KEROS. — Name of a family of Nethinira who returned with Zerub., Ezr 2" (DiB) = Neli 7" (oVj;).
KESITAH.— The klsUah (.-raVi?) is mentioned only three times in the OT (Gn 33", Jos 24«, Job 42")- In the first and primary passage — to whicli one of the other passages certainly, and both probably (cf. Budde's ' Hiob,' Einleit. p. xliii) refer— Jacob is represented as paying a hundred kSsitahs for the ' parcel of ground where he had spread his tent ' at Shalem. The kSsitah therefore must have been a standard of value, probably metallic (cf. Job 42"). Its meaning and value in modem currency, how- ever, are entirely unkno^vn. The oldest versions (LXX, Onkelos, Vulgate) give ' lamb ' or ' sheep,' on what grounds we do not know. In our Eng. VSS the rendering is ' piece of money ' ( AV once ' piece of silver,' Jos 24'2). Ball, in Haupt's SBOT {Genesis, p. 91), projioses for philological reasons to point .19'!?? kiahitSh. SpurreU (Notes on Gen.^ p. 288) has a good note (wh. see). Cf. Madden, Coins of the Jews, p. 11; Jacobs, 'La Kesita' in Rev. de Vhist. et de litt. Bibl. L 6, pp. 515-518 (not seen) ; and see art. Money in this Dictionary. A. K. S. Kennedy.
KETAB (KW/S, AV Cetab), 1 Es 5=".— Head of a family of temple servants who returned with Zerubbabel. There is no corresponding name in the lists of Ezr and Neh.
KETHIBH.— See Text op Old Testament.
KETTLE See Food, p. 40, V. 2.
KETDRAH (xjiop ' incense ').— According to Gn 25' (probably J), Abraham, after the death of Sarah (tliis is certainly the meaning intended by the com- piler of Gn in its present form), again took (np:i 'jc'i) a wife (•"'fx), Keturah, who bore to him si.\ sons, who became the ancestors of Arab tribes. In v." (R) she bears the less honourable de.^ignation of P;Vs 'concubine' (cf. 1 Ch P=). The Keturah episode in Aliraham's life is an evidence at once of the presence of different documents in Gn, the hopelessness of discovering a consistent chronology in that book, and the tendency of personal to shade
• Showing that the national god had a chief sanctuary there. Sua favoun the notion that kerioth waa the capital of Moab.
ofT into tribal history. In the light of Gn 17" ' Shall a child be born to him that is a hundred years old ? ' it would be strange if the same writer, accord- ing to whose chronology Abraham was 137 yeara old at the time of Sarah's death (Gn 23'), should relate, without remark, the birth of six sons to him after that event. Of course the dilBculty disappears when we observe that a tradition independent of P and P's chronology is preserved by J in Gn 25'"*, relating to Keturah. Further, as has been shown already in art. ABRAHAM (p. 16"), it is impossible to resist the conclusion that the Keturah story is really an embodiment of the Israelitish belief of the relationship of Arabian clans and tribes to the Hebrew stock rather than the record of personal history.
From the meanin" of the name Keturah, ' frank- incense,' Sprenger (Ueog. Arab. 295) suggests that the ' sons of Keturah ' were so named because the author of Gn 25"'- knew them as traders in that commodity. A tribe Katurd, living in the neigh- bourhood of Mecca, is named by the later Arab genealogists (Bitter, Erdkunde, xii. 19 ff.). On the various Keturah tribes of Gn 25 see sep. articles on the names of these. J. A. Selwe.
KEY, LOCK.— Many of the old houses in Lebanon have still the ancient wooden lock commonly known
ODTSIDK OP LOOK,
in England as the Egyptian lock. It Is generally fixed on the outside of the door, but in large villages and towns it is often put on the inside, a hole being cut in the door to allow the arm with the key to be inserted.
The Syrian lock consists of two pieces of wood set at right angles to each other. The upright
nvBivi op LOCK, BHOwmG TWO roll. For position of lock on door see illustration under Hnr^
piece is nailed to the door, and has in its upper part four or five holes bored, into which headed pins, or nails with the points cut off, are dropped ; the upper part of these holes is then plugged \yith wood. When the cross-bolt is pushed rapidly into the socket in the door-post these pins fall into holes made in the bolt to receive them, and so prevent its withdrawal. The bolt is hollow from the outer end for rather more than half its length.
KEZIAH
KIDROX, THE BROUK
83 i
end into this hollow end tlie key {rrsf;) is inserted. The UiUer is a piece oi wood about 9 in. long, with
pins inserted in its upper surface at one end, to correspond with tlie lioles in the boll. When the pins in the key enter the holes in the boll the key IS pressed upwards, and the pins of the lock are thus raised above the boll, whicli is then set free, and is withdrawn by the key. The leuf,'th of the bolt is usually about 8J in., but there are locks very mueh larger. The key, owing to its size, is generally stuck in the girdle, but is sometimes tied to a handkerchief and slung over the shoulder. The princi]ile of this lock is really the same as that of Brauiah's and Chubb's locks. See, further, art. House, p. 434 f.