(apparently having summoned him to Riblah), and car- ried him a prisoner to Jerusalem. On arriving there, Necho made Eliakini, the eldest son, king, changing his name to Jehoiakim ; and taking the silver and gold which had been levied upon the Jewish nation, he re- turned to Egypt with the captive Jehoahaz, who there died (2 Kings xxiii, 31 sq. ; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 1-4), Herodotus says that Necho, after having routed the Syrians (the Jews) at Magdolus, took Cadytis, a large city of Syria, in Palestine, which, he adds, is very little less than Sardis (ii, 159; iii, 5). By Cadytis there is scarcch' a doubt he meant Jerusalem ; the word is only a Greek form of the ancient, as well as the modern, name of that city. In the fourth year after this ex- pedition Necho again marched into Syria, and advanced to the Euphrates. Here Nebuchadnezzar completely routed his army, recovered the town of Carchemish, and, pushing his conquests through Palestine, took from Necho all the territory belonging to the Pharaohs, from the Euphrates to the southern extremity of Syria (2 Kings xxiv, 7, 8 ; Jer. xlvi, 2 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 9). See NEBLCHADXKzzAii. Necho soon after died, and was succeeded by Psammetichus II (Wilkinson's Aik. E(/;ip- tians, i, 157 sq.). See Egypt. According to Manetho (Euseb. Chron. Armen. i, 219), Necho was the sixth king in the twenty-sixth dynasty, successor of Psam- metichus, and as there had been another of the same name, he was properly Necho the Second. Tlie period of his reign was, according to Manetho, six, according to Herodotus sixteen, years (consult Gesenius, Jesaia, i, 596).— Kitto. See Larcher, .\d Herod, ii, 158 sq. ; iv, 42 ; Diod. i, 33, and Wess. ad loc. ; Strabo, i, 56 ; Hecren, African Nat. ii, 374, 389; Bunsen, yEgyptens Stelle in der Well-Geschichte, iii, 141 sq. See Pharaoh.
Nechites. See Nicitas.
Neclioshetli. See Bkass ; Copper.
Nechunjah B!;n-iia-Kanah, a famous rabbin at Jamnia, who, like his coiitemijorary Nahiim of (iimso (q. v.), had a school and method of his own, was a disciple of Hillel (q. v.), and a contemporary and equal colleague of Jochanan ben-Zachai (q. v.). Nechunjah strictly adhered to his teacher's method of Biblical interpreta- tion, and decidedly ojiiwsed Nahiim's additional rule of '•extension and restriction." He was of a mild and compliant character, and is said to have chiefly occu- pied himself with mystical theology. So much was this the case, that later tradition ascribed the composi- tion of the oldest cabalistic works to him or to liis father, viz., the books Bahir (""j^Sv} D) and Pilitih (nX'^bsri b), which, however, belong to a later time. Like his colleague, Jochanan ben-Zachai, Nechunjah reached a good old age. Himself a living protest against the supposed worldliness of some of his contemi)orarics, his recorded motto was, "Every one who takes upon himself the yoke of the law is set free from the yoke of the kingdom and tlie yoke of conformity to the world; but to every one who discards the yoke of the law shall be given the yoke of the kingdom and the yoke of the fashions of this world" (Abol/i, iii, 5). It is interesting to notice that Nechunjah was one of the few who were wont to ejaculate a short prayer both when entering the college and again when leaving it. He assigned the following reasons for this unusual practice: "When I enter," he said, "I i)ray that I may not be the occasion of error; and when I leave I bless the Lord for my call- ing" (Benwoth. iv, 2). Later writers (Bartol. iv, 246, etc.) have, without sufficient reason, supposed that he became a convert to Christianity. Certainly both the ground and the objects of his prayers savor more of the pride of the Pharisee than of the spirit of the Christian. See Griitz, Gesch. d. Jiiden (I^ipsic, 18G(!\ iv, 22 ; Jost, Gescfi. d. Jiiden. u. s. Sekleii, ii, 26 ; De Kossi, Diziontirio storico (Germ. trans].\ p. 245; Edersheim, Ilislorij of the Jncg, p. 158; I':theriilge, hit rod. to Hebrew Litera- ture, p. 65; Frankel, Jlodegetica in Jlishnam (Leipsic, 1859), p. 99. (B. P.)
NECK
909
NECKER
Neck (usually ?)'n3>, o'reph, as Gen. xlix, 8 ; Lev. V, 8 ; often 1X^^, tsavvar', as Gen. xxvii, IG ; and same in Chaki., as Dan. v, 7 ; once the plur. cognate D'^DT^^, Cant, iv, 9; also "[T^S, garuii', prop, throat, Isa. iii, 10; or the plur. cognate, riilii"i|«, Prov. iii, 22 ; once ni;?"lSp, maphrt'keth, 1 Sam. iv, 18 ; Gr. Tpaxi]\oi^), a part of the human frame used by the sacred writers ^vith consider- able variety and freedom in figurative expressions, though seldom in sush a way as to occasion diflScidty to a modern reader. With reference to the graceful or- nament which a fine neck gives, especially to the female form, it is said of tlie spouse in the Canticles, " Thy neck is like the tower of Uavid, builded for an armory" (iv, 4); or, as it is again, '"like a tower of ivory" (vii, 4). The neck, however, being that part of the body through which in man, and still more in the lower animals, the life is frequently destroyed, it is sometimes taken as the representative of the animal life ; hence " to lay down the neck" (Rom. xvi, 4) is a strong expression for haz- arding one's life ; to " give one the necks of one's ene- mies" (2 Sara, xxii, 41) was to surrender their life into his hands; also "to reach even to the neck," or " to the midst of the neck" (Isa. viii, 8 ; xxx, 28), was to ap- proach the point of overwhelming destruction, which, in Hab. iii, 13, takes the peculiar form of "discovering the foundation to the neck" — the allusion in the last passage being to the foundation of a house, which is like the neck upon which the head rests. But by much the most common reference was to beasts of burden, which bore upon their neck the yoke whereby they did service, and as such were viewed as emblems of men in their relation either to a good or a bad, to a true or a false service. Christ invites all to " take up his yoke" (upon their neck understood), in other words, to yield themselves obediently to his authority (Matt, xi, 29) ; and a stiff or hardened neck is a familiar expression for an unpliant, rebellious spirit. In the contrary direc- tion, many passages in the prophets convey threatenings of coming judgment by the hands of enemies under the form of laying bands or yokes upon the people's necks (Deut. xxviii, 48; Isa. x, 27; Jer. xxvii, 2) (Fairbairn). Hence putting the feet on the neck is a usual expres-