set forth His most worthy praise, to hear Ilia most holy word ' ; Shaks. King John, II. i. 2'J5 —
• Up higher to the plain, where we'll set forth 1b best appointment all our regiments.'
The same phrase is used technically of placing food before one, Jn 2'° ' Every man at the begin- ning doth set forth good wine ' (TWr)aiv). (c) Praise, Sir 11 •"="""8 ■ We may not vaunt or set forth our- selves.' Cf. Pr. Bk. i549 (Canticle foil. Te Deum), ' Speak good of the Lord ; praise him, and set him up for ever ' ; and Shaks. Lucrece, 34—
' Beauty itself doth of itself persuade The eyes of men without an orator : What needeth then apolo},'ies he made To set forth that which is so singular?*
(5) Set forward. See Forward in vol. il. p. 60.
(6) Set on means : [a] Place on table, Gn 43^'- " 'And he washed his face . . . and said. Set on bread'; Bel " 'Set on the meat, and make ready the wine.' (b) Incite or urge to some course of action, Jer 38** ' Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee ' (Tn'sn) ; 43' ' But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee on against us ' (n'ro). (c) As a ptcp. bent on. Ex 32-^ ' They are set on mischief.' (d) To attack, Ac IS'" ' No man shall set on thee to hurt thee ' (dnSrideTal (roi). (7) Set to, meaning affix, of a seal, Jn 3^ ' He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true ' (iff,ppdyi.,7(i'). Cf. Ex 21»' Tind. ' Yf he be sette to a summe of money, then he shall geve for the delyveraunce oft' his lyfe, accordyng* to all that is put unto him'; Adams, ]yuiks, i. 18, ' In testimony whereof I have set to my hand, and sent it you as a token of the gratitude of my heart.' (8) Set up, meaning establish, Mai 3'° ' They that work wickedness are set up.'
J. Hastings.
SETH [no, i.e. Sheth ; LXX and NT 2^9 [in 1 Ch V A has 2jjs]).— The third sou of Adam, Gn 4^ (J) 5»(P), ICh 1', Lk 3^. In the first of these pits- sages J assigns a characteristic etymology for the name. Eve being made to say ' God hath set [shoth] for me another seed insteaid of Abel,' for which reason she called him Sheth {i.e. ' setting ' or ' slip,' Dillm.). In Sir 49'" Seth is coupled with Shem as 'glorified among men.' A heretical Jewish sect, whose tenets afterwards found acceptance in Chris- tian Gnostic circles, derived its name from Seth. These Sethians or Sethites held (like other Gnostics, Jemsh and Christian) that the material universe was the creation of angels and not of the supreme Dynamis, to whom Seth owed his birth. Theo- doret (Hccr. Fab. 1. 14) appears to identify thera with the Ophites : Sijffiavoi oOt 'Oipiavous fi 'O^irai Tites (5vo/idi'ou<rt. Some of the Jewish Sethites believed Seth to have been the Messiah, and later Gnostics held that Jesus Christ was a re-incarnation of Seth. For further information as to this sect and its relations to the Ophites and Cainites (a subject beyond the scope of this art.), see Friedliinder, Der rorchri-stliche judische Gnusticisiiiiis, 189S, p. 18 ft". ; Prenschen, Die apokr. gnost. Adamsrhriften, IHCO, passim; and cf. Epiphanius (ado. J/ar. xxxix.), pseudo-Tertull. (viii.), and Philast. (iii.).
J. A. Selbie.
SETHUR (TW?, SofloiJ/)).— The Asherite spy, Nu
1313, 14|_
SETTLE (.T)jn).— See Temple, p. TlOi-n.
SEVEN, SEVENTY. — See Numrer, voL iii pp. 562 f., 56o*.
SEVENEH (nji? ; Gr. ^vijvri, Syene ; Egyp. Swn, Dem. Swne, Copt, coyan [Swan] ; Arab. ^^'^ [Asioan]).—A city on the east hank of the Nile
SEVER
SHA^VEAI.M
471
immediately above the First Cataract, the southern frontier post of Egypt. For some distance north of Aswan the cultivable portiim of the Nile Valley is extremely narrow. At A.swan the hills draw in rapidly on either side, and the town is built against a rocky barrier of sandstone supported by a dvke of granite that crosses the Nile and forms tlie cataract. Here there is no cultivation on either bank beyond that of a few palm trees and tiny p.atches of t-'arden ; but the little island of F.lepliantine in the middle of the stream oppo.site Aswan is almost clothed with vegetation, and formed the ancient capital of the lirst nome of Upper Egypt. West of the river are cliffs, shrouded with sand, but pierced by countless tombs of the former inhabitants of the island. Ele|)hantine-Syene must have formed an almost ideal frontier fortress. Immediately above this point the narrow passage of the Nile was rendered dangerous and very tedious for boats by the rocks and islands and rushing currents of the cataract. On the west bank there is not even a path ; the adventurous sightseer must clamber over the rocks ; on the east bank there was only one clear road, and this led through a long narrow defile p.ir.illel to tlie river into the open ground opposite I'liiUc. Elephantine, the island, was the secure metropolis of the district, the residence of the governor, and the centre of the local cult of the cataract gods. Its name in Ei'yptian was 'bw, ' elephant,' demotic 1/6 (ItjiS), a name which seems to have been applied not only to the island but also to the surrounding district, including the quarries of gianite. Syene itself was probably considered a-s only a mainland suburb of Elephantine. ' Wine of su'ii ' is mentioned in very early inscriptions, but it is doubtful whether the reference ia to Syene. In the Egyptian inscriptions the name of the town is known only at a very late date ; its temple is of Ptolemaic age. Gradually the im- portance of Elephantine waned, and that of Syene rew ; with the fall of paganism even the name Vi (Elephantine) was given up and that of Sionn took its jilace. It is remarkable that Ezekiel employs the name Suieneh and not Yeb for the Boutliem frontier ; the references are Ezk 29'° 30* ; the reading of RVni ' from Migdol to Syene' is the best. (See MlGDOl,). Herodotus often refers to 'EXf^oj'Tli'j;. In ii. 30 he speaks of Ele- phantine, Daphnre near Pelusium, and Marea as the garrison cities re.sj>eetivcly against the Ethi- opians, against the Syrians ancf Arabs, and against Libya. His only reference to Syene is in li. 28, where he mentions ' hills between {sic) Syene and Ele|ihantine ' in a fantastic passage which is no guide to facta ; his geography in L pper Egypt ia always faulty. F. Ll. Griffith.