Yashni

Samuel's firstborn son, according to MT of 1 Ch 0" (Eng.28)^ wliich is followed by AV. RV, following the Syr. (see mg.), and on the strength of v. "(>) and the || 1 S 8=, supplies Joel as the name of Samuel's oldest son, and substitutes ' and the .second Abiah ' (nj^x 'jsni) for ' Vaahni and Ahiah ' (i;;xi -jifi). This is supported also by Luc. [although BA have i:op(e)i] luJA rai i SiOrfpos A/3id, and is adopted by Driver, Kittel, Benzinger, tt al. YASHTI CPt'I, peril. = Per8.

vahista, 'best' [Jen- ten, Zl-uhr. /. Kundc d. Morgenl. 1892, jip. 63, 70, connects the name with that of the Elamite god- de.s8 Haiti or Waiti ; see also Wildeboer, Kurzer Udnim. • Esther,' p. 173] ; BA 'Affrlf, Luc. OOikttIi'). —The name of the queen of Ahasuerus (Xerxes), Est 1»- "• "■ "• >•• "• '» 2'- *■ ". See art. Esther in vol. i. p. 775.

VAU OR WAW (1) The sixth letter of the He- brew alphabet, and as such emidoyed in the 119th Psalm to designate the 6th part, each verse of which begins with this letter. In this Dictionary it is transliterated, when consonantal, by v or w. VEDAN (pi [AV, taking ) as conjunction, tr. •Dan also'],"Ezk 27'°).— >liime of a city (Rashi). It is identical in form with the Arabic Wadd.in, a name clearly connected with the god NVadd, w'lio was worshipped by Kalb and other tribes.

The geographers mention three places of this name, of which the only one that can be plausibly identi- fied with Vedan is midway between Mecca and Medinah, six miles from Abwa on the pilgrims' road (Istakhri, etc.) It was celebrated in Islam as the scene of Mohammed's first campaign, and al.so as the home of the poet Nusaib. Modem travellers in this perilous region do not appear to mention the name.

P^zekiel says that Vedan ex- ported goods from Uzal to Tj-re, impl3'ing that the first was a port. Waddan may at one time have been one, and have ceased to be so owing to the recession of the sea. If Uzal is Saii'a, the goods had to come a long distance. According to Burck- hardt {Travels in Arabia, French ed. ii. 216), the pilgrims take forty-three days from §ana to Medinah. See Uzal. Brugsch (lielifjion dcr alien ^r/t/pter, p.

152) suggests that Vedan is to be identified with ' Uethen, also written Ueten, Ucden, and Uedenu, a spice-bearing country, situated to the east of Egypt, whose inhabitants, the Uethentians, were first subdued by king Thotmosis III.' According to Mariette (Karnak, p. 47), the monument to which he refers is a work of imagination, not of history, and it would be a mistake to demand of it decisive arguments on questions of geography. D. S. Marooliouth. VEIL and ( AV) YAIL.

— In the AV • vail ' and • veil ' are both used, and that alike for the article of dress so called, and for a part of the tabernacle and the temple. The spelling 'veil 'in AV does not occur outside the NT, except in Ca 5'. On the other h.and, ' vail ' is not used in the NT, except in 2 Co S'"'- In RV ' veil ' is the uniform spelling. i. The Veil of the Tabernacle and the Ternple. — Two Heb. words used in connexion with the taber- nacle are tr. in AV 'veU.' 1.

tido {masa/ch), RV 'screen,' stands for the coloured linen covering which hunjj before tlie door of the hi'kdl or Holy Place.* It IS also used for a similar covering whicli hung in front of the gate entering the court. t 2. njij (jmrCketh), perh. from Assyr. ' what shuts oil',' is' the technical term for the veil of the same material which hung between the Iiikal and diblr or Most Holy Place;! for this we find also a combination of the two words, thus ^y^n n^i?.

§ All the above occurrences are in P, and they relate to the tabcrnarle — a significant fact. We read of no veil in Solomon's temple nor in Ezekiel's, except that 2 Ch 3''', written under P's inlluence, says Solomon's temple had a pdrdketh or inner veil. Besides the one passage adduced, there is no Biblical evidence for this fact. Thenius reconstructs 1 K U-' so as to bring the word par- Ckcth into the text; but he has absolutely no support from MSS, versions, or ancient citations.

Lund II and the older authorities generally take for granted that the outer and inner veils of the tabernacle were found also in Solomon's temple. The only proof Lund gives is the above passage from Chronicles. It is probable that Zerubbabel's temple had veils corresponding to the mdsakk and jmroketk of the tabern.acle, but there is no certainty of this.

Since tlie taliernacle follows the second temple in so many matters in which the latter dill'ers from Soloinon's temple (outer and inner courts, etc.), it is a priori likely that they coincided in having an outer veil before the entrance of the hi'kdl and an inner one before the entrance of the rfCWr.H • Ex •iC.aOf. 3»38 400. t Ex 85" 3»«. I Ex'.;(Vil-3J l»-3.'>, etc. { Ex 3ri'2 3|)»« 4i)'il, Nu 4». In Lv 24' nil'.T nihp 'Tell ot the testimony' (becauBO hiditig the ark), 4" c'jpn njTJ.

n Utitirilhiimer, 307''. ^ r« xxraTiTor^iA, with the article, ■tnndn in LXX (Ex 26** etc.) und in Philo {Vit. iloyt. Ml. Ul. 6) lor tbg inner veil, tht veil pre-eminently. 848 VEIL VERSIONS The evidence that Herod's temple had tlie two veils referred to above is stronger, though not con- clusive. It is but one veil — the inner — that is spoken of in the NT, and that only in two con- nexions, viz.

the account of the Crucifixion in the Synoptics,* ('the veil of the temple was rent in twain ') and also in Hebrews.f In the latter it is the tabernacle, not the temple, that is meant ; but as this Epistle was \vritten almost certainly before the destruction of the temple in A.D. 71, there would have been some hint of it if the sanctuary known to the writer lacked this feature.

Josephua clearly points out the existence of the two veils in the temple which he describes, and there can be little doubt that his account is based on what he saw. Of the outer one he says, ' it was a Babylonian curtain of fine linen interwoven with blue scarlet and purple, and of a contexture that roused ad- miration.' I The inner veil, it seems implied, was of the same kind. Maimonides says there were thirteen veils about the temple, viz.

seven for the seven pates of the court ; one at the gate of the porch, one at the gate of the temple ; two between the h^kc'U and d/^tir, and two in the space above the house. Lightfoot adopts this opinion.} Another Jewish opinion which Lightfoot.l! Lund,^ and others approve of is, that in the post- e.^ilic temples the cubit-thick wall separating lUkal and d^bir of Solomon's and Ezekiel's temples was lacking.

Instead of it there were two veils one cubit apart, occupying therefore exactly the same space as the wall. In favour "of this. Light- foot, followed by Lund, atlduces Maimonides ** and the Talmud, both Mishna tt and Geuiara.t J though in the latter Uabbi Jose raises a discordant voice, which is silenced by the harmonizing Rabbis. ii. The Veil a» an article of dress.

— Many of the words rendered ' veil ' in EV designate articles which would not be so called in modem English books, as they do not cover the face alone, nor do they in all cases cover the face at all. Indeed, even the face-veils which may be seen in Egypt and Palestine very rarely cover more than the lower half of the face, leaving the eyes and fore- head entirely exposed.

The white muslin veils which cover the whole face are used in the harem, and are not intended to cover, but to decorate the face.§§ The veil plays a much more important part in women's life in the East than in the West.

No respectable woman in an Eastern village or city "oes out without it, and, if she does, she is in danger of being misjudged ; indeed, English and American missionaries in Egypt told the present writer that their own \vives and daughters when going about find it often best to wear the veil. But it should be borne in mind that the ancient Egyptians were as much strangers to the face- veils as Europeans are, for on their paintings and scul ptures such veil s never appear.

|| || Nor were such veils worn by the ancient Ethiopians,!!! Greeks,*** or the primitive inhabitants of Asia Minor. ttt They are not worn at the present day in Egypt or Syria by slaves, by the very poor, by the Bedawin, nor in out-of-the-way places by any, as a rule. Tlie present writer stayed two days with the chief of Tobas, between Niblus and the Jordan : the wife, daughters, etc., wore no veils, and were quite free.

The people who have been most influenced by Islamic culture are most observant of the veil, which is in favour of the belief that its use in the modern East, and also the institution of the harem, are due to Islam. In early times the Israelites laid but little stress on the use of the veil by women. Neither Sarah nor Rebekah wore it on the occasions mentioned in Gn 12" and 24"'-, though Rebekah put it on * Mt 27=1 II Mk 133S II Lk 23«. t 61» 93 1020. t KeU ilikdash, cap.

7; quoted by Lightfoot (Worlu, Pit- man's ed. ix. '2S0>. § Loc. cit. II nor. Utb. Mt 27". ^ UeUig. 'iDS. •• Beth Uabbcchirah, cap. 4. ft MUi<L iv. 7. J t Same passage. §§ See Drkss, voL L 628. Ill Weiss, Kostumkvnd, p. 13. «It fb- p. 66- ••• /i>. 318 ; cf. Liibke, Orutulritt der KvmttguehictiU (1879), L 149 ft. ni Weil |7St when she appeared before Isaac. When worn at all in Biblical times, it was mostly as an orna- ment, as is the case now with Moslem women io the harem.

Jewish women in Palestine — Jeru- salem, etc. — are not in the habit of wearing veils. Gn 24^'- and 29-^'- show tliat it was customary among the early Israelites for betrothed maidena to veil themselves before their future husbands, and especially at the time of the wedding. Thij custom obtains in Egypt at the present day.t The use of the veil by betrothed maidens and brides may betoken subjection. St. Paul in 1 Co 2'''- so regards it.

t Kashi says, ' The Israelitish women in Arabia go out veiled (MSiy^), while those in India go out with a cloak fastened about the mouth' (nisn?) It has been inferred from Gn 38" that immoral women were to be known by the veU they wore ; § but probably Tamar wore the usual veil on the occasion referred to in order to escape recognition by her father-in-law, Judah. Nor does Ex 34^-" show that men as well as women wore veils. Moses when he descended from the mountain wore a "li??, i.e.

a covering : a word not elsewhere used, though its cognate do is found,|| and has for parallel tiz}^ 'clothing,' 'garment.' iiDol occurs m Is 25' "(AV ' vair) and 28-», and by RV it is rendered rightly ' covering.' iip?, nio, and n;;5 are general terms, and should never be tr. 'veil.' nio^ D;j'y in Gn 20" does not mean a veil, but a covering or blinding of the eyes by a gift ; cf. Dillm. cul loc, and vol. iii. p. 129*. The following Heb. words appear to denote veils in a stricter sense :— 1.

rh)p_." See art. MnTLERS. 2. The I'vy is what Rebekah wore before Isaac, tt and Tamar before her father-in-law. J t The word means what is ' doubled ' over.§§ We know that it covered the face. 11 II 3. rn'i is tr. by AV in Is 472, Ca 41- s 67 'locks' (of hair), but there can be little doubt that the word means some kind of veil. That like »]'yy it covered the face, is sU we know about it. 4. T^"!

appears to have been a light gannent which covered the whole dress, ^^ as Jerome ••• and Schroder beld.ttt See Del. (on Is 3-), and art. Ua.ntls, vol. iii. p. 240». B. r^5 ^^^ ^ ^^^^ ^y Dehtzsch to have been a kind of veil or lightsummer outer garment. The Arabic word {sidn, sadcen) is explained by Freytag and Lane as ' veil ' ; but a veil in the English sense is hardly meant by the Hebrew or the Arabic word.

It was probably a summer outer dress of fine mat«ri&l (cambric or muslin), and so, according to Is 323, capable of much adornment. See DeL on Pr 31'-". LiTERATUUE. — In addition to the works cited above, cf. Dozy, Dirtfcm. ditailU d. noms des vHeinenta chfz U^ Arabes ; Weiss, Gfuch. der Tracht u)id des Gerdths der Volker df9 Alterihumt, Stvittg. 1S81 : and also the works on Biblical Archeology, especially that by Nowack. T. W. DaVIES.