The ear-ring appears to have been regarded with superstitious reverence as an amulet : thus it is named in the Chaldee and Samaritan versions N'J"^"!)?) '^ ^'"(^ thing; and in Isa. iii, 20 the word Cidnb, prop, amu- lets, is rendered in the A.V., after the Sept. and Vulg., ear-rings. On this account they were surrendered along with the idols l)y Jacob's household (Gen. xxxv, 4). Chardin describes ear-rings, with talismanic fig- ures and characters on them, as still existing in the East (Brown's Antiqidties, ii, 305). See Amulet. Ears. See ExVK.
Earth, properly the name of the planet on which we dwell. See Geography.
I. There are two Hebrew words thus rendered in the A. v., both of which are rendered by yij in the Sept., and this ytj is rendered by "earth," "land," " ground," in the New Testament. See also Dust.
1. ri'2"lS, adamah' , is the eai'th in the sense of soil or ground, particularly as being susceptible of cultiva- tion ; hence the expression IT'Q^X ir"^l<, lit. " man of the ground,^' for an agriculturist (Gen. ix, 20). The earth supplied the elementary substance of which man's body was formed, and the terms adam and ada- mah are brought into juxtaposition, implying an ety- mological connection (Gen. ii, 7). See Adam. The opinion that man's body was formed of earth prevailed among the Greeks (Ilesiod, Op. et Di. 61, 70 ; Plato, Rep. p. 2G9), the Romans (Virgil, Georg. ii, 341 ; Ovid, JSfet. i, 82), the Egyptians (Diod. Sic. i, 10), and other ancient nations. It is evidently based on the observation of the material into which the body is resolved after death (Job X, 9; Eccl. xii, 7). The law prescribed earth as the material out of which altars were to be raised (Exod. xx, 24) ; Bahr (St/mb. i, 488) sees in this a reference to the name adam : others, with more reason, com- pare the aj'a de cespite of the Romans (Ovid, Trist. v, 5, 9 ; Horace, Od. iii, 8, 4, 5), and view it as a precept of simplicit}'. Naa- man's request for two mules' burden of earth
EARTH
EARTHQUAKE
(2 Kings V, 17) was based on the idea that Jehovah, | like tlie heathen deities, was a local god, and could be worshipped acceptably only on his own soil. See Gkound. I
2. More generally "j'^X, e'rels, which is explained by Von Holilen (Introd. to Gen. ii, G) as meaning ety- inulogically the low in opposition to the high, i. e. the heaven. It is applied in a more or less extended sense : 1, to the whole world (Gen. i, 1) ; 2, to land as opposed to sea (Gen. i, 10) ; 3, to a country (Gen. xxi, 32) ; -1, to a plot of ground (Gen. xxiii, 15); and, 5, to the ground on which a man stands (Gen. xxxiii, 3) ; also, in a more general view, G, to '■''the inhabitants of the earth" (Gen. vi, 11 ; xi, 1); 7, to heathen coimtries, as distinguished from the land of Israel, especiallj' during the theocracy ; i. e. all the rest of the world excepting Israel (2 Kings xviii, 2.5 ; 2 Chron. xiii, 9, etc.) ; particularly the empire of Chaldoea and Assyria (Ezra i, 2); 8, in the New Testament especially, " the earth" api>ears in our translation as applied to the land of Judaea. As in many of these passages it might seem as if the habitable globe were intended, the use of so ambiguous a term as "the earth" should have been avoided, and the original rendered hy "the land," as in Lev. xxv, 23; Isa. x, 2.3, and elsewhere. This is the sense which the original bears in Matt, xxiii, 35 ; xxvii, 45 ; Mark xv, 33 ; Luke iv, 25 ; xxi, 23; Rom. ix, 28; James v, 17. 9. Finallj^, in a spir- itual sense, the word is emploj'ed (in the N. T.) in con- trast with heaven, to denote things earthly and carnal (John iii, 31 ; Colos. iii, 1, 2). See Wemyss, Symbol. Diet. s. V. ; comp. World.
To demand earth and water was a custom of the an- cient Persians, liy which they required a people to ac- knowledice their dominion ; Nelnichodonosor, in the GrcL'k of Judith (ii, 7), commands Holofernes to march against the people of the West, who had refused sub- mission, and to declare to them that they were to pre- pare earth and water. Darius ordered his envoys to demand earth and water of the Scythians ; and Mega- bysus required the same of Amyntas, king of Macedo- nia, in the name of Darius. Polybius and Plutarch notice this custom among the Persians. Some believe that these symbolical demands denoted dominion of the earth and sea ; others, that the earth represented the food received from it, corn and fruits ; the water, drink, which is the second pai't of human nourishment. Ecehis. XV, 1(), in much the same sense, says, " The Lord hath set lire and water before thee ; stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt; and ch. xxxix, 2G, " Fii-e and water are the most necessary things to life." Fire and water were considered by the ancients as the first principles of the generation, birth, and presarvation of man. Proscribed persons were de- barred from their use; as, on the contrary, wives in their nuptial ceremonies were obliged to touch them. See Ei.KMicNT.