Difference between revisions of "Ebenezer"

<p> (Hebrew with the art. E'ben ha-E'ezer, אֶבֶן הָעֵזֶר stone of the help; Sept. Ἀβενέζερ; [[Josephus]] translates λίθος ἰσχυρός ), the name given to a place marked by a monumental stone which Samuel set up as a memorial of the divine assistance in battle obtained against the [[Philistines]] (1 Samuel 7:12). — (See [[Pillar]]). 'Twenty years before this, the same spot (mentioned in the history under the same name by anticipation of its subsequent designation) witnessed the discomfiture of the [[Hebrew]] hosts, the death of the high-priest's sons, and the capture of the sacred ark by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:1; 1 Samuel 5:1). Its position is carefully defined (1 Samuel 7:12) as between [[Mizpeh]] "the watch-tower," one of the conspicuous eminences a few miles north of [[Jerusalem]] and Shen, "the tooth" or "crag," apparently some isolated landmark. [[Neither]] of these points, however, has been identified with certainty-at least not the latter. According to Josephus's record of the transaction (Ant. 6:2, 2), the stone was erected to mark the limit of the victory, a spot which he calls Corrhaea, but in the Hebrew BETH-CAR (See [[Beth-Car]]) (q.v.). [[Eusebius]] and [[Jerome]] affirm (Onomast. a.v. Ἀβενετέρ , Abenezes) that it lay between Jerusalem and Ashkelon, near (πλησίον, juxta) Bethshemesh. Now [[Bethshemesh]] stands on a low ridge on the south side of the rich valley of Sorar. On the opposite side of this valley, on a rising ground, about three miles north-west of Bethshemesh, are the ruins of an old village called Beit-far. The situation answers in every respect to that assigned to Beth-car; and the name may possibly be an [[Arab]] corruption of the latter. It lies in the direct route from Mizpeh to the plain of Philistia, and is just on the borders of the latter province, where a pursuing army would halt (Porter, Handbook for Syr. and Pal. page 283). But, as this is very far from the probable site of Mizpeh (Neby-Samwil), it is hardly possible to fix the position of [[Ebenezer]] at that of Beth-car. The monumental stone in question may rather have been set up at the point where the enemy began to flee, and we may therefore seek its locality nearer the [[Israelitish]] metropolis, possibly at the modern village Biddu, a short distance west of Neby-Samwil (Robinson, Researches, 2:133, note). (See [[Shen]]). </p>