tome'). J. Hastings.
• Mount Seir, p. 98 ; P\yi. OeoL Arabia Pttroea, rtc pp. 16-79.
t The waters of the Dead Sea yiel.l 24-57 lbs. of salt in 100 lbs. of water, those of the Atlantic yiebiinn only fl lbs. of salt in the same quantity; the fi'ntier consist of chlorirl.-s nf lime, msKin'sia, sodium, nnil jsitassiura, and in Hinsller proportions of snljilmtes ami bniinidcs rif the same nubHtances. The larse quantity of bromine (occurring as bromide of magnesium) has attrmct«Hl the attention of naturallsta, and la supposed to be a volcanic emanation.
VOU I. — ^7
DEAR, DEARTH.— Dear is used in AV in two senses: (1) Beluved, as Eph 5' 'Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children ' (d^oirTrriS!, HV ' beloved '). In this sense is Col 1" ' the kingdom of his d. Son,' which AV, along with Gov., Cran., Gen., and Bishops', retained from Tindale, though Wyclif's ' the sone of his louynge ' was nearer the (Jreek (6 fldsr^s d7ii7r7;sai>roC; Kheims, KV, 'the Son of his love '). See Beloved. (2) Precious, Ac 20-" 'neither count I my life d. unto myself {rifuos). Cf. Ps 72''' Gov. ' deare slial their bloude be in his sight,' and 116'° 'right deare in the sight of the Lorde is the death of his sayntes,' both preserved in I'r. Bk. version, the meaning being that he counts it too precious to leave it unavenged.
Dearth. — That which is precious is rare, as 1 S Si Gov. "The worde of y« Lorde waa deare at the same tyme ' ; and from 'dear' in this sense waa formed 'dcartir = 8carcity, famine. Dearth occure in AV Gn 41Mi>", 2 K 4**, 2 Ch 623, Neh 63 (all 21^1, RV ' famine ' in Gn, 2 Ch, keeping ' dearth 'in 2 K, Neh) ; Jer 141 (n-lX5, RV 'drought'); Ac 7" 1128 (X/^it, rv 'famine'); and RV adds Job 5^ (\t^, AV 'famine'), though it retains ' famine ' for the same Heb. in 303. J_ HASTINGS.
DEATH,— See Eschatolooy, Life.
DEBATE.— To debate (fr. old Fr. debatre, Lat. do down, hatuere beat) now means to discuss, and a 'd.' is a discussion, which is e.\pected to be amic- able. But in earlier Eng. ' to debate ' was to light or wrangle, and 'debate' was strife, quarrelling. Thus Gn 1 3' Geneva ' there was debate betweene the heardmen of Abrams cattell, and the heardmen of Lots cattell ' ; and Lk 12" Gov. ' Thynke ye that I am come to brynge peace upon earth— I tell you nay, but rather debate.' In this sense only is debate used in AV, whether as vb. or subst. As vb. Pr 25' ' Debate thy cause with thy neighbour ' (so RV), and Is 27« (RV 'contend'; both 3-i = 'strive,' 'go to law'). As subst. Is .58'' (ly?, RV ' contention ') ; Sir 28* ' A sinful man disquieteth friends, and maketh d. among them that be at piace' {iKSdWet Sid^i)^ ; cf. 2 Ti 3» AVm, Tit 2» AVm, and see Makebate) ; Ro 1», 2 Co 12* {Ipit, UV ' strife '). J. Hastings.
DEBIR ("I'S^). — The king of Eglon, who ace. to Jos 10* joined other four kings against Joshua, but was defeated and put to deatu along with his allies at Makkedah.
DEBIR (Tji, AaSdp, Dabir). — 1. The name is generally supposed to mean 'back'; hence = hindmast chamber, innermost room of a temple, and so it is used in 1 K 6' to denote the Holy of Holies. The city must have been a sacred one, with a well-known temple. This is borne out by its two other names, Kiriath-scpher or ' Book- town' (.los 15", Sept. iriXit ypaiiiATuv), and Kir- iath-sannah, ' city of instruction ' (?) (Jos 15*") ; and W. Max Miifler (^*iVn und Kuropa, 1894) has shown that in an Ejryptian papjTus, known as the ' Travels of the Moliar,' which was written in the time of Ramses ll. (B.C. 13U0), and is a sarcastic account of an Egyptian traveller's misadventures in Canaan, reference is made to the town. The writer remarks : ' Thou ha.st not .seen Kiriath-anab near Beth-thupar, nor dost thou know Adullam and Zidiputa.' We learn from the geographical list of Shishak that the last-named place was in the south of Judali, and the Egyptian Tluipar, which is followed hy the <leteriinnative of 'writing,' would represent a Hebrew Sujthfr or 'scribe.' As Anab is a-ssociated >vith Kiriath-scpher in Jos 11'' I5°", we must conclude that the Egyptian writer has interchanged the equivalent terms Kiriath and Both, and that the Rlassoret^s have wrongly vocalised the second element in the name of tha
678
DEBOKAH
DEBORAH
city, which should be sopher, 'scribe,' instead of sep/ier, ' book.' It was a ' city of scribes,' where a library must have existed, hlled with clay books inscribed with cuneiform characters similar to those found at Tel el-Amama, and in the libraries of Assyria and Babylonia, The latter were usually established in the chamber of a temple.*
It is possible that the name of Kiriath-sannah may be found in one of the Tel el-Amarna tablets (Mittheilungm aus den orientalischen Sammhingen, iiL No. 199), where we read : ' The country of Gath-carmel has fallen away to Ta^i, and the men of the city of Gath ; he is in Beth-sanL' Tills would locate the city in the nei^jhbourhood of Gath.