But the chief NT doctrine on this subject is that of inward freedom as the privilege of all believers. Sin brings into bondage (Jn 853, Ro 615); but from this bondage believers are saved both negatively and positively. This is the pro- found meaning of redemption in the NT sense— deliverance from that sense of gui't and fear and condemnation which oppresses ana setters the soul (Ro 83, Tit 215 ete.). ‘Ye were servants of sin,
e became servants of righteousness’ (Ro 6").
owledge of the truth is the means (Jn 883), Christ Himself the source (Jn 888, 2Co 317), of this highest freedom. The ‘spirit of bondage’ aie ee to the ‘spirit of adoption’ (Ro 8", Gal 4°).
in, death, the world, are conquered enemies (1 Co
LIBNAH 11)
15°", Ro 857-89. 1 Jn 54). The exultant sense of ower, of present and future triumph, enjoyed ithe believer, is vividly expressed in passages like Ro 5* 10 6 §%. Spiritual freedom culmin- ates in the relation of children in which believers stand to God. In our Lord’s teaching, in St. Paul’s and St. John’s, this is always represented as the distinctive privilege of the ot 80 pro- found and far-reaching is the NT revelation of the divine Fatherhood in the fullest sense: ‘your Father in heaven’ (Mt 58 74, Jn 133, Ro 838, 1Jn 3%). St. Paul expressly contrasts the state of the servant and the son: ‘Thou art no more ἃ servant, but a son’ (Gal 47). God is thought of as Father, no longer as Ruler merely. The most signal exercise of the liberty of children of God is the boldness with which believers draw near to God (He 41° 10). Christians are invested with the full privileges of the priesthood (1 P 2%). Liberty is not to pass into licence (Gal 5", 1 P 216), St. James speaks of a ‘ law of liberty’ (135 912),
On the thorny questions which have arisen in connexion with liberty and necessity, Scripture says nothing, but implies much. By always ap-
ealing to man as responsible, by calling upon
im to repent and believe, by holding him ac- countable for the results of his action, it assumes that he is free, and in the most definite way refutes the doctrine of moral fatalism. Man may become the slave of sin, sinking into spiritual paralysis ; but it is his own act, and recovery is always pos- sible in this life. Only so far as his action is ΟΠ ΙΒ and his slavery self-induced, is he guilty. Pharaoh who hardened his heart repeat- edly, Ahab who ‘did evil above all that were before him,’ Jeroboam ‘who made Israel to sin,’ are terrible examples of the hardening effects of sin; but their ruin was their own work; they ‘sold themselves to work evil’ (1 K 9159. Other- wise, they could not have been punished by God as they were. Whatever speculative difficulties may be raised on the ground of the divine omni- science, or the law of heredity, or the principle of cause and effect, they vanish before man’s in- vincible consciousness of moral responsibility and the Scripture declarations of God’s righteousness and man’s freedom (Gn 18%, Ezk 33ut, In 319. 560).
J.S. BANKs.
LIBNAH (7:25).—1. The third of the 12 stations following Hazeroth, mentioned only in Nu 33-7! (see Exopus, IV.), unless it is the same place that is called in Dt 1! Laban. Its position is not known.
2. A city taken by Joshua (Jos 1039: 389), and, from the context, situate between Makkedah and
B. | A.
Nu 33” Acuwrd =| AcBwvd 332 το Λεβωνά Jos 10” AcBvd (4) AcBuvd (4)
10° ct AaBurd (δι᾽ 1082 an ee 1218 Sen AcBuvd 159 Δεμνά Λεβνά 213 eee τ 2K 85 Σεννά Λομνά 195 Aouvd Λοβνά 9351 Anurd AoBevd 2418 om. Aouvd Is 378 Λοβνάν Λοβνά 1 Ch 6” [Heb.*] Λοβνά Λοβνά 2 K 8#=2 Ch 91» ΔΛομνά Λοβνά
Lachish. The name occurs in the list of con- F. Lue. as A. AcBuvd as A. és def. Λεβνά def. “f def. def. = def. . def. Ἧ def. Λοβνά def. τὰς def. Λοβεννά x 0Q a Aourdy Aourd οἱ y Λαβανά! Λοβνάν | Λοβνά
112 LIBNI
quered kings (12'5) between Arad and Adullam, in a group of 9 cities of the Shephélah (155) and in the lists of priestly cities (21, 1 Ch 6” [v.” LXX and Eng.]). The MT in Ch describes it as a city of refuge, but the text requires emendation, and the renderings of AV and RV give the probable sense. The city revolted at the same time as Edom from under the hand of Judah in the time of Joram [Jehoram] (2 K 8”, 2 Ch 9110, It appears to have been a stronghold, for the king of Assyria attacked it in the time of Hezekiah (2 K 198, Is 378). In the last days of the kingdom of Judah it was inhabited by Jewish families, for Josiah took to wife a daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah (2 K 23% 2418). This is the last biblical notice of the place, and no reference to it occurs in later times. It was prob- ably in the neighbourhood of Beit Jibrin, and a site 4 miles to N.W. has been proposed, and (PEFSt, Jan. 1897) another, 10 miles S. Ε of Tell el-Hesy. The LXX renderings are very varied, Λεβνά or Λοβνά occurring most frequently ; for 8 is substi- tuted « in some places, and λεβμνά occurs in A. The first vowel is often varied, but generally no vowel is found between § and », and in this respect the renderings are distinguished from those of Libnah (1), which introduce ὦ between f and ν; Λεβωνά, with » for 8 in B. The first syllable of the rendering Σεννά in 2 K 833 may be a duplication of the last syllable of the preceding word. On the previous page is a list of the LX.X variations. A. T. CHAPMAN. LIBNI (132), AoSev(e)i). The eldest son of Gershon, that is to say, the eponym of a principal family of Gershonite Levites, Ex 617, Nu 318, 1 Ch 617. ἢ [Heb. 3. 51. In 1 Ch 6” [Heb. 151, perhaps owing to some dislocation of the text, the name appears as that of the eponym of a family of Merarites. The patronymic Libnites (1327) occurs in Nu 3?! 2658,