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DICTIONARY

OF

THE HOLY BIBLE,

FOR

THE USE OF SCHOOLS AND YOUNG PERSONS.

BY EDWARD ROBINSON, D. D.

Professor Extraordinary of Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary, Andover.

ILLUSTRATED

With Maps, and Engravings on Wood.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY CROCKER AND BREWSTER,
47 Washington Street.

NEW YORK: JONATHAN LEAVITT,

182 Broadway.

1833.

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[blocks in formation]

4. Peninsula of Mount Sinai, Idumea, &c....

57187

.p. 28

52 174

98

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by

CROCKER & BREWSTER,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

STEREOTYPED AT THE
BOSTON TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.

PREFACE.

THE following work is intended to present in a compendious form to the public, and especially to young persons, the more important portions of the biblical information contained in the octavo edition of Calmet's Dictionary, recently prepared by the Editor, and issued by the same enterprising Publishers. In that work, it was a chief object to bring together such information as might facilitate the researches of biblical students of an advanced standing, who wish to investigate and judge for themselves, and therefore require a specification of the sources of information, and an exhibition of the processes of induction and reasoning by which the various results have been obtained. In the present work, the Editor has aimed to give only the results of his previous investigations; and to present them in such a form as may be attractive and useful to the very large class of young persons and others, who may be supposed to take an interest in this species of knowledge, without being in a situation to make a satisfactory use of the larger

work. There are doubtless thousands of such persons, especially of the female sex, to whom the information contained in this small volume would be in a high degree interesting and instructive; but who, nevertheless, would never think of seeking for it in the larger and more learned volumes, in which it is usually contained.

In order to bring the work within a small compass, I have, in the first place, omitted the definitions of words merely English, in the use of which there is nothing peculiar, and which every body understands, or at least may understand, from a common English dictionary. From this rule I have departed only in a few cases, where such words have a peculiar, or perhaps theological sense in the Bible. In the next place, I have also omitted all those names of persons and places which occur but seldom, and of which nothing more is known than appears in the passages where they occur. As the reader, in perusing these passages, knows at once all that can be known about such persons and places, it seemed inexpedient to swell the volume by inserting their names.

In one other way, too, I have been able greatly to compress the size of the work. In the place of a prolix article, I have often inserted a new one, either written for the occasion, and condensed as much as possible, or sometimes abstracted from articles which I had before

published in a different work. It has every where been my endeavor, not to omit any results, or any information, which might be useful to the classes of readers for whom this volume is more particularly designed. The processes of induction and reasoning, the allusions to the original Hebrew and Greek of the Scriptures, have of course been passed by; and also all the references to sources and authorities, excepting to the Bible itself. These last I have endeavored to render full and correct; and, with this view, have myself taken pains to verify them all.

From these statements it will be seen, that, while this work professes to be, and is, in a measure, a compendium of the recent American edition of Calmet, it is also, at least in an equal degree, a new and independent work.

If I may be permitted to advise in respect to the mode of using this little volume, I would strongly recommend, that it be read and studied chiefly as a companion of the Bible, and always with the Bible in the hand; and that every reference to the sacred volume be immediately looked out, and the passages, or the sense of them, faithfully impressed upon the memory. In this way, not only will a great amount of biblical knowledge be acquired by degrees, but the mind of the learner, by thus comparing the statements of facts with the authorities on which they rest, is ever gaining discipline and

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