NOTES
NOTES
TALES OF THE FAR-OFF DAYS.
Shinar. A part of the great plain of Babylon (the Babel of the story). On this plain great towers of bricks, once temples of the gods, are found. This story seems to be told about one of these great towers.
RUTH.
Moab lies across the Dead Sea from Judah. One can see its hills from the heights about Bethlehem, and to this day grain is brought across from its fields and sold in Jerusalem.
Kinsman. In the East the duty of caring for the family was very sacredly held. If a person was injured, he must be avenged by his kinsman. If he became poor, his kinsman must aid him. If he was obliged to sell land, his kinsman should buy it if he could, so that it need not go out of the family. According to one set of Hebrew laws, should a married man die without children, it was the duty of a kinsman to marry his widow, as Boaz did Ruth.
DEBORAH.
All the story of Deborah falls in the northern part of Israel. Zebulon and Naphtali were in the Northern hills, which in the New Testament time were called Galilee, where Jesus lived. The river Kishon flowed through a plain just to the south of the hills, in the [{488}] territory of Asher. Dan and Asher also lay in the Northern hills, and Issachar south of Naphtali and Zebulon. Gilead and Machir were across the Jordan from Issachar. The people in the south of Palestine were not concerned in this war. It brought out the heroism of a few of the people of Israel, but the rest were either too cowardly or too far away to take part in it.
Shamgar. One of the judges preceding Deborah.
ESTHER.
Ahasuerus, the king who is called Xerxes in Greek, and who invaded Greece. The heroic little nation of the Greeks conquered his great army, and he went back to his huge empire of Persia with no gain or glory. He was luxurious and selfish. The picture of him in this story is like that given everywhere else. He was only great because he ruled a great kingdom, and he was not noble in any way.
Shushan, the capital of ancient Persia, then the center of the power and commerce of the world, as the capital of the greatest nation always was. During the Bible times the great empires were Babylon, Assyria, then Babylon again, Persia, Greece, Rome. During much of the time the second great power of the world was Egypt.
Tebeth, a month corresponding to parts of December and January. The Jewish year began in the early spring, and Tebeth was the tenth month.
Purim, a feast kept before the New Testament time. Later, when the Jews were hated and shamefully abused by Christians, Purim was a favorite feast, because it gave great opportunity for the Jews to express their contempt for their oppressors. It was always a noisy and joyful feast. The book of Esther was read in the synagogues, and whenever the name of Haman was pronounced in the reading, the boys rapped on the floors and benches, making a great noise. It came, as the story of Esther tells, in the middle of Adar, which is in February and March.
JUDITH.
Apocrypha. The name given to a collection of books of various kinds, long used as a part of the Old Testament, and still so regarded by the Catholic church. They were not held to be sacred by the Jews, but were by the early church. They contain histories, tales, books of wisdom and good advice. Some of the histories, like that of the Maccabees in this volume, are excellent and keep close to truth, but some of the tales, while stories of great interest, do not pretend to be exact statements of fact. Such is this story of Judith. All of them, however, are written to show some character of heroism or goodness. This story of Judith is a stirring tale of bravery. Bravery is something that men and women, boys and girls, all need to learn.
Holofernes, called a general of Nebuchadnezzar in the story. A king named Orophernes was the friend of a later king who was an enemy of the Jews. This may be the origin of the name.
Asher, a tribe of Israel living in Northern Palestine.
Dotaea, the Dothan of the Old Testament.
Geba, a common name of towns in Palestine. It means "hill." This Geba was about three miles north of Samaria.
Scythopolis. The Bethshan of the Old Testament, about three miles from the river Jordan.
Bethulia. A town near Dothan, the site not known. It may be that, in an original form of the story, some other place was named, possibly Samaria or Jerusalem.
Children of Esau. Edomites, who were long at sharp enmity with the Jews.
STORIES OF ELIJAH AND ELISHA.
Cherith, thought by some to be the Wady Kelt, one of the deep narrow valleys between Jerusalem and the Jordan, where the land is uninhabited, all a mass of rock and steep mountain and desert.
Zarephath, a village on a promontory by the shore, about eight miles south of Zidon.
Zidon. One of the great cities of commerce in the ancient world. It traded with Egypt, Greece, Carthage, and even distant Spain. It is still a town of some importance, with ruins of the ancient walls and towers about the harbor.
Baal and Asherah. Symbols of the Canaanite and Phoenician gods. The people had worshiped the Canaanite gods, or Baals, ever since they came to Palestine, and the prophets had tried to get them to worship only Jehovah, but without entire success. In the time of Elijah the wicked Jezebel was queen. She had come from Phoenicia, the land of Tyre and Zidon, and did all she could to increase the Baal worship. How Elijah fought against it is told in one of these stories.
Jezreel. A beautiful town northeast of Samaria, for a time a royal residence.
Samaria. The capital of Northern Israel during the latter part of its history. It was situated on a hill at the head of a beautiful valley, and was an important town for a long time.
Gilgal. The name of several places in Palestine. This Gilgal seems to have been not far from Bethel.
Shunem. A village not far from Jezreel, near Mount Tabor.
Mount Carmel. The only mountain that runs out to the Mediterranean in the land of Israel. From its top one can look in all directions over the land and the sea, for it stands with the sea on the west and a great plain on all other sides.
BETHLEHEM.
This picture shows the outer walls of the famous Church of the Nativity.
Syria was for a time a kingdom stronger than Israel. Its capital was at the famous old city of Damascus.
Abana and Pharpar are rivers which flow from the mountains past Damascus, giving it water and fertility in the midst of a plain that is almost a desert. So the people of Damascus are very proud of their rivers.
Rimmon. The god that Naaman's king worshiped, and to whom Naaman had to bow down when he attended the king in the temple.
TALES OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE.
JONAH.
Nineveh. The greatest, most hated city in the ancient world. It was the center of more barbaric cruelty in both war and peace than any other place. This story shows that God cares even for the people of a wicked place like Nineveh.
Tarshish. Probably in Spain.
SAMSON.
Timnah. On the south side of the valley of Sorek, in the western part of Palestine, northeast of Jerusalem. The whole story of Samson is laid in this region, between Jerusalem and Joppa.
Philistines. A people which had taken the plains west of the hills of Judaea, and for a long time were the rivals and enemies of Israel.
Nazirite. A man who had taken a vow not to cut his hair, not to eat grapes or drink wine, and not to touch a dead body. It was one way of expressing devotion to God.
Dagon. The god of the Philistines.
DANIEL.
Pulse. A sort of pea; good, healthy food, but not delicate or luxurious.
Chaldeans. Usually the people of Babylon. In Daniel, however, it means a class of people who practiced sorcery.
Medes. The Persians and Medes were combined into the Persian empire. It was they who took Babylon, and put an end to the Babylonian empire, though the city of Babylon was still for many hundred years a great center of commerce and of learning.
NEHEMIAH.
Shushan. See notes on Esther.
Chislev. A month corresponding to parts of November and December. Nisan corresponds to parts of March and April.
Artaxerxes. King of Persia, the son of the Xerxes of the story of Esther.
Tirshatha. An officer of the empire, appointed for a special service.
Feast of Booths. One of the three great feasts of the Hebrews. It was a joyful feast, a thanksgiving time. During the feast the people lived in booths, from which comes the name.
THE STORY OF THE DIVIDED KINGDOM.
Ethiopians. Just at this time the people of the distant south ruled Egypt, and they were known as Ethiopians.
Asherim, Asheroth. (See note on Elijah and Elisha.) The name Asheroth is formed as though there were a goddess Asherah.
Ships of Tarshish. That is, ships like those which were built to go to Tarshish in Spain; just as ships built like those that sailed to East India used to be called Indiamen.
Ophir. A place from which gold and other things were brought. Where it was is still unknown.
Valley of Salt. The valley of the Dead Sea. Its southern part is full of places where salt is found.
Assyria. This great empire, with its capital at Nineveh on the Tigris, was for a long time greatly feared by Israel. It kept all the small nations about under tribute, and was very cruel in all its wars, so that when, after several generations, it fell, there was great rejoicing.
Carchemish. A town on the Euphrates, which was often the scene of great battles.
Bethel and Dan were the two extremes of the northern kingdom of Israel. Both had perhaps been sacred places long before.
Tirzah. A town in a beautiful situation, the capital of North Israel from the time of Jeroboam till the time of Omri, who built Samaria.
TALES OF THE MACCABEES.
Kingdom of the Greeks. Alexander the Great conquered all western Asia as far as the borders of India. After his death the empire was divided among his generals. One of the divisions became the kingdom of Syria, and it was Syria that ruled over Judaea in the time of this heroic story. Because the kingdom began with the Greek rule, and still kept more or less of the Greek customs and religion, it was still called the kingdom of the Greeks.
Modin. A town below the hills of Judaea, to the west, not mentioned in either the Old or the New Testament.
Beth-horon. A valley leading west from the hills of Judaea, somewhat north of Jerusalem. In the early wars of Joshua and the Judges this was also the scene of many battles.
Bethsura. A town in the mountains not far from Hebron. It had long been a fortress of Judaea.
Azotus and Askelon. Towns in the southwest of Judah.
RUINS OF BETH-EL.
Situated high up on the central range of Palestine, Bethel was from the earliest times a "holy place." It reached the height of its importance under the reign of Jeroboam II., who made it the religious capital of the northern kingdom, and instituted there the worship of the golden calves.
