[588] ‘Les Figures de l’Histoire d’après la Bible,’ &c. (the Athenæum, Feb. 31, 1880). ‘Lahat’ (the Germ. lohe, our ‘low’ or ‘lowe’) is in the singular a ‘flame’; in the plural ‘spells, enchantments by drugs,’ &c.
[589] Mr. Gerald Massey would identify the Jewish Chereb, like the Phœnician Hereba and the Greek Harpé, with the Egyptian Kherp,
, the sign of majesty typified by an oar or rather paddle—
. Thus the Kherp first cut the water like a propeller, then the grain as a sickle, and at last it became a Sword—the reaper of men. This is ingenious, but nothing more: the white arm in Egypt shows no sign of derivation from the oar.
[590] So Jeanne d’Arc’s Sword was taken from a church, as will appear in Part II.
[591] Tacitus (Hist. v. 13) calls them a ‘band of murderers.’ The ominous word ‘Sicarius’ first occurs in Jewish history during Josephus’ time (Bell. Jud. iv. 7; vii. 11). St. Paul was charged by Lysias with heading four thousand Sicarii, who at great feasts murdered their victims with concealed daggers. Also forty Sicarii bound themselves by the Cherem-oath (the original ‘Boycotting’) to slay Paul. The Sica or Sicca will be noticed in another chapter.
[592] The Machabæan epoch is interesting, because during it the idea of a ‘resurrection’ was established. The word should be written ‘Makabi’ if derived from Mi Kamo Ka Baalim Yahveh (Ex. xv. 11).
[593] The number is given in Chronicles (1, xxi. 5) at one million five hundred and seventy thousand without including Levi and Benjamin. Many attempts have been made to reconcile the little difference of two hundred and seventy thousand souls.