proverb says, ‘How many brothers I have had who were not children of my parents !’ ef. Pr 1737 (RVm). 2. Intimacy is another of the leading features of Oriental neighbourhood. Village life is one of the chief fields of Scripture parable. It is easy to understand how in the villages people of an excit- able sympathetic temperament, living close to each other, and having so many interests in common, would necessarily have a very intimate knowledge of each other’s affairs.

This communicativeness accounted for the groups of women around the fountain, and of the elders at the city gate. The shepherd who brought back his sheep in safety and the woman who recovered the lost coin must hasten to tell their friends and neighbours, Lk 15*”, In the declaration ‘I have called you friends’ (Jn 15) all the intimacy springing from Oriental neighbourhood is made possible in the believer's communion with Christ. 3.

The sincerity and sanctity of this relationship are constantly emphasized.

One of the commonest forms of neighbourly service was that of borrowing and lending money and valuables, or the keeping of each other’s goods in safe custody during a time of absence, Ex 227-19, Pr 61] 1718) Among modern Orientals the giving of bread and flour, and the lending of kitchen and table requisites on emer- gencies of hospitality, are constantly practised, and it is an everyday occurrence in the bazaars to see an open shop left with a thin netting over the entrance in charge of the merchant in the next shop.

In the Bible, prohibition is frequently uttered against bearing false-witness, making unfounded statements, or framing malicious devices of any kind against a neighbour, Ex 20!-17, Dt 5%, Pr 3° 2458 2518, The duties of neighbourhood are not to be evaded by polite words, Pr 3%, nor its courtesies turned to mercenary advantage, Dt 23% *, Jer 22%, Neighbourhood is a part of sainthood, Ps 1658, The great purpose of true religion is the perfecting of social life, Mt 7%.

The want of natural feeling in this respect indicated the moral collapse an pointed to the political extinction of Israel, Jer 9*.

The highest expression of neighbourhood, ‘ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Lv 19"), is repeated and expanded in Mt 5® 19%, Ro 13%”, In the case of the lawyer’s assumed bewilderment (Lk 10-87) as to the limit at which the Jaw of neighbourhood began to come into force, the ex- lanation pointed out rather the greatness of the aNiatanine to which it might reach.

Neighbourhood was shown to be a creation of the kind heart that would discover opportunities and feel obligations where the nearest in place and kinship might pass by without perceiving anything to do. In the East, neighbourhood is an important legal claim in the disposal of pxaperty Next to a co-proprietor, the neighbour has the first right of purchase, especially if his land be irrigated from the same source of water-supply.

Such a right Ahab would have had if Naboth had wished to sell his vineyard. Neighbourhood, which by intimacy, equality, and identity of interest gave to social friendship a basis of patience, trust, and sympathy, also tur- nished the occasion to special temptations. Such close intimacy gave the fullest opportunity to envy, pride, and uncharitableness, i oondine to ΓΞ in Arab proverb, ‘ Envy dwells among neighbours, | and hatred among relatives.

’ It was because neighbourhood was almost ex- clusively the condition of social contact that the neighbour was specified in connexion with the Mosaic provisions of mercy, truth, and justice. The stranger was guarded by the law of hospitality. For the treatment of strangers entering the circle of neighbourhood, see FAMILY in vol. i. p. 849, and GER, G. M. MACKIE.