Ebro'nah (Yleh. Ahromth' , 'HT.'^.'IlV, passage, i. e. of the sea; Sept. 'E/3pwi'«), the thirtieth station of the Israelites on their w-ay from Egypt to Canaan (Num. xxxiii, 34, 35). Since it lay near Ezion-Gaber on the west, as they left Jotl)athah, it was probably in the plain now known as the KiVa en-Nitkb, immediately opposite the pass of the same name at the head of the Elanitic branch of the Red Sea (see Robinson's IMap in Resenrches, vol. i). Rommel (in the H(dl. Encyklop. i, 167) compares the Avara of Ptolemy (v. 17), in Ara- bia Petra-a (6C.° 10' and 29° 40'), with the Havarrn of the Piiilinc/er Tidjk; a very improlialile supposition. Knobel thinks {Kxey. JInndh. in loc.) that tlie Ezion- Gaber in question cannot be the port of that name at the head of the Elanitic Gulf; for, as the next station men- tioned is Kadesh, this was too far from the north end of the gulf to be reached in one march ; but tliis objec- tion is of little force, as there is no uniformity in the intervals between the stations. Schwarz (Pa/est. \^. 213) rightly regards Ebronah as merely the name of a ^^ ferry," by which the people perhaps crossed this arm of the sea (!), or where travellers usually crossed it.
Ebutius ('E/3oi'ir(Of), a decurion {ctKc'ipxiic), and a person distinguished for good- judgment and prompt action, who was sent with Placidus by Vespasian to
invest Jotapata while garrisoned by Josephus (.Tose- phus. War, iii, 7, 3). He was slain while defending Vespasian from a furious sally during the siege of Gamala (ib. iv, 1, 5).
Eca'nus (Vulg. id., the Gr. text being lost), one of the five swift scribes who were selected to attend Esdras (2 Esdr. xiv, 24).
Ecbat'ana (1 Esdr. vi, 23) or "EcBAT'ANh:" (ra '^KjiuTava, 2 Mace, ix, 3; Judith i, 1 sq. ; Job. v, 9, etc. ; comp. Josephus, Ant. x, 11, 7 ; xi, 4, 6 ; 'Ayftar- ava in Ctesias i; Herod, i, 98; ii, 153), the metropo- lis of Media (Curt, v, 81), situated 88° and 37° 45', according to Ptolemy (vi, 2, 14), and after the time of Cyrus (Strabo, xi, 522 sq. ; Pausan. iv, 24, 1 ; Xenoph. Cyr.x'm, 6, 22; Anab. iii, 5, 15) two months in the year the residence of the Persian (later the Parthian) kings. It is somewhat douljtful whether the name of this place is really contained in the Hebrew Scrip- tures. Many of the best commentators understand the expression XrrflXS, in Ezra vi, 2, dift'erentlj', and translate it in area, "in a coffer" (see Buxtorf and others, and so our English Bible in the margin). The Sept., however, give iv ttoXh, "in a city," or (in some ]\ISS.) ti' 'AfiuBu tv ttoXji, which favors the or- dinary interpretation. If a city is meant, there is lit- tle doubt of one of the two Ecbatanas being intended; for, except these towns, there was no place in the province of the Medes "which contained a palace" (n'T'a), or where records are likely to have been de- posited. The name Achmetha, too, which at first sight seems somewhat remote from Ecbatana, wants but cna letter of Ilagmatana, which was tlie native appella- tion. The earlier and more correct Greek form of the name, too, was Agbatana (see Steph. Byz. p. 19 ; comp. Wesseling ad Herod, iii, 65). Lassen (^Bibliolh. iii, 36) regards the name as Zendish, Aghica-Tana, "land rich in horses." Hyde (/>e rcl. vet. Pers. p. 541 sq.) com- pares it with the Persic Abadan, "cultivated place;" llgen (on Tobit, 1. c.) regards it as Shemitic ; compare Syr. Chamtana, "fortress." For other etymologies, see Simonis Onom. V. T. p. 578 sq. ; Gesenius, Thts, p. 70.
Two cities of the name of Ecbatana seem to have existed in ancient times, one the capital of Northern Media, the Media Atropatene of Strabo ; the other the metropolis of the larger and more important province known as Media Magna (see Sir H. Rawlinson's paper on the Atropatenian Ecbatana, in the 10th volume of the Journal of the Geographical Society, art. ii). The site of the former appears to be marked 1)y tlie very curious ruins at Takht i-Suleiman (lat. 36° 28', long. 47° 9') ; while that of the latter is occupied by Jlama- dan, which is one of the most important cities of mod- ern Persia. There is generally some difficulty in de- termining, when Ecbatana is mentioned, whether the northern or the southern metropolis is intended. Few writers are aware of the existence of the two cities, and they lie sufficiently near to one another for goo- graphical notices in most cases to suit either site. The northern city was the "seven-walled town" described by Herodotus, and declared by him to have been the capital of Cyrus (Herod, i, 98-99, 153; comp. Mos. Choren. ii, 84) ; and it was thus most probably there that the roll was found which proved to Darius that Cyrus had really made a decree allowing the Jews to rebuild their Temple.
Various descriptions of the northern city have come down to us, but none of them is completely to be de- IK'uded on. Tiiat of the Zendavesta (Vendidad, Far- gard II) is the oldest and the least exaggerated. " Jemshid," it is said, "erected a var, or fortress, suf- ficiently' large, and formed of squared blocks of stone ; he assembled in t1ic place a vast population, and stocked the surrounding country with cattle for their use. He caused the water of the great fortress to