As'phar ('Acr^ap v. r. 'An<pa$, 1 Mace, ix, 33), a "pool" (XaKKOC, not sea, as the Vulg. and some other versions render, but which often stands in the Sept. for '112, a pit, or "iX2, a well), i. c. fountain or cistern in the south or south-east of Palestine (in the " wilder- ness of Thecoe" or Tekoa), where the Jews under Jonathan Maecabanis had an encampment at the be- ginning of their struggle with Bacchides (see Joseph.
ASPHARASUS
475
ASS
Ant. xiii, 1, 2); meaning doubtless (if the Dead [.4s- phaltic] Sea, as Grotius and others suppose) some con- siderable reservoirs in the direction of Arabia (comp. ver. 35), near the territory of the Nabathajans (see Diod. Sic. xix, 94).
Asphar'asus ('A<T<papaooc; Vulg. Mechpsator), one of the associates of Zerubbabel in the return from Babylon (1 Esdr. v, 8) ; doubtless a corruption of the Mizi'ar (q. v.) of the true text (Ezra ii, 2).
Aspland, Robert, an English Unitarian minister, born in 1742, educated for the Calvinistic ministry at Highgate and Hackney, and afterward at Aberdeen, where he threw up his beneficiary scholarship on be- coming a Unitarian in 1800. At 20 he was ordained pastor of the Baptist Church at Newport, Isle of Wight, with liberty to preach Unitarianism. In 1805 he was installed at Gravel Pit Chapel, Hackney, where he re- mained pastor till his death, Dec. HO, 1845. For years he was a leader among English Unitarians, edited the "Monthly Repository" and the "Christian Reform- er," and published a number of sermons and pam- phlets. His Life, Works, and Correspondence were published by his son (Lond. 1850, 8vo).
As'riel (Heb. Asriel', ifcO'lbX, a fuller form of Asarc'el; Sept. 'Effpi'jjX), a son of Manasseh (Josh, xvii, 2), apparently his first by a Syrian concubine (1 Chron. vii, 14, where the name is improperly Anglicized "Ash- riel"). B.C. post 1856. His descendants were called Asrielites (Heb. Asrieli, ibx'ndX; Sept. 'EvpujXi, Num. xxvii, 31).
As'rielite. See Asriel.
Ass (properly Trail, chamor', from the reddish dun color of the hair of the wild ass ; female lirSt, atlion ; Gr. ovoq), (I.) a domestic animal (Gen. xii, 1G ; xxiv, 35 ; xxx, 43 ; xxxii, 5 ; Josh, vi, 21 ; vii, 24 ; comp. Exod. xx, 17 ; xxii, 4 ; xxiii, 4 sq. ; 1 Sam. viii, 1G ; Luke xiii, 15 ; xiv, 5), found generally in the East (comp. 1 Chron. xxvii, 30 ; for Mosaic precepts respect- ing the animal, see Exod. xx, 17; xxi, 33; xxii, 10; xxiii, 4 sq. ; Deut. xxii, 3 sq. ; comp. Mishna, Baba Mess, vi, 3 ; Baba Bathra, v, 2), and very serviceable (particularly in the cultivation of the soil, Varro, Ii. R. ii, 6 ; Pallad. xviii, 14), although not to be compared with the modern ass of northern countries, but by far more stately (Olear. Trav. p. 301, estimates a Persian ass to be worth nearly $100; comp. Plin. viii, G8; see Hasselquist, Trav. p. 67), more active, more mettle- some, and quicker (according to Niebuhr, Reisen, i, 311, an ass of ordinary speed will go over 1750 double paces of a man in half an hour: comp. Abdallatif, Denkw. p. 1375; Sonini, ii, 89 sq.). Asses were therefore (as still) held in great estimation ; so that while with us the word ass is a low term of contempt, with the Orien- tals anciently as now the very opposite was the case (Gen. xlix, 14 ; comp. Iliad, xi, 588 sq. ; see DTIerbe- lot, Biblioth. Or. s. v. Hsmar; Freytag, ad select, ex hislor. Halebi, p. 59; Gessner, in the Commentar. Soc. Gott. ii, 32 sq. ; Jablonski, Panth. sEfj. iii, 45; Mi- chaelis, in the Commentar. Soc. Gott. iv, G sq.). The ass (perhaps the young ass, Job i, 3 ; Num. xxii, 21 ; 2 Kings iv, 24 ; Matt, xxi, 2 sq.) was, on account of his sure step over hilly tracts, the usual animal for riding (Exod. iv, 20; Num. xxii, 21 ; Judg. x, 4 ; xii, 14; 1 Kings ii, 40; xiii, 27; 2 Sam. xix, 26), even for ladies (Josh, xv, 18; Judg. i, 14; 1 Sam. xxv, 23; 2 Kings iv, 22, 24; comp. Fabric. Cod. Apogr. i, 104; see Niebuhr, Beschr. p. 44 ; Sehwei'-'ger, Reisen, p. 272 ; Rosenmiiller, Morrjenl. iii, 222) and nobles (2 Sam. xvii, 23; 1 Kings xiii, 13, 23; Zech. ix, 9; comp. Matt. xxi, 2 sq. [see Ligntfoot, Hor. Heb. in loc. p. 408; Sehottgen, i, 169 sq.] ; Mark xi, 1 sq. ; Luke xix, 29 sq. ; John xii, 14 sq. ; see Russel, Aleppo, ii, 49; Po- cocke, East, i, 309). The last preferred dappled asses, i. e. such as had a brownish-red skin marked with white streaks (,Judg. v, 10; comp. Morier, Truv. p.
13G; Paulus, Samml. i, 244). No saddle, however, was used from the earliest time (Hasselquist, Trav. p. 66), but simply a covering consisting of a piece of cloth or a cushion (hence 0*011 Tan, a bound or girt ass, means a beast saddled and bridled, Gen. xxi, 3; Num. xxii, 21; Judg. xix, 10), so that the driver (Judg. xix, 3 ; 2 Kings iv, 24 ; Talm. Tan, chammar', Mishna, Erub. iv, 10, etc.) ran beside or behind the rider (Hasselquist, Trav. p. 66). The ass, moreover, was not only employed for bearing burdens (Neh. xiii, 15; Josh, ix, 4; 1 Sam. xvi, 20; xxv, 18), but even for distant journeys (Gen. xliii, 26 ; xliv, 3, 13 ; xlv, 23; comp. Josephus, Life, 24; Mishna, Parah, xii, 9), and also for drawing the plough (Deut. xxii, 10; comp. Exod. xxiii, 12; Isa. xxx, 24; xxxii, 20; so, too, among the Romans, Plin. viii, 68; xvii, 3; "Varro, R. R. ii, 6 ; Colum. vii, 1) and in mills (Matt, xviii, 6; Luke xvii, 2; "asinus molarius," Colum. vii, 2; niTPTn Tan, Buxtorf, Floril. Hebr. p. 308; comp. Brouckhus, ad Tibull. ii, 1, 8). In war they carried the baggage (2 Kings vii, 7 ; comp. Polluc. Unom. i, 10) ; but, according to Isa. xxi, 7, the Persian king Cyrus had cavalry mounted on asses ; and not only Strabo (xv, 726) assures us that the Caramanians, a people forming part of the Persian empire, rode on asses in, battle, but Herodotus (iv, 129) expressly states that Darius Hystaspis made use of the ass in a fight with the Scythians (comp. iElian, Anim. xii, 32). See, generally, Bochart, Hieroz. i, 148 sq. ; ii, 214 sq. ; Len-erke, Kendan, i, 140 sq., 146, 165.— Winer,i, 346. The domestic ass, being an animal of a patient, labo- rious, and stupid nature, the emblem of persons of a similar disposition. Issachar is called a strong ass (Gen. xlix, 14), in reference to his descendants, as being a settled agricultural tribe, who cultivated their own territory with patient labor, emblematized by the ass. We rarely read of Issachar being engaged in any war, which is ever hostile to agriculture. Of Jehoiukim it is said, in Jer. xxii, 19, " With the burial of an ass shall he be buried, dragged along, and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem ;" an event men- tioned by Josephus, who says that "the king of Bab- ylon advanced with an army, that Jehoiakim admit- ted him readily into Jerusalem, and that Nebuchad- nezzar, having entered the city, instantly put him to death, and cast his dead body unburied without the walls." It is recorded of Christ in Zech. ix, 9, and quoted thence in Matt, xxi, 5, that he should be "humble, and sitting on an ass, even on a colt the foal of an ass." As horses were used in war, Christ may be supposed, by this action, to have shown the humble and peaceable nature of his kingdom. On the contrary, Ephraim is compared to a wild ass, in Hos. viii, 9, i. e. he was untamed to the yoke, and traversed the desert as earnestly in the pursuit of idols as the onaejer in quest of his mates.