Ships And Boats – Shophan

Ships And Boats

|| I. THE HEBREWS AND THE SEA

II. SHIPS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE APOCRYPHA

1. Among the Hebrews

(1) In Early Times

(2) During the Monarchy

(3) In Later Times

2. Among Neighboring Nations

(1) Egypt

(2) Assyria and Babylonia

(3) Phoenicia

3. General References

III. SHIPS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

1. In the Gospels

2. In the Ac of the Apostles

3. In Other Books

LITERATURE

In the Old Testament the following words are found:

(1) The word most commonly used in Hebrew for "a ship" is 'oniyah (Proverbs 30:19; Jonah 1:3,Jonah 1:4), of which the plural 'oniyoth is found most frequently (Judges 5:17; 1 Kings 22:48 f, and many other places).

The collective term for "a navy of ships" is 'oni (1 Kings 9:26 1 Kings 10:22, 'oni Tharshish, "a navy (of ships) of Tarshish"; but Isaiah 33:21, 'oni shayit, a "galley with oars").

(2) tsi (Numbers 24:24; Ezekiel 30:9; Isaiah 33:21), tsi 'addir, "gallant ship"; Daniel 11:30, tsiyim Kittim, "ships of Kittim.'

(3) cephinah, "innermost parts of the ship" the Revised Version (British and American), "sides of the ship" the King James Version (Jonah 1:5, the only place where the word is found).

In Apocrypha ploion, is the usual word (The Wisdom of Solomon 14:1; Ecclesiasticus 33:2, etc.), translated "vessel" in The Wisdom of Solomon 14:1, but "ship" elsewhere. For "ship" The Wisdom of Solomon 5:10 has naus. "Boat" in 2 Macc 12:3,6 is for skaphos, and "navy" in 1 Macc 1:17; 2 Macc 12:9; 14:1 for stolos. In The Wisdom of Solomon 14:6 Noah's ark is called a schedia, a "clumsy ship" (the literal translation "raft" in the Revised Version (British and American) is impossible).

In the New Testament there are four words in use:

(1) naus (Acts 27:41, the only place where it occurs, designating the large sea-going vessel in which Paul suffered shipwreck).

(2) ploiarion, "a little boat" (Mark 3:9 and two other places, John 6:22 John 21:8).

(3) ploion, "boat" (Matthew 4:21,Matthew 4:22 and many other places in the Gospels--the ordinary fishingboat of the Sea of Galilee rendered "boat" uniformly in the Revised Version (British and American) instead of "ship" the King James Version), "ship" (Acts 20:13, and all other places where the ship carrying Paul is mentioned, except Acts 27:41, as above). In James 3:4; Revelation 8:9; Revelation 18:17 ff, it is rendered "ship."

(4) skaphe, "boat" (Acts 27:16,Acts 27:30,Acts 27:32, where it means the small boat of the ship in which Paul was being conveyed as a prisoner to Rome).

Cognate expressions are: "shipmen," 'anshe 'oniyoth (1 Kings 9:27); nautai (Acts 27:27,Acts 27:30 the King James Version, "sailors" the Revised Version (British and American)); "mariners," mallachim (Jonah 1:15; Ezekiel 27:9,Ezekiel 27:27,Ezekiel 27:29), shaTim (Ezekiel 27:8 the King James Version, "rowers" the Revised Version (British and American); Ezekiel 27:26, the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)); "pilot," chobhel (Jonah 1:6; Ezekiel 27:8,Ezekiel 27:27,Ezekiel 27:28,Ezekiel 27:29); "sailing," "voyage," plous (Acts 21:7; Acts 27:9,Acts 27:10, the Revised Version (British and American) "voyage" in all verses).

I. The Hebrews and the Sea.

The Hebrews were a pastoral and agricultural people, and had no inducements to follow a seafaring life. They were possessed of a considerable seaboard along the Mediterranean, but the character of their coast gave little encouragement to navigation. The coast line of the land of Israel from Carmel southward had no bays and no estuaries or river-mouths to offer shelter from storm or to be havens of ships. Solomon landed his timber and other materials for the Temple at Joppa, and tradition has handed down what is called "Solomon's Harbor" there. The builders of the second temple also got timber from Lebanon and conveyed it to Joppa. It was Simon Maccabeus, however, who built its harbor, and the harbor at Joppa was "the first and only harbor of the Jews" (G. A. Smith, HGHL, 136). Caesarea in New Testament times was a place of shipping and possessed a harbor which Josephus declared to be greater than the Piraeus, but it was Herodian and more Greek and Roman than Jewish. It was mostly inhabited by Greeks (Josephus, BJ, III, ix, 1). Now Caesarea has disappeared; and Joppa has only an open roadstead where vessels lie without shelter, and receive and discharge cargo and passengers by means of boats plying between them and the shore. It was in other directions that Israel made acquaintance with the activities of the sea. Of internal navigation, beyond the fishing-boats on the Sea of Galilee which belong exclusively to the New Testament, the ferry boat on the Jordan (2 Samuel 19:18, `abharah) alone receives notice, and even that is not perfectly clear (the Revised Version margin "convoy," but a "ford" is doubtless meant). It is from Tyre and Egypt and even Assyria and Babylonia, rather than from their own waters, that the Hebrew prophets and psalmists drew their pictures of seafaring life.

II. Ships in the Old Testament and Apocrypha.

1. Among the Hebrews:

(1) In Early Times.

In the early books of the Old Testament there are references connecting certain of the tribes, and these northern tribes, with the activities of the sea. In the "Blessing of Jacob" and in the "Blessing of Moses" Zebulun and Issachar are so connected (Genesis 49:13; Deuteronomy 33:19); and in Deborah's Song, which is acknowledged to be a very early fragment of Hebrew literature, Da and Asher are also spoken of as connected with the life and work of the sea (Judges 5:17). The Oracle of Balaam (Numbers 24:24) looks forward to a day when a fleet from Kittim should take the sea for the destruction of Assyria. "Ships of Kittim" are mentioned in Daniel (11:30). Kittim is referred to in the three greater Prophets (Isaiah 23:1,Isaiah 23:12; Jeremiah 2:10; Ezekiel 27:6). The land of Kittim is Cyprus, and in the references in Isaiah it is associated with Tyre and the ships of Tarshish.

(2) During the Monarchy.

It is not till the time of the monarchy that the Hebrews begin to figure as a commercial people. Already in the time of David commercial relations had been established between Israel and Tyre (2 Samuel 5:11 f). The friendly cooperation was continued by Solomon, who availed himself not only of the cedar and the fir at Hiram's command on Lebanon, but also of the skilled service of Hiram's men to bring the timber from the mountains to the sea. Hiram also undertook to make the cedar and the fir into rafts (1 Kings 5:9, dobheroth, the King James Version "floats"; 2 Chronicles 2:16, raphcodhoth, "flotes" the King James Version, "floats" the Revised Version (British and American)) to go by sea and to deliver them to Solomon's men at the place appointed, which the Chronicler tells us was Joppa. From this cooperation in the building of the Temple there grew up a larger connection in the pursuit of sea-borne commerce. It was at Ezion-geber near to Eloth on the Red Sea, in the land of Edom which David had conquered, that Solomon built his fleet, "a navy of ships" (1 Kings 9:26–28). Hiram joined Solomon in these enterprises which had their center on the Red Sea, and thus the Phoenicians had water communication with the coasts of Arabia and Africa, and even of India. The same partnership existed for the commerce of the West. "For the king (Solomon) had at sea a navy of Tarshish with the navy of Hiram: once every three years came the navy of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" (1 Kings 10:22).

Tarshish is the name of the Phoenician colony on the river Tartessus, called also Baetis, the modern Guadalquivir. It was the farthest limit of the western world as known to the Hebrews. Attempts have been made to identify it with Tarsus of Cilicia, but they are not convincing. It is conceived of in Hebrew literature as remote (Isaiah 66:19; Jonah 1:3; Jonah 4:2), as rich (Psalms 72:10; Jeremiah 10:9), as powerful in commerce (Ezekiel 38:13). Ships of Tarshish were no doubt ships actually built for the Tarshish trade (2 Chronicles 20:36 Jonah 1:3), but the expression became a general designation for large sea-going vessels to any quarter. Ships of Tarshish made a deep impression upon the imagination of the Hebrew people. The Psalmist takes it as a proof of the power of Yahweh that He breaks the ships of Tarshish with an east wind (Psalms 48:7). Isaiah includes them among the great and lofty objects of power and glory which the terror of the Lord would certainly overtake (Isaiah 2:16). Ezekiel regards them as the caravans that bore the merchandise of the mistress of the sea (Ezekiel 27:25). It is in ships of Tarshish that the prophet of the Return sees the exiles borne in crowds to Jerusalem as their natural home (Isaiah 60:9).

From Solomon's time onward the kings of Judah retained their hold upon Eloth (1 Kings 22:48 2 Chronicles 20:35–37) till it was seized by the Syrians in the days of Ahaz (2 Kings 16:6).

(3) In Later Times.

As Solomon had the cooperation of Hiram in securing material and craftsmen for the building of the first Temple, so Joshua and Zerubbabel by the favor of Cyrus obtained timber from Lebanon, and masons and carpenters from Sidon and Tyre for the building of the second. Again, cedar trees were brought from Lebanon by sea to Joppa, and thence conveyed to Jerusalem (Ezra 3:7).

From Joppa Jonah fled to avoid compliance with God's command to go to Nineveh and preach repentance there (Jonah 1:1). He found a ship bound for Tarshish as far toward the West as Nineveh to the East. The fare (cakhar) paid by him as a passenger, the hold of the ship in which he stowed himself away (cephinah), the crew (mallachim) the captain or shipmaster (rabh ha-chobhel), the storm, the angry sea, the terrified mariners and their cry to their gods, and the casting of Jonah overboard to appease the raging waters--all make a lifelike picture.

It was in the time of Simon, the last survivor of the Maccabean brothers, that Joppa became a seaport with a harbor for shipping--"Amid all his glory he took Joppa for a haven, and made it an entrance for the isles of the sea" (1 Macc 14:5). When Simon reared his monument over the sepulcher of his father and brothers at Modin, he set up seven pyramids with pillars, upon which were carved figures of ships to be "seen of all that sail on the sea" (1 Macc 13:29). About this period we hear of ships in naval warfare. When Antiochus IV Epiphanes planned his expedition against Egypt, he had with other armaments "a great navy," presumably ships of war (1 Macc 1:17); and at a later time Antiochus VII speaks expressly of "ships of war" (1 Macc 15:3).

2. Among Neighboring Nations:

(1) Egypt.

The Egyptians, like other nations of antiquity, had a great horror of the open sea, although they were expert enough in managing their craft upon the Nile. Pharaoh-necoh built up a powerful navy to serve him both in commerce and in war.

See PHARAOH-NECOH.

Of explicit references to Egyptian ships in the Old Testament there are but few. Isaiah speaks of "vessels of papyrus upon the waters" of the Upper Nile, on board of which are the messengers of Cush or Ethiopia returning to tell the tidings of the overthrow of Assyria to the inhabitants of those remote lands (18:2 the King James Version has "bulrushes" instead of "papyrus"). Ezekiel also, foretelling the overthrow of Egypt, speaks of messengers traveling with the news on swift Nile boats to strike terror into the hearts of the "careless Ethiopians" (30:9). When Job compares his days to "the swift ships" ("the ships of reed" the Revised Version margin), the allusion is most likely to Egypt's, these being skiffs with a wooden keel and the rest of bulrushes, sufficient to carry one person, or at most two, and light, to travel swiftly (9:26).

(2) Assyria and Babylonia.

The Assyrians and Babylonians were mainly an inland people, but their rivers gave them considerable scope for navigation. The Assyrian monuments contain representations of naval engagements and of operations on the seacoast. When Isaiah pictures Yahweh as a better defense of Judah than the rivers and streams of Assyria and Egypt are to their people he says, "There Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars ('oni shayiT), neither shall gallant ship (tsi 'addir) pass thereby. .... Thy tacklings (ropes, cables) are loosed; they could not strengthen the foot of their mast, they could not spread the sail" (Isaiah 33:21,Isaiah 33:23). Speaking of Yahweh's wonders to be performed toward His people after Babylon had been overthrown, the prophet declares: "Thus saith Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I will bring down all of them as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships of their rejoicing" (Isaiah 43:14). In this case, however, the ships are not war ships, but more probably merchant ships, or ships for pleasure, sailing in the Euphrates.

(3) Phoenicia.

It was from the Phoenicians that the Mediterranean peoples learned seamanship and skill in navigation. It is fitting, therefore, that in his dirge over the downfall of the mistress of the sea, Ezekiel should represent Tyre as a gallant ship, well built, well furnished, and well manned, broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, fallen into the heart of the seas in the day of her ruin. Ezekiel's description (chapter 27, with Davidson's notes) brings together more of the features of the ship of antiquity than any other that has come down to us. Her builders have made her perfect in beauty with planks of fir or cypress, mast of cedar, oars of the oak of Bashan, benches or deck of ivory inlaid with boxwood, sail of fine linen with broidered work from Egypt, and an awning of blue and purple from the coastlands of Elisha (possibly Sicily). She is manned with oarsmen of Sidon and Arvad, pilots of the wise men of Tyre, calkers from Gebal to stop up the cracks and seams in her timbers, mariners and men of war from other lands who enhanced her beauty by hanging up the shield and helmet within her. She is freighted with the most varied cargo, the produce of the lands around, her customers, or as they are called, her traffickers, being Tarshish in the far West, Sheba and Arabia in the South, Haran and Asshur in the East, Javan, which is Greece, and Togarmah, which is Armenia, in the North. One or two of the particulars of this description may be commented upon.

(a) As regards rigging, the Phoenician ships of the time of Ezekiel, as seen in Assyrian representations, had one mast with one yard and carried a square sail. Egyptian ships on the Red Sea about the time of the Exodus, from reliefs of the XIXth Dynasty, had one mast and two yards, and carried also one large square sail. The masts and yards were made of fir, or of pine, and the sails of linen, but the fiber of papyrus was employed as well as flax in the manufacture of sail-cloth. The sail had also to serve "for an ensign" (lenes, Ezekiel 27:7). "The flag proper," says Davidson (ad loc.), "seems not to have been used in ancient navigation; its purpose was served by the sail, as for example at the battle of Actium the ship of Antony was distinguished by its purple sail."

(b) As regards the crew, in the two-banked Phoenician ship the rowers of the first bank work their oars over the gunwale, and those of the second through portholes lower down, so that each may have free play for his oar. The calkers were those who filled up seams or cracks in the timbers with tow and covered them over with tar or wax, after the manner of the instruction given to Noah regarding the Ark: "Thou .... shalt pitch it within and without with pitch" (Genesis 6:14).

(c) As regards cargo, it is to be noted that "the persons of men," that is, slaves, formed an article of merchandise in which Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, countries to the North, traded with Tyre.

3. General References:

Of general references to shipping and seafaring life there are comparatively few in the Old Testament. In his great series of Nature-pictures in Psalms 104:1–35, the Psalmist finds a place for the sea and ships (104:25 ff), and in Psalms 107:1–43 there is a picture of the storm overtaking them that go down to the sea in ships, and of the deliverance that comes to them when God "bringeth" them into their desired haven" (107:23 ff). In the Book of Proverbs the ideal woman who brings her food from far is like "the merchant ships" (31:14). In the same book the drunkard, because of his unnatural insensibility to danger, is likened to a man "that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast" (23:34); and among the inscrutable things of the world the writer includes "the way of a ship in the midst of the sea" (30:19). In Wisdom, human life is described "as a ship passing through the billowy water, whereof, when it is gone by, there is no trace to be found, neither pathway of its keel in the billows" (Wisd 5:10). The same book notes it as a striking example of the case of a divine and beneficent Providence that "men entrust their lives to a little piece of wood, and passing through the surge on a raft are brought safe to land" (Wisd 14:1-5). The Jews like the Egyptians and the Assyrians had a natural shrinking from the sea, and Ecclesiasticus interprets their feeling when he says: "They that sail on the sea tell of the danger thereof; and when we hear it with our ears, we marvel" (43:24).

III. Ships in the New Testament.

1. In the Gospels:

It is the fishing-boats of the Sea of Galilee which exclusively occupy attention in the Gospels. In the time of our Lord's ministry in Galilee the shores of the Sea were densely peopled, and there must have been many boats engaged in the fishing industry. Bethsaida at the northern end of the Lake and Tarichea at the southern end were great centers of the trade. The boats were probably of a size and build similar to the few employed on the Lake today, which are between 20 and 30 ft. in length and 7 ft. in breadth. The word "launch," of putting a boat or a ship into the sea, has disappeared from the Revised Version (British and American), except in Luke 8:22, where it is more appropriate to an inland lake. They were propelled by oars, but no doubt also made use of the sail when the wind was favorable (Luke 8:23), though the pictures which we have in the Gospels are mostly of the boatmen toiling in rowing in the teeth of a gale (Mark 6:48), and struggling with the threatening waves (Matthew 14:24). In the boat on which Jesus and the disciples were crossing the Lake after the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus was in the stern "asleep on the cushion" (Mark 4:38, the King James Version "a pillow"; Greek proskephalaion, "headrest"). More than once Jesus made special use of a boat. As He was by the seashore a great concourse of people from all parts made it desirable that "a small boat" (ploiarion) should be in attendance off the shore to receive Him in case of need, though He does not seem to have required it (Mark 3:9). On another occasion, when the crowds were still greater, He went into a boat and sat "in the sea" with the multitude on the sloping beach before Him (Mark 4:1; Luke 5:3). This boat is said in Luke's narrative to have been Simon's, and it seems from references to it as "the boat" on other occasions to have been generally at the disposal of Jesus.

2. In the Ac of the Apostles:

It is Paul's voyages which yield us the knowledge that we possess from Biblical sources of ships in New Testament times. They are recorded for us in the Ac by Luke, who, as Sir William Ramsay puts it, had the true Greek feeling for the sea (St. Paul the Traveler, 21). In Luke's writings there are many nautical terms, peculiar to him, used with great exactitude and precision.

When Paul had appealed to Caesar and was proceeding to Rome in charge of Julius, the centurion, along with other prisoners, a ship of Adramyttium, a coasting vessel, carried the party from Caesarea along the Syrian coast, northward of Cyprus, past Cilicia and Pamphylia, to Myra of Lycia. There the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing for Italy, one of the great corn fleet carrying grain from Egypt for the multitudes of Rome. (After the capture of Jerusalem the emperor Titus returned to Italy in such a vessel, touching at Rhegium and landing at Puteoil.) The size of the vessel is indicated by the fact that there were 276 persons on board, crew and passengers all told (Acts 27:37). Luke has made no note of the name of this or of the previous vessels in which Paul had voyaged. Of the presumably larger vessel, also an Alexandrian corn ship bound for Rome, which had wintered in Melita, and which afterward took on board the shipwrecked party (Acts 28:11), "the sign" (parasemon) is given, and she is called "The Twin Brothers." The expression shows that it was in painting or relief; a figurehead, with the Twin Brothers represented, would be given by episemon. The cargo (phortion, Acts 27:10, the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) "lading") in this case was wheat (Acts 27:38), but another word is used, gomos, by Luke of a ship's load of varied wares (Acts 21:3; compare Revelation 18:11).

Of those engaged in handling the ship we find (Acts 27:11) the master (kubernetes), the owner (naukleros, although this expression seems not quite consistent with the ownership of a grain ship of the imperial service, and Ramsay's distinction between the words, making the former "sailing-master" and the latter "captain," may be better), the sailors (Acts 27:30, who treacherously sought to lower the ship's boat on the pretense of laying out anchors from the "foreship" or prow, and to get away from the doomed vessel).

Of operations belonging to the navigation of the vessel in the storm there were

(1) the taking on board of the ship's boat and securing it with ropes (Acts 27:16, in which operation Luke seems to have taken part; compare Acts 27:32),

(2) the undergirding of the ship (Acts 27:17, using helps, that is taking measures of relief and adopting the expedient, only resorted to in extremities, of passing cables under the keel of the ship to keep the hull together and to preserve the timbers from starting),

(3) the lowering of the gear (Acts 27:17, reducing sail, taking down the mainsail and the main yard),

(4) throwing freight overboard and later casting out the tackling of the ship (Acts 27:19),

(5) taking soundings (Acts 27:28),

(6) letting go four anchors from the stern (Acts 27:29, stern-anchoring being very unusual, but a necessity in the circumstances),

(7) further lightening the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea (Acts 27:38),

(8) cutting the anchor cables, unlashing the rudders, hoisting up the foresail to the wind, and holding straight for the beach (Acts 27:40).

Of the parts of the ship's equipment there are mentioned "the sounding lead" (bolis, though it is the verb which is here used), "the anchors" (agkurai, of which every ship carried several, and which at successive periods have been made of stone, iron, lead and perhaps other metals, each having two flukes and being held by a cable or a chain), "the rudders" (pedalia, of which every ship had two for steering, which in this case had been lifted out of the water and secured by "bands" to the side of the ship and unlashed when the critical moment came), "the foresail" artemon, not the mainsail, but the small sail at the bow of the vessel which at the right moment was hoisted to the wind to run her ashore), and "the boat" (skaphe, which had been in tow in the wake of the vessel, according to custom still prevalent in those seas--coasting-vessels being sometimes becalmed, when the crew get into the small boat and take the ship in tow, using the oars to get her round a promontory or into a position more favorable for the wind). The season for navigation in those seas in ancient times was from April to October. During the winter the vessels were laid up, or remained in the shelter of some suitable haven. The reason for this was not simply the tempestuous character of the weather, but the obscuration of the heavens which prevented observations being taken for the steering of the ship (Acts 27:20).

3. In Other Books:

In 2 Corinthians 11:25 Paul mentions among sufferings he had endured for Christ's sake that thrice he had suffered shipwreck, and that he had been "a night and a day in the deep," implying that he had been in danger of his life clinging to a spar, or borne upon a hurriedly constructed raft. It may be a reminiscence of the sea when Paul in the very earliest of his Epistles (1 Thessalonians 4:16), speaking of the coming of the Lord, says "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout" en keleusmati), where the picture is that of the keleustes, giving the time to the rowers on board a ship. Although huperetes, was "an underrower" and huperesia, "the crew of a ship" as contrasted with kubernetes, "the sailing-master," the derived meaning of "servant" or "officer" has lost in the New Testament all trace of its origin (Matthew 5:25; Luke 1:2 and many passages; compare stellein, and sustellein, where the idea of "furling" or "shifting a sail" is entirely lost: 1 Corinthians 7:29; 2 Corinthians 8:20).

Figurative:

In Hebrews the hope of the gospel is figured as "an anchor .... sure and stedfast, and entering into that which is within the veil" (6:19, especially with Ebrard's note in Alford, at the place). James, showing the power of little things, adduces the ships, large though they be, and driven by fierce winds, turned about by a very small "rudder" (pedalion), as "the impulse of the steersman willeth" (James 3:4). In Revelation there is a representation of the fall of Babylon in language reminiscent of the fall of Tyre (Ezekiel 27:1–36), in which lamentations arise from the merchants of the earth who can no more buy her varied merchandise (ton gomon, "cargo" the Revised Version margin), and shipmasters and passengers and seafaring people look in terror and grief upon the smoke of her burning (Revelation 18:12–18).

LITERATURE.

The usual books on Greek and Roman antiquities furnish descriptions and illustrations. Works on the monuments like Layard, Nineveh, II, 379 ff; Maspero, Ancient Egypt and Assyria; Ball, Light from the East, and Reissner, Cairo Museum Catalogue, "Models of Ships and Boats," 1913, contain descriptions and figured representations which are instructive. On shipping and navigation in classical antiquity Smith of Jordanhill, Voyage and Shipwreck of Paul, is still the standard authority.

T. Nicol

Shisha

shi'-sha (shisha'): One of Solomon's officers of state (1 Kings 4:3).

Shishak

shi'-shak (shishaq (1 Kings 14:25); Sousakeim):

1. Shishak, 952-930 BC:

Sheshonk or Sheshenq I, as he is called on the monuments, the founder of the XXIInd Dynasty, was in all probability of Libyan origin. It is possible that his claim to the throne was that of the sword, but it is more likely that he acquired it by marriage with a princess of the dynasty preceding. On the death of Pasebkhanu II, the last of the kings of the XXIst Dynasty, 952 BC, Shishak ascended the throne, with an efficient army and a well-filled treasury at his command. He was a warlike prince and cherished dreams of Asiatic dominion.

2. Patron of Jeroboam:

He had not long been seated on the throne when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim, whom Solomon had promoted but afterward had cause to suspect, fled from the displeasure of his sovereign to the court of Shishak (1 Kings 11:26). There Jeroboam remained till the death of Solomon, when he returned to Canaan, and, on Rehoboam's returning an unsatisfactory answer to the people's demands for relief from their burdens, headed the revolt of the Ten Tribes, over whom he was chosen king with his capital at Shechem (1 Kings 12:25). Whether there was not in the XXIst Dynasty some kind of suzerainty of Egypt over Palestine, when Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter and received with her Gezer as a dowry, seems not to be clearly established. It is, however, natural that Jeroboam's patron in the day of adversity should take sides with him against Rehoboam, now that the kingdom was divided. Active support of Jeroboam would be in the line of his dreams of an eastern empire.

3. Syrian Campaign:

So it came to pass that in the 5th year of Rehoboam, Shishak came up against Jerusalem with 1,200 chariots, and 60,000 horsemen, and people without number out of Egypt, the Libyans, Sukkiim, and Ethiopians, and took the fenced cities of Judah, and came to Jerusalem. At the preaching of the prophet Shemaiah, Rehoboam and his people repented, and Jerusalem was saved from destruction, though not from plunder nor from servitude, for he became Shishak's servant (2 Chronicles 12:8). Shishak took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, carrying off among the most precious of the spoils all the shields of gold which Solomon had made (1 Kings 14:25 2 Chronicles 12:1–9). From the Scripture narrative it does not appear that there was any occupation of Palestine by the Egyptian forces on this occasion.

4. Shishak's Record at Karnak:

There is, however, a remarkable contemporary record of the campaign engraved on the south wall of the Temple of Amon at Karnak by Shishak himself. Not only is the expedition recorded, but there is a list of districts and towns of Palestine granted to his victories by Amon-Ra and the goddess of Thebes engraved there. A number of towns mentioned in the Book of Jos have been identified; and among the names of the list are Rabbath, Taanach, Gibeon, Mahanaim, Beth-horon and other towns both of Israel and Judah. That names of places in the Northem Kingdom are mentioned in the list does not imply that Shishak had directed his armies against Jeroboam and plundered his territories. It was the custom in antiquity for a victorious monarch to include among conquered cities any place that paid tribute or was under subjection, whether captured in war or not; and it was sufficient reason for Shishak to include these Israelite places that Jeroboam, as seems probable, had invited him to come to his aid. Among the names in the list was "Jud-hamalek"--Yudhmalk on the monuments--which was at first believed to represent the king of Judah, with a figure which passed for Rehoboam. Being, however, a place-name, it is now recognized to be the town Yehudah, belonging to the king. On the death of Shishak his successor assumed a nominal suzerainty over the land of Canaan.

LITERATURE.

Flinders Petrie, History of Egypt, III, 227 ff; Maspero, Struggle of the Nations, 772 ff; Nicol, Recent Archaeology and the Bible, 222-25.

T. Nicol

Shitrai

shit'-ri, shit-ra'-i, shit'-ra-i (shiTray): A Sharonite, David's chief shepherd (1 Chronicles 27:29).

Shittah; Tree; Shittim Wood

shit'a, (shiTTah; Septuagint xulon asepton; the Revised Version (British and American) ACACIA TREE (Isaiah 41:19)); (`ace shiTTim; the Revised Version (British and American) ACACIA WOOD (Exodus 25:5,Exodus 25:10,Exodus 25:13; Exodus 26:15,Exodus 26:26; Exodus 27:1,Exodus 27:6; Deuteronomy 10:3)): The word was originally shinTah, derived from the Arabic sanT, now a name confined to one species of acacia, Acacia nilotica (Natural Order, Leguminosae), but possibly was once a more inclusive term. The Acacia nilotica is at present confined to the Sinaitic peninsula and to Egypt. Closely allied species, the Acacia tortilis and Acacia seyal, both classed together under the Arabic name sayyal, are plentiful in the valleys about the Dead Sea from Engedi southward. Those who have ridden from `Ain Jidy to Jebel Usdum will never forget these most striking features of the landscape. They are most picturesque trees with their gnarled trunks, sometimes 2 ft. thick, their twisted, thorny branches, which often give the whole tree an umbrella-like form, and their fine bipinnate leaves with minute leaflets. The curiously twisted pods and the masses of gum arabic which exude in many parts are also peculiar features. The trees yield a valuable, hard, close-grained timber, not readily attacked by insects.

E. W. G. Masterman

Shittim

shit'-im (ha-shiTTim, "the acacias"; Sattein):

(1) This marked the last camping-ground of Israel before they crossed the Jordan to begin the conquest of Western Palestine. Here it was that the people fell into the snare set for them by the satanic counsel of Balaam, who thus brought upon them greater evil than all his prohibited curses could have done (Numbers 25:1 Numbers 31:16). In Numbers 33:49 it is called Abel-shittim. It was from Shittim that Joshua sent the spies to view out the land and Jericho (Joshua 2:1); and from this point the host moved forward to the river (Joshua 3:1). The place is mentioned by Micah in a passage of some difficulty (Joshua 6:5): after "what Balaam the son of Beor answered," perhaps some such phrase as "remember what I did" has fallen out. This would then be a reference to the display of divine power in arresting the flow of Jordan until the host had safely crossed. Josephus places the camp "near Jordan where the city Abila now stands, a place full of palm trees" (Ant., IV, viii, 1). Eusebius, Onomasticon says Shittim was near to Mt. Peor (Fogor). It may possibly be identical with Khirbet el-Kefrain, about 6 miles South of the Jordan, on the lip of Wady Seiseban, where there are many acacias.

(2) In Joel 3:18 we read of the valley of Shittim which is to be watered by a fountain coming forth of the house of the Lord. It must therefore be sought on the West of the Jordan. The waters from the Jerusalem district are carried to the Dead Sea down the Wady which continues the Brook Kidron: Wady en-Nar. The acacia is found plentifully in the lower reaches of this valley, which may possibly be intended by the prophet.

W. Ewing

Shiza

shi'-za (shiza; Saiza): A Reubenite, one of David's leading warriors (1 Chronicles 11:42).

Shoa

sho'-a (shoa`; Soue): A people named in Ezekiel 23:23 in association with Babylonians, Chaldeans and Assyrians. Schrader identifies with the Sutu of the inscriptions (East of the Tigris).

Shobab

sho'-bab (~shobhabh]; Sobab):

(1) One of the sons of David (2 Samuel 5:14; 1 Chronicles 3:5; 1 Chronicles 14:4).

(2) A son of Caleb (1 Chronicles 2:18).

Shobach

sho'-bak (shobhakh; Sobak): Captain of the Syrian host (2 Samuel 10:16,2 Samuel 10:18); but "Shophach" (shophakh) in 1 Chronicles 19:16,1 Chronicles 19:18.

Shobai

sho'-bi, sho-ba'-i, sho'-ba-i (shobhay; Codex Vaticanus Abaou; Codex Alexandrinus Lucian, Sobai): The head of one of the families which returned from the Babylonian captivity (Ezra 2:42; Nehemiah 7:45).

Shobal

sho'-bal (shobhal, "overflowing"; Sobal, with variants):

(1) An Edomite name mentioned in connection with Lotan, Zibeon and Anah, as that of a "son" of Seir (Genesis 36:20), the father of a clan (Genesis 36:23), and a Horite "duke" ('alluph) (Genesis 36:29; 1 Chronicles 1:38,1 Chronicles 1:40).

(2) A Calebite, the father (possibly of the inhabitants) of Kiriath-jearim (1 Chronicles 2:50,1 Chronicles 2:52).

(3) A Judahite, perhaps to be identified with (2) above (1 Chronicles 4:1 f).

Shobek

sho'-bek (shobheq; Sobek): One of those who sealed the covenant under Nehemiah after the Babylonian captivity (Nehemiah 10:24).

Shobi

sho'-bi (shobhi; Ouesbei): One of those who remained faithful to David during the rebellion of Absalom (2 Samuel 17:27).

Shochoh

sho'-ko (sokhoh, Codex Vaticanus Sokchoth; Codex Alexandrinus Okcho): This in 1 Samuel 17:1 the King James Version is a variant of SOCOH (which see).

Shoe; Shoe-Latchet

shoo, shoo'-lach-et (na`al, literally, "that which is fastened," with denominative verb na`al, "to provide with shoes" (2 Chronicles 28:15; Ezekiel 16:10); hupodema (Sirach 46:19; Matthew 3:11, etc.), from the verb hupodeo (Mark 6:9; Ephesians 6:15), "to bind under," sandalion, "sandal" (Judith 10:4; 16:9; Mark 6:9; Acts 12:8); the King James Version, the Revised Version margin also have "shoe" for min`al, "bar" (so the Revised Version (British and American) text) in Deuteronomy 33:25; the "latchet" is either serokh, "twisted thing" (Genesis 14:23; Isaiah 5:27), or himas, "leather thong" (Mark 1:7; Luke 3:16; John 1:27)): The na`al was a simple piece of leather tied on the foot with the serokh, so easy of construction that its low cost was proverbial (Amos 2:6; Amos 8:6; /RAPC Sir 46:19; compare Genesis 14:23), and to be without it was a sign of extreme poverty (2 Chronicles 28:15; Isaiah 20:2). Women, however, might have ornamental sandals (Song of Songs 7:1; /RAPC Jdt 16:9), and Ezekiel names "sealskin" (16:10) as a particularly luxurious material, but the omission of sandals from the list of Isaiah 3:18–23 shows that they were not commonly made articles of great expense. The hupodema was likewise properly a sandal, but the word was also used to denote a shoe that covered the foot. The contrast between hupodema in Matthew 10:10 and sandalion in Mark 6:9 seems to show that this meaning is not unknown in the New Testament, the "shoe" being regarded as an article of luxury (compare Luke 15:22). But in Matthew 3:11 and parallel's, only the sandal can be meant.

Sandals were not worn indoors, so that putting them on was a sign of readiness for activity (Exodus 12:11; Acts 12:8; Ephesians 6:15), the more wealthy having them brought (Matthew 3:11) and fastened (Mark 1:7 and parallel's) by slaves. When one entered a house they were removed; all the more, naturally, on entering a sanctuary (Exodus 3:5; Joshua 5:15; Acts 7:33). Mourners, however, did not wear them even out of doors, as a sign of grief (Ezekiel 24:17,Ezekiel 24:23), perhaps for the same reason that other duties of the toilet were neglected (2 Samuel 12:20, etc.). A single long journey wore out a pair of sandals (Joshua 9:5,Joshua 9:13), and the preservation of "the latchet of their shoes" from being broken (Isaiah 5:27) would require almost miraculous help.

Ruth 4:7 f states as a "custom in former times in Israel," that when any bargain was closed "a man drew off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor." This was of course simply a special form of earnest-money, used in all transactions. In Deuteronomy 25:9 f the custom appears in a different light. If a man refused to perform his duty to his deceased brother's wife, the elders of the city were to remove his shoe and disgrace him publicly, "And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed." The removal of the shoe is apparently connected with the rite in Ruth 4:7 as a renunciation of the man's privilege. But the general custom seems to have become obsolete, for the removal of the shoe is now a reproach. The meaning of Psalms 60:8 parallel 108:9, "Upon (margin "unto") Edom will I cast my shoe," is uncertain. `al, may mean either "upon" or "unto." If the former, some (otherwise unsubstantiated) custom of asserting ownership of land may be meant. If the latter, the meaning is "Edom I will treat as a slave," to whom the shoes are cast on entering a house.

Burton Scott Easton

Shoham

sho'-ham (shoham, "onyx"; Codex Vaticanus Isoam; Codex Alexandrinus Issoam): One of the sons of Merari (1 Chronicles 24:27).

Shomer

sho'-mer (shomer):

(1) The father of one of the conspirators who killed Joash (2 Kings 12:21).

See SHIMEATH.

(2) One of the sons of Heber of the tribe of Asher (1 Chronicles 7:32).

See SHEMER.

Shophach

sho'-fak.

See SHOBACH.

Shophan

sho'-fan (shophan).

See ATROTH-SHOPHAN.