There are two points in which Naaman’s conduct has given rise to controversy, viz. (1) his request for two mules’ burden of earth to carry away with him for the purpose of offering sacrifice to J’; and (2) the desire to be forgiven when he attended his royal master as heretofore in the temple of Rimmon and bowed down with him. With regard to the first, Naaman simply shared the universal belief of those days, that the god of each land could be served o: on his own soil; cf. the com- plaint of David (1 ἃ 66.) that he was being driven out to serve other gods. Further, the transporta- tion of earth from the Holy Land in the Middle Ages for the Campo Santos of Italy ; the erection of a Jewish synagogue (to which Calmet refers in Comm. Lit. vol. ii.) at Nahardea in Persia, com- ec entirely of stones and earth brought from
alestine; and even the preference shown for
Ὑ
textual error for 37y); so Sam., cf. LXX Νοεμανεί). See NAAMITE. J. A. M‘CLtymonr.
NAAMATHITE (‘npyj3, ὁ Μί(ε)ιναίων βασιλεύς, ἑ M(e)watos). — The description of Zophar, Job's friend, in Job 2", 11! ete. The name is unknown elsewhere, the rendering of the LXX being hypo- thetical only. The name Na‘amah (‘pleasant- town’?) is not infrequent in Syria and Palestine of later days. It indicates a town in the Shephélah in Jos 15". W. T. DAVISON.
NAAMITE (‘py:7).—The patronymic of a family descended from Naaman, who is represented Nu 26" as a grandson of Benjamin, but in Gn 46” as son, though the LXX agrees with Nu(see NAAMAN, No. 2).
NAARAH (my; ‘ girl ἢ.--1, One of the wives of Ashhur the ‘father’ of Tekoa, 1 Ch 45 (B Θοοδά, A Noopd, Luc. Νοερά). 2. A town Delonge to the tribe of Ephraim, Jos 167 (apq3, with 7 locale ; B al κῶμαι αὐτῶν as if for pin, A Naapaéa, Luc ᾿Αναιραθά). AV has Naarath (so also Dillm. and Buhl). The same place is called in 1 Ch 7* Naaran (wa; B Νααρνάν, A Naapdv). According to the
nomasticon (Lagarde, 283. 142), there was a village Noopd@ 5 Roman miles from Jericho (cf. the Neapd of ΕΞ Ant. XVI. iii. 1). This would suit well the ruin el-Awje situated on the river of the same name. Guérin places the site farther up the river at es-Samie.
Lrrsrature.—Guérin, Samarie, i. 210 ff., 226f.; PEF Mem. ii 892; Neubauer, Géog. du Talm, 168; Buhl, GAP 181; Dillm., Jos. ad loc. J. A. SELBIE.
NAARAI (7y3; B Naapal, A Noopd). —One of David’s heroes, 1 Ch 11%’, described as the son of Ezbai. In the parallel passage, 2S 23%, the name is Paarai, who is called ‘the Arbite’ (‘29yq). It ie impossible to decide with any confidence between the rival readings Ἢ} and "y=, or to say what is the relation of ‘313732 to ‘27x7. See ARBITE, ἘΖΒΑΙ, PAARAI, and ef. Kittel’s note on 1 Ch 1157 in SBOT.
NAARAN, NAARATH.—See NAARAH, No. 2.
NAATHUS (A Naaéés, B Ad@os), 1 Es 9*1.—One of the sons of Addi. The name seems to correspond to Adna in Ezr 10%. The form in B is due to con- fusion of A and A, and to attaching the initial N to the preceding word (’Addely).
NABAL (53), Na8d).—S. of Hebron lies one of the few fertile stretches of Judza, where the soil, less stony than usual, succeeds in covering the limestone skeleton of the country (cf. ἃ. A. Smith, Hist.
water from the Jordan in Christian baptism, are instances of a similar feeling in later times. to the latter point, when we bear in mind that the obeisance in the house of Rimmon, on the part of Naaman (which he wished to be condoned), was purely external, arising out of his official sition and his personal relation to the king (‘he eaneth on my hand,’ cf. 2 K 75: 17), we see that it does not really ante any attempt to dissemble his t
convictions, an at his apnea to Elisha may be eae: . 305 f.). In this district, which was more reasonably attribu to a sensitive con- | settled Ν᾿ the clan Caleb, were clustered Maon, science than to a spirit of compromise. There is | Ziph, and Carmel, on the last of which Nabal lived
therefore no warrant for drawing a parallel be- tween Naaman and those who from worldly motives profess a faith and conform to a worship in which they do not believe—a view which has led to much irrelevant discussion, See, further, art. ELISHA in vol. i. p. 695%.
In many respects the story lends itself with singular aptitude to the illustration of evangelical and sacramental doctrine; and the passage has been frequently so employed in homiletical ‘litera- ture.
2. According to Gn 467! %6 (cf. Nu 26%), one of ‘the sons of Benjamin’ who came with Jacob into Ἐεγρῖ; but more precisely designated in Nu 26%: # and 1 Ch 88", cf. 7, asa son of Bela and grandson of Benjamin, and as head of ‘the family of the Naamites’ (Nu 26, where ‘py is probably a
as a sheepmaster. So it can be understood why, according to Jos. (Ant. VI. xiii. 6), he was a Ziphite, according to 1 S 25° (LXX) a Carmelite, according to v.3a Calebite. His shepherds drove the flocks (3000 sheep and 1000 goats), at the suitable season, to pasture on the uplands of Carmel. Annually the sheep-shearing was celebrated with a feast ‘like the feast of a king,’ v.. The farmer was of considerable wealth, but of a surly and niggardly temper.