This species suits well ' the hyssop that springeth out of the wall' (1 K 4^). It grows in clefts of rocks, in chinks of old walls, and on the terrace walls throughout the land. "Thus it will be seen that it suits perfectly all the requirements of OT as well as of NT. Thymbra spicatn, L., has been suggested, but it is a plant not found in the desert or the interior.
Koyle proposed as the equivalent of 3ii»c '(z6bh, the Heb. original of Cffo-uTros, the caper, Capparis spinosn, L. His argument was based on the supposed etymol. resemblance between 2iix and Arabic 'asaf, one of the two Arab, names for the caper. It is fatal to this theory, however, that it does not explain the passage in Jn. It is im- probable that St. John would have written Vaau-iroi if he had meant (tdinra/jis, the well-known Gr. name of the caper. These words are never inter- changeable. Nor could St. John have been biassed, as the writer of He 9", by a LXX rendering, for, as above pointed out, he was narrating, not quoting. In order to strengthen his etymol. theory, Royle assumes that vaaunrot and ndXa/iot were the same, and shows how a stick, 3 or 4 ft. long, could be obtained from the caper, suitable for the purpose for which the reed was used. But, even if it were possible philologically to apply the term KaXa/xo! to a rod from the caper, any one familiar with the mode of its growth would be likely to reject this plant. The branches of the caper are slender, straggling, and usually beset with hooked prickles. They are eminently un- suitable for the purpose described. On the other hand, the reed, a general term for the straight, stiff, hollow stems of the larger grasses, as Arundo Donax, L., and Sacchamm .^gyptiacum, L., would precisely suit the nan-ative, and was doubtless then as now used to tie things to, in order to hand them up. A further objection to Koyle's theory is, that the caper would nave been wholly unsuitable to make a bunch. Its branches are straggling, prickly, noli-me-tangere, with large, stiff leaves and flowers 3 in. broad. It is impossible for us to think that such an intractable plant should have been selected for sprinklin". Finally, the etymology is weak, even for the OT '^z6bh, which is composed of the radicals alcph, zayin, and beth, while 'asaf ia composed of alif, sod, and /?. For the passage in John it has been shown above that the etymol. argument not only fails to confirm the claims of the caper, but is wholly fatal to them. The Arabic zUfa is etymol. much nearer to 'iz6bh, and ziifa is doubtless the same as sa'tar. G. E. Post.
I AM
ICONIUM
H3
I
I AM See under God, vol. ii. p. 199".
lADINUS (A 'Idoi^'os, li .«-, AV Adinus), 1 Es9«. — One of the Levites who tau^lit tlie people the law of the Lord after the return under Ezra. The name corresponds to Janiiu in Neh S' (om. LXX), w ho with the other persons there mentioned is dis- tin;:^ished from the Levites.
IBHAR (iri?: '[God] chooses'; 2 S 5", B 'E^edp, A 'lejSdp ; 1 Ch 3" 14», B Badp, A 'U^adp ; Jcbahar, Jebaar), one of David's sons, born at Jerusalem : his name occurs in all three lists immediately after that of Solomon and before that of Elishua. According to 1 Ch 3° he was the son of a wife and not of a concubine ; otherwise he is unknown alike to history and to tradition. It is noteworthy that in the Peshitta to 2 S 5" his name is given as
. '-I'-^n . [Juchabar), a form which occurs else- where as the equivalent of Jochebed (E.\ C'-'", Nu 26=" nj:V) and of Ichabod (1 S 4=' lis; -x) : in 1 Ch
the form given ( MT.
) agrees with that of the J. F. Stenning.
IBLEAM (0?^?!). — A town belonging to West Manasseh, Jos 17" (JE ; wanting in the LXX, see Budde, Rkht. u. Sam. 13 f.), Jg l". It is men- tioned also in 2 K 9-'' in connexion with the death of king Ahaziah, who fled by the way of Beth- haggan (En-gannim [?] ; 'the garden house' AV, KV), and ' the ascent of Gur, which is by Ibleam.' The biblical data seem to be well satished by the modern ruin Bel'ame, some 13 miles E. of N. of Samaria, more than half-way to Jezreel. Conder (SWP ii. p. 98) prefers Ycbla, N.W. of Beisan, while Wilson and others favour Jelame, 3i miles 8. by W. from Zcr'in (Jezreel).
In 2 K 15'" ci-'7;i3 ( AV, RV ' before the people ') should certainly be emended to d^^^^j (' in Ibleam ' ; 80 Siegfried-Stade, Oxf. Heb. Lex. etc., following Luc. iv 'le^Xod/x). Gath-rimmon (wh. see) of Jos 21'' is a scribal error for Ibleam. It is the same place which is called in 1 Ch 6" [Eng."] Bileam (wh. see).
LiTBRATURR. — Dillm. on Jo« 171' ; Moore on Jg 1^; Baedeker- Socin, Pii/.s 228 ; Schultz, ZbUG uL 49; SWP ii. 47 f., 61(. ; Ou6rin, SamarU, i. 33911. J. A. SELBIE.
IBNEIAH (.tjd: ' J" buildeth up ').— A Benjamite, 1 Ch 9". See Genealooy.
IBNIJAH (.T^i:).— A Benjamite, 1 Ch 9». See Genealogy.