D
Dabbesheth – Daughter
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Dabbesheth
A town in the westward border of Zebulun (). identified with Dabsheh, E. of ‘Acca. • R. A. S. Macalister.
Daberath
A city said in to belong to Zebulun, but in and to be a Levitical city in Issachar. Probably it was on the border between the two tribes. It has been identified with Daburieh at the foot of Tabor. R. A. S. Macalister.
Dabria
One of the five scribes who wrote to the dictation of Ezra (2 Esdras 14:24).
DACUBI, 1 Esdras 5:28 = Akkub, . Nehemiah 74.
Dagger
See Armour, Arms, § 1 (c).
Dagoi
Dagoi f . — A god whose worship was general among the Philistines (at Gaza, . 1 Maccabees 10:83, 84 Hi; at Ashkelon, ; prob. at Beth-dagon [wh. see], which may at one time have been under Philistine rule). Indeed, the name Baal-dagon inscribed in Phoenician characters upon a cylinder now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and the modern place-name Beit Dajan (S.E. of Nablus), indicate an existence of his cult in Phcenicia and Canaan. An endeavour to identify the god with Atargatis (wh. see) is responsible for the explanation of the name as a diminutive (term of endearment) of dag (‘fish’), and also for the rendering of ‘only Dagon was left’ () as ‘only the fishy part was left.’ Though there is nothing to contradict the supposition that Dagon was a fish-god, it is more probable that originally he was an agricultural deity (named from d!a5ran=‘grain,’ cf. , ). from which position he developed into a war-god () and apparently even into a national deity (). An identification of this god with the Babylonian Dagan is doubtful (see Jensen, Kosmologie, 449 ff . ; and Jastrow, Bel. of Bab. and Assyr., Index). N. Koeniq.
DAISAN, 1 Esdras 5:31 = Rezin, . . The form in 1 Es. is due to confusion of Heb. r and I.
DALAN, 1 Esdras 5:37 = Delaiah, .
Daleth
Fourth letter of Heb. alphabet, and as such used in the 119th Psalm to designate the 4th part, each verse of which begins with this letter.
Dalmanutha
Hither Christ sailed after feeding the four thousand (). In Magadan is substituted. No satisfactory conjecture has yet been offered as to the explanation of either name, or the identification of either place. R. A. S. Macauster.
Dalmatia
A mountainous district on the E. coast of the Adriatic Sea. More exactly used, it is the southern half of the Roman province lUyricum (wh. see). The writer of the Second Epistle to Timothy makes Titus journey there (). A. Souteb.
Dalfhon
Dalfhon (). The second son of Haman, put to death by the Jews.
Damaris
A convert at Athens (). As women of the upper classes were kept more in the background there than in Macedonia or Asia Minor, she was probably not of noble birth (cf. 17’- ‘‘). The name is perhaps a corruption of Damalis,’ a heifer.’ The Bezan MS omits it. A. J. Maclean.
Damascus
1. Situation, etc.— The chief city of N. Syria, situated in lat. 33° 30’ N. and long. 36° 18’ E. It lies in a plain east of the Anti-Lebanon, famous for its beauty and fertility, and watered by the Barada River, the Abanah (wh. see) of the Bible. The luxuriance of its gardens has long been renowned: the English traveller W. G. Browne in 1797 noted that the fruit-trees were so numerous that those which died and were cut down were sufficient to supply the town with firewood. Its population is estimated at from 150,000 to 220,000. It derives its modern importance from local manufactures (woodwork, furniture, artistic metal and textile work), from its situation and convenience as a market for the desert tribes, and from its religious significance as the starting-point of the annual Syrian pilgrim caravan to Mecca. Railways run from Damascus to Haifa, Beyrout, and Mezerib, and the important line to Mecca, begun in 1901, is expected to be finished in 1910. The writer of Canticles, in his appreciation of the sensuous beauty of scenery, has not forgotten Damascus: the nose of the Shulammite is compared to the ‘tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus’ ().
The history of Damascus begins in remote antiquity : the time of its foundation is quite unknown; but that a settlement should have been founded in so desirable a locality was inevitable from the very beginning of human association. It was probably already an ancient city at the time of the Tell el-Amarna tablets, on which we meet with its name more than once. It also appears in the tribute lists of Thothmes iii. as Demesku.
2. OT references. — In the Biblical history we first meet with the name of Damascus as a territorial indication in defining the line of Abram’s pursuit of the five kings (). In the name of Abram’s steward is given in the MT as Dammesek Bliezer (so RV) — a name probably corrupt. It is explained in the Aram., Targum, and Syr. as ‘Eliezer the Damascene,’ which gives sense, though it presupposes a most improbable corruption in the Hebrew text. We must therefore pass this passage by with the remark that it is not un- likely that Abram’s servant was a native of Damascus. We hear nothing more of Damascus till , . which describes David’s capture of the city as a reprisal for its assistance given to Hadadezer, king of Zobah; David garrisoned it and reduced it to a tributary condition (cf. ). The general of Hadadezer, however, Rezon by name, succeeded in establishing himself as king in Damascus in the time of Solomon, and made himself continuously a very troublesome neighbour (1 K , ). In the wars between Asa and Baasha (1 K ff.: ff.) the king of Judah invoked the aid of Ben-hadad, king of Syria, whose royal city was Damascus, against his Israelite enemy. By gifts he persuaded him to break the truce already existing between Ben-hadad and Israel, and to join partnership with Judah. Accordingly Ben-hadad proceeded to harass Baasha on his northern borders, and so induced him to desist from his plan of erecting border fortifications between the two Hebrew kingdoms. Hostilities continued between Syria and Israel till the days of Ahab: Ahab’s sparing of Ben-hadad after the battle of Aphek and his making a truce with him, were the cause of a prophetic denunciation(1 K ). In the reign of Jehoram, the Syrian general Naaman came to be cleansed of leprosy (), and Elisha’s directions led to his famous depreciating comparison of the muddy Jordan with the clear-flowing Abanah and Pharpar (). The Chronicler () reports a victorious invasion of Judah by Damascus in the days of Joash. The city of Damascus was re-taken by Jeroboam (). though the circumstances are not related ; but must have been lost again immediately, for we find the Syrian king Rezin there () oppressing Ahaz, so that he was led to the policy, which (as Isaiah foresaw, 7. ) proved suicidal, of calling in the aid of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, and submitting himself as a vassal of that great king. Prophetic denunciations of Damascus, as of the other enemies of the Hebrews, are found in , . . and Zee . Damascus as a commercial centre was always of great importance, and Ezekiel (27) alludes to its trade in vines and wool. It is, of course, included in the imaginary restoration of the kingdom ().
3. NT references. — Damascus appears only in connexion witti St. Paul. Here took place his miraculous conversion (. 22. 26) with the well-known attendant circumstances, and his escape from Aretas (wh. see), the governor, by being lowered in a basket over the wall (. , ), and hither he returned after his Arabian retirement ().
4. Later history. — ^Thelateextra-Biblical history is very complicated. In 333 B.C., after the battle of Issus, the city was surrendered to Pannenio, the general of Alexander the Great, and during the subseauent Graeco-Egyptian wars it fell more than once into the hands of the Ptolemys. In in B.C., on the_ partition of Syria between Antiochus Grypus and A. Cyzicenus, the latter obtained possession of the city. _ His successor, Demetrius Eucserus, invaded Palestine in 88 B.C. and defeated Alexander Jannseus at Shechem. His brother, who succeeded him, waa driven out JDy the Arabian Haritha (Aretas). For a while it remained in Arab hands, then, after a temporary occupation by Tigranes, king of Armenia, it was conquered by Metellus, the B,oma]i general. It was a city of the DecapoUs. The great temple of the city was by one of the early Christian emperora— probably Theodosius — transformed into a church. It IS now the principal mosque of the city, but was partly destroyed by fire in 1893. Since 635 Damascus has been aMuslim city, though governed from time to time by different tribes ajid dynasties of that faith. It was conquered by the Seljuks m 1075. The Crusaders never succeeded in making a strong position for themselves in the city. In 1860 about 6000 Christians were massacred by the Muslim
Eopulation of the city. Few remains of antiquity are to e seen in the modem city, which is attractive principally for its undiluted Oriental life and its extensive markets and bazaats. The mosque just mentioned, a mediaeval castle, and part of the ancient walls, are the principal relics. Of course, there are the usual traditional sites of historical events, but these aro not more trustworthy at Damascus than anywhere else in Syria and Palestine.
R. A. S. Macalisteb.
Damnation
The words ‘damn,’ ‘damnable,’ and ‘damnation’ have, through their use in the literature of theology, come to express condemnation to everlasting punishment. But in the English Bible they mean no more than is now expressed by ‘condemn’ or ‘condemnation.’ In some places a better translation than ‘condemnation’ is ‘judgment,’ as in ‘the resurrection of damnation’ (Gr. krisis, RV ‘judgment ‘). See Judgment.
Dan
According to the popular tradition, Dan was the fifth son of Jacob, and full brother of Naphtali, by Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid (, ). Rachel, who had no children, exclaimed dananni’ (‘God hath judged me’), and, therefore, he was called Dan. As in the case of so many names, this is clearly a ‘popular etymology.’ It is probable that Dan was an appellative, or titular attribute, of some deity whose name has not come down to us in connexion with it, or it may even be the name of a god as Gad was (cf. the Assyr. proper names Ashur-dan [‘Ashur is judge’], Aku-dana [‘the moon-god is judge’] of the period of Hammurabi). Its feminine counterpart is Dinah (Jacob’s daughter by Leah), which as the name of the half-sister of Dan is probably reminiscent of some related clan that early lost its identity.
Of this eponymous ancestor of the tribe tradition has preserved no details, but some of the most interesting stories of the Book of Judges tell of the exploits of the Oanite Samson, who, single-handed, wrought discomfiture in the ranks of the Philistines. These are heroic rather than historical tales, yet suggestive of the conditions that prevailed when the tribes were establishing themselves.
P makes Dan a large tribe. With his characteristic love of large numbers he gives the fighting strength of Dan in the Wilderness census as 62,700, more than that of any other except Judah (; cf . . Moab census). All the other data point in the opposite direction. J () speaks of it as a ‘family’ ; elsewhere Dan is said to have had only one son, Hushim or Shuham (. ). The tribe at first occupied the hill-country in the S. W. of Ephraim, and thence attempted to spread out into the valleys of Aijalon and Sorek. That it ever reached the sea, either here or in its later northern home, is unlikely, notwithstanding the usual interpretation of . a passage which yields no wholly satisfactory meaning. (But see Moore, Jiulges, ad loc). In this region the Danites were severely pressed by the ‘Amoritea’ = (Canaanites). The major portion were compelled to emigrate northward, where they found at the foot of Mt. Hermon an isolated city, Laish or Leshem, situated in a fertile tract of country (. ). This city with its unsuspecting inhabitants the Danites ruthlessly destroyed. A new city was built, to which they gave the name of Dan. In this colony there were only 600 armed men with their families. On their way thither they induced the domestic priest of an Ephraimite, Micah, to accompany them with his sacred paraphernalia, an ephod, a graven and a molten image, and the teraphim. These were duly installed in a permanent sanctuary, in which the descendants of Moses are said to have ministered until the Captivity (). That the remnant of the family left in the South was either destroyed by its enemies, or, more likely, absorbed by the neighbouring tribes, is made probable by , which ascribes the victory over their enemies to the ‘house of Joseph.’ says ‘Dan shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path’ ; and , ‘Dan is a lion’s whelp,’ etc. These characterizations are more applicable to a small tribe of guerilla fighters, versed in cunning strategy, wont to strike a quick blow from ambush at a passing troop, than they are to the more sustained measures of warfare of a large and powerful body. See also Tribes.
James A. Gbaiq.
Dan
A city in northern Palestine, once called Laish () or Leshem (). though the ancient record of the battle of four kings against five gives the later name (). It was a city remote from assistance, and therefore fell an easy prey to a band of marauding Danites, searching for a dwelling-place. It was in the north boundary of Palestine. The story of the Danites stealing the shrine of Micah is told to account for its sanctity, which Jeroboam i. recognized by setting up here one of his calf-shrines (). It was perhaps the same as Dan-jaan, one of the borders of Joab’s census district (). It was captured by Ben-hadad (I K ). It is identified with Tell el-Kadi on account of the similarity of meaning of the names (Arabic kadi = Hebrew dan=‘}udge’) — a very dangerous ground for such speculations. The site, however, would suit the geographical context of the narratives.
R. A. S. Macalisteb.
Dancing
See Games.
Daniel
1. Two passages in the Book of Ezekiel (14U-S0 28’), written respectively about b.c. 592 and 587, mention a certain Daniel as an extraordinarily righteous and wise man, belonging to the same class as Noah and Job, whose piety availed with God on behalf of their unworthy contemporaries. All three evidently belonged to the far-distant past : Ezeklel’s readers were familiar with their history and character. Daniel, occupying the middle place, cannot be conceived of as the latest of them. He certainly was not a younger man than the prophet who refers to him, as the hero of the Book of Daniel would have been. For makes the latter to have been carried into captivity in b.c. 606, a mere decade prior to . 2. See Abigail. 3. A priest who accompanied Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem (. ). He was head of his father’s house, and traced bis descent from Ithamar. At 1 Esdras 8:29 the name is spelled Gamdus or Gamael, which probably rests on a corrupt Heb. text. Driver (.Daniel, p. xviii.) notes that amongst his contemporaries were ‘a Hananiah (). a Mishael (). and an Azariah () but the coincidence is probably accidental.’ It is, however, quite as likely that the author of Dn. borrowed the three names from Nehemiah.
J. Taylor. DANIEL, BOOK OF.— 1. Authorship and Date.— The first six chapters of this book contain a series of narratives which tell of (o) the fidelity of Daniel and his friends to their religion, and (6) the incomparable superiority of their God to the deities of Babylon. The remaining six chapters relate four visions seen by Daniel and the interpretation of them. Chs. 1-6 speak of Daniel in the third person; in 7-12 he is the speaker (yet see ). But both parts are from the same pen, and the pH^A facie impression is that of an autobiography. Porphyry argued against this in the 3rd cent. A.D., and it is now generally abandoned, for such reasons as the following: (1) In the Jewish Canon Dn. stands in the third division, ‘the Writings.’ Had it been the production of a prophet of the 6th cent, it would have been put in the second division, ‘the Prophets.’ (2) Neither the man nor the book is mentioned in the list of Sir 44-50 (c. B.C. 200): and Sirach 49:15 seems to have been written by one who was not acquainted with the story. (3) There is no reason for believing that a collection of sacred writings, including Jer., had been formed in the reign of Darius, as is implied in . (4) The Heb. of Dn. is of a later type than even that of Chronicles. The Aramaic is a West-Syrian dialect, not in use at the Bab. court in the 6th century. More Persian words are employed than a Heb. author would be familiar with at the close of the Bab. empire. In a document composed prior to the Macedonian conquest we should not have found the three Greek words which are here used. (5) There are inaccuracies which a contemporary would have avoided. It is doubtful whether Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem in B.C. 606 (, ). The name ‘Chaldaeans’ as designating the learned class is a later usage (). Belshazzar was not ‘the king’ (). nor was Neb. his ancestor (S^- "). Darius the Mede never ‘received • the kingdom’ (). Xerxes did not follow Artaxerxes () but preceded him. (6) The relations between Syria and Egypt, from the 4th to the 2nd cents, b.c, are described with a fulness of detail which differentiates . 11 from all OT prophecy; see the precision with which the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes is related in ch. 11; the events from 323-175 occupy 16 verses; those from 175-164 take up 25; at v. 34 the lines become less definite, because this is the point at which the book was written; at V." prediction begins, and the language no longer , corresponds with the facts of history. There can be little doubt that Dn. appeared about b.c. 166. Its object was to encourage the faithful Jews to adhere to their religion, in the assurance that God would intervene. The unknown writer was intensely sure of the truths in which he believed: to him and to his readers the historical setting was but a framework. Not that he invented the stories. We saw in the preceding article that the exiled Jews knew of a Daniel, famous for piety and wisdom. Round his name, in the course of the ages, stories illustrative of these qualities had gathered, and the author of our book worked up the material afresh with much skill.
2. Language, Unity, Theology.— (1) From to is in AroTnaic. Four explanations have been offered : (a) This section was originally written in Aramaic, about B.C. 300, and incorporated, with additions, into the work of 166. (6) The corresponding portion of a Heb. original was lost and its place filled by an already current Aram, translation, (c) The author introduced the ‘Chaldees’ as speaking what he supposed was their language, and then continued to write it because it was more familiar than Heb. to himself and his readers. (d) The likeliest suggestion is that the entire book was Aramaic, but would not have found admission into the Canon if it had not been enclosed, so to speak, in a frame of Heb., the sacred language.
(2) The unity of the book has been impugned by many critics, but it is now generally agreed that the question is settled by the harmony of view and consistency of plan which bind the two halves together. The text has suffered more or less in l^"- , ,
f.:
(3) The theological features are what might be expected in the 2nd cent. B.C. Eschatology is prominent. The visions and their interpretations all culminate in the final establishment of the Kingdom of God. And in this connexion it should be mentioned that Dn. is the earliest example of a fully developed Apocalypse. The doctrine of the Resurrection is also distinctly asserted : individuals are to rise again; not all men, or even all Israelites, but the martyrs and the apostates. At no earlier period is there such an angelology. Watchers and holy ones determine the destinies of an arrogant king. Two angels have proper names, Gabriel and Michael. To each nation a heavenly patron has been assigned, and its fortunes here depend on the struggle waged by its representative above.
3. Text. — The early Church set aside the LXX in favour of the less paraphrastic version of Theodotion. In both translations are found the Additions to Daniel. (1) 67 verses are inserted after , consisting of (a) the Prayer of Azarias. (P) details concerning the heating of the furnace, (7) the Benedicite. These teach the proper frame of mind for all confessors, and dilate on the miraculous element in the Divine deliverance. (2) The History of Susanna, which demonstrates God’s protection of the unjustly accused and illustrates the sagacity in judgment of the youth who is rightly named Daniel, ‘El is my judge.’ (3) Bel and the Dragon, two tracts which expose the imbecility of idolatry, and bring out Daniel’s cleverness and God’s care for His servant in peril. Swete (Introd. to OT in Greek, p. 260) rightly remarks that internal evidence appears to show that (1) and (2) originally had a separate circulation.
J. Taylor.
Dan-jaan
Joab and his officers in taking the census came ‘to Dan-jaan and round about to Zidon’ (). No such place is mentioned anywhere else in OT, and it is generally assumed that the text is corrupt. It has indeed been proposed to locate Dan-jaan at a ruin N. of Achzib which is said to bear the name Khan Danidn; but this identification, although accepted by Conder, has not made headway. The reference is more probably to the city of Dan which appears so frequently as the northern limit of the kingdom.
Dannah
(). A town of Judah mentioned next to Debir and Socoh. It was clearly in the mountains S.W. of Hebron, probably the present Idhnah.
Daphne
A place mentioned in 2 Mae i^‘to which Onlas withdrew for refuge, but from which he was decoyed by Andronicus and treacherously slain. It is the mod. Beit el-Md (‘House of Waters’) about 5 miles from Antioch. Daphne was famous for its fountains, its temple in honour of Apollo and Diana, its oracle, and its right of asylum. (See Gibeon, Decline and Fall, c. xxiii.)
Dara
Dara (). See Darda.
Darda
Mentioned with Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, and Calcol as a son of Mahol, and a proverbial type of wisdom, but yet surpassed by Solomon (). In apparently the same four (Dara is probably an error for Darda) are mentioned with Zimri as sons of Zerah, the son of Judah by Tamar (). See also Mahol.
Daric
See Money, § 3.
Darius
1. Son of Hystaspes, king of Persia (B.C. 521-485), well known from the classical historian Herodotus, and, for the early part of his reign, from his own tri-lingual inscription on the rocks at Behistun. Ue allowed the Jews to rebuild the Temple. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah encouraged the people to go on with the work, and when Tattenai, the Persian governor of Syria, demanded their authority, they alleged a decree of Cyrus. On reference being made to Darius and the decree being found, the king confirmed it, and ordered facilities to be aflotded for the building. It was completed in the 6th year of his reign (. 5. 6, . Zee ). 2. Darius the Persian (Neh 12). Possibly Darius Codomannus, the last king of Persia (b.c. 336-330), 1 Maccabees 1:1. 3. ‘Darius’ in 1 Maccabees 12:7 (AV) is an error for the Spartan ‘Arius’ (wh. see). 4. ‘Darius the Mede’ (). son of Ahasuerus of the seed of the Medes (). is said () to have succeeded to the kingdom of Babylon after Belshazzar’s death, and to have been sixty-two years old when he received the kingdom. This account does not answer to what we kno* of any king called Darius. Gobryas was he who actually received the kingdom for Cyrus, entering Babylon on the 16th of Tammuz, four months before Cyrus made his triumphal entry. He too appointed governors in Babylon (cf. ). and seems from the Babylonian Chronicle to have been in the attack which resulted in Belshazzar’s death. Whether Gobryas is intended, whether Darius was another name of his, or whether some mistake has crept into the text, cannot be decided without fresh evidence. It is certain that no king of Babylon called Darius succeeded Belshazzar or preceded Cyrus.
C. H. W. Johns.
Darkness
See Light.
Darkon
His sons were among those who returned with Zerubbabel (. ) called in 1 Esdras 5:33 Lozon.
Dark Saying
See Parable (in OT), § 1.
Darling
‘Deliver my darling from the power of the dog’; 35" ‘rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions.’ The Heb. word (ydhldh) means an only son. In the Psalms it is used poetically of the psalmist’s own life, as his unique and priceless possession.
Dart
See Aemocr, Ahmb, § 1 (6).
Dates
See CmiONOLoaT.
Dathan
See Kohab.
Dathema
Dathema (1 Maccabees 5:9). A fortress in Bashan. It may perhaps be the modem DUmeh on the S. border of the Leja district, N. of Ashteroth-karnaim.
Daughter
See Family.
James Hastings (ed.), with John A. Selbie and John C. Lambert, Dictionary of the Bible (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909). Public domain. Scan of Cornell University Library’s copy from the Internet Archive; text from its OCR, with the Bible references read again from the page images.