Cher'ub (Heb. keryb\ 3^^2, in the sing, only in Exod. XXV, 19; 2 Sam. xxU, ll; 1 Kings vi, 24, 25, 27; 2 Chron. iii, U, 12; Psa. xviii, 10; Ezek. x, 2, 7, 9, 14; xxviii, 14, 16; Sept. Xipovp), plur. CHER^U- BIM (Heb. henOfim', ^"^W^, sometimes 0*^^*^^ ; Sept x^^P^/Jt 'V' r* X<pov/3€(fi, and so in Ecd. xlix, 8, and Heb. ix, 5; EngLVers. invariably ^'cherubims'*), the appellation of certain symbolical figures frequent- ly mentioned in Scripture. . See Sbbaph.
I. Import of the Name,— The origin and signification of the word it is impossible to determine with any cer- tainty. Those who seek it in a Shemitic root are still divided |n opinion, some deriving it from the Chald. 3^3, ierab%to plough, so that dkn«5= "plougher," I. e. (MB, urging the parallel between Ezek. x, 14, and i, 10; others (as Gussetius, L. de Dien, and R5diger) take it by a transposition of letters for 3^3*1, rekub', q. d. divine "beast" (Psa. xxiii, 11), comp. the Ara- Uo harib, a tMp of transport ; others (see Hyde, De
reHg, vet. Pert. p. 268) make ft L q. nin^, iarvh% "near" to God, i. e. admitted to bis presence; with others (see Ifaurer, Comment, in Vet. TetL at laa. vi,- 2) it is equivalent to 0^12, karam'^ (Arabic the same). **to be noble," i. e. chief (comp. tertqthim}; &aalij, to pass over other less probable conjectures (e. g. Bo- senmaller, AUerAumtk. I, i, 181 ; and Panlns ap. ZQl> lig, p. 81), the Talmudists regard it as the Cfaald. «jans, ke^rubga^ bogiihe (see Buxtorf, jun., Exerd- tott. p. 100; Otho, Lex. RM, s. v.). Gesenins at first proposed a derivation from the Syriac famft, ttromg, but afterwards, convinced that he was misled by an error of Castell (see his Anecdot. Orient, i, 66), he pro- posed a new etymology, as=&^n, dkaram' (Arafak the same), " to prohibH from a common use," to con- secrate (TXetovr. p. 711), compare the £thk>pic kin- dred word for sanctoary; so that the significatioB would be ie^KT, or guard, sc. of the Deity against aD pro&ne approach. Others (e. g. EichliOTn, EinleiL im A. T. iii, 80; Yatke, BibL Theologie, i, 825) think the cherubim were the same with the ypirmc, gnfim, of the Oriental imagination, guardians of the golden mountains; and seek the root in the Persic karub, to gratp (Tychsen in Heeren's Ideen, i, 886). Focster even seeks an Egyptian derivation of the name (Ik btftto, p. 116). H&vemick {Zu Etek. p. 5) suggests a derivation firom a Syriac root, meaning to atf or carve (Keil on 1 Kings v, 9); so Aben Esra sayv tint "cherub" is the same as n*ni9, and means any iwHttie figure (Schultens, Prov. Sol. p. 472). An early ety- mology makes ft from 3*^2, ke-rab', grea^-at-ii-were^ q. d. like Cabeiri=5(0f ^waroi (see Psa. ciii, 20; Iv- vafutg, 1 Pet ill, 22; dpxai, Eph. i, 21 ; so Procoi»ns on Gen. iii ; Theodorus in Gen. xlvQ. The oldest de- rivation is from 3^ and ^33, as though it meant "abundance of knowledge," a meaning once univer- sally adopted (PhUo, Vit. Mot. p. 688; Clem. Akx. Strom. V, 240, ed. Sylb. ; Origen, FIvg. Hex. p. 114; Jerome on Isa. vi, 2 ; Dionys. De Cod. Hitr. vii, 96 ; Spencer, De Ltgg. Ill, iii, 1, etc.). Hence the remark of Aquinas, "The name Seraphim is given from their fervor, as belonging to love ; but the name Cherubim is given fhnn their knowledgt?^ (I, Lb. 1087, ch, vn). Ftlrst {Concord, p. 571), followed by Delltzsch (Gen. fl, 208), regards the root as properly Shemitic, allied to the above sense otgratping (Sanscr. gribh, Engl. STV)-
II. Hitlorg and Clattffioation.-^l. The first occaaioQ on which they are mentioned is on the expulsion of our first parents from Bden (Gen. iii, 24X where the office of preventing man's access to the tree of life is assigned to "Ms cherubim (D^^^'^SH, not as in A. Y. 'cherubims') vrith the flame of the waving sword." They are thus abmptiy introduced, without any inti- mation of their shape and nature, as though they were too well understood to require comment. That some angelic belngt are intended is obvious, and the attempts to refer the passage to volcanic agency (Sickler, Idem zu einem Vulkan, p. 6), or to the inflammable bitomi- nous region near Babylon (Plin. ii, 109, etc.), is a spec- imen of that valueless rationalism which unwisely turns the attention from the inner spirit of the narra- tive to its mere external form. We might perhaps conjecture, from the use of the article, that there were supposed to be a definite number of cherubim, and it seems that ybur is the mystic number usually attached to the conception of them. As the number four has special significance in Hebrew S3rmbolism — being the number to express the world and divine revelation (Bfthr's Sgmbdik. i, 119 sq.)-^tfais consideration must not be lost sight of.
The word 0*1)^73, there translated "on the east," may signify as well " be/ore or on the edge of" Be- sides, 21^^, rendered by our translates "placed," signifies properly " to place in a tabernacle," an ez-
CHERUBIM
283
CHERUBIM
preesioii which, viewed in coimection with some inci- dents in the after hisloiy of the primeval family (Gen. iv, 14-16), seems a conclusive establishment of the opinion that this was a local tabernacle, in which the symbols of the Divine presence were manifested, suit- ably to the altered circumstances in which man, after the Fall, came before God, and to the acceptable mode of worship he was taught to observe. That consecriu ted place, with its striking symbols, called *^the pres- ence of the Lord," there is reason to believe, continued till the time of the Deluge, otherwise there would have been nothing to guard the way to the tree of life ; and thus the knowledge of their form, from the longevity of the antediluvians, could have been easily transmit- ted to the time of Abraham (Faber, ffora Mo9aica^ bk. ii, ch. vQ. Moreover, it is an approved opinion that, when those emblems were removed at the close of the patriarchal dispensation from the place of public wor- ship, the ancestors of that patriarch formed small mod- els of them for domestic use, under the name of Sera- phim or Teraphim, according to the Chaldee dialect (Faber, Otigm qfPag. IdoL i, 256).