\\\
•U\.
£*— l~.
Hieroglyph of the above. (The final character, read kah, denotes a region or country.)
nak, where among a long list of captured towns and provinces occurs the name Judah Malkah (kingdom of Judah). li is said that the features of the captives in these sculptures are unmistakably Jewish | Rawlinson, Herodotus, ii, 370. and Bampton Lectures, p. 126; Bun- sen, Egypt, iii, 242). After this great humiliation the moral condition of Judah seems to have improved (2 Chron. xii. 12), and the rest of Rehoboam's life to have been unmarked by any events of importance, lie died B.C. 95b", after a reign of seventeen years, Inning as- cended the throne at the age of forty-one (1 King- siv, 21 : 2 Chron. xii. 13). In the addition to the Sept. al- ready mentioned (inserted after 1 Kings xii. 24) we read that he was sixteen years old at his accession— a mis- statement probably founded on a wrong interpretation of 2 Chron. xiii. 7, where he is called "young" (i. e. new to his work, inexperienced) and '■ tender- hearted" ( ^^5-~-, wanting in resolution and spirit ). He had eighteen wives, sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons, and sixty daughters. The wisest thing recorded of him ill Scripture is that be refused to waste away hi- sons' energies in the wretched existence of an Kastt rn zenana, iii which wi may infer, from his helplessness at the age of forty-one, thai he had himself been educated, but dis- persed them in command of the new fortresses w hich be bad I milt about the country. <M his wives, Mahalath. Abihail. and .Maachah were all of the royal house of Jesse. .Maachah he loved best of all. and to her son Aliijah he bequeathed his kingdom. See Kie-liug. Hist,
I ';, in 1 1 '„ ami (Jena, 1753). See Ji hah. Kingdom of.
Re'hoboth [many Reho'both I I Heb. Rechoboth', rvnrH [oncet"Orn,Gen.x, 11 \,wia\ places, i.e. streets, as in Prov. i. 20, etc.). the name of three places.
1. Rehoboth rut Well (Sept, tvpvyftipia ; Vulg. latitude), the third of the series of wells dug by Isaac in the Philistines' territory (Gen. xxvi, 22). lie bad dug several wells before, but was obliged to abandon them in consequence of the quarrels of the Philis- tines. When this one was completed they did not
strive for it. lie celebrated bis triumph and In -lowed its name on the well in a fragment of poetry of the same nature a- those in which Jacob's wives gave
REHOBOTH
1023
REHOBOTH
names to his successive children : " He called the name of it Rehoboth (room) and said,
'Because now Jehovah hath made room for us And we shall increase in the laud.'"
The name was intended to indicate the fact that the patriarch had at length got space to rest in. Most of the ancient versions translate the word, though it must evidently be regarded as a proper name. Isaac had left the valley of Gerar and its turbulent inhabitants before he dug the well which he thus commemorated (ve.r. 22). From it he, in time, " went up" to Beersheba (ver. 23), an expression which is always used of motion towards the land of promise. The position of Gerar has not been definitely ascertained, but it seems to have lain a few miles to the south of Gaza and nearly due east of Beersheba. In this direction, therefore, if any- where, the wells Sitnah, Esek, and Rehoboth should be searched for. The ancient Jewish tradition confined the events of this part of Isaac's life to a much nar- rower circle. The wells of the patriarchs were shown near Ashkelon in the time of Origen, Antoninus Mar- tyr, and Eusebius (Reland, Pakest. p. 589) ; the Samar- itan version identities Gerar with Ashkelon; Josephus (Ant. i, 12, 1) calls it "Gerar of Palestine,'" i. e. of Phi- listia. It is a remarkable fact that the name clings to the spot still. In the wilderness of et-Tih, about twen- ty-three miles south-west of Beersheba, is a wady called er-Ruhaibeh, in which and on the adjoining heights are remains of antiquity thus described by Robinson: "In the valley itself is the ruin of a small rough build- ing with a dome, built in the manner of a mosque. On the right of the path is a confused heap of hewn stones, the remains of a square building of some size, perhaps a tower. On the acclivity of the eastern hill we found traces of wells, a deep cistern, or rather cavern, and a fine circular threshing -floor, evidently antique. But on ascending the hill on the left of the valley we were astonished to find ourselves amid the ruins of an an- cient city. Here is a level track of ten or twelve acres in extent entirely and thickly covered over with con- fused heaps of stones, with just enough of their former order remaining to show the foundations and form of the houses, and the course of some of the streets. The houses were mostly small, all solidly built of bluish lime- stone, squared and often hewn on the exterior surface. Many of the dwellings had each its cistern, cut in the solid rock; and these still remained quite entire. . . . Once, as we judged upon the spot, this must have been a city of not less than twelve or fifteen thousand inhab- itants" (Bib. Res. i, 106). This identification is adopted by Rowlands (in Williams, Holy City, i, 405), Van de Velde (Memoir, p. 3-13), Stewart (Tent and Khan, p. 343), and Bonar (Desert of Sinai, p. 316). Dr. Rob- inson could not find the well itself. Dr. Stewart found it "regularly built, twelve feet in circumference," but " completely filled up." Mr. Rowlands describes it as " an ancient well of living and good water."