A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

John McClintock & James Strong • SECTION 218

Section 218

← McClintock & Strong Cyclopaedia — Volume 3

Eliz'aphan (Heb. Elifsaphan' , ISl^'bx, whom God has j»vfecied ; Sept. 'E/\(ito0«'j'), the name of two men.

1. Second son of Uzziel, and chief of the Kohathite Levites at the Exode (Num. iii, 30 : Exod. vi, 22). B.C. 1G57. He, with his elder brother, was directed by ]\Ioses to carry awa}- the corpses of tlieir sacrile- gious cousins Nadab and Abihu (Lev. x, 4). In these two last-cited passages the name is written contracted

' into Elzaphan. His family was known and repre- sented in the daj-s of king David (1 Chron. xv, 8), and took part in the revival of Hezekiah (2 Chron. xxix, 13).

2. Son of Parnoch, and phylarch (N"^'-."!, "prince") of the tribe of Zebulon at the Exode, being one of the men ajipointed to assist Moses in apportioning the land of Canaan.

Eli'zur (Heb. Elitsiir', "i^iJ^bN, God is his rocTc; Sept. 'E\if!ov<S), son of Shedeur, and phylarch (X'^CS^ " prince") of the tribe of Reuben at the Exode (Num. i, 5; ii, 10; vii, 30, 35; x, 18). B.C. 1657.

Elka'nall [some El'kanah'] (Hebrew, Elkanah', nSpbii, whom God has gotten; Sept. 'EX/crti-o, but 'EX- Kuvci. in Exod., and 'HXk-«)'«' v. r. 'EX/cnr«' in 1 Chron. xii, 6 ; XV, 23 ; Josephus, "EXK-rt')');(; and 'EX/oft'r ; Vulg. ElcuTia), the name of several men, all apparentl}' Le- vites.

1. Second son of Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, according to Exod. vi, 24, where his brothers are represented as being Assir and Abiasaph. But in 1 Chron. vi, 22, 23 (Hebr. 7, 8) Assir, Elkanal), and Ebiasaph are mentioned in the same order, not as the three sons of Korah, but as son, grandson, and great-grandson respectiveh' ; and this seems to be correct. If so, the passage in Exodus must be understood as merelj' giving the families of the Korhites existing at the time the passage was penneil, which nnist in this case have been long sub- sequent to Closes. In Num. xxvi, 58, "the family of the Korhites" (A.V. " Korathites") is mentioned as one family. As regards the fact of Korah's de- scendants continuing, it may be noticed that we are expressly told in Num. xxvi, 11, that when Korah

ELKESAITES

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ELKESAITES

and his company died, " the children of Korah died not." — Smith, s. v. See Korah. On the above view, this Elkanah becomes the son of Assir (q. v.), grand- son of Korah, and father of Ebiasaph (q. v.). B.C. cir. 1700. See Samuel. A writer in the Journal of Sacred Lit. (April, 1852, p. 200), however, proposes to reject both Assir and this first Elkanah from the list in Chronicles.

2. Son of Shaul or Joel, being father of Amasai, and sixth in descent from Ebiasaph, son of the fore- going (1 Chron. vi, 25, 36). B.C. cir. 1445.

3. Son of Ahimoth or Mahuth, being father of Zuph or Zophai, and great grandson of the one immediately preceding (1 Chron. vi, 26, 35). B.C. cir. 1340. (See Hervej', Genealogies, p. 210, 214, note.)

4. Another Kohathite Levite, in the line of Hcman the singer. B.C. cir. 1190. He was the fifth in de- scant from the foregoing, being son of Jeroham, and father of Samuel, the illustrious judge and prophet (1 Chron. vi, 27, 28, 33, 34). Jcsephus (Ant. v, 10, 2) calls him a man "of middle condition among his fel- low-citizens" (rwi/ tv fiifjoj TToXiTtor'). All that is known of him is contained in the al)0\-e notices and in 1 Sam. i, 1, 4, 8, 19, 21, 23, and ii, 2, 20, where we learn that he was of a Bethlehemite stock (an " Ephra- thite ;" the Levites not being confined to their cities), but lived at Kamathaim-Zophim in Mount Ephraim, otherwise called Ramah ; that he had two wives, Han- nah and Peninnah, but had no children by the former, till the birth of Samuel in answer to Hannah's prayer. We learn also that he lived in the time of Eli the high- priest, and of his sons Hoplnii and Phinehas ; that he was a pious man, who went up yearlj' from Kamathaim- Zophim to Shiloh, in the tribe of Ephraim, to worship and sacrifice at the tabernacle there ; but it does not appear that he performed any sacred functions as a Levite ; a circumstance quite in accordance with the account which ascribes to David the establishment of the priestly and Levitical courses for the Temple ser- vice. He seems to have been a man of some wealth from the nature of his yearly sacrifice, which enabled him to give portions out of it to all his famil}', and from the costly offering of three bullocks when Sam- uel was brought to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. After the birth of Samuel, Elkanah and Hannah con- tinued to live at Ilamah (where Samuel afterwards had his house, 1 Sam. vii, 7), and had three sons and two daughters. — Smith, s. v. See Samuel.

5. Another man of the famil)'^ of the Korhites who joined David while he was at Ziklag (1 Chron. xii, 6). B.C. 1054. From the terms of ver. 2, some have thought it doubtful whether this can be the well-known Levitical family of Korhites ; but the distinction there seems mereh' to refer to residents within the tribe of Benjamin, which included the Levitical cities. Per- haps he was the same who was one of the two door- keepers for the ark when it was brought to Jerusalem (1 Chron. xv. 23). B.C. 1043.

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