But whether her motive was patriotic or selfish, the ' moral difficulty ' of the narrative is serious only to those who do not recognize the gradual education of mankind. Jael's act was not moral according even to her own standard, and thus to compare Tier with Judith or with Charlotte Corday Is not quite apt. The approval of Deborah's Song must be ranked with those passages in the ini|)re- catory Psalras which breathe at times tlie cruel and vengeful spirit of man, rather than the Spirit of God. See Deborah, Heeer, Jaein, Sisera.
J. H. Bernard.
JAGUR (!»;). — A to\vn in the extreme south of Jndah, Jos 15^. The site is unknown.
JAH (a;). — An abbreviated form of Jahweh (nin:), found chiefly in proper names, but occasionally also besides. The form of the abbreviation is in accord- ance with analogy : the apocopation of the last syllable "ave rise to yahw, and this, by the princi- ples of tlie Massoretic vocalization, became ydkii (cf. tuhil from tohw, and, what is even a closer parallel, yishtalMweh, shortened after the wuw
• Ruling Ideas in Earl]/ Ages, p. 126fE.
t See Jellett, lloral JHJicuttia <^ the OT, p. 6L
consecutive into yishtcihu, in pause yishtdhH, through an intermediate form, mt recognized by the Alassoretes, yishtuhw) ; and yuAii (in;) wa» afterwards shortened to y&h (a; — witli mappiq), and ultimately (in proper names) to y<(* (n;).
(1) I'roper names, of which the second element is yah, are very numerous in Hebrew : Mr. Gray {Studies in Ileh. Proper Names, p. 284 If.) eniuner- ates 127 (e.q. Abijan, Uriah, I.-^aiali, etc.). The reader who is not conversant with Hebrew ought, however, to know that in the original the form in very many of these proper names is ydhu : on the whole, it may be said that the earlier form is ydhii, and the later form ycih (the h 'quicscing') ; but there are exceptions to this rule, and sometimes both forms occur side by side in the same context.
Thus, to talte a few examples (the names, in their earlier jmrta are written ^'eiiemlly iu their Kn(;li8h form). \vc have in 1 K 1-2 AdoniydUu, except in 16-7-18 2^ where we have Ailonindh ; Ahazudhu occurs re^larly in both K and Ch, except in 2 K 13 910. 53.27. M iia, 2 Ch 2035 Aha^i/dh; the same is the cii.se with EUi/dhu {Elij/uh 2 K 13.4.8.12, Mai S~', ond, not of the prophet. 1 Ch Vfn, Ezr 10»l-26), ^mo^viUa (^lma-';/<iA 2K IS^ 13" us 151, Am 7">'»-'*, ICh 4*1 <P"), Bmayiiliu (BciinwiA 2S 2023, iCh 43« nasi 27", 2Ch UO^, Ezli 111» Iv.l lien- ai/dha], Ezr 1025. 30. SMS), rinn<'^dliii (the prophet), cxctpt 271 285- 0- 1» " 12- '2- 15 291, Dn 9^, Ezr 1'; Yesha'tidhu (the prophet Isaiah) uniformly (including 2 Ch S6»» 32*'- 32) ; l/«i- uahu (the king), except 2 K 1613 30. Hoi 1', Am 11, Zee 14»; GedalydhU (in 2 K 25, Jer 39-13) uniformly, except jer 405-<-8 4111; iluhii/dhu (the king llczckiah) unifonnlv, except 2R ISi. 10. 13. 14. 15. 1(1, Hos 11, Mic 11, Pr2:")i ; 'Atlialudhu (the queen), both K and Ch, except 2 K 111-3.13.14, 2 Ch 2212; etc.: on the other h.ind, Uri{/ah occurs everywhere, except Jer 2020-21.23 (Urii/dhu)\ Ahiijdh is more common than Ahindha (only 1 K 144 5.6. 18, -2 Ch Q^), occurrimt already in 1 S 143. 18, jfal- chiyah than Malchiydhd (Jer 38^), Micah in Jg 17-18 than Micd'/'ha (171-4). Seriyah (Baruch's father) in Jer than yeri- j/ii/ifi' (3614-32 430). Xeihanijdh in Jer 40^1 tliau Nrlhanydhu (40S 41^). In Ezr-Neh proper names compounded with -yah are very numerous; but the form -;/d/iiJ occurs but once (Kzr 10*1 Sheleinydhu) : on the other hand, in the parts of Ch added by the compiler many of the names of Lovitt-s and others ar6 written with -ydhu (see, e.g., 1 Oh 16is-»i- 22-24 2121-M 26i2fl 261 11. 14 27160-., 2 Ch yji 291"^'
(2) Outside proper names, Jah occurs only in poetry (mostly in late liturgical poetry), viz. Ex 15* ' My strength and a song is .Jah ' (cited Is 12', Ps 118''), Ex 17" (if the text be sound) in a poetically-worded passage of E (see KVm), Is 26* 'In Jah Jahweh is a rock of ages,' 38"" (Heze- kiah's song), Ps G8*-" 77" 89» 94'-" 102'8 115"-" 1185"- "- 18- 1» 122* ISC' 135'- * 1508* ; in three passages in which the Massoretes treat it (questionably) aa part of a compound word, Jer 2" (text dub.), Ca S«, Ps 118'"' (read prob. as RV) ; and in ' Hallelujah ' (written in MT as one word, n;i>^n) 23 times (see Hallelujah) between Ps 104" and loO"" (always as a liturgical formula at the beginning or end of a Psalm). t It would be natural to think of the abbreviated form as first arising in con- nexion with proper names ; but it is difficult to reconcile this view with Ex IS'' 17", supposing the text of these passages to be sound, and the passages really early. The great majority of the occurrences oi the word are indisputably late.
It was argued by Friedr. Delitzsch in 1881 {Paradies, pp. 158-166), in opposition to the generally accepted view, that iah or Yahu was the original name of the God of Israel, ard con- tinued always to be the popular name ; Yahwch was a later modification of Yahu, designed for the purpose of establishing a connexion with hawdh, to be (or come to be), and so of making the name the expression of a theological truth (above, p. Uli)''). The principal grounds alleged for this ojiinion were the occurrence of the shorter form in