flight by the enemy. This disaster alarmed the Hebrew leader; and he besought Jehovah in the most earnest terms to have mercy on his people. A Divine communication informed him that the cause of this misfortune was the "taking of the accursed thing," and he was ordered to "sanctify the people." Joshua immediately assembled the people, and Achan was discovered to be the transgressor. There are various opinions as to the manner in which the discovery was made on this occasion. Le Clerc contends that the high priest Eleazar stood in his pontifical garments, and pronounced what Jehovah had suggested to him. The rabbins allege that every tribe was made to pass before the ark, and that the guilty tribe stood still before it, unable to move themselves out of the place. Others contend that every tribe passed separately before the high priest, who was arrayed in his breastplate, and that the tribe of Judah was discovered to be guilty, because the sound of the precious stone in the pectoral, on which the name of that tribe was engraven, ceased immediately. But it is most probable that the usual method was followed, and that they cast lots to discover first the tribe, then the family, next the household, and lastly the individual.

Joshua addressed Achan in mild and affectionate language to confess his crime. "My son," he said, "give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him." It has been argued that this passage intimates the immortality of the soul, as Achan would not be induced by any other consideration to confess a crime which he knew would subject him to capital punishment, and it is the opinion of the Jews that God will pardon crimes in the world to come, when the guilty person confesses and suffers death for them. Achan acknowledged that he had appropriated the Babylonian garment and the gold and silver, which he informed Joshua were concealed in the ground under his tent. Joshua immediately passed sentence upon him, and they took him, “and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones." A heap of stones was raised over the place to commemorate the event.

Some commentators contend that the stoning of Achan was nothing else than this heap of stones raised over his ashes, but it is probable that he was bound to a stake to be burnt, and stoned to death at the same time, which is a common punishment inflicted on offenders in oriental countries; or, that he was literally stoned to death, then burnt, and this heap of stones thrown upon his ashes as a mark of the detestation in which the Israelites held his crime. It has also been doubted whether we are to understand the inspired historian as intimating that Achan's sons and daughters were put to death with him. It

is certain that the Mosaic law enjoins that "the fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children for the fathers, but that every man shall be put to death for his own sin;" and some of the Talmudists, in order to reconcile this just statute with the destruction of Achan's family, assure us that they were accomplices in his crime, because it was impossible to conceal in his tent what he had stolen without their knowledge. Others assert that the intimation" and they stoned them," as it is in the Hebrew, and not "him," as is our translation— refers to Achan and his cattle, and that his sons and daughters were brought forth to receive Joshua's exhortations with the rest of the people that they should avoid such crimes as that for which Achan was punished, and not with any design to put them to death with their father. The rabbins also tell us that Achan was burnt as a sacrilegious person, and stoned to death for breaking the Sabbath, and committing the theft on that day; and it is doubtless true that sacrilege was punished by burning, and the breach of the Sabbath in the wilderness by stoning to death; but the inspired historian clearly intimates that his family were punished with him as privy to his crime. As the case of Achan was a singular one, it is probable that it was determined precisely by the declared law, and we may safely conclude that the severity of the punishment was necessary to keep the Hebrews in awe, and to enforce upon them an entire submission to the Divine commands. ACHBOR, ak ́-bůr, father of Baal-hanan, king of Edom, Gen. xxxvi. 38. Also an officer of king Josiah, 2 Kings xxii. 14. Also father of Elnathan, Jer. xxvi. 22.

ACHIM, à'-kim, son of Zadok, father of Ehud, of the tribe of Judah and family of David, in the genealogy of our Saviour, Matt. i. 14.

ACHISH, a'-kish, the king of Gath, to whom David fled for refuge to escape Saul's designs against his life. It is not a little surprising that David, who was held by the Philistines as their greatest enemy, should have trusted himself in the hands of Achish, and even carry the sword of Goliath with him. He could never suppose for a moment that he would not be known at Gath; and he appears to have thought that Achish would be glad of an opportunity to attach a man of his own importance to his interest. In this he calculated rightly, as we find Achish giving him a very kind reception when he fled to him a second time. David, however, on this occasion was exposed to the machinations of the king's officers at Gath, who told Achish that this was the same David who was well known for the injuries he had inflicted on their nation. David became so terrified at the probable result of this information that he feigned himself mad until he had an opportunity of effecting his escape. The rabbins tell us that David wrote these words upon the doors of the city-"Achish, king of Gath, owes me an hundred million pieces of gold;" but this is one of their idle fancies. We are

informed that he "let his spittle fall on his beard," in other words, he foamed at the mouth, and it is well known that the ancients were afraid of persons in that condition.

Some years afterwards David sent to Achish to offer his service, and to request his protection, which was granted, and he was allowed to proceed to Gath with six hundred men and their wives and children. It is not certain whether this was the same Achish or his son. When he had continued there for some time, David desired Achish to allot to him a town in the country as a residence for himself and his followers, and the king immediately gave him Ziklag, which had been first given to the tribe of Judah, and afterwards to that of Simeon, but the Philistines had taken and kept possession of it, till it became the peculiar inheritance of David and his successors even after the division of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. From this place David made frequent excursions with his followers, and plundered the inhabitants of the adjacent districts, the Geshurites, Gezerites, and Amalekites, "saving neither man nor woman alive." During these excursions he made Achish believe that he was plundering the country of Judah. Two years afterwards, when the Philistines were about to take the field against the Israelites, Achish summoned David to attend him in the battle, and told him that his confidence was so great in him that he could trust him with his life; but the Philistine leaders, who dreaded that David might abandon them in the heat of the battle, advised the king to dismiss him, which he did with great reluctance, assuring David at the same time in the strongest language that he had no doubt of his integrity. David was doubtless well-pleased to be relieved from the disagreeable condition in which he was placed by his alliance with Achish; for if he had continued in the Philistine army, though he might have taken no part against his own countrymen, it would have been a great obstacle to his | obtaining the kingdom. David returned to Ziklag on the morning after he had been reluctantly dismissed by Achish, which he found had been plundered during his absence by the Amalekites. After this we have no account of Achish, and we find David remaining with him only a short time after the battle of Gilboa, which terminated fatally to Saul and his sons, and he removed from Ziklag to Hebron in the tribe of Judah. 1 Sam. xxi. 10-15, xxvii.-xxix.

ACHMETHA, ak'-me-tha, the Ecbatana of ancient Media, the city where the records of that kingdom were preserved. It is said, in Ezra vi. 2, in reference to the record of the decree of Cyrus respecting the house of God at Jerusalem, "There was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record written." The word Achmetha is explained in the marginal reading of our Bibles to denote "a coffer," or it may be an office for records; but it evidently is a designation of Ecbatana, from the cir

|

cumstance recorded by Ezra, that after a vain and fruitless search had been made at Babylon for the important decree, it was discovered among the records at Ecbatana, which it is well known was the summer residence of the Persian monarchs. This is confirmed by the writer of the first book of Esdras, or Ezra, the name being exactly similar. In compliance with the letter of Sisinnes, governor of Syria and Phoenicia, about 519 B. C., representing the proceedings of the Jews in rebuilding the temple, and requesting the king, before he interfered to prevent or stop them, to "let search be made among the records of King Cyrus, and if it be found that the building of the house of the Lord at Jerusalem hath been done with the consent of King Cyrus, and if our lord the king be so minded, let him signify unto us thereof; then commanded king Darius to seek among the records at Babylon; and so at Ecbatana the palace, which is in the country of Media, there was found a roll wherein these things were recorded," 1 Esdras vi. 21, 22, 23. The city is next mentioned as the scene of some of the events of Tobit's life, Tobit vi. 5, vii. 1. It was the residence of his father-in-law Raguel, and he himself is alleged to have died in it in the hundred and twenty-seventh year of his age, and "before he died he heard of the destruction of Nineve, which was taken by Nebuchodonosor and Assuerus," namely, Nabopolassar, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, and Astyages, the father of Darius the Mede; "and before his death he (Tobit) rejoiced over Nineve," Tobit xiv. 12-15. We read in the second book of the Maccabees, ix. 3, that Antiochus Epiphanes was in the city when he received intelligence of the defeat of his armies in Palestine under Nicanor and Timotheus.

Ecbatana is generally admitted to have been built by Dejoces I.; but the author of the book of Judith hints that its founder was Arphaxad, who is supposed by Archbishop Usher and Dr. Prideaux to be the same as Dejoces, and by Calmet to be the successor of that monarch, called Phraortes, who may have repaired the city or made some additions to it. For beauty and magnificence Ecbatana was little inferior to Babylon or Nineveh. It was the residence of the first Median kings, and the summer residence in after times of the Persian monarchs, whose winter residence was at Shushan. The Parthian kings also, who succeeded them, retired to it in the summer, to avoid the sultry heats of Ctesiphon. surrounded by seven walls which rose in gradual ascent, and were painted in seven different colours. The most distant was the lowest, and the innermost contained the royal palace. Those seven enclosures are supposed by some writers to have represented the seven planetary spheres. Herodotus informs us that the walls "were built in circles one within another, rising above each by the height of their respective battlements. This mode of building was favourable to the situation of the place, which was a gentle rising ground. The largest of these walls was

It was

of a white colour, the next to it was black, the next purple, the fourth blue, the fifth orange. The two innermost walls were differently ornamented, one having its battlements plated with silver, the other with gold." The circumference of Ecbatana is said to have been from one hundred and eighty to two hundred furlongs, which would amount to nearly twenty-four English miles. In the book of Judith we are told that the walls of the city which Arphaxad built were of "stones hewn three cubits broad and six cubits long, and the height of the wall seventy cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits; and he (Arphaxad) set the towers thereof upon the gates of it an hundred cubits high, and the breadth thereof in the foundation threescore cubits; and he made the gates thereof, even gates that were raised to the height of seventy cubits, and the breadth of them was forty cubits, for the going forth of his mighty armies, and for the setting in array of his footmen," Judith i. 2, 3, 4. It may be observed, however, in opposition to the author of the book of Judith, that Diodorus Siculus expressly contradicts both his account and that of Herodotus, asserting that the city had no walls; and we certainly find it offering little resistance to any enemy who appeared before it; but if the historian Elian is to be credited, the walls of Ecbatana were thrown to the ground by Alexander the Great during the bursts of immoderate grief which that conqueror manifested for the death of Hephaestion his favourite, who died in the city. The mode of ornamenting walls, described in this instance by Herodotus, is said to be still used at the present day in many towns of India and China.

The palace of Ecbatana is described as having been about an English mile in compass, and was built in a style of great magnificence, some of its beams having been of silver, and others of cedar strengthened with plates of gold. Josephus informs us that the prophet Daniel built a tower at Ecbatana, which existed in his time, of singular beauty and solidity; and some writers have conjectured that this tower, as the Jewish historian calls it, was the palace. If it was not built before the time of Daniel, he could merely have overlooked the work, or given the design by order of Darius the Mede, with whom he was in high favour, and who is alleged to have built the palace when he selected Ecbatana as his summer residence.

The site of this ancient city-for, like other cities of antiquity, it has disappeared and given place to a modern one has caused considerable discussion. Sir John Chardin, Gibbon, and Sir William Jones, are in favour of the modern Tauris, while D'Anville and Renell declare for Hamadan in the western Persian province of Irac. This latter has been supported by recent travellers of great learning and acute observation. Mr. Morier merely mentions "Ecbatana or Hamadan;" but Sir John Malcolm, Sir R. K. Porter, Mr. Buckingham, and Sir H. Rawlinson, farther confirm the site. Hamadan, the an

cient Ecbatana, is situated in a fine plain near the base of the Orontes, and other widely extended hills. "This vale," says Sir R. K. Porter, "is varied at short distances with numberless castellated villages, rising from amidst groves of the noblest trees, while the great plain itself stretches northward and eastward to such far remoteness, that its mountain boundaries appear like clouds upon the horizon. The whole tract seems one carpet of luxuriant verdure, studded with hamlets, and watered by beautiful rivulets. On the south-west, Orontes, or Elwund (by whichever name we distinguish this most towering division of the mountain), presents itself in all the grandeur of its frame and form. Near its base appear the dark-coloured dwellings of Hamadan, crowded thickly on each other, while the gardens of the inhabitants, with their connecting orchards and woods, fringe the entire slope of that part of the mountain. If the aspect of this part of the country now presents so rich a picture when 'its palaces are no more,' what must it have been when Astyages held his court here, and Cyrus, in his yearly courses from Persepolis, Susa, and Babylon, stretched his golden sceptre over this delicious plain? I brought away from Ecbatana several old coins of Alexander the Great, of different sizes. The identity of this city's situation seems to be established beyond a doubt; the plain, the mountain, and the relative position of the place, with regard to other noted cities, agreeing in every point. The site also of the modern town, like that of the ancient city, is on a gradual ascent, terminating near the foot of the eastern side of the mountain; but there all trace of past appearance would cease were it not for two or three considerable elevations and overgrown irregularities on or near them, which may have been the walls of the royal fortress, with those of the palaces, temples, and theatres, seen no more. I passed one of those heights, standing to the southwest as I entered the city, and observed that it bore many vestiges of having been strongly fortified. The sides and summit are covered with large remnants of ruined walls of a great thickness, and also of towers, the materials of which were sun-dried bricks. It has the name of the Inner Fortress, and certainly holds the most commanding situation near the plain."

When the name of Ecbatana merged into that of Hamadan, the lofty city of Astyages lost its honour and importance. While it retained its ancient designation as the city in which great monarchs had dictated their decrees, and where "Cyrus the king had placed in the house of the rolls of its palace the record wherein was written his order for rebuilding Jerusalem," it was even of some consequence three centuries after the commencement of the Christian era.

Towards the end of the fourteenth century

it received its most disastrous blow from Timour the Tartar, who sacked, pillaged, and destroyed its proudest buildings, ruined the inhabitants, and reduced the gorgeous summer residence of the Persian

and Parthian kings, one of the most considerable cities of the East, to a mere skeleton of its former greatness. In that dismantled state it lay, dwindled to a mere clay-built suburb of what it was, until the middle of the eighteenth century, although it still possessed iron gates, until Aga Mahomed Khan, then sovereign of Persia, not satisfied with the degradation of nearly four hundred years, ordered every memorial or building of consequence to be destroyed. His commands were faithfully obeyed.

The place now came to be a mere assemblage of mud alleys, lined with squalid habitations. It still, however, continued to have some trade, and lived on in misery. Sir R. K. Porter, speaking of it at the time of his visit, says, "A miserable bazar or two are passed through in traversing the town, and large lonely spots are met with, marked by broken low mounds over older ruins, with here and there a few poplars or willow trees shadowing the border of a dirty stream abandoned to the meanest purposes, which probably flowed pellucid and admired when these places were gardens, and the grass-grown heap some stately dwelling of Ecbatana. The only thing that appears for some years to have kept the place in any degree of notice with the modern Persians is the manufacture of an inferior sort of leather; but the very article of traffic proclaims the low order of population to which it has been abandoned; and as I passed through the wretched hovelled streets, and saw the once lofty city of Astyages shrunk like a shrivelled gourd, the contemplation of such a spectacle called forth more saddening reflections than any that had been awakened in me on any former ground of departed greatness. In some I had seen mouldering pomp or sublime desolation; in this every object spoke of neglect and hopeless poverty-not majesty in stately ruin pining to final dissolution, but beggary seated on the place which kings had occupied, squalid❘ in rags, and stupid with misery."

The place in more recent years has undergone improvement, and it now differs little from other modern towns of Persia. It has for a considerable time been the seat of a provincial government, and it has bazars of a superior kind, and is a focus of extensive transit traffic. A large community of Jews reside in it, who generally are in good circumstances as goldsmiths or merchants, and who have charge of a building which is believed to contain the tombs of Esther and Mordecai. They allege themselves to be descended from throse Jews of the captivity who settled permanently in Media; and they say that the town was given by Ahasuerus to Haman, the enemy of Mordecai, and that its modern name of Hamadan is simply an abbreviation of the words "Haman the Mede." In the time of Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Hamadan, and describes the tomb of Esther and Mordecai, there were no less than fifty thousand Jews settled in it, which is more than the whole of the present population; while in the city of Ispahan, although the chief-priest, on whom all the Jews of

Persia were dependent, resided there in a kind of college, there were not more than fifteen thousand. This fact certainly proves not only the high antiquity of Hamadan, but that it was also regarded with such peculiar veneration by the Jews as to draw more of them to reside in it than in Ispahan.

Ecbatana, or Hamadan, is not without its local traditions connected with sacred history. On the mountain Orontes or Elwund, the body of a son of king Solomon is pretended to be buried; but what son is not mentioned. It is a large square platform a little raised, formed by manual labour out of the native rock, which is ascended by a few rugged steps, and is assuredly no covering of the dead. It is a very ancient piece of workmanship; but how it came to be connected with a son of the Judean monarch cannot be ascertained. The Jewish natives of Hamadan are credulous as to the reputed story, and it is not unlikely that it was originally a mountain altar to the sun, illustrating what we often read in scripture respecting the idolatrous sacrificial worship in "high places." The natives believe that certain ravines of the mountain produce a plant which can transform all kinds of metal into gold, and also cure every possible disease. They admit that no one has ever found it, but their belief in its existence is nevertheless unshaken. They also have a fabulous legend respecting a stone on the side of this mountain, which reminds the English reader of the celebrated story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in the "Thousand and One Nights." This stone contains an inscription in cabalistic characters, unintelligible to every one who has hitherto looked on it; but if any person could read the characters aloud, an effect would be produced which will shake the mountain to its centre, it being the protecting spell of an immense hidden treasure, and, these characters once pronounced, would procure instant ingress from the genii of this subterranean cavern, and the wealth laid at the feet of the fortunate invoker of this golden sesame!

This

The most interesting local tradition is that which relates to the tomb of Esther and Mordecai. is regarded by all the Jews of Persia as an object of peculiar sanctity; and pilgrimages are still made to it at certain seasons of the year, in the same spirit of devout penitence with which in former times they turned their eyes towards Jerusalem. "The sepulchre," says Sir John Malcolm, "is not splendid; but we must recollect it was not likely that either Ahasuerus or his successors would build a mausoleum, as such mode of interment was contrary to the religion they professed; but their permitting the Jews to build a tomb in the most public place of Ecbatana implies an extraordinary respect for those to perpetuate whose memory such an edifice was erected." The original structure was destroyed, it is said, at the sacking of Ecbatana by Timour, and after that disastrous event the present unobtrusive building was erected on the ancient spot, at the expense of several devout Jews; and about the end of

the seventeenth century it was fully repaired by a rabbi of the name of Ismael. It is a small square building of brick, having the appearance of a mosque, and a dome rather elongated on the top. It is described as being again in a frail state, and requiring another repair. The door of the tomb is very small, and consists of a single stone of great thickness, turning on its own pivot from one side. On passing through the little portal, the visitor is introduced into a small arched chamber, in which are seen the graves of several rabbis, some of which may contain the bodies of the first rebuilders of the tomb after the destruction of the original one by Timour. A second door, of very confined dimensions, is at the end of this vestibule, by which the entrance is made into a large apartment on hands and knees; and under the concave stand two sarcophagi, made of very dark wood, curiously and richly carved, with a line of Hebrew inscription running round the upper ledge of each. Other inscriptions in the same language are cut on the walls, while one of the oldest antiquity, engraved on a white marble slab, is let into the wall itself. This slab is traditionally alleged to have been preserved from the ruins of the edifice destroyed by Timour, with the sarcophagi in the same consecrated spot.

Sir R. K. Porter was fortunate to procure translations of these venerable and ancient inscriptions. The first of these is a Hebrew one, on the marble slab in the sepulchre of Esther and Mordecai, which is as follows:-“ Mordecai, beloved and honoured by a king, was great and good. His garments were as those of a sovereign. Ahasuerus covered him with this rich dress, and also placed a golden chain around his neck. The city of Susa (or Shushan) rejoiced at his honours, and his high fortune became the glory of the Jews." This entirely agrees with the early custom, common with the Persian monarchs, of investing their ministers and favourites with splendid robes, golden chains, and other ornaments—a custom which is still observed in Persia when marks of favour or distinction are conferred; and as Xenophon informs us that death would be the punishment of any noble, however illustrious, who dared to assume to himself the royal mixture of purple and white, we may easily infer the peculiar honour bestowed on Mordecai. The inscription on the marble slab is corroborated by the account in the book of Esther. "And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and purple, and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glad," Esther viii. 15. Again, it is said, "Mordecai the Jew was next unto King Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed,” x. 3.

The inscription which encompasses the sarcophagus of Mordecai is to the following effect :-"It is said by David, Preserve me, O God! I am now in

thy presence. I have cried at the gate of heaven that thou art my God, and what goodness I have received from thee, O Lord! Those whose bodies are now beneath in this earth, when animated by thy mercy, were great; and whatever happiness was bestowed upon them in this world came from thee, O God! Their griefs and sufferings were many at the first, but they became happy; became happy, because they always called upon thy name in their miseries. Thou liftedst me up, and I became powerful. Thine enemies sought to destroy me in the early times of my life; but the shadow of thy hand was upon me, and covered me as a tent from their wicked purposes!-MORDECAI." The following is the inscription carved round the sarcophagus of Esther:-"I praise thee, O God, that thou hast created me! I know that my sins merit punishment, yet I hope for mercy at thy hands; for whenever I call upon thee, thou art with me; thy holy presence secures me from all evil. My heart is at ease, and my fear of thee increases. My life became, through thy goodness, at the last full of peace. O God! do not shut my soul out from thy Divine presence! Those whom thou lovest never feel the torments of hell. Lead me, O merciful Father, to the life of life, that I may be filled with the heavenly fruits of paradise!— ESTHER."

In the fifteenth chapter of the apocryphal book of Esther there is an interesting confirmation of these pious sentiments; and in the tenth chapter of the same book we read concerning the conspiracy of Haman, and the preservation of the Jews, "So God remembered his people, and justified his inheritance. Therefore those days shall be unto them in the month Adar, the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the same month, with an assembly, and joy, and with gladness before God, according to the generation for ever among his people." It is remarkable that this annual "assembling" or pilgrimage to the ancient city of Esther and Mordecai is still kept up: it has existed from the time of the memorable event; and it has been well observed, that such a memorial becomes an evidence to the fact more convincing perhaps than even written testimony-it is a kind of eye-witness.

ACHOR, à ́-kůr, a valley not very far from Jericho, near the river Jordan, in the allotment of the tribe of Benjamin, where Achan was stoned by the command of Joshua for concealing and appropriating to himself some valuable articles, a Babylonish garment, a wedge of gold, and two hundred shekels of silver, among the spoils of Jericho, contrary to the commands of God, who had ordered Joshua to destroy everything contained in that city. See ACHAN. The word Achor signifies "trouble;" and the valley of Achor, in all the associations of it with the affair of Achan, was evidently a trouble to the Israelites. Two figurative allusions to the valley in Isa. lxv. 10 and Hos. ii. 15, where promises are made that it shall become "a place for the herds to lie down in,"