CheMth (Heb. Kerith\ n*^'l3, a cutting f Sept. Xo^^), a *' brook" (bn^, muk'cdf Sept. xttfiajipav^ L e. torrent-bed (the Arabic wadg) or winter-stream of Palestine, in (a, not "by") which, i e. upon whose sloping bank the prophet Elijah (q. v.) hid himself during the early part of the three years' drought (1 Kings xvii, 8, 5). The words of the passage give no precise clew to its position : ** Get thee hence [t e. ap- parently firom the spot where the interview with Ahab had taken place], and turn thy face eastward (H^^P.)) and hide thee in the torrent of Cherith, which is Cueing (^ap b^) the Jordan." This last expression, which occurs also in verse 5, seems simply to indicate that the stream in question ran into that river, and not into either the Mediterranean or Dead Sea ; for although the words sometimes require the translation " beyond" (as in Gen. xxv, 18 ; Josh, xv, 18), they may also be rendered " towards," or " before the Jordan" (comp. Gen. xvi, 22), that is, in coming ftom Samaria.' Jo- sephus {Ant. viii, 18, 2) does not name the torrent (^ei- fJta/^vg nc), and he says that Elgah went, not " east- ward," but towards the south («/c rd irpbc v&rov fupri). Eusebius and Jerome, on the other hand (Onomasticonj s. V. Xo^a, Chorath), place the Cherith beyond Jor- dan, where also Schwarz (Palest, p. 51) would identify it in a Wady Alias, opposite Bethshean. This is the Wady i'Yabis (Jabesh) ; the other name, Benj. Tude- la says, is a corruption of I7a(f £7uu(QK*^7K IKI, Itin. ii, 408, ed. Asher). The argument from probability is but little in favor of the Cherith being on the east of Jordan, of which region Elijah was indeed a native, but where he would scarcely be more out of Ahab's reach than in the recesses of the mountains of the rival king- dom of Judah. The only explicit tradition on the sub- ject is one mentioned by Marinus Sanutus in 1821 (Gesta per Franc, p. 247), that it ran by PhasaSlis (q. v.), Herod's dty in the Jordan valley (comp. Reland, Palest, p. 958). This would make it the Ain Fusail, which falls from the mountauA of Ephraim into the Gh6r, south of Kum S£krtabeh, and about fifteen miles above Jericho. This view is supported by Bacliiene (HeUige Gengr. I, i, 126-180, and Van de Velde, Nar- rative, ii, 810, 811). The spring of the brook is con- cealed under high clifib and under the shade of a dense jungle (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 889). Dr. Robinson,
CHERUB
232
CHERUBIM
on the other hand, would find the etream in the Wadff d-Kelt, behind Jericho {Regearckei, ii, 288). Tbu last name is, however, not greatly like Cheritb, yet the iden- tification is perhaps the best hitherto suggested. This wady is formed by the union of many streams in the moontains west of Jericho, issuing from a deep gorge, in which it passes by that village, and then across the plain to the Jordan. It is dry in stunmer. No spot in Palestine is better fitted to afford a secore asylnm , to the persecuted than Wady el-Kelt. On each side of it extend the bare, desolate hills of the wilderness of Jndna, in whose fastnesses David was able to bid defiance to Saul. The Kelt is one of the wildest ra- vines in this wild region. In some places it is not less than five hundred feet deep, and just wide enoagh at the bottom to give a passage to a streamlet (1 Kings xvii, 6), like a silver thread, and to afford space for its narrow fringe of oleanders. The banks are almost sheer precipices of naked limestone, and are here and there pierced with the dark openings of caves and grottoes, in some one of which probably Elijah lay hid. The wady opens into the great valley, and from its depths issues a narrow line of verdure into the white plain ; it gradually spreads as it advances until it min- gles, at the distance of a mile or more, ¥rith the thick- ets that encompass Riha, the modem representative of Jericho. To any one passing down from Jerusalem or Samaria towards Jericho, the appropriateness of the words in 1 Kings xvii, 8, would be at once apparent (see Tristram, Land oflirael, p. 202). The Kelt be- ing near Mount Quarantania, the traditional scene of the Temptation, was a fkvorite resort for yichorites when the example of St. Saba made that order fuhion- able in Palestine. See Eluah.
Wady el-Kelt is held by Porter iffandiook for Syria, p. 191) to be the "Valley of Achor," in which the Israelites stoned Achan (Josh, vii, 26), and which served to mark the northern border of Judah (xv, 7). Along the southern bank of the wady, by a long and toilsome pass, ascends the ancient and only road frt>m Jericho to Jerusalem. This he deems ** the poing up to Adummim, which is on the south tide of the river (xv, 7). But tJiis identification would confound the name Cherith with the very dissimilar one Achor, which lat- ter we know was retained to a late period in Jewish history. See Achob.
Che'mb [the proper name is pronounced Ke'rub'] (Heb. Kenib^f 3^*^^, etymolygy uncertain ; Sept. Xc- povfi V. r. XapovP and XofnijS ; Vulg. Cherub), a place apparentiy in the Babylonian dominions, associated with Tel-harsa, Addan, etc., frt>m which some Jewish exiles returned with Zerubbabel, who had lost their pedigree (Ezra ii, 59 ; Neh. vii, 61). The true con- struction of these names, however, would rather make this to be that of a man thus unregistered. B.C. 536. See Addon.