TALITY ; EeSUREECTIOK ; HeAVEN.
Eternity of God. See God.
E'tliam (Heb. Etham' , CrX, supposed by Jablon- sky [Ojnisc. ed. te Water, ii, 157] to be i. q. Coptic atiom, i. e. "boundary of the sea;" Sept. 'O^w/y, but omits in Num. xxxiii, 8 ; Vulg. Etham'), the third sta- tion of the Israelites when thej^ left Egypt ; a place described as lying "in the edge of the wilderness," where they encamped after the journey from Succoth (Exod. xiii, 20; Num. xxxiii, (5). This description, and the route pursued by them, seem to fix upon some spot on the east of Egypt, north of the Red Sea, near the desert tract stretching thence along the whole east- ern shore as far as Marab, to which the same name, "desert of Etham," is therefore naturally applied in the text (Num. xxxiii, 8). The precise locality of Etham has been a matter of dispute, according to the various theories of the passage across the sea. No spot more likely has been indicated than a point in the valley of the bitter lakes opposite the foot of wady Abu- Zeid, in the direct route around the point of the sea, but from which there is a passage sharplj' deflecting, up wadj"- Em-shcsh, around Jebel Attaka, which the Israelites were at this point commanded to take. See ExoDE ; Desert. The sense of the passage Num. xxxiii, 6-8, is evidently this : At the end of the sec- ond day they had already arrived at the holders of the Arabian desert, at Etham, from which the tract of country Ij'ing next to Egyjit receives the name, desert of Etham ; but, instead of advancing directly into the desert, thej' turned down again farther into Egypt, to the Arabian Gulf. Afterwards, instead of going round the sea, they proceeded through it into the desert of Etham. See Shur. Schwarz says (Palest, p. 211) that the part of the desert north of the Eed Sea, near Suez, is still called Ethia, but this lacks confirmation.
E'than (Weh. Eythan^, )T\'>i<, perpetuity, as often), the name of three men.
1. (Sept. AlSrai', v. r. VaiSrciv and AiS^a/i') One of four persons ("Ethan the Ezrnhite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol") who were so renowned for their sagacity that it is mentioned to the honor of Solomon that bis wisdom excelled theirs (1 Kings iv, .81 [Heb. v, 11]), Ethan being distinguished as "the Ezrahite" from the others, who are called " sons of Mahol ;" unless, indeed, this word Mahol (q. V.) be taken, not as a proper name, but appellatively for "sons of music, dancing," etc., in which case it would apply to Ethan as well as to the others. This interpretation is strengthened by our finding the other names associated with that of Ethan in 1 Chron. ii, 6, as "sons of Zerah," i. e. of Ezra, the same as Ezrahites, or descendants of the son of Judah. See Ezrahite. With this agrees the Jewish chronology, wliich counts them as prophets during the sojourn in Egypt (Seder
ETHAN BI
318
ETHER
Olam Rnhhn, p. 52), although the Jews have also a tra- dition coiifouiuling I'^tiian witli Abraham, Hemaii with Moses, and Clialcol with Joseph {ie.romti, Comment, on Kinq.i, in loc). In 1 Cin-on. ii, 8, Ethan's "sons" are mentioned, but only one name is given, that of Azariah. B.C. post I-^.'jG. in the title to the S'Jth Psalm an "Ethan the Ezrahite" is named as the author; but there seems to be some confusion here in the latter epithet. See No. 3 below.
2. (Sept. A('^((/( V. r. Orpi.) Son of Zimmah and father of Adaiah, in the ancestry of the Levite Asaph (1 Chron. vi, 42 [27]). B.C. cir. 1585. In ver. 21 he seems to be called Jo.\.ii, the fother of Iddo.
3. (Sept. AiSfdv V. r. Ai'^a^i.) A Levite, son of Kushi or Kushaiah, of the family of Merari ; appointed one of the leaders of the Temple music by David (as singer, 1 Chron. vi, 44 [29], or player on cymbals, xv, 17, 19). B.C. 1014. In the latter passages he is asso- ciated with Heman and Asaph, the heads of two other families of Levites ; and inasmuch as in other passages of these books (1 Chron. xxv, 1, 6) the names are given as Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, it has been conjectured that this last and Ethan were identical. There is at least great probability that Ethan the sing- er was the same person as Ethan the Ezrathite (comp. No. 1 above), whose name stands at the head of Psa. Ixxxix, for it is a very unlikelj' coincidence that there should be two persons named Heman and Etlian so closely connected in two different tribes and walks of life. The ditiiLJulry is even greater in the case of He- man (q. v.), who, i:i th3 title to Psalm Ixxxviii, is like- wise expressly c.dled an Ezrahite, and j^et identified in its authorship with the sons of Korah. Hengstenberg supposes (Comment, on Psalms, Clark's ed. iii, 89) that both Heman and Ethan, although descendants of Ju- dah, were adopted into the ranks of the Levites ; but this will not meet the above genealogy of this Ethan, wlio is moreover classed with the jMerarites, and not with the Korahites. Comp. Heman, and see Ezra- hite.