fontefiore, Hib. Lect. 351; Ryle, Can. 92).
In spite of the effort of the author of the beautiful story of
Ruth to soften the harsh spirit of the leaders, Ezra and Neh. held the same decided view against foreign marriages, though from different motives. The great offence in Ezra’s eyes was the
* Monteflore regards this condition partly as a result of ‘the
old quarrel between priests and Levites’ (Hib, Lect. 350). t this was a tithe of corn, wine, and oil, asin Dt 1422 ; see Ryle, Canon of the OT, 86.
----- | 510 NEHEMIAH, BOOK OF NEHUSHTAN
{infringement of the sacred law. But Neh., while he was im- pressed with the dangerous consequences of such all | citing the sin of Solomon and the havoc it wrought (13%), hel
is probably due to a scribal error, the paralle!
assage (Ezr 2?) having Rehum (01m; A’T οὐμ, Luc Ῥεϊούμ). In Neh the LXX a a MT, readin Ναούμ. The name appears in 1 Es 58 as Roimus ( Ῥόειμος, A* Ῥομέλιος).
NEHUSHTA (xzyz3; Lue. Νεεσθάν, B Νεσθά, A Ναισθά).---ὙΥ 16 of king Jehoiakim and mother of Jehoiachin; a native of Jerusalem (2 K 248), She was taken a prisoner to Babylon with her son in 597 (2 K 9413), and no doubt died there. Re-
arding her father, see ELNATHAN. The vowels ot MT and the rendering of Jerome, es ejus, connect the word with nyn; ‘bronze.’ Barzillai is skeet another example of a proper name derived from the name of a metal. But the stem consonants of the word are those also of wn; ‘serpent,’ and animal names are characteristic of the period (Gray, Heb, Proper Names, p. 103 f.). The Lucianic translitera- tion identifies the name with Nehushtan (2 K 184),
W. B. STEVENSON,
NEHUSHTAN.—In the received text of 9 Καὶ 184 we read that Hezekiah, in addition to remov- ing the baméth (EV ‘high places’), with their mazzébahs (RV ‘ pillars’), throughout the country, carried his zeal for reform so far as to ‘cut down the Asherah’ (so RV ; see ASHERAH)—presumably that attached to the Temple at Jerusalem—and to break in pieces ‘the brazen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he (Hezekiah) called it Nehushtan.’ The doubts which so many recent critics have expressed regarding the his- toricity of the greater part of this verse we need not pause to examine, inasmuch as it must be, and is, admitted that at least the statement with which the verse closes, and which alone concerns us here, is certainly historical. The further question as to the relation of this incident to the Pentateuch narrative, Nu 214" (esp. y.%), also lies without the
urview of this article (see SERPENT [BRAZEN)).
wo points, however, appear to demand examina- tion, viz.: (1) the eae of the name here sen to the object destroyed, and (2) the reason alleged for its destruction.
(1) The name of ‘ Nehushtan. Two significa- tions of Néhushtan (p73) are possible. (a) That clearly intended by the Massoretic punctuators, and since generally adopted, viz. ‘the brazen thing’ [opus]aeneum κατ᾽ ἐξοχήν. ae to this view, Néhushtan is a denominative from nyh} néhdsheth by addition of the formative suffix -dn (so Ges.-Buhl, Stade, Konig, Lehrgeb. ii. 8 60. 95, Barth, Nominalbildg. § 207°). The further idea of the Massoretes, reflected in our EV, that this name was given to the venerable object by Hezekiah at the time of its destruction, must, however, be rejected. The context requires rather that we should find in Neéhushtan the name by which it was pularly known, and this may be got by a slight change in the pointing of the verb (cf. Lucian’s text καὶ ἐκάλεσαν αὐτὸν Neec@dv, and see the Commentaries). (4) The transliteration of the word in the oldest Greek versions (A Νεσθάν, B Νεσθαλεί, and best of all Νεεσθάν, Lucian) sug- gests aflinity with vy} nahash ‘serpent’ rather than with néhésheth “brass. For in 2 K 248 the name of the queen-mother, who appears ir MT as xpyni Néhushtad, appears in A as Ναισθά, which is identical with B’s Νεσθά, Luc. Νεεσθάν (see NE- HUSHTA). But it is far more probable that the personal name Nehushta is to be classed with the other ‘serpent-names,’ NAHASH and NAHSHON (which see), than with the derivatives of néhisheth. Hence it is possible, at least, that the name of this object of the Hebrews’ venera- Dexasp nounced with vowels other than those of Neéhus was also connected in the popular
the great evil to be the imperilling of the mother tongue by the introduction of foreign elements. From this it would a pear that already the OM Heb. speech was in danger, and the patriotism of the ple was appealed to to preserve it from extinction. How long it lasted as a living tongue after this time is uncertain. But the seeds of death must have been apparent.
Tradition was as little silent about Neh. as about Ezra (see Ewald, Hist. v. 161ff.). To these two men ‘grateful posterity has attributed all the beneficial institutions, of whose origin it was ignorant.’ Among the worthies praised by Jesus the son of Sirach is Neh., whose ‘ memorial is great, who raised up for us the walls that were fallen, and set up the gates and bars, and raised up our homes again’ (Sir 49"), In 2 Mac 1188. we read that Neh. purified the sacrifices with the water taken from the pit where the priests had hid the sacred fire. His ἐπόνει activity was also known: ‘The same things were related both in the public archives and in the records that concern Neh., and how he, found- ing alibrary, gathered together the books about the kings and prophets, and the books of David and letters of kings about sacred gifts’ (2 Mac 23. See Ryle, Cam. 102; W. R. Smit 1, OTJC? 170f. On the character of the letters in which this passage occurs see ZA W, 1890, i. 110 ff.).