SINGERS, SINGING.— See artt. Praise in OT, and Priests and Levites.
SINGULAR is properly that which concerns a single prrson or thing ; so AV, after Tindale, in Lv 27'^ ' When a man shall make a singular vow' (T1J n'pe;, liV ' shall accomplish a vow,' ItV'm ' make a special vow').* So also Knox, Works, iii. 141, ' \\ ithout harnes or weaponis (except my sling, staf, and stonis) I durst interpryes singular battell aganis him ' ; Bp. Davenant, Life, 329, ' For my part, I am of opinion that there is no sane or possible \Vay for any singular person to attein to the comfortable persuasion that hce is Elected unto Salvation, but a Posteriori.' Ct. the phrase ' all and singular,' as in the Act of Uniformity in K. Edward VI. Second Prayer-Book (1552), 'And for their authority in this behalf, be it further likewise enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that all and singular the same Archbishops, Bishoi>s, and all other their officers exercising Ecclesiastical juris- diction, as well in place exempt, as not exempt, within their dioceses, shall have full power and authority, by this act, to reform, correct, and punish, by censure of the Church, all and singular persons which shall oll'end within any their juris- dictions or Dioceses.'
Then the single person or thing may be regarded as special and remarkable, as Wis 14'* ' the singu- lar diligence of the artificer.' Cf. Ridley, Brefe Declaration, 144, ' Origen . . . was compted and judged thi singular teacher in his tyme of Christes religion ' ; Mt O'" Tind. ' And yf je be frendly to youre brethren onlye, what singular thynge doo ye?' J. Hastings.
SINIM (D'rp; Hifxrai; de terra australi). — The 'land of Sinira' (Is 49'^) must, from the context, have been in the extreme south or east of the known world. In the south. Sin [Pelusiiun, Ezk 30'°'-) and Syene (Ezk 29'" 30") have been suggested (the former by Saadya, Bochart, and Ewald ; the latter by ChejTie [In'trod. to Li. 275, and in SHOT], who would read D'ii;, with J. D. Michaelis, Klostermann, Marti), but these places are perhaps too near. "The LXX favours the view that a country in the east was intended, and modern commentators have identified Sinim with China, the land of the Sinae. The name Tsin was known as early as the 12th cent. B.C. ; and it was not improbably familiar to the Phienicians. There was a trade, at a very early date, between the extreme east and southern Arabia and the Persian Gulf. This interpretation of the name i!inim as referring to China, which was first suggested by Gesenius, is strongly opposed by Dilliu. (Jesaja, ad he), Duhm, and Rit-lithofen {China, i. 436f., 504). Dillm. e.g. points out that no Israelites could have been in China at the time of this prophecy, that we should expect d':'s not 'd, and the name Tsin (derived from a dynasty of 255 B.C.) could not have been yet in use in Babvlon.
C. W. Wilson.
SINITES O-cri; A 4 'Affevyoios, Luc. i 'Aaefvcl).—
* Od the vocalization and meaning of the Ueb. Tord see the Oomm., especially Dillm.-Ryssel, ad toe
six-OFrp:RmG
SIEACII (LOOK OF)
534
A Cannanite people, Gn 10"=lCh 1". Dilliii. {Gew'^in, ml luv.) (.ompares tlie name of the ruineii city Sin, mentioned by Jerome (Qiiccst.), as not far from Arfea at the foot of Lebanon. Strabo (XVI. ii. 18) al.-io names a mountain stronghold Si>tna(n) {'Zivpar, accus.) on Lebanon, and a I'hcen. city Sidnu is named alonj; with Semar and Arka in an Assyr. inscription (Del. Paradies, 2S2 ; cf. W. M. Miiller, As. u. Eiirop. 2Si)).
SIN-OFFERING.— See Sacrifice, p. 337''.
SION.— 1. (jh-i?; LXX Sijwk) A name of Hermon, Dt 4". Sion is taken by some to be a textual error for SluiON (['■)•), tlie Zidonian name of the same mountain, Dt 3". This view is supported by the reading of the Syr., which, however, is as likelj' to be a correction of the Hebrew te.\t (Driver, ad loc). Like Senir, Siuti may have originally been the designation of a particular part of Hermon. 2. See ZlON. J. A. Selbik.
SIPHMOTH (n*=cv"; B 2a^ef, A 2a^f«is ; Se/iha- mot/i). — One of the places, ' where David ami his men were wont to liaunt,' to which a portion of the spoil of the Amakkites was sent after David's return to Zikla^ (1 S 30=*). It is mentioned with Aroer, now 'Ararah, to tlie east of Beersheba, and Eshtemoa, now es-Semii'a, in the hill-country S. of Hebron. The site was unknown to Eusebius and Jerome (Onom. s. ^a(piifiu6, Sofamo(h), and it has not yet been recovered. It was probably in the Negeb to the S. of Eshtemoa. Rielim {IlU'B) suggests that Zabdi, the Shiphmite (1 Ch 27='), was a native of Siphmoth and not of Shepham — the cliangc from ,S'A to S being easily made, and a few MSS reading Shijih- for Sijih- in 1 Samuel. See Shepuam. C. W. Wilson.
8IPPAI.— See Saph.
8IRACH (BOOK OF).—
L History. ii. Importance.
tii. Name and Place In the Bible. Iv. Name of ttie Autlior. V. Editions, vi. Orecli Text, vii. Versions and Quotationi. viii. The Svrioc Text ix. The Hebrew Text*. X. CoDtentA and Theology. Literature.
(Abbrevlationa In this article : — Ed. =s Edersheim, Commentary on Sirach in Wace, Apocrypha, ii. ; U-N = CowIcy-Neubauer, The ttri'jinal llebrew of a portion of Ecilftiiaglicu* ; R- Uyssel, Translation of Sirach %vith Notes in DU Apokryphrn ul><'ritflzl, . . . ed. by E. Kautzsch (1900, i.)and In SK mtO, 1901 ; S-T=7Vii! WUdoiit o/ Ben Sira, Portiona oj the Look EcctesiwitictiS, ed. by Schechter-Taylor (1S99) ; ^ the Orcelt, {g the Hebrew, g the Latin, & the Syriao Text, n the Syriac translation of Paul of Tellal. ^