Snuffers, snuffdish

In three passages of the Priests' Code mention is made of two utensils connected with the K'l'flen caudlestick, named respectively Dirfj^a melkuluiijim, and nnr? muhtUh, and rendered by AV in E.'c 37"^ ' snutlers ' and ' snutldishes,' in 25 Nu 4' ' tongs ' and ' snufl'dishes ' (so IIV also in Ex I.e.) Tlie -nuih- tilth bear the same name, and were prolialily of the .same shape, as the censers or lireiiaiis (so Tindale, 1530, ' snutlers and fyrepanns').

In them were deposited and removed from the sanctuary the burnt portions of the wicks (see Censer and TAnERNACLi;, section on the Candlestick). The nullcdhdijim, as the etymology and the dual form show, was clearly a snutlers (Vulg. emitnrtoria, forcipe.% LXX, Ex 38", Nu 4» Xo/3I5£s),t resembling in shape a pair of tongs, like the Roman fun-cps (illiistrs. in Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Itum. Ant.' i.

87'J), since the same word is used of the tongs with wliicli, in Isaiah's vision, the live coal was lilted from the altar-hearth (Is 6"). It was used to trim and adjust the wicks of the lamps, like the acun (the pin for pushing up tlie wick) which figures in representations of Roman lamps. In later times we hear of a wool or llax coml), re- du(i!d to a single tooth, being used for this purpose (Mishna, Krlitn xiii. 8 end).

The same instrument (mdkulidijim) is mentioned (I K 7") in connexion with the lamps of Solomon's temple, in a lale addition to 1 K 7 (for 7'""' see Kings, vol. ii. p. 8G4\ the commentaries of Kittel and Benzinger, and esp. Stade's essay cited there), and its ijarallel 2 Ch 4-', in both passages tr^ ' tongs ' in A V and RV.

It will thus he seen that in RV 'tongs' is now the uniform rendering of mclh'ihdyim in all llie passages where it occurs, ' snullers ' being reserved for another word ni:j;p mezrimmcriJth (from it; to prune, trim), also mentioned among the temple furniture (1 K 1'"=2 Ch 4", 2 K 12'>r5iTn]^ 25'' = Jer 52"). Thi.s, as the etymology again shows, also denotes some species of scissors or snullers for trimming the lamp-wicks. Prom a survey of the passages cited in this art.

it would ai)pear that mizummirCth is the older term of the two, mcllinh. dijim being found first in P, and in the later addi- The .\mericftii Revisers, however, prefer •snufleni In all three )»a«sni;e8. t Hut lix '.i5^ and elsewhere iwtifivfrri^ ami itttfiurtpit, a (UDDel o.» other appliance tor (ceding the lanii)8 with oil. tions influenced by it, in which indeed both terms occur side by side.

In all these, furtlier, the material is given as gold, and even ' perfect gold ' (2 Ch 4-"), while in the older and historical sources the material is bronze (cf. 1 K 7^'). A. R. S. Kennedy. SO (king of Egypt [il/i"?mi;ii] ; d'Tjo -)-. k-c, LXX -rf/wp, Vulg. Sua).— According toi 2 K 17'' (AV and RV), Slialmaneser, ' king of Assyria, found conspiracy in Hoshea (king of Israel) ; for he had sent messengers to So, king of ]'"gypt, and offered no present to the king of Assyri.i.'

This was the cause of the invasion that ended in the captivity of Israel. Kings of the Ethiopian dj'nasty (2.5th) were reignin" at this time in Egypt, and it has been supposed that one of these, either Shabaka or Shaljataka, was intended by 'So.' From cuneiform sources, however, we learn that there was at this time a certain Piru, king of Musri, and that in li.c.

720, shortly after the fall of Samaria in 722, Sib'i, iarton (commander-in- chief) of Musri, was sent by him to the help of Hanno, king of Gaza, against Sargon. It was formerly thought that ' Pir'u, king of Musri,' must he ' Pharaoh, king of Egypt,' Musri corresponding in general to the Hebrew Mi?raim ; but Wiucklcr has recently shown that this Musri nmst be distinct from Egypt, and belong rather to North Arabia, in the country of the Nabatoeans.

He hnds the same Musri also in the Rible under the name Mizraim, and identifies the biblical 'So, king of Egypt' (Mi^fraim) with Sib'i, the tartan of the North Arabian Musri, proposing to read n:d sh' for kid .«o' (So) (see his art. ' Pir'u, king of Mu§ri,' in Mittheil. d. vorderas. Gcscllmh. IS'.IS, 5). The identification of So with Sliabaka or Shab- ataka seems impossible.

Shishak of the 22nd dynasty, who invaded Judah and Israel in the reign of Jerolioam, is indeed entitled in tlie Bible Dns? -^7 ' king of Mi?raim,' as were the later ' Pharaohs,' Necho and Hophra. But the position of the somewhat obscure 25th dynasty with regard to the throne of Egypt was peculiar. Tirhaka, who was the last important king of Shabaka's djmasty, is entitled to '^J'?

' king of Cush (Ethiopia)' in 2 K liV', and in the cuneiform 'king of Cusi'; we might expect, therefore, to find the other kings of that dynasty bearing the same title ' king of Cush,' rather than ' king of Egypt,' if referred to in any Helnew or As- syrian record. This is a .slight additional argu- ment in favour of Winckler's theory.

To the Egyptians themselves every king of Egypt in these later times, whether the Persian Darius, the Macedonian Alexander, the Roman Augustus, or the Ethiopian Tirhaka, was known as the ' Pliaraoli,' and this is the title whicli they all boie in E'-yptian legal documents. To the rest of the world Sliabaka, the Ethiopian conqueror of Egypt and the founder of the 25th dynasty, presumal>ly would be known as ' king of Ethiopia.' F. Ll. Griffith.

SOAP, SOPE (iS, nns ; to(o) is a "eneral name for tlie class of substnnces obtained by decompos- ing fats or oils by an alk.ili such as soda or potash. Fat.s and oils are comiiounds of certain 'fatty acids' with glycerine, and in the jnocess of 'saponification' the alkali combines with the acid to form a soap, while the glycerine is set free.

Sonjis dissolve readily in water, imparting to it a peculiar slippery or greasy feeling, forming a lather easily, and adding greatly to its cleansing powers. According to Pliny {II X xxviii. 51), soap was an invention of the Gauls, who prepared it from tallow and ashes. They had two kinds of it, the hard and the liquid. Soap-making is the chief industry of modern Palestine.

It is carried on in Jaffa, N&blus, Jerusalem, and elsewhere, and the 558 SOBER, SOBRIETY SODOM product is exported along the coast, and even to Egypt and Asia Jliiior. Olive oil is used, and tho poorer qualities of it especially are turned to account in this wav. The alliiili employed is potash, and is locally known as kulij. It is ob- tained by burning certain saliferous desert plants, the chief of which is Salsola kali.

This alkali resembles cakes of coarse salt, and contains many impurities, and these accumulate to form great rubbish heaps in the places where soap is made. The potash obtained from the ashes is in the form of a carbonate. This is dissolved in water, and made caustic by treatment with lime. The solu- tion or ' lye ' is then boiled, the refuse from the oil-press being used as fuel.

Olive oil is added, and after repeated boilings and additions of oil the solution is allowed to cool, when the soap sets in a solid mass. 'Soap' (AV 'sope') appears tmce in EV (Jer 2^, Mai 3-). In each case it is the translation of nnii, a word connected with the root t:? ' to cleanse.' The previous clause in Jer 2P refers to "inj or mineral alkali (see Nitre). LXX translates n'"!i) in both places by iroia ('grass').

These facts suggest that vegetable alkali is to be understood rather than soap in the strict sense. The carbonate of potash contained in the ashes of plants has detergent properties similar to those of washing- soda. Another word, "13, from the same root, usually rendered ' cleanness,' is tr. ' lye ' in KVm in Job 9*, Is r-", on the supposition that it means the same thing as nn^, vegetable alkali or a solution of it. LiTERATdKH.

— Thomson, Land and Book, L 130; Warren, Underground Jerusalem, 600 fl. ; SWP, Flora, 39& James Patrick.