and brimstone on Sodom from heaven, that is, from the air. Gen. 19:24. "Let fire come down from heaven," that is, from the air. 2 K. 1:10.

"

feet

|| 332, and peopled by colonies of Greeks and Jews. Alexandria rose rapidly to a state of prosperity, becoming the centre of commercial intercourse between To "beat the air," and to the East and the West, and in speak in the air," 1 Cor. 9:26. process of time was, both in point 14:9, are modes of expression of magnitude and wealth, second used in most languages, signify-only to Rome itself. The ancient ing to speak or act without city was about fifteen miles in judgment, or understanding, or circuit, peopled by 300,000 free to no purpose. "The powers of citizens and as many slaves. the air, Eph. 2:2, probably From the gate of the sea ran one means devils, who exercise their magnificent street, 2000 powers principally in the air; if broad, through the entire length it be not rather an accommoda- of the city, to the gate of Canotion to the Jewish belief which pus, affording a view of the shipwas current in those days, that the ping in the port, whether north, air was the abode of evil spirits. in the Mediterranean, or south, in ALABASTER, a genus of the noble basin of the Mareotic fossils, having the color of the lake. Another street, of equal human nail, nearly allied to mar- width, intersected this at right bles, and, according to Pliny, angles, in a square half a league found in the neighborhood of in circumference. Thebes, in Egypt, and about Upon the death of Alexander, Damascus, in Syria. This ma- whose body was deposited in terial being very generally used this new city, Alexandria became to fabricate vessels for holding the regal capital of Egypt, under unguents and perfumed liquids, the Ptolemies, and rose to its many vessels were called alabas-highest splendor. During the ter, though made of a different substance, as gold, silver, glass, etc. In Matt. 26:6,7, we read that Jesus, being at table in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, a woman, Mary, sister of Lazarus, John 12:3, poured an alabaster box of precious ointment on his head. Mark says "she brake the box," signifying, probably, that the seal upon the box, or upon the neck of the vase or bottle, which kept the perfume from evaporating, had never been removed, but was, on this occasion, first opened.

See SPIKENARD. ALEXANDRIA, a celebrated city in Egypt, situated between the Mediterranean sea and the lake Mareotis. It was founded by Alexander the Great, B. C.

reign of the three first princes of this name, its glory was at the highest. The most celebrated philosophers from the East, as well as from Greece and Rome, resorted thither for instruction; and eminent men, in every department of knowledge, were found within its walls. Ptolemy Soter, the first of that line of kings, formed the museum, the library of 700,000 volumes, and several other splendid works. At the death of Cleopatra, B. C. 26, Alexandria passed into the hands of the Romans; and, after having enjoyed the highest fame for upwards of a thousand years, it submitted to the arms of the caliph Omar, A. D. 646.

The present Alexandria, or, according to the pronunciation of

the inhabitants, Skanderia, occupies only about the eighth part of the site of the ancient city. The splendid temples have been exchanged for wretched mosques and miserable churches, and the magnificent palaces for mean and ill built dwellings. The city, which was of old so celebrated for its commerce and navigation, is now merely the port of Cairo, a place where ships may touch, and where wares may be exchanged. The modern city is built with the ruins of the ancient. The streets are so narrow, that the inhabitants can lay mats of reeds from one roof to the opposite, to protect them from the scorching sun. The inhabitants consist of Turks, Arabs, Copts, Jews and Armenians. Many Europeans have counting-houses here, where the factors exchange European for oriental merchandise.

ALLEGORY, a figurative mode of discourse, which employs terms literally belonging to one thing, in order to express another. It is, strictly, a prolonged metaphor. Such are Ps. 80. Gal. 4:24-31, &c.

ALLELUIA, see HALLELU

JAH.

ALMOND-TREE. This tree resembles a peach-tree, but is larger. In Palestine, it blossoms in January, and in March has fruit. Its blossoms are white. Its Hebrew name signifies a watcher; and to this there is an allusion in Jer. 1:11.

ALMUG, a kind of tree or wood, which Hiram brought from Ophir. 1 K. 10:11. 2 Chr. 2:8. The rabbins call it coral; but it could not be this. It was, more probably, the tree which furnishes what is now commonly called Brazil wood, which is also a native of the East Indies, Siam, the The Greek or Alexandrine Molucca islands and Japan, and version of the Scriptures was has several species. Its wood is made here by learned Jews, sev- very durable, and is used in fine enty-two in number; and hence cabinet work. It yields also a dye it is called the Septuagint, or of a beautiful red color, for which version of the Seventy. The it is much used. Its resemblance Jews established themselves in in color to coral may have given great numbers in this city, very occasion for the name almug, soon after it was founded. Jose- which, in rabbinic, still signifies phus says that Alexander him-coral; and then the meaning of self assigned to them a particular the name would be coral-wood, quarter of the city, and allowed them equal rights and privileges with the Greeks. Philo, who himself lived there in the time of Christ, affirms that, of five parts of the city, the Jews inhabited two. According to his statements, also, there dwelt in his time, in Alexandria and the other Egyptian cities, not less than ten hundred thousand Jews. This, however, would seem exaggerated.

ALGUM, the same as ALMUG, which see.

ALOES, or, more properly, ALOE, an East Indian tree, that grows about eight or ten feet high. This tree or wood was called by the Greeks agallochon, and has been known to moderns by the names of lign-aloe, aloewood, paradise-wood, eaglewood, etc. Modern botanists distinguish two kinds; the one genuine and most precious, the other more common and inferior. The former grows in CochinChina, Siam and China, is never exported, and is of so great rarity

1. The Altar of Burnt-offer

in India itself, as to be worth || 2. The altar of Incense. 3. The its weight in gold. Pieces of table of Shew Bread, for which this wood that are resinous, of a see BREAD. dark color, heavy, and perforated as if by worms, are called calam-ings was a kind of coffer of bac. The tree itself is repre- shittim-wood, covered with brass sented as large, with an erect plates, five cubits square and trunk and lofty branches. The three in height. At the four corother or more common species is ners were four horns, or elevacalled garo, in the East Indies, tions. It was portable, and had and is the wood of a tree grow-rings and staves for bearing it. ing in the Moluccas, the excocaria agallocha of Linnæus. The leaves are like those of a peartree; and it has a milky juice, which, as the tree grows old, hardens into a fragrant resin. The trunk is knotty, crooked, and usually hollow. Aloe-wood is said by Herodotus to have been used by the Egyptians for embalming dead bodies; and Nico-ings, on the opposite page, give a demus brought it, mingled with myrrh, to embalm the body of our Lord. John 19:39. This perfume, it will be seen, is something altogether different from the aloes of the apothecaries, which is a bitter resin, extracted from a low herb.

ALPHA, see the letter A. ALPHEUS, father of James the less, Matt. 10:3. Luke 6:15, and husband of the Mary who was sister to the mother of Christ, John 19:25, for which reason James is called the Lord's brother. By comparing John 19:25 with Luke 24:10 and Matt. 10:3, it is evident that Alpheus is the same as Cleophas; Alpheus being his Greek name, and Cleophas his Hebrew or Syriac name. See CLEOPHAS.

ALTAR, an elevated place, on which sacrifices were offered, built of various materials, usually of stone, but sometimes of brass, &c. The altars in the Jewish tabernacle, and in the temple at Jerusalem, were the following: 1. The altar of Burnt-offerings. I

Ex. c. 27. c. 38. It was placed in the court before the tabernacle, towards the east. The altar in Solomon's temple was larger, being twenty cubits square and ten cubits high. 2 Chr. 4:1. It is said to have been covered with thick plates of brass and filled with stones, with an ascent on the east side. The two engrav

general view of these altars.

On

2. The Altar of Incense was a small table of shittim-wood, covered with plates of gold, of one cubit in length, another in width, and two in height. Ex. c. 30. 37:25, &c. At the four corners were four horns, and all around a little border or crown over it. each side were two rings, into which staves might be inserted for the purpose of carrying it. It stood in the holy place; not in the holy of holies, but before it; and the priests burned incense upon it every morning and evening. So Zacharias. Luke 1:9,11.

ALTAR at Athens, inscribed to the unknown God. Acts 17:23. Commentators have differed much about this altar, without arriving at any definite conclusion. So much, at least, is certain, both from Paul's assertion and the testimony of Greek profane writers, that altars to an unknown god or gods existed at Athens. But the attempt to ascertain definitely whom the Athenians worshipped vader this ap.

ALTARS OF BURNT-OFFERINGS.

The Altar as said to be constructed for Solomon's Temple.

The Altar as constructed for the Temple built by Herod the Great.

He did good in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart. 2 K. 14:1-20. 2 Chr. c. 25.

pellation, must ever remain || twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. fruitless for want of sufficient data. The inscription affordert to Paul a happy occasion of proclaiming the gospel; and those who embraced it found indeed, that the Being whom they had thus "ignorantly worshipped," was the one only living and true God.

AMBER is a yellow or strawcolored gummy substance, originally a vegetable production, but reckoned to the mineral kingdom. It is found in lumps in the sea and on the shores of Prussia, Sicily, Turkey, &c. Externally it is rough; it is very transparent, and, on being rubbed, yields a fragrant odor. It was formerly supposed to be medicinal; but is now employed in the manufacture of trinkets, ornaments, &c.

The Hebrew word is translated by the Septuagint and Vulgate electrum, i. e. amber, because the Hebrew denotes a very brilliant metal, composed of silver and gold, which was much prized in antiquity. Ezek. 1:4,27. 8:2. Others, as Bochart, compare here the mixture of gold and brass, of which the ancients had several

AMALEKITES, a powerful people, who dwelt in Arabia Petræa, between the Dead sea and the Red sea, perhaps in moving troops. We cannot assign the place of their habitation, except in general it is apparent that they dwelt south of Palestine, between mount Seir and the border of Egypt; and it does not appear that they possessed cities, though one is mentioned in 1 Sam. 15:5. They lived generally in migrating parties, in caves or in tents, like the Bedouin Arabs of the present day. The Israelites had scarcely passed the Red sea, when the Amalekites attacked them in the desert of Rephidim, and slew those who, through fa-kinds; by which means a high tigue or weakness, lagged behind. Ex. 17:8. Joshua defeated them; and, after 400 years, Saul attacked and destroyed them, at the command of the Lord. 1 Sam. AMEN is strictly an adjective, c. 15. A small remnant seems signifying firm, and metaph. faithto have escaped and subsistedful. So in Rev. 3:14, our Lord afterwards, which was destroy-is called "the Amen, the faithful ed by the children of Simeon. 1 and true Witness;" where the Chr. 4:43. last words explain the preceding appellation. In its adverbial use it means certainly, truly, surely. It is used at the beginning of a sentence by way of emphasis, frequently by our Saviour, where it is commonly translated Verily. In John's Gospel alone, it is often used by him in this way double, i. e. Verily, verily. In the end of a sentence it is often used, singly or repeated, especially at the end of hymns and prayers;

AMASA, David's nephew, was the general of Absalom's troops, and was defeated by Joab. 2 Sam. 17:25. c. 18. David afterwards offered him a pardon, and the command of his troops, in the place of Joab; but Joab murdered him. 2 Sam. 19:13. 20:4-10.

AMAZIAH, eighth king of Judah, son of Joash, began to reign B. C. 835, and reigned

degree of lustre was obtained. Something similar to this was probably also the fine brass, in Rev. 1:15.