NITRE (Ὁ, νίτρον) in its modern usage denotes saltpetre, nitrate of potash, but the νίτρον or nitrum of the ancients was a different substance, natron, carbonate of soda. It occurs as an incrustation on the ground in Egypt, Persia, and elsewhere, and is also a constituent in the water of certain saline lakes. The most famous of the latter are the ‘natron lakes’ in Egypt. They lie in the ‘natron valley’ about 60 miles W.N.W. of Cairo. The deposit of these lakes includes an upper layer of common salt and a lower one of natron (Wilkinson, Modern Egypt, i. 382 11). Strabo mentions these Egyptian i es (Geog. XVI. i. 23), and also a similar take in Armenia ib XI. xiv. 8). See also Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxxi. 10.
‘Nitre’ occurs twice in AV. In Pr 25”+ the effect of songs on a heavy heart is compared to the action of vinegar upon ‘nitre’ (RV ‘nitre,’ RVm ‘soda’), Vinegar has no effect upon saltpetre, but with carbonate of soda it produces effervescence. In Jer 2" ‘nitre’ (RV ‘lye’) is referred to as a cleansing agent. Here, again, natron rather than modern nitre suits the connexion, Natron has detergent properties, and is in fact the same sub- stance as ὁ washing-soda,’ while saltpetre is useless for cleansing purposes. JAMES PATRICK.
NO («} Jer 46%, Ezk 301%), NO-AMON (x)
* Of. JRAS, 1899, p. 459. + The LXX appears here to have followed a different reading from the MT.
NOAH 553
fox Nah _3°).—These two names, the former asso- ciated with Amon also in Jer (RV), represent Egyptian Thebes. This city was the centre of Amon-worship, and the capital of Egypt, not only throughout the New Kingdom (17th-20th Dynasty), but also again under the Ethiopian rulers of Egypt in the 25th Dynasty, against mich Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal brought their forces. Nahum refers to the capture and sack of Thebes, probably in Assurbanipal’s last invasion, B.C. 663, which seems to have been the most destructive to the metropolis. The instances in Jer and Ezk show that to the outside world Thebes remained the great city of Egypt for many years after it had fallen to the second or third place in the country.
In the New Kingdom Thebes was commonly called N.t rs.t ‘southern city,’ N.t Ymn ‘city of Amon,’ or simply N.¢ ‘city.’ In the 2lst Dynasty a single individual is named alternatively, V.t- nekht and N.t-Amon-nekht, each meaning ‘Thebes is victorious’ (Spiegelberg, Rec. de trav. xxi. 53). In Demotice Ne regularly stands for Thebes, and after the destruction of the city itself by Ptolemy x. the word still appears in the Egypt. name of the Thebaid. The fem. ending ¢ was early lost, and the royal name Ψουσέννης gives approximately νὴ as the pronunciation of n.t. The Assyrian annals name the city Ni’. The punctuation No’ of the Hebrew is evidently wrong, but the Septuagint (Ezk 3036 Διὸς πόλις, ν.}δ Μέμφις [implying a reading i) Jer 46 [Gr. 26]* τὸν ᾿Αμμὼν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς, Nah 38 μερίδα [implying a reading x3> con- fused with njp ‘ portion’) ’Aypudy) gives no help in correcting it. F. Lu. GRIFFITH.
NOADIAH (aris ‘meeting with J”’; Noade‘).—4. The son of Binnui, a Levite, one of the four persons to whom were committed the silver and gold and sacred vessels pone by Ezra from Babylonia (Ezr 8%). In 1 Es 853 he is called ‘Moeth the son of Pebeminn: (Μωὲθ Σαβάννου, cf. N. ἀπὸ ᾿Εβανναιά, Ezr .δ.).
2. A prophetess, who assisted Tobiah and San- ballat at the time of the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah denounces her for at- tempting to intimidate him, but no particulars regarding her are given in the narrative (Neh 6").
H. A. WHITE.
NOAH (pn) ‘rest,’ from πὸ; LXX and NT Νῶε, whence AV Noe; Jos. Νῶχος [var. lec. Nweos}. In Gn 5”, probably a fragment of J, the name is de- rived from the root on) ‘comfort,’ and is given to Noah by Lamech in the belief that he would com- fort* men for the toil of their hands ‘from the
round which J” hath cursed’).—Gn 5*-” 6-9.
p to 97 Noah appears as the hero of the Flood, in 9%” as the first discoverer of the art of making wine. That these two stories come from different sources is bao hg because in the earlier Accadian history of the Flood that event is immediately followed by the translation of Sitnapisti (Noah),
erhaps referred to in 6%, cf. 5%, which appears to ἧς a fragment of J misunderstood by P in 63,
Amongst the Talmudists (e.g. Aboda Zara 64, Sanhedrin 56b) it was customary to speak of ‘ the seven precepts of the sons of Noah,’ by which they meant those precepts that were Serrewes to be already binding upon mankind at large before Abraham and outside of his family. Other enumer- ations besides seven are also found. For details see Schiirer, GJV® iii. 128 [H/P τὰ. ii. 218), or Weber, Jiidische Theologie (Index, s. ‘Gebote’).
See art. FLOop, vol. in. 16.
F. H. Woops. *In Haupt’s OT the MT ory (‘he will comfort us‘) ie changed to 139°3} (‘he will give us rest’), in hamnony with LXX
διανασαύσω ἡμᾶς, See Ball's note, ad oc. and Nestle in Srpoa
Timea, viil. 230
SN eee ῪῈϑἝἝ...;.ὄ..
NOAH
556