Grave (properh' 'ISp, Ice'ber, a seprdchre; Greek p.vi'ij.ia or jwi^fxiiov, a tomb, as a monument [see Buri- al]) is also in some passages of the common vers, the rendering of ?1X'J, sheol', aCi]c, hades [see Sheol; Hades] ; once of rJl'J, shach'ath (Job xxxiii, 22), the pit or open sepulchre, as elsewhere rendered ; and once erroneously of ''"S, hei\ prayer (Job xxx, 2<1). See Tomb.
Sepulchres among the ancient Hebrews were, as still among all Orientals (Schwcigger, Reisen, p. 199; Shaw, Travels, p. 192 ; Hasselquist, p. 35 sq.), outside of cit- ies (see Lightfont, Ilor. Iltb. p. 167 ; according to the Talmud, Babn Bathra, ii, 9, at least fifty yards distant from the city walls), in the 0])en field (Luke vii, 12 ; John xi, 30 ; compare Cicero, Leg. ii, 23 ; adfamil. iv, 12, 9 ; Plutarch, A rat. 53 ; Theocr. vii, 10 ; Homer, //. vii, 435 sq. ; IMichaelis, Mos. Recht. iv, 307). Onlj' kings (1 Kings ii, 10 ; xvi, 6, 28 ; 2 Kings x, 35 ; xiii, 9: 2 Chron. xvi, 14; xxviii, 27) and pi-ophets (1 Sam. XXV, 1 ; xxviii, 3) were allowed to be buried within cities (HarmerjO&s. ii, 129 sq. ; compare Thucyd. v, 11 ; Potter, 6'r. Anf. ii, 427 sq. ; when it is said that anj' one was interred in his house [1 Kings ii, 34 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii, 20], we must understand the grounds or envi- rons of the house to be meant, i. e. the garden [comp. Numb, xix, 16] ; it was otherwise among the ancient Romans, Isidore, Grig, x, 2). Generallj' the graves were pits or grottoes (Gen. xxiii, 17 ; xxxv, 8 ; 1 Sam. xxxi, 13; 2 Kings xxi, 18, 26; John xix, 41 ; comp. Strabo, xiv, 630; Virgil, yEn. xi, 851), shad}' spots under trees or in gardens being preferred (Eck, De se- pulcris in Iiortis, Meining. 1738 sq. ; Walch, Observv. in Matt, ex insoipt. p. 89) ; and these excavations were either natural, with which Palestine aliounds [see Cave], or oftcncr artificial, dug for this purpose (and Mailed up; see Knobel, Jesn. j). 99), or hewn in rocks (Isa. xxii, 10; 2 Chron. xvi, 14; :\Iatt. xxvii, GO; John xi, 38; Luke xxiii, 53), sometimes very spacious and with numerous side-passages and chaml)ers (Baha Bathra, vi, 8) ; there are also instances of graves sunk perpendicularly in the ground (Luke xi, 44), and such wore occasionally situated on hills (2 Kings xxiii, 10; comp. Isidore, Ongg. ii, 11). Not only in the case of
kings and nobles (2 Kings ix, 28 ; 2 Chron. xxxii, 33; xxxv, 24 ; 1 Mace, ii, 70 ; ix, 19 ; xiii, 25, etc.), but in every good family (Gen. xxiii, 20 ; Judg. viii, 32 ; 2 Sam. ii, 32 ; 1 Kings xiii, 22 ; Tobit xiv, 12 ; 1 Mace, ii, 70), were tiiere hereditary vaults (it was a deep dis- grace to the remains of persons of distinction to bo buried among those of the populace, Jer. xxvi, 23); and it appears the very natural desire of those dying abroad to repose in such family cemeteries (Gen. xlvii, 29; 1, 5; 2 Sam. xix, 37; 1 Kings xiii, 22, .31 ; Neh. ii, 3; comp. Sophocles, Electra, 1131 sq. ; Anthol. Gr. iii, 25, 75 ; Justin, iii, 5 ; see Zeibich, De sepultura in terra sancta a Jacoho et Josepho expetita, Viteb. 1742 ; Semler, De patnurcharum ut in Palcest. sej^elirentur de- siderio, Hahe, 1756 ; Carpzov, in Ugolini Thesuur. xxxiii). But whoever had not such a hereditary sep- ulchre wished none the less to rest in the land of his fathers (2 ]\Iacc. v, 10), in the sacred soil (Josephus, Ant. X, 4, 3). For the poor were (later) public buri- al-places assigned (Jer. xxvi, 23; 2 Kings xxiii, 6; comp. Matt, xxvii, 7). As a protection chiefly against the carnivorous jackals (Pliny, viii, 44), the graves were closed with doors or large stones (Matt, xxvii, 60 ; xxviii, 2 ; John xi, 38) ; and in the month Adar (March), after the rainy reason (Shekal. i, 1), they were (in the post-exilian period) whitewashed afresh {Jfaaser Sheni, v, 1), in order to warn the great mul- titudes of strangers visiting the Passover against con- tact (Matt, xxiii, 27 ; see Lightfoot and Schiittgen, ad loc. ; comp. Walch, Gbserv. in Mt. ex inscr. p. 65 sq. ; and Eeussteuch, iJe sepulcris calce notutis, in Ugolini Thesaiir. xxxiii), which caused pollution (Numb, xix, 16; comp. Josephus, Ant. xviii, 2, 3). There are still manj- such sepulchral grottoes in Palestine, Syria, and Idumasa generally (see Pococke, East, ii, 70, 100, etc. ; Burckhardt, i, 220 sq. ; Kobinson, i, 78 sq. ; ii, 175 sq., 603 ; iii, 317, 692). The}- descend sometimes vertical- ly, sometimes horizontally in the earth, the former by steps. Within are usually found several chambers or apartments, of which one sometimes lies deeper than another. Most of them have on the side- walls cells, six to seven feet long, in which the bodies are deposited. Among those found at Jerusalem, for which tradition assigns special names and origin, are the Sepulchres of the Kings (perhaps derived from 2 Chron. xxi, 20 ; xxviii, 27 ; compare Neh. iii, 16 ; Acts ii. 29 ; see Nie- buhr, Travels, ill, 63; Ilosenmiiller, Alterth. II, ii, 269 sq. ; Robinson, i, 398 sq. ; ii, 183 ; compare Hottinger, Cijijn Hebraici, Heidelb. 1659 [also in l^golini Thesaur. xxxiii]). They consist of an anteroom and seven chambers, lying on the north of the city, east of the main road to Nablus, and seem to have belonged to the nobility, and not merely, if at all, to the ancient Jewish kings. See Jerusalem. Far more imposing are the sepulchres of Egypt, and especially celebrated by the ancients is the tomb of king Osymandyas (Diod. Sic. i, 47 sq.), of which the ruins are still extant (Po- cocke, i, 159). Above the tombs were from the earli- est times erected monuments (Gen. xxxv, 20, tiasp, as often on the Phoenician grave-stones), originally of rough stone or earth (Job xxi, 32; comp. Homer, II. xxiii, 255 sq. ; Virgil, ^En. vi, 305), later in the form of splendid mausolea (1 Mace, xiii, 27 sq. ; Josejihus, Ant. vii, 10, 3; xx, 4, 3; comp. Pausanias, viii, 16, 3; see Salmasius, ad Solin. p. 851 ; Zorn, in the Xov. Miscell. IJps. V, 218 sq.) with various devices (? 2 Sam. xviii, 18). To open a grave forcibly in order to ab- stract the ornaments (Josephus, Ant. xv, 3, 4; xiii, 8, 4),*weapons (Ezek. xxxii, 27 ; 1 Maoc. xiii, 29 ; Cur- tius, X, 1. 31), or otiier articles deposited with the body (comp. Sept. Vat. at Josh, xxiv, 30; Jerome, ad Jer. vii; Koscnmuller, Morgenl. iii, 10), or even the bones of the interred, was in all antiquity regarded as a shameful piece of barbarity (Jer. viii, 1 ; Baruch, ii, 24; comp. Diod. Sic. xiii, 86; xiv, 03; see Wachter, Ueher Ehescheid. bei d. Rom. p. 209 sq. ; Abegg, Straf-