J. Dennev.
CHASTITY.— See Crimes, and Marriage.
CHEBAR (133, Xo;3ip, Ezk li-» 3"-2» 10"- *• « 43'). — A river in ' tlie land of the ChaUUeans,' by the side of which Ezekiel saw his first vision of the Cherubim. Near the banks of this stream was Tel-abib, the home of a colony of Jewish exiles, among whom Ezekiel lived and prophesied (Ezk 3"). The Chebar has commonly been identilied, in accordance with a Syrian Cliristian tradition, with the Habor (nun, 'Afidppas), the modern Cliabour, which runs into the Euphrates not far from the site of Circesium. But the two names are very difTerent, and Babylonia, whitlier the Jews were deported (2 K 24'"-, Jer 29'- '*), can hardly be con- sidered to include Northern Mesojiotamia. It is therefore more probable that the Chebar was one of the numerous canals in the neighbourhood of Babylon to which the name of 'river' was often given (cf. Niildeke in Schenkel's Bibel-Lexicon). The name, however, has not yet been discovered in any of the numerous li.sts of rivers and canals which are to be found in Assyrian and ISaliyUmian literature. The word is probably connected with the Semitic root i-z tu be great ; lience it has been suggested that Chebar was another name of the Na/iar ilalclui, or Royal Canal of Nebuchadrezzar.
H. A. White.
CHECK in the obsol. sense of 'rebuke' or 're- proof occurs Job 20^ 'I have heard the c. of my reproach' (RV 'reproof which putteth me to shame'). Cf. Pepys, Diary, 26th Sept., 'I was very angry, and . . . did give him a very great check for it, and so to bed '; and Shaks., Ilenry IV. IV. iii. 34, ' I never knew yet but rebuke and check was the reward of valour.' RV gives the verb in 1 S 24' in the mod. sense of ' restrain,' ' sc David checked his men with these words' (AV 'stayed'). J. IJa.stings.
CHECKER WORK (now generally spalt cheque*
OHEDOli-LAO.MKR
CHKLUD
375
work) ia work arrnntjed after the pattern of a chesa-board (vhieli was orig. called 'a checker or chetiuer'). J K 7" 'nets of checker work" (c'r;^ n;;s' iffj;?), — trellis work of some material used to ornament the ' chapiters ' of the pillars in Solomon's temple. In 2 K 1- the srbluiklu'ili is a ' lattice' in an u])per chamber throut;h which Ahaziah fell. In Job 18^ it is a net for snaring. J. Uastinos.
CHEDOR-LAOMER(-i;sii'nn3,XoaoXXo7oM<ip,C/terfor- lahomor). — Chedorlaomer, kin^ of Elam, com- manded the vassal - kings Amraphel of Shinar, Arioch of Kllasar (which see), and Tidal, king of Goiim, in the war against the Canaanite princes of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar (tin 14'""). After twelve years of servitude the latter had rebelled against Cliedorlaomer, who, with his allies, thereupon marched into the west, on the eastern side of the Jordan, smiting the Kepliaim in Bashan, the Zuzim or Zamzummin in Ammon, the Eniim in .Moab, and the Horites in Mount Seir. He then turned northward tlinmgh Kadesh-barnea (now 'Ain tCadis), and 'smote all the country of the Amalekites (or 15edawin), and also the Amorilcs that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar' or En-gedi, on tlie western shore of the Dead Sea. Then followed a battle with the Canaanite princes in the vale of Siddim, which resulted in the defeat of the Canaanites, the death (?) of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the capture of their cities. ' Abram the Hebrew,' however, armed 318 of his men and fell upon the conquerors by night near Dan in the extreme north, pursuing them to Hobah, west of Damascus, and recovering the spoil of Sodom, as well as his nephew Lot.
Chedorlaomer is the Elamite name Kudur- Lagaiiiar,* 'servant of Lagamar,' one of the nrin<'ipal Elamite gods. Similar names are Kudur- S'aiikiiundi, ' servant of the god Nankhuudi,' and Kuilur-Mabug, the father of Eri-aku (Arioch). In the time of Eri-aku, liabylonia was under the suzerainty of Elam ; and while Eri-aku reigned at Larsa and Ur, and claimed sovereignty over the whole of Chalda^a, an independent dynasty was ruling at Babylon ' in the land of Shinar.' Kudur- Mabug is called by his son ' the father of the land of the Amoritca, or Syria and Palestine, which implies some kind of authority there, but he never has the title of king. He was also ' the father of lamntbal,' a frontier district of Elam. The 'land of the Amorites' had been .subdued by the Bab. conqueror Sargon of Ac^cad many centuries before (in u.c. 3S00). Four times he marched into Syria, and, after erecting an image of himself by the shore of the Mediterranean and crossing the countries ' of the sea of the setting sun,' he united bis conquests into a 'single' empire. His son Naram-Sin made his way into the Sinaitic Pen- insula, and must therefore have followed the same road as Chedorlaomer. A later king of Babylonia, Ammi-s.atana (B.C. 2'2.'iO), still calls himseU ' king of the land of the Amoritcs'; and the deep and permanent influence of Babylonia in Canaan, evidenced by the Tel el-Amama tablets, proves that Bab. domination must have long continued there. Ammisatana was the great-grandson of Khainmiirabi, the king of Babylon who overthrew Eri-aku an<l his Elamite allies, and united all Babylonia under one iiumarch. Khaiiimurabi died si.xty years before the accession of Ammi- satana, so that, as he reigned (ifty-five years, we may place the expedition of Chedorlaomer about B.C. 2;!30. A. U. Sayce.