leader, and equally divided between the tribes of Reuben and Gad. This gave rise to a war between them and the Israelites in Jephthah's time, when Israel was under the government of the Judges. Their king, whose name is not mentioned in scripture, insisted on the whole of the country being restored to the Ammonites, as originally belonging to them, which had been overrun by the Moabites, and conquered by Moses; and he made a sudden irruption into it, seizing all the district which had been divided between the tribes of Reuben and Gad. This invasion was successful, and the Ammonites kept possession of their newly acquired territory for eighteen years. They generally united with their ancient allies the Moabites in attacking the Israelites; and after the death of Othniel, one of the Judges of Israel, they also drew the Amalekites into the league, and coalesced together under Eglon, king of Moab. They met with a severe check, however, from Ehud, the son of Gera, one of the Judges of Israel. Nevertheless, they still retained possession of their ancient territory, and even threatened an expedition across the Jordan, to attack the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Alarmed at these hostile aggressions, the Hebrew army assembled at Mizpah, in the territory of Judah, and chose Jephthah for their general. The preliminary procedure consisted in the Israelites sending an expostulary embassy to the king of the Ammonites, demanding an explanation of his hostile conduct. The king informed Jephthah's ambassadors, that the whole of that country had originally belonged to the Ammonites, who had been dispossessed of it when the Israelites came out of Egypt; and he exhorted Jephthah, if he valued his own and his people's safety, immediately to restore it to its lawful masters. Jephthah replied that the very reverse of all this was the case that the Israelites had not dispossessed the Ammonites of their country, but that they had acquired it in a just war with the Amorites, who had long

enjoyed it by right of conquest; and, therefore, that he was under no obligations to restore what the Israelites had never taken from them. This answer gave great dissatisfaction to the invaders, who immediately prepared for war. Jephthah met them at the head of the Hebrew army near the city of Aroer, in the tribe of Reuben, a place of the disputed territory, which had formerly been their capital, and after a memorable battle, completely defeated them, and put an end to the eighteen years of tyranny which they had exercised over the Israelites. On that occasion they lost twenty cities, and were driven from their ancient country. In the reign of Saul, the old claim of the Ammonites was revived by Nahash their king; and, advancing against the Israelites, they laid siege to the city of Jabesh, or Jabesh-Gilead, in the half-tribe of Manasseh. The citizens of Jabesh were inclined to acknowledge the claim of Nahash to sovereignty, but the tyrant refused to treat with them except on one condition, that every one of them should lose his right eye, thus wishing to inflict a lasting reproach upon the Israelites; but from this cruel and degrading situation the inhabitants of Jabesh were delivered by Saul, who advanced with an army and relieved the place, encountering and dispersing the army of Nahash, 1 Sam. xi. 1, &c. After the death of Nahash, David, who succeeded Saul in the throne of Israel, and who had been on terms of friendly intercourse with the king of Ammon, sent ambassadors to congratulate Hanan, the son and successor of Nahash, on his accession, and those ambassadors were treated as spies, subjected to great personal indignities, and dismissed in a most insulting manner. This gross and wanton affront was retaliated by David with signal rigour. He placed himself at the head of the Hebrew army, and marched to Rabbah, or Rabbath, near the source of the river Jabbok, the capital city of the Ammonites. The inhabitants held out the place, but David took it by storm, razed it to the ground, and the citizens

were put to death under circumstances of peculiar severity. The same fate attended all the other cities of the Ammonites and their inhabitants who resisted the conqueror in this destructive campaign; and their allies, the Moabites and the Syrians, were also totally routed. Ammon and Moab continued quiet during the remainder of David's reign, and also during the whole of that of Solomon; and after the separation of the Ten Tribes in the reign of Rehoboam, they were subject to the kings of Israel till the death of Ahab. Two years after that prince's death, we find his son Jehoram defeating the Ammonites who had revolted from the domination of Israel, although the defeat they then sustained does not appear to have reduced them to their former state of subjection and obedience. In the reign of Jehoshaphat, they formed a grand alliance with the Moabites and the inhabitants of Mount Seir against that prince, but this attempt was frustrated in a very remarkable manner, a panic having seized them, and they commencing a mutual slaughter of each other, 2 Chron. xx. 23. Their turbulent and warlike dispositions still prompted them to harass the Jews, for which they sustained a severe defeat from Uzziah, king of Judah, and were made tributary, 2 Chron. xxvi. 8. In the reign of his son Jotham they again rebelled, were reduced by that prince, and compelled to pay him an annual tribute of an hundred talents, and 30,000 quarters of wheat and barley. When the Syrians were oppressing the Ten Tribes who formed the kingdom of Israel, the Ammonites committed the most inhuman excesses in Gilead, massacring pregnant women and little children, Amos i. 13.

Tiglath-pilezer, king of Assyria, carried the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, into slavery, 740 years before the Christian era, and the Ammonites and Moabites seized their cities, as being the original patrimony of the former. The prophet Jeremiah denounces them in strong language for this aggression, Jer. xlix. 1. The ambassadors of the Ammonites formed

part of those to whom the same prophet, in the typical language of those times, presented the cup of God's fury, and whom he directed to make bonds and yokes for themselves, exhorting them to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, or to choose slavery and bondage. The prophet Ezekiel announced the entire destruction of the Ammonites, telling them that God would deliver them up to the people of the East, who would build palaces in their country, so that their name would be no more mentioned among the nations, and that this was the punishment to be inflicted on them for insulting the Israelites in their misfortunes at the destruction of the Temple by the Chaldeans. This was in allusion to a transaction which took place under Baalis, their last king. That prince had entered into a treaty with Zedekiah, king of Judah, against the Chaldeans, yet when Jerusalem was destroyed by the latter, he treacherously exulted in the misfortunes which had befallen his allies. The words of the prophecy, which was destined to be literally fulfilled, are very remarkable. "Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them. I will make Rabbah of the Ammonites (their capital city) a stable for camels, and a couching-place for flocks. Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen; I will cut thee off from the people, and cause thee to perish out of the countries; I will destroy thee. The Ammonites shall not be remembered among the nations. Rabbah of the Ammonites shall be a desolate heap; Ammon shall be a perpetual desolation," Ezek. xxv. 2-10, &c. It is conjectured that this punishment was inflicted on them about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and nearly 583 years before the Christian era, when Nebuchadnezzar ravaged the whole countries round Judea, carried the people into slavery, and burnt Rabbah, their capital city. It is alleged that Cyrus permitted both them and the Moabites, who had been carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar,

to return to their own country. In the time of Nehemiah, their chief is mentioned by the name of Tobiah. Certain it is that they are afterwards found in their old territories, exposed to all the revolutions and changes common to the Syrian and Jewish nations, subject sometimes to the kings of Syria, and at other times to the Grecian kings of Egypt. They had rebuilt their city Rabbah, for Polybius tells us that it was taken by Antiochus the Great, who demolished the walls, and garrisoned it with soldiers. At that time it was also called Philadelphia. During the cruel persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Ammonites severely harassed the Jews on their frontiers, and inflicted great cruelties on them, until at length the Jewish army under Judas Maccabæus attacked them with great slaughter, plundered and burnt their city Jazer, and carried their women and children into slavery. This was the last conflict which they sustained with the Israelites. In the second century of the Christian era, Justin Martyr affirms there were some of them remaining; but Origen assures us that every trace of them had disappeared, and that they were all comprehended under the general name of Arabs. The prophecy has been actually fulfilled as it respects the ancient Ammonites; they have disappeared, and their nation is totally unknown. From the testimony of various travellers, their country must have been very fertile and productive, notwithstanding all the oppressions with which they were visited by the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Syrians. It was a populous country when the Romans became masters of Syria, and some of the ten allied cities called Decapolis stood within its boundaries. "Even when it was first visited by the Saracens," says Gibbon, "this country was enriched by the various benefits of trade, was covered with a line of forts, and possessed some strong and populous cities." According to Volney, numerous ruins are to be found in the immense plains of the Hauran; and what is said of its

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fertility corroborates the statements of the sacred historians. Burckhardt asserts that the country must have been extremely well cultivated which afforded the means of subsistence to so many populous towns, visible only in their ruins. All the country is now a vast desert, divided between the Turks and Arabs; the greater part of it is uninhabited, and its towns and villages are in ruins. Vestiges of ancient cities, temples, public edifices, and christian churches, are every where visible. "Many of the ruins," says Burckhardt, " present no objects of interest. They consist of a few walls of dwelling-houses, heaps of stones, the foundations of some public edifices, and a few cisterns filled up; there is nothing entire, but it appears that the mode of building was very solid, all the remains being found of large stones." In the midst of this desolation, there are various valleys and tracts covered with pasture, where the Bedouins pasture their flocks and sheep. A modern traveller relates that he passed a night among flocks of sheep and goats beside the ruins of Ammon, and that he was prevented from sleeping by the bleating of herds. Rabbah, or Rabbah Ammon, the capital, is now-what the prophet declared it would be-" a desolate heap." See RABBAH.

AMORITES, bitter, a rebel; otherwise, a babbler or prater, the name of a people or tribe of the ancient Canaanites descended from Emer, the fourth son of Canaan, who gave his name to the country. Emer, or Emor, so termed in our version of the scriptures, is called Amorrhæus by the Septuagint and Vulgate; Emoræus by some writers; and Hæmorri by the Hebrews. The Amorites were particularly noted for their stature; and on this account we find the prophet Amos comparing their gigantic size and valour to the cedar, and their strength to the oak. They first colonized the mountainous districts lying west of the Dead Sea, and afterwards extended themselves east of the same sea, be-' tween the rivers Jabbok and Arnon,' dispossessing the Ammonites and Moab-"

ites of their territories, Numb. xiii. 29; xxi. 25, 29; Josh. v. 1; Judges xi. 21. The river Jabbok, now called Nahl-el-Zerkah, was the northern boundary of the Amorites, and the river Arnon the southern one. Josephus, in describing the geographical boundaries of this people, says, "This is a country situated between three rivers, and naturally resembling an island, the river Arnon being its southern limit; the river Jabbok determining its northern side, which, running into Jordan, loses its own name, and takes the other; while Jordan itself runs along by it on its western boundaries." This description by the Jewish historian exactly corresponds with that given by the sacred writers, and especially with Jephthah's recapitulation of the wars of the Israelites, when he sent his messengers to the king of the Ammonites" and they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Amor even unto Jabbok, and from the Wilderness even unto Jordan." When Moses, during the progress of the Israelites towards the Promised Land, sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, at his capital city of Heshbon, requesting a free and uninterrupted passage through his territories, that haughty monarch not only refused, but marched out against the Hebrew leader. He encountered the Israelites near Jazer, or Jahaz, and he sustained not only a complete discomfiture, but lost his whole kingdom and his life. The victory achieved over Sihon is celebrated in one of the most ancient songs extant, recorded in the Book of Numbers, (xxi. 27-30). Og, king of Bashan, a neighbouring prince, having espoused the same cause as Sihon, attempted also to stop the progress of the Israelites, but he was overcome, he and his sons were slain, his army put to the sword, and his country transferred to the conquerors. In Joshua's time, after the Hebrews had obtained possession of Canaan, their splendid successes seem to have struck their enemies with terror. "It came to pass," says the sacred writer, "when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan west

ward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea [the Mediterranean], heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the Children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the Children of Israel." The complete conquest of the Amorites took place 1451 years before the Christian era, and their territories on the one side of the Jordan were allotted to the tribe of Judah, while those on the other side of that river were given as part of the possessions of Reuben and Gad. There were also other tribes called Amorites, which indeed is a designation sometimes bestowed on the Canaanites in general by the sacred historians, on account of the Amorites being the most powerful of the aboriginal inhabitants. The designations Amorites and Hittites are sometimes figuratively used as a term of reproach to the parents of the Jewish nation. Shuah, the wife of Judah, was an Amorite, and also Tamar, who married Er, his son. See HESHBON.

AMPHIPOLIS, a city encompassed by the sea, called in modern times Crisopoli, and situated in European Turkey, was a city of ancient Macedonia or Thrace, and subject to the Macedonian kings. It stood on the banks of the river Strymon, which nearly surrounded it, in the immediate vicinity of 'Evvia Odoi, or the "Nine Ways," a spot so called from a number of roads which met there from different parts of Thrace. It was built by Cimon the Athenian about 470 years before the Christian era, and peopled with upwards of 10,000 Athenians, who settled there. The river Strymon, in fact, washed its walls on both sides, dividing itself at the mouth into two channels, in the centre of which Amphipolis was built, and on the side towards the sea a strong wall extended from channel to channel. This city was a source of great annoyance to Philip, king of Macedonia, who drove the Athenians from it, and allowed the citizens to form a republic. It was afterwards

taken by Brasidas, the Lacedæmonian general, but Philip again recovered it. The Athenians, nevertheless, always considered Amphipolis as belonging to them, and Philip promised to restore it to them, when it was finally ceded to him by a treaty of peace. St Paul and Silas passed through this city after their deliverance from the prison at Philippi, on their way to Thessalonica; but there is nothing mentioned about the preaching of Christianity, or what stay they made in the city. The spot on which the ruins of Amphipolis are still to be traced is called Jenikevi. "The position of Amphipolis," observes Colonel Leake, "is one of the most important in Greece. It stands in a pass which traverses the mountains bordering the Strymonic Gulf, and it commands the only easy communication from the coast of that Gulf into the great Macedonian plains, which extend for sixty miles from beyond Meleniko to Philippi." There is a miserable place near it called Emboli by the Turks.

particular, "and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." Joshua in his wars completely expelled them from Hebron, Debir, Anab, and the mountainous parts of Judah, after which they took refuge in Ashdod, Gaza, and Gath. A short time after this, Caleb requested Joshua to assign the territory of the Anakim as his portion, that he might root them out. His request being granted, he completely extirpated them from Hebir, assisted by his brethren of the tribe of Judah; and Othniel, his nephew and son-in-law, one of the Judges, expelled them from Debir. According to Bochart, the Beneanak, or Anakim, retired to the territories of Tyre and Zidon, and gave them the general name of Phoenicia.

ANAM, or AMIANS, a race or tribe descended from Anamim, or Anam, the son of Mizraim, one of the sons of Ham. They peopled some parts of Africa, especially those countries to the west of Egypt where Jupiter-Ammon was worshipped, and where the Nasamones, or men of Amon, dwelt. From these, it is conjectured, were descended the Amians and Garamantes, or foreign and wandering Anams, Gen. x. 13.

the tribe of Issachar, Josh. xix. 19.

ANAKIM, so called from their practice of wearing iron collars, an ancient people famous for their fierceness and extraordinary stature, were descended from Anak, the son of Arba, who gave his name to Kirjath-Arba, or Hebron, Josh. xiv. 15. Anak had three sons, Shishai, Ahimai, and Talmai, who were, like their father, held to be giants. They inhabited the districts about Hebron, Anab, Debir, and other mountainous places, Josh. xi. 21. The chosen party of the Hebrews who were sent to view the Land of Canaan returned to Moses with an unfavourable report, stating, among other desponding objections, that all the people whom they had seen were of great stature; that they had seen the giants, the sons of Anak, in

ANATHOTH, answer, song; or, af

Judah, supposed to have been so named from Anathoth, the son of Becher, and grandson of Benjamin. According to Eusebius and Jerome, it was situated about three miles north of Jerusalem, and Josephus says it was twenty furlongs distant. It was one of those towns allotted to the priests, 1 Chron. vi. 60, and was also a city of refuge. The prophet Jeremiah was a native of this town, and the inhabitants were severely punished for persecuting him, being carried off by the Chaldeans. Only one hundred and twenty-eight of the inhabitants of Anathoth returned from Babylon, who rebuilt the place, Neh. vii. 27; xi. 32; Ezra ii. 23. In more ancient times, Abiathar, the deposed highpriest, was confined at Anathoth by the order of Solomon, and it was severely