TOPARCHY
488
TOPAZ
ih my body. "To smite upon the jaw-bone" and "to break the teeth" mean to disijrace and to disable (Psa. iii, 7 ; conip. Mic. vi, 13 ; 1 Kings xx, 35 ; Lam. iii, 30). The teeth of calumniators, etc., are compared to "spears and arrows" (Psa. Ivii, 1; comp. 1 Sam. xxiv, 9). To break the teeth of such persons means to disable them (Psa. Iviii, 6). To escape the malice of enemies is called an "escape from their teeth" (cxxiv, 6; Zech. ix, 7). Oppression is compared to '"jaw-teeth like swords, and grinders like knives" (Prov. xxx, 14). Beautiful teeth are compared to '-sheep newly shorn and washed" in Cant. iv. 2; vi, (5; but the remaining part of the com- parison, " whereof every one beareth twins, and none is barren among them," is much better rendered by Le Clerc, "all of them twins, and none hath lost his fellow." "To break the teeth with gravel stones" is a most hj'- perbolical metaphor for inflicting the harshest disap- pointment (Lam. iii, 1G\ " Iron teeth" are the symbol of destructive power (Dan. vii, 7, 19). A nation having tlie teeth of lions, and the cheek-teeth of a great lion, denotes one which devours with irresistible force (Joel i, 6 ; comp. Ecclus. xxi, '2 ; Kev. ix, 8). " Prophets who bite with tlieir teeth, and cry Peace," are greedy and hypocritical propliets (l\Iic. iii, 5). "To take away blood out of the mouth, and abominations from between the teeth," means to rescue the intended victims of cruelty (Zech. ix, 7). " Cleanness of teeth" is a periph- rasis for hunger, famine (Amos iv, 6; Sept. yo^t^t- aaf.i'ov oCoi'Twv , Symtnachus and Theodotion, Ka^ci- pKTfioi'). Gnashing of teeth means, properly, grinding the teeth with rage or despair. The Hebrew word so rendered is p'^H (Job xvi, 9; Lam. ii, 16; Psa. xxxv, 16; xxxvii, 12; cxii, 10); it is invariably rendered in the Sept. jipv-)(w, and in the Vidg. infremo,fremo,frendo (see also Acts vii, 54 ; Ecclus. li, '2). In the New Test, it is said of the epileptic child (Mark ix, 18), rpiZei tovq odovTac, stridet dentihus. The phrase 6 jipvyiioQ twv oSovTwv is in the Vulgate "stridor dentium" (Matt. viii, 12; xiii,42, 50; xxii, 13; xxiv, 51 ; xxv, 30; Luke xiii, '28). Suidas defines i3pvyi.i6g' Tpiafiuc 6S(>vru)v. (lalen, 6 cnrb tmv oSovtwv av^Kpovo).i(Vii)%> ipd^oi;. The phrase ''lest thou gnash thy teeth" (Ecclus. xxx, 10) is yoj.L(piarsH(: Toi'ij ooovraQ aov. "To cast in the teeth" is an old English phrase (for the Hebrew has no such idiom), signifying to reproach; thus "the thieves who were crucified with Jesus cast the same in his teeth," wvfiCi^ov avTov (Matt, xxvii, 44 ; Vulg. I7?i- properabant ei ; compare also the Bible and Prayer- book version of Psa. xlii, 11). ni''S''Q, "a sharp thresh- ing instrument having teeth," literally "edges" (Isa. xli, 151 The action of acids on the teeth is referred to in the proverb "the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Ezek. xviii, 2) : iyoprpicKjav, ohstupuerunt (Prov. x, 26). — Kitto.
Toparchy {ro-n-ap^ia, government of a district), a term applied in one passage of the original of the Apoc- rypha (1 Mace, xi, 28) to indicate three districts to which elsewhere (x, 30 ; xi, 34) the name vojing is given, as also in Josephus (Ant. xiii, 4, 9). In all these passages the English version employs the term "governments." The three "toparchies" in question were Aphaerima ('A^oipfjt/n), Lydda, and Ramath. They had been de- taclied from Samaria, Penea, and (lalilee respectively, some time before the war between Demetrius Soter and Alexander Bala. Each of the two belligerents endeav- ored to win over Jonathan, the Jewish high-priest, to their side, by allowing him, among other privileges, the sovereign power over these. districts without any pay- ment of land-tax. The situation of Lydda is doubtful; for the toparchy Lydda of wliich Pliny speaks (v. 14) is situated not in Penea, but. on the western side of the Jordan. Aphu'rima is considered by (Jrotius to denote the region about Bethel, captured 1)y Abijah from Jero- boam (2 Chron. xiii, 19). Kamatli is probablv the fa- mous stronghold, the desire of obtaining which led to the unfortunate expedition of the allied sovereigns
Ahab and Jehoshaphat (1 Kings xxii). Pliny (v, 14) mentions ten toparchies in Jud»a, and so does Josephus (ir-(/-,iii,3, 5).
The "toparchies" seem to have been of the nature of the modern Turkish ag(diks, and the passages in which the word TOTTopxiK occurs all harmonize with the view of that functionary as the aga, whose duty would be to collect the taxes and administer justice in all cases af- fecting the revenue, and who, for the purpose of enforc- ing payment, would have the command of a small mil- itary force. He would thus be the lowest in the hie- rarchy of a despotic administration to whom troops would be intrusted; and hence the taunt in 2 Kings xviii, 24, and Isa. xxxvi, 9 (Sept.) : ttwq anoaTpixl^tif: TO TtpoamiTOV (HnQ, "captain") Toirap-^ov ivoq, tCjv SoiXwv Toil Kvpiov fiov twv iXay^itjTwv ; — " How wilt thou resist a single toparch, one of the very least of my lord's sla\es?" But the essential character of the to- parch is that of a fiscal officer, and his military charac- ter is altogether subordinate to his civil. Hence the word is employed in Gen. xli, 34 for the " officers over the land" (l^pQ, "overseer"), who were instructed to buy up the fifth part of the produce of the soil during the seven 5'ears of abundance. In Dan. iii, 3, Theodotion uses the word in a much more extensive sense, making it equivalent to "satraps" (X'^SS'^Ti.'HN," wise"), and the English version renders the original by "princes;" but the original word here is not the same as in Dan. iii, 2, 27, and vi, 7, in every one of which cases a subordinate functionary is contemplated.— Smith.