pensable to shepherds (Job 30'). They protect the Hock from wild animals and robbers. They are the unkempt, savage, shaggy originals of the city dogs of the East. Tliey help to keep the sheep together like the Scotch collies. Syrian sheep are usually white (Ps 147'", Is 1", Dn 7"), but some are brown (GnStf'--" RV 'black').
No animal mentioned in Scripture compares in symbolical interest and importance with the sheep. It is alluded to about SOO times. Tha people of God are His sheep (Ps 95' 100^ Jn 21'»-"), and His ministers pastors,' i.e. shepherds (Jer 23', Eph 4" ; cf. our Lord's charge to St. Peter Jn 21'»i'-; see art. Peter, vol. iii. p. 7U1). Christ is the Good Shepherd (Jn 10"), and ' the Lamb (6 d/xvis) of God, which taketh away the sins of the world ' (Jn V). The song of the redeemed is ' the song of Moses and the Lamb' (Rev 15'), of the law and the gos-
Eel. Satan and his hosts 'made war with the amb,' and the Lamb overcame (H'*). The last act of the drama of redemption is ' the marriage of the Lamb' (Rev 19" 21''- '*), and thereafter 'God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple' (v.^), and 'the Lamb is the light thereof (v.^). Those who are written in ' the Lamb's book of life ' (v.") enter into His rest. The last vision of Revelation is 'the throne of God and the Lamb' {rd ipvlov, 22'). G. E. Post.
SHEEP FOLD.— See Fold and Sheep.
SHEEP GATE, Neh S'*" 12''.— See Jerusalem, vol. ii. p. 593. For the Sheep Gate (AV Sheep Market ; Gr. i) vpojianni) [sc. irvXi) as in LXX of or passages]) of Jn 5-, see ib. and art. Betuesda.
SHEERAH (.Tix?)).— A 'daughter' of Ephraim, who, according to the MT of 1 Cli 7", built the two IJeth-horons and a place of doubtful identity t called Uzzen-sheerah (.t;.'j:^-]ix=' portion [? lit. something weighed] of Shceiah'). In v.^ while A and Luc. recognize a proper name in •"!■;•■<?'> H, reading ap- parently •ilNB'Ji instead of .tinb' ib;i (A <toi i) Oir/aTrip ainov i]aapd, Luc. — apad), renders khI iv ^kcIvols tois KaTaXoiiroLi, and makes Ephiaira himself the builder of the upper and the lower Peth-horon. In v.""" the LXX gives quite a ditt'erent turn to the passage. Instead of the place-name Uzzen-sheerah, it reads icoi viol 'OfaK- :Zeripa ( = .TJ(;{' |JN -J^!).
J. A. Selbie. SHEHARIAH (n.-in^J; B and Luc. 2ap<ud, A Saopid).— A Benjamite, 1 Ch 8"".
SHEKEL.— See artt. Money and Weights and
Measures.
BHEKINAH (Heb. nj-y^ 'that which dwells or resides'). — The word, as well as the conceiition, originated after the close of the Hebrew Canon, and is characteristic of Judaistic theology, though the con':eption occurs also, with deeper connota- tion, in NT writings. The word is never used except of God ; and implies what we should designate ' the Divine Presence,' or ' the Divine Manifestation.' The two most rtniarkablo features of Judaistic theology wore its development of the doctrine of Divine ' aloofness,' and the way in which it then sought to bridge the chasm which it had created between God and man. It was felt to bo an indignity to God that He should be sup|io.sed to have direct contact with inert matter, and iiu- mediatfl intercour.se with sinful man ; and He was gradually pushed further away from His world. The transcendence of God, and His exemption
• The same mtBlearlini^ tr oocuni also in Jcr 2* 81* lO^i 17H 222a ".SS- * in nil <)( wliich RV altera to ' shepherd."
t It is identities in B&rtllolomcw-Sniith'BmHpof Palestine (1901) with Beil Sira, a little to the B.W. of tile lower Betb-horun.
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SHEKINAH
SHEKINAH
from all limitations, was insisted on with increas- ing vigour, until it reached tlie ne plus vltra in I'liilo, who maintains that to assign any quality to Goil would be to limit Him ; and that He is the absolutely unlimited, since He is eternal, un- changeable, simple substance. 'Of Cod, we can only say that He is, not ivkat He is' (Drummond, Phllo Jud. ii. 23-30). Having thus umlciliud God, in their endeavour to dehumanize Him, the object of philosophic Jews was to posit some one or more intermediary Hypostases, who might occupy the place wliich had previously been assigned to God, in the world of matter and of mind. Of these the most prominent were the Metatron, the Word, the Spirit, Wisdom, and the Shekinah. It is the last of tliese whicli now calls for investigation.
In the Hebrew religion, even in its least de- veloped form, Jehovah is always the God of lieaven as well as of earth. In times of storm, God was very near and very real to the Hebrews. They conceived of Jehovah as sitting on the storm- cloud, which they designated 3n| : ' He rode upon a cherub and did fly. He flew swiftly on the wings of tlie wind ' (Ps IS'") : and the brilliance gleaming forth behind and through the black cloud was con- ceived to be due to the very presence of God : the light being the body or garment of God. When ' the Lord of (the heavenly) hosts ' was described as dwelling in the midst of the earthly ' hosts' of His favoured people, we are told that cherubim overlaid with gold were prepared for His throne ; and that a brilliance shming behind and through clouds was His mundane manifestation, as He is also seen in the clouds of heaven (Ex 40**"^). On the summit of Sinai a cloud rested six days, amid wliich the glory of the Lord was like devouring lire, and Moses entered into the midst of the cloud (Ex 24'^"'*). And when the tabernacle was linished, ' the cloud covered tlie tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle ' (Ex 40**). ' By day the cloud was upon the tabernacle, and thei-e was fire therein by night' (Ex 40*-').