Rehob (Hastings' Dictionary)

1, (B 'Paci/S [2 S'Poiii?], A ■Pou)^) A town at the northern end of the valley of the Jordan, most probably the same as Betii- REHOB (which see), of which the exact site is un- known. In P's narrative of the spies Kehob is mentioned (Nu IS'") as the most northerly limit of their explorations, and is further delined as ' at the entering in of llamatli,' i.e. at the entrance of the great depression between the mountains of Lebanon and Hermon, which connects Palestine and Coele- Syria. P's i)hrase, therefore, ' from the wilder- ness of Zin unto Kehob,' is merely a variation of the more usual formula ' from Dan to Beersheha.' With this agrees the notice in J" IS-""-, where the new settlement of the Danitesat Laish (or Leshem, Jos ID'") is described as situated ' in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob.' In the reign of David the valley of Beth-rehob (2 S 10«) or Kehob (v.») was the seat of a petty Arama\an kingdom (cf. I S 14", LXX Lag.), like the neighbouring Beth-maacah or Abel of Beth-maacah. Kobinson {BliP'^ iii. p. 371) identified the town with the ruins of Hunin in the valley of Hiileli ; but this site is too far south. More probable is the view of liiilil (6-',lPp. 240), who suggests that it correspomled to the later Paneas (Banias). It is true tliat many writers have identified this town with the ancient Dan (Reland, Palicstina, p. 918 f.; Thomson, Land and Book, ii. 547 ; and recently G. A. Smith, HUIIL pp. 473, 480 f.) ; hut, in view of the explicit statement of Eusebius (0S^' 275. 33, 249. 32, cf. Jerome, ib. 136. 11) that Dan was four miles distant from Paneas, we should probably identify Dan with the modern 'Tel el-ljaili (/.«(/»= 'judge ' = Z>n;i). 2. (B 'Pod,3, A'Poui/3) A town belonging to the tribe of Asher, the exact site of which is unknown. It was pre.suinalily near to great Ziilon (Jos 19^), and was afterwards assigned, together with its suburbs, to the Gershonile Levites (Jos 21', 1 Ch G"). It is therefore to be distinguished from — 3. (B'Paaii, A'l'aii^), which is al.so mentioned aa belonging to Asher, and was apparently near the seacoast (Jos lO). According to Jg 1" Kehob was one of the cities which were still retained by their Canaanite inhabitants. Very possibly it is the city referred to in the Egyptian lists cited by Miillcr (Askn u. Europa, p. 153). LiTKRATi'RB. — Thomson, Land and Honk, 11. 647 ; Robinson, BUI-' iii. p. 371 ; .SH7' i. p. 130B. ; Baedeker», p. iOit. ; O. A. Smith. IIGIIL, I.e.: Hulll, OAP pp. U5f., 112f., 237-2.10; Stanley, Sinai and Palrttine, p. 400; Moore, Judgei, p. 888 f. and p. 61 f. 4. (PodjS) The father of Hat'adezer, king of Zobab (2 S 8»- '••'). 222 REHOBOAM KEHOBOAM 5. (N ■Po6|3, A'Poii^, B om.) One of tliose who scaled the covenant (Neh 10"). J. F. Stenning. BEHOBOAM (oy^rj-j 'the people is enlarged,' or perhaps ' 'Am is wide,' cf. Eciuibiah [see Gray, IIPN 52, note 1, 59 f.] ; 'Po/3oa/i, Roboam). — The narrative of this reign is contained in 1 K 11«-12=^ U-'-^', 2 Ch g3i_j2. ' Ample in foolishness (nSiN nm) and lack- ing understanding, Kelioboam by [his counjsel let loose [the peojple ' (Sir 47^, Cowley and Neubauer's translation). Such is the judgment of the son of •Sir.ach, as he pauses in his 'praise of famous men ' fur the inevitable notice of the collapse of Israel as a world power, and the frustration of the proud hojies of Solomon that had found expression in tlie name he had bestowed on his heir. The Cliristian historian, who recognizes that the function of the chosen race was to be the custodian of the oracles of God and source, according to the flesh, of the Saviour of the world, can easily perceive that this prceparatio Evangdii was, humanly speaking, ren- dered possible only by that checking of the material development of the nation of Israel which resulted from the disruption of Solomon's empire. But to the Jewish patriot the maiming of his country's life must always have seemed an unmixed evil. The api)arent immediate cause — Rehoboam's fatuous insolence— was merely the pretext for the revolu- tion that took place on his accession. As is the case in every other turning-point of history, the true cause of the issue must be sought for beneath the surface, in social and religious forces which had been at work long before. There was, in the lirst place, the political ques- tion. It was the normal condition of things that Kjihraim should envy Judah, and Judah vex Ephraim. From the time of the earliest settle- ment in Canaan the North and the South had stood ajiart. The Bk. of Judges exhibits the northern tribes welded together by common resistance to the various oppressors. Judah never joins them, even when the attack comes from the south. It may have been that co-o])eration was difficult owing to the line of Canaanitish fortresses, such as Jebus, Gezer, and Ekron, that extended across the country from east to west. It may have been that the spirit of nationality was weaker in Judah and Simeon as a consequence of their greater laxity with regard to intermarriage with and adoption of native families; if indeed we should not rather regard it as a cause of this laxity. Be that as it may, we find tlie distinction between Israel and Juilali noted in the Krst army raised by Saul (1 S II), and immediately after Saul's death an open l)reach occurred. David laboured hard to break down this antagonism. His transference of the seat of government from the purely Judahite Hebron to Jerusalem was a compromise with the northern tribes. Yet in his reign Israel twice rebelled. David's policy was continued by his successor ; Solomon's division of the land for com- missariat purposes (1 K 4'") was evidently an attempt to obliterate the old tribal boundaries. Tliat this attemiit was in some degree successful may be infened from the fact that the boundary between the dominions of Kehoboamand .leroboam so ran as to include in tlie southern kingdom a l)ortion of Benjamin, and the greiiter part of the southern settlement of Dan. A succession of nionarchs of the commanding personality of David or Solomon might have completed the unification of the tribes, but Solomon presumed too much on his personal prestige. The odious levy of forced labour, and that, too, for the adornment of an upstart capital, and the ceaseless exactions for the supniy of the royal table (LXX 1 K IS^-"'), had long rankled in the liearts of the proud Ephraimites. Add to this that the character of Solomon's sue- ' cesser, as one ' not fit to be a ruler nor to be a prince ' (LXX 1 K 12-'"), must have been well known for many years. Everything, indeed, indicates that all preparations had been made for :„ revolution the moment Solomon should die. The Ephraimite Jero- boam, supported by a prophet's nomination and the favour of his tribe, was biding his time in Egypt, and treated there not as a runaway official, hut aa an exiled prince (LXX 2 K V2:-'). Tlie temper of the northern tribes was further shown in their de- termination to appoint Itehoboam independently, if at all, and in their selection of Shechem, the chief sanctuary of Ephraim, as the place of as- sembly, thus ignoring the recent centralization of civil and religious administration at Jerusalem. This political movement was supported by a religious agitation in which two elements, ecclesi- astical and prophetical, may be discerned : on the l)art of the priests of the high places jealousy of the exclusive claims of the new temple at Jeru- salem, and on the part of the prophets a nobler zeal for Jehovah, called forth by the lax eclecticism of Solomon in his later years. As we see from the attitude of Nathan, the prophets had not cordially approved of the building of the temple, and they now probably thought that there was more chance of the national worship being preserved in its purity in the north. Rehoboam's subsequent con- duct, indeed, quite justified these alarms. He added to his father's innovations by sanctioning the erection of pillars of Baal and the worst abomi- nations of heathenism (1 K 14^- "), such as did not find a place in the northern kingdom until the reign of Ahab fifty years later. The Chronicler's account of Jeroboam's expulsion of priests and Levites, and of the rallying of the orthodox Israelites round Rehoboam (2 Ch 11'""'), is quite unsupported by Kings, which (12") merely states that Rehoboam's subjects included some residents of northern extraction. The special animus of the revolting tribes against the temple at Jerusalem possibly underlay their parting taunt, ' Now see to thine own house, David.' .losephus {Ant. vill. viii. 3) understood it thus, ' We only leave to Rehoboam the temple which his father built.' Ahijah and Shemaiah were right. ' It was a thing brought about of the LoKD ' ; the pure monotheism of which Israel was privileged to be the exponent would have been sapi)ed and destroyed by foreign cults, if the later Solomonic policy had received no check. In after times this was forgotten; and the later prophets, thinking solely of the political consequences of the disruption, refer to it as a supreme calamity (Is 7", Zee ll"). The most important event in this reign is the invasion of Palestine by Shishak. This was one of the direct consequences of the division of tlie nation. Sesonchis, as Manetho calls him, the first monarch of the 22nd dynasty, reversed tlie policy of his predecessor Psusennes, and displayed un- friendliness towards Solomon by sheltering hia adversaries Haiiad and Jeroboam. Notwithstand- ing tlie fact that Shemaiah had forbidden the employment of the huge army (reduced in LXX, B, to i20,0U0 men) which Hilmlioam had mustered by the following j-ear (LXX 1 K 12'-"') in order to recover the kingdom he had lost, yet 'there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continu- ally' (1 K 14'°). In all probability Jeroboam, harassed by these border forays, called in the aid of his former protector. The fifteen towns which Rehoboam is said to have fortified (2 Ch 11""'") are, with two exceptions, south of .Jerusalem, as though an attack might be expected from that quarter. The invasion took place in Rehoboam's fifth year, and the prophetical historian justly sees in this humiliating calamity the scourge of God for the continued and aggravated national apostasy. Th9 rehoboa:si REHOBOTH-IR 223 statement of the Chronicler (2 Ch 11") that Reho- bciaiii's defection did not occur \intil his fourth year, and the story of his subsequent repentance (12), are oliWonsly designed to bear out the theory of the orijrinal orthodoxy of tlie kingdom of Judali (see Abijah's speech, 2 Ch 13'°), as well as to heighten the moral and dramatic effect of the Btory. Jerusalem does not seem to have stood a siege. Kesistance was hopeless. Shishak (herein acting treacherously, according to Josephus)utterly denuded the temple and royal palace of their trea- sures, including the famou.s golden shields of Solomon's guard, to which the LXX (2 S 8', 1 K U^') adds the golden shields taken by David from Hadadezer. Dean Stanley well points out that there is a grave irony in the historian's account ( 1 K 4^) of how the elaborate ceremony which had been observed with regard to the "olden shields was continued in the case of their brazen substi- tutes. We learn from the Chronicler (2 Ch 12^) both the number of Shishak's host, to which Joscphus adds 400,000 infantry, and also the nationalities of which it was composed — Libyans, Sukkiiui ( = troglodytes, LXX and Vulg.),and'l'2tlii- oiiians. Ewald (HI iv. 45) conjectures that Edom also joined in the invasion (see Jl 3'"). There may still be seen on the south wall of the temple of Anion at Kamak an inscription — now partially defaced — which deals with this expedition. It gives the list of towns subjugated by Shishak. Some dillieulty has been caused by the inclusion in this list not only of pl.ices in the south, such asShocoh, Gaza, Keilah, and perhaps Jerusalem, but also of many towns of Israel as far north as Megiddo. This does not contradict the biblical narrative, which conlinea itself to the invasion of Judah ; but it seems scarcely reconcilable with the hj-pothesis that Shishak invaded Palestine as Jeroboam's ally. However, Maspero (Journal of the Transac- tiuns of the Victoria Institute of Great Britain, vol. xxvii. p. 63) points out that ' the king of Israel in imploring the aid of Shishak against his rival had thereby made himself vassal toEgj-pt. This would euflice to make his towns figure at Karnak anion" the cities subjected in the course of the campaign. This is a more likely solution of the difficulty than Rawlinson's supjiosition {Sprahcr's Com. in loc), that these were Canaanite or Levitical towns which h.od taken llehoboam's side. The names on this list are engraved on cartouches, over which appear the heads of men of various tj'pes, representing the inhabitants of each town. Considerable interest was formerly excited by one of these names, which Maspero transliterates Jaoud-hn-maluk or Jud- Ivim-mdek. This was rendered by Rosellini ' king of Judah' (!), and the inference was a tempting one, that in the annexed fifjure we had a veritable portrait of Kehoboam himself. But Brugsch {Geogr. Ins. I. iL p. C2), followed by Maspero, in- terprets it as the name of a village in Dan, Jehud, now elYehftdiyeli, near JaH'a. ' The name bears the sign for "country," not for "person."' See, further, Struggle of the Nations, 774. Sorae minor matters remain to be diHOussed. From Kings we learn the name o( Rehoboani's chief wife only, Maacaii. Rut the Chronicler gives details about his doniestic affairs, noting: the name of a second wife, Maualatii, and perhaps of a tliird. ABillAiL, who is mother of Mahalath according to the KV, but another wife of Kehoboam according to AV and RVm. Josephus reduces the numt>er of his concu)>ines to thirty. The rise in Judah of the power of the queen-mother is prob- ably to be attributed to Kchoboam's uxoriousnfss. His con- duct towards his sons, whicli is praised by tlie Chronicler, may have rendered the accession of Abijah easier, but was not wise in the Itest sense of the term. Accfjriling to the JIT of 1 K H" and 2 Ch 12" Rehoboara was 41 years of age at bis accession, and reigned 17 years. He would then have been bom before Solomon came to the throne. Rawlinson would read, with some MSS, 21 in this passage, on the ground, perhaps, tliat the insolence of RtliolMiam to the Israelites is more like the conduct of a petulant youth than of a m^n of mature age. More weight must be given to the second Greek account, which in 1 K V2-^ says that Rehohoam wa» 1« years of age at his accession, and that he reigned 12 years. The EUtiinent of .\bijah (2 Ch 13") that Uehoboam was 'young and tender-hearted ' (:3jyTn, <.e. ' fainthearted,' see Dt 20») at the time of the rebellion must not be pressed. There is one other imj>oftant chronological difference between the second Greek account and our present Hebrew text. In tile latter, Jeroboam, even if he took no personal share in the negotiations with Kehoboam (1 K 12'), certainly left Kgypt immediately after Solomon's death ; whereas in LX.X 1 K 12-i'i-f the marriage of Jeroboam to Shishak's sister-in-law, and the birth of his son Abijah. occur in Kgypt after Rehoboani's accession. But this whole story is in a very confused condition, and is antecedently less probable than that preserved in tlie commoD text. See Jbaoboau ; and of. Swete, Int. to tJT in Gr. 2«'- N. J. D. White. REHOBOTH 1. The name given by Isaac to a well of which he was allowed by Abimelech's herd- men to take peaceable possession. This was after two previous wells dug by Isaac's servants had led to strife, and tlie name of the tliird was called Rehoboth (norn 'wide spaces,' LXX Ei'pi/xwpio) because, said Isaac, ' now tlie Lord hath made room (hirhibh) for us,' Gn 26, (J). Palmer (Desert of the Exodus, 383) describes a very ancient well on the north-east side of the Wadu es-Sddi (eight hours south of Beersheba), which he is inclined to identify with the Kehobotli of this passage. The name liuhaihch still lingers in the neighbourhood, being applied to a wady close by. The objections of Robinson (BRF' i. 197) to this identification are strangely pointless. It is not improbalile (cf. Konig and Sayce in Expos. Times, xi. [1900] pp. 239, 377) that the Rehoboth of Gn 26- is also the Ruhuti or Rubute of the Tel el-Amarna letters (Winckler, Nos. 183 and 239 ; Petrie, 256 and 260), although Sayce (in Early Israel, 289) and Petrie (Sijria and Egypt from the Tell el-Amarna Letters, 180) prefer to make Rubuti=\ia.hha,\\ of Jos 15™, and Hommel(.4//r234f.) identifies it with Kiriath- arba (Hebron), which he supposes to have been called RohdCt, ' the four quarters.' 2. In the list of kings of Edom contained in Gn Se^'' one of the names is Shaul ' from Reho- both of the River' (-in;.i nuh-ia v." ; LXX [A ; 15 is defective here] (k "?oui^w9 rrjs xapa ttoto^iSi', and so A in the parallel passage 1 Ch 1^', 15 om.). The situation of this Rehoboth is quite uncertain. It is not even clear whether it sliould be sought in Edom or elsewhere. The Notitia Dignitatum (c. 29) makes it Edomite, and Eusebius and Jerome (in the Onomastieon) locate it in Gebalene, i.e. Idum;ea ; but the analogy of other OT passages where 'the River' (-^:-) is sjioken of absolutely, would lead us to think of the Euphrates, in which event Rehoboth might be Rnhnhn on the western bank of that stream, somewhat to the south of the Chabora.s. Winckler (Gcsch. i. 192) would (doubt- fully) place it between Palestine and Egypt, under- staiuling the "in; here to be the Wady cl-Arish, the ' River (Snj wady) of Egypt ' of Nu 34" etc. The name RiVLoboth, owing lo its meaning, would be likol}' to be very widely dilVuscd (see Knobel on Gn 36", and cf. W. Max iliiller, Asien u. Eicropa, 134). J. A. Selbie. FEHOBOTH-IR (ry nSh-i, AV Mhe city Roho- botli,' A\'rn ' t lur streets of the city'; LXX A t) 'Pow^us ttAXis, />" 'I'ou^bO ir., E 'Pou^d'9 r. ; Vulg. platen; ciritatis). — One of the four cities built by A.sshur (RV by Nimrod) in Assyria, the others being Nineveh (regarded as the later capital), Resen (ReJ-(5ni, Sayce), and Calah, now Nimrouci (Gn 10"). There has been much discussion as to the identity of this site, and As.s5-rian literature has not furnished us with any geographical city name ^vitll which it could be identified. Indeed it is hardly likely that we should come across it there, except umfer a different form, for neither of the component parts of the name is really As- 224 EEHUM REKEM Syrian, EShdhdth, as Delitzach has sliown, being rt-hitu, 'broad, open spaces,' whilst 'ir would lie represented by the common word /llu, 'city.' It has lieen objected tliat the Heb. scribe would not have translated ribitu, but would have transcribed it, just as he has transcribed Jiesen, without the guttural ; for the Assyrians as a rule pronounced neither the soft guttural ^, nor the v. This, liowever, cannot be regarded as conchisive, for the Heb. scribe has, to all appearance, translated, and ricit transcribed, the Assyrian dlii in the word 'ir, 'city.' It would therefore seem that we must not transcribe, but translate, the Heb. Rchobiith-'ir, .'ind this, in As.syrian, would be rebct dli, ' the broad .spaces (squares) of the city,' and regard the ex- pression, with Deliizsch, as referring to the name of Nineveh, which immediately precedes. Uelitzsch compares the Heb. expression with the rcbit Ninua, ' broad place of Nineveh,' in Esarhaddon 1. 23, and the probability is that he is right in his identifica- tion. Through this part of the city, probably a suburb, Esarhaddon caused the heads of the kings of Kundi and Sidon to be carried in procession with singing, etc. ; and, as he thus specially mentions it, it must have been a sufficiently important place. It is ai>iiarently this same place of which Sargon, Esarliaddon's grandfather, speaks in his Cylinder In.scriiitiun, 1. 44, in connexion with the peojiling of JIagganuljba : ' The city Magganubba, which lay like a pillar at the foot of the mountain Musri, above the springs and the broad place of Nineveh' (rcbit Kind). This text would therefore seem to make Magganubba the old name of Dfirsargina or Kborsabad, and the rrbit Nind must have lain be- tween that city and Nineveh, but much nearer to the latter. If the places referred to are named in the order in which they actually occurred, their relative positions would be (I) the mountain Musri, (2) the city Magganubba, (3) the springs, (4) the rebit Nind, (5) Ninft or Nineveh itself. Ltteraturk.— Delitzsch, Paradies, p. 261 ; Schrader, COT i. p. 101 ; Uielim, Hatulworlerbuch ; and the Cahoer Bihdlexikon, s.D. T. G. Pinches. REHUM (Din-))- — ^- 0"e of the twelve heads of the Jewish community who are said to have re- turned with Zeruhbabel, Ezr 2- (B om., A 'Ipeovii). In the parallel pas.sage Neh 7' the name appears, perhaps by a copyist's error, as Nehum (LXX XaoiV) ; in 1 Es 5" it is RoiMUS (LXX'PieiAios). 2. ' The chancellor,' who, along with Shimshai the scribe and others, wrote a letter to king Artaxerxes, which had the ell'ect of stopping for the time the rebuilding of Jerusalem, Ezr 4- "• "• ^. In 1 Es 2'" be is called Kathumus. The title for CHANCELLOR (DSJB-Si'S, lit. 'lord of judgment'), being misunder- stood by the LXX, appears in the latter passage as a proper name ('PdSu/ios /to! Bc^XtcSjios) ; see HeeltethMUS. In Ezr 4* B has 'Pooi>\ jiaonTaiUv, in v.''Paoi>/t pi.a\, and in v." 'Paoi>(i ^a\yd/i, while A has uniformly 'Peoifi' ^aaXriii. 3. A Levite who helped to repair the wall, Neh 3" (B WaaovB, XA'Paoii^). 4. One of those who sealed the cove- nant, Neh 10, '<="l ('Paoi'/i). 5. (c-r,) The eponym of a priestly family which returned with Zer\ibbabel, Neb 12MB A om., N'-" <'°« 'Veov^). The name nm in this last instance is not improbably a textual error for onn Harim, cf. t.". J. A. Seliiie. REI (Heb. 'Vi_, probably = ' the Lord is a friend'; Pesh. Q_>_L) [•"'-■i > and > being confounded] ; LXX B 'Vnal, A 'Vnaii ; Vulg. ReA, iJAci).— Accord- ing to the MT of 1 K V this is the name of one of the influential supporters of Solomon at the critical moment when Adonijah was preparing to dispute the succession to the throne. It is im- possible to be quite certain that the reading is correct, but the balance of evidence is in its favour. Lucian's 2a/xafas Kal ol iraipoL aurou ol fii'Tes dwaroi rests on a dilierent division of the Hebrew letters, not a dilierent text — 'an v;;t instead of 'in; •j;i. Jos. Ant. VII. xiv. 4, has 6 AaoviSou (piXo;, thug making Shimei into the 'friend,' the royal official of 2 S 15" It)'", and, with Lucian, getting rid of Rei altogether. But if ,Iosephus is supposed to be following a Heb. original pretty closely, that original would here be ilJiEri j;-i or nhnn n^l, and it is not easy to believe that the much longer form of the MT, nin^ ^;;■.s D'T^^i?) 'I'l, has grown out of this. Klostermann's conjectural emendation, n.b^^ vj;i; {Die liilcher Sam. u. Kon. p. 263), scarcely commends itself (see Benzinger, cid loc), nor is there sufficient support fur Winckler's (Gesch. ii. 247) identilication of Kei with Ira, or, as he would spell it, Ya'ir of 2 S 20-". As to the pair of names, Shimei and Rei, Ewald [Gesch. iii. p. 266, note) thought that they might belong to the two brothers of David, Shammah and Raddai, who are mentioned 1 S 16' 17''', 1 Ch 2". But the double alteration of rrjs? into •y.';? and Ti into 'V"! is somewhat unlikely. Perhaps one may add that the LXX 'PT/tri seems to have originated in a mistaken reading of s for y. Assuming that Rei must stand in the text, it is fairly certain that the man thus designated was an officer of the royal guard. The important part plaj-ed by these troops in determining the suc- cession to the throne, as well as the mention of the gibburim immediately after Shimei and Rei, points in this direction. J. TayloB.