Gedali'ah (Heb. Gedalyah' , H^^'lS, made great by Jehovah, Ezra x, 18 ; Jer. xl, 5, 8 ; xli, 10 ; Zeph. i, 1 ; elsewhere in the prolonged or full form Gedalija'hu, in^5^;i ; Sept. usually PoJoXi'a, Vulgate Godolia~), the name of five men.
1. The son and second assistant of Jeduthun in the Levitical choir of the Temple in the time of David (1 Chron. xxv, 3, 9). B.C. 1013.
2. The (son of Araariah and father of Cushi) grand- father of the prophet Zephaniah (Zeph. i, 1). B.C. ante 035.
3. Son of Pashur, and one of the Jewish nobles who conspired to accuse and imprison Jeremiah (Jer. xxxviii, 1). B.C. 589.
4. The son of Ahikam (.Jeremiah's protector, Jer. xxvi, 24), and grandson of Shaphan, the secretary of king Josiah. After the destruction of the Temple, B.C. 588, Nebuchadnezzar departed from Juda-a, leav- ing Gedaliah with a Chalda'an guard (Jer. xl, 5) at Mizpah, a strong (1 Kings xv, 22) town, six miles north of Jerusalem, to govern, as tributary (Josephus, Ant. X, 9, 1) of the king of Babylon, the vine-dressers and husbandmen (Jer. Iii, IG) who were exempted from captivity. He was probablv of the number of those who left the citv at the instance of the prophet, justly de- spairing of the successful defence of a place which God had abandoned. Gedaliah had inherited his father's respect for Jeremiah (Jer. xl, 5 sq.), and was, moi'e- over, enjoined by Nebuzaradan to look to his safety and welfare. Gedaliah was in everj' waj' worth}' of the difficult post he had to fill ; and he adopted, rs the principle of his conduct, that submission to existing circumstances which was requisite in one who be- lieved that Judah had, according to the declared will of God, been justly doomed and punished for her in- iquities, and who yet believed that his loving kindness had not utterh' departed from her. He established the seat of his melancholy government at Mizpah, in the tribe of Benjamin ; and there the inhabitants, who had fled at the advance of the Chaldean armies, or when the troops of Zedekiah were dispersed in the plains of Jericho, quitting their retreats, began to gatlier around him. Gedaliah wisely counselled them to submission and quietness ; and he promised, on that condition, to insure them the undisturbed enjoyment of their pos- sessions, and of the produce of the ground. In this hope the labors of the field were resumed, and the ex- traordinary returns of that season secured as if special- ly given to repair the recent injuries of war. Jere- miah joined Gedaliah ; and IMizpah became the resort of Jews from various quarters (Jer. xl, G, 11), many of whom, as might be expected at the end of a long war, were in a demoralized state, unrestrained by religion, patriotism, or prudence. The gentle and ]iopular char- acter of Gedaliah (Joseph. J ?(^ x, 9, 1 and 3), his he- reditary piety (Kosenmiiller on Jer. xxvi, 24), the pros- perity of his brief rule (Jer. xl, 12), the reverence which revived and was fostered under him for the ruined Tenijile (xli, 5), fear of the Chaldrean conquer- ors, whose oflicer he was — all proved insufficient to se- cure Gedaliah from the foreign jealou.sy of Baalis, king of Amnion, and the domestic ambition of Ishniael, a member of the royal family of Judah (Joseph. Ant. x, 9, 3). This man" came to Mizpah with a secret pur^ pose to destroy Gedali,ah. Gedaliah, generously re- fusing to believe a friendly warning which he received of the intended treachery, was murdered, with his
GEBIROL
rei
GEBER
Jewish and Chaldoean followers, two months after his appointment. After his death, which is still commem- orated in the Jewish Calendar (Prideaux, Connexion, anno i)S><, and Zech. vii, 19) as a national calamity, the Jews, in their native land, anticipating; the resentment of the liing of Babj'lon, gave way to despair. INKny, forcing Jeremiah to accompany them, tied to Egypt under Johanan. By this series of tragical events the litter rnin of Judaja was consummated ("2 Kings xxv, 22-26 ; Jer. xxxix, 1-1 ; xli, 18).— Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. V. See Jeuemi.\h.
5. A descendant of Jeshua, and one of the priests who divorced their heathen wives after the return from the Babylonian captivity' (Ezra x, 18). B.C. 458.
Gebirol. See Ibn Gebirol.
Geddes, Alexander, a Roman Catholic divine, was born in 17.'>7, at Arradowl, I'lantl'shire, Scotland, lie studied theology at the Scotch College in Paris, and, after his return to Scotland, he officiated at va- rious chapels till 1782, when he desisted entirely from clerical functions. For many years he was engaged on a new translation of the Old and New Testament, and Lord Petre allowed him a pension of £200 a year to enable him to carr}' it into eftect. "The prospectus, which contained an account of his plan, was published in 1786 ; this was soon followed by a letter to the bish- op of London, containing ' Queries, doubts, and diffi- culties relative to a vernacular version of the Hoi}' Scriptures,' by a specimen of the work, and by a 'Gen- eral Answer to the queries, counsels, and criticisms' which his prospectus and speciuiens had called forth. It was not, however, till 1792 that the first volume of the translation was published under the title of ' The JIolij Bible, or the Books accounted Sacred bij the Jews and Christians, otherwise called the Books of the Old an J New Covenants, faith fulh/ transhitedfrom corrected texts of the ori(]in'tls, loith various readings, explanatory notes, awl critical remarks.' The second, which contained the translation to the end of the historical Itooks, ap- peared in 1703 ; and the third, wliich contained his critical remarks upon the Pentateuch, in 18i)0. The remainder of the work was never finished ; ha was employed, at the time of his death, on a translation of the Psahns, which he had finished as far as the 118th Psalm, and wliich was published in 1807." In 1800 he published Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures (Lond. 4to). He died Feb. 20, 1802. A Memoir of his Life and Writings, by Ur. John Mason Goode, appear- ed in 1803 (London, 8vo). See Graves, On the Penta- teuch ; British Critic, vols, iv, xix, xx ; English Cijclop. ; Cotton, Rheims and Douag, Oxford, 18G1.