There remains the oft-reeurring (twenty-seven times) symbol of the Book of Revelation, in which our Lord is figured as the ‘Lamb’ (note ἀρνίον throughout, not duvés), first introduced in 5° ‘as though it had been slain’ (ἀρνίον. . . ws ἐσφαγμένον). This is not the least striking of the points of con- tact—even though the terms used are not identical —between the Apocalypse and the Fourth Gospel (see the latest commentary, Bousset, Die Offen- barung Johannis, 1896, p. 206), and in so far supports the opinion of those who seek the source of the apocalyptic symbol in the Paschal Lamb rather than in Is 53’ (for the whole question see the commentaries and works on NT theology). The lamb in early Christian symbolism is beyond the limits of a Dictionary of the Bible (see art. LAMB in Smith’s Dict. of Christian Antiquities).
A. R. 5. KENNEDY.
LAME, LAMENESS.—See MEDICINE.
LAMECH (τοῦ, Adwex).t—1. A descendant of Cain, Gn 41:85. (J). He is said to have married two wives, Adah and Zillah (v.! the first mention of polygamy in the Bible), the former of whom became the mother of Jabal and Jubal, the latter of Tubal- cain (v.2), Legend ascribed to Lamech the fol- lowing somewhat enigmatical utterance, which has been preserved by J in poetical form :—
* Adah and Zillah, hear my voice ; Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my ech; For I slay (have slain?) a man for wounding me, And a young man for bruising me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Truly Lamech shall be avenged seventy and sevenfold.’
The above is frequently called ‘the sword-lay, being supposed to be a glorification by Lamech of the weapons forged by his son Tubal-cain, by the aid of which he can defy his enemies and defend himself, instead of having to look, like Cain, to God for protection. This is the generally accepted interpretation of modern scholars (those who are curious to make acquaintance with Jewish and
* The terms are different, however, in the original: &3> in Jer 1119, ny in Is 537.
t Cf. also the pseudepigraphic work, The Testaments of the Twelve Patria : ‘Honour Judah and Levi, for from them shall arise for you the lamb of God (ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ), saving all nations by grace’ (Test. Josephi 19).
t Dillm. and Holzinger agree (against Budde) that the name 505 is unintelligible from Hebrew, but that Arabic may give the meaning juvenis robustus. Ball (‘ Genesis,’ in SBOT), following Hommel (PSBA, March 1893), considers Lamech ‘to be an easy adaptation of Bab. Lamga, “ἴθ Servant” (ot Merodach), another title of Sin, synonymous with Udara in the name Ubara-tutu, ‘‘ vassal of Merodach,” the 'Qriéerrs (or rather ᾽Ὦσάρτη) of Berosus, and father of Ξίσονθρος, the hero of the Flood, who corresponds to the Hebrew Noah.’
20 LAMED
LAMENTATIONS
patristic fancies may refer to Smith’s DB, s. *Lamech’), and there can be little doubt that it is mainly correct. Wellhausen (Composition αἰ. Hex. 305), it is true, thinks it is precarious to explain the lay from its present context, with which it may have a purely accidental connexion. That is to say, he sees no necessity for connecting Lamech’s language with Tubal-cain’s invention, ‘but would recognize in it only a piece of characteristic Oriental bravado (the calling in of the wives is characteristic too, parallels being found amongst the Arabs) nttered by one clan (or chieftain) against another. Holzinger substantially accepts Wellhausen’s ex- planation.
2. A descendant of Seth and father of Noah, Gn 5** 2.9% (P), 1 Ch 15. From the coincidence of the names Lamech and Enoch in the Cainite genealogy of J (Gn 4) and the Sethite genealogy of P (ch. 5), as well as the very close resemblance between a number of other names in the two lists, it is generally held that we have before us two recensions of one and the same list, the object of the one being to trace the descent of the human race to an ancestor called Cain, the other to one called Seth. Delitzsch, while opposing this, agrees with Wellhausen, that, together with the genealogy 4*= terminating in Lamech and his three sons, there was in the Jahwistic document another genealogy which started from Adam and termin- ated in Noah and his three sons, and that this has been displaced by the genealogy of P (ch. 5). Wellh. finds the conclusion of J’s narrative in 5”, its opening perhaps in 4%",
LireraturE.—Buttmann, Mythologus, i. 152 ff. ; Budde, Bib. Urgeschichte, 102, 130ff.; Wellh. Comp. 5, 305; Kuenen, Heza- teuch (Macmillan), 252 ; Reuss, AT 2181. ; Stade, ΖΑ ΤῊ (1894), 283, 295 ff.; Comm. of Del., Dillm., and Holzinger, ad loc.
J. A. SELBIE,
LAMED (5).—The twelfth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and as such employed in the 119th Psalm to designate the 12th part, each verse of which begins with this letter. In this Dictionary it is transliterated by 1.
LAMENTATION.—See Mournina.
LAMENTATIONS, Book oFr—consists of five poems, whose subject is the sufferings of Judah and Jerusalem during the siege and subsequent to the capture of the city by the Chaldeans (8.0. 586). The description of the woes of the people is interspersed with confessions of sin, exhortations to repentance, and supplications for a return of the divine favour.
I. NAME AND PLACE IN THE CANON.—In Hebrew Bibles the title of the book, taken from its opening word, is "Ekhah (">x=How!). Another name, which occurs in the Massoretic subscription and in the Talmud and Rabbinical literature, is Kindth (3p), to which correspond the Θρῆνοι of the Sept. and the Threni, Lamentationes, Lamenta of Jerome and the Fathers. In the Heb. Canon (according to German MSS) the book is placed among the Kéthibhim or Hagiographa, and forms one of the five Megilléth or Rolls (Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther). These were read in the Synagogue service on stated occasions every year, Lamentations on the 9th of Ab, the anniversary of the destruction of the temple. In the Sept. as in the Eng. Bible, Lamentations im- mediately follows Jeremiah. That this was not the