Chiun

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

CHIUN .   Amos 5:26 (see Rephan, Siccuth). As shown by the appositional phrase ‘your god-star,’ this name refers to the Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] Kaiwanu , the planet Saturn (= Ninib, war-god), whose temple, Bit Ninib, in the province of Jerusalem is mentioned by the Egyptian governors of this city as early as b.c. 1450. The translation of the word as an appellative (‘pedestal’) by some is due to the vocalization of the Massoretes, who are supposed to have considered it a common noun. However, it is far more probable that they, conscious of its reference, substituted for the original vowels those of the word shiqqûts (‘abomination’) an epithet often applied to strange gods.

N. Koenig.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The name of an idol worshipped by the Israelites in the desert,  Amos 5:26   Acts 7:43 . It was most probably the planet Saturn, worshipped by eastern nations as an evil spirit to be propitiated by sacrifices. See Remphan .

Smith's Bible Dictionary

 Chi'un.  (a statue, perhaps of Saturn ). An idol made by the Israelites, in the wilderness.  See Remphan .

Morrish Bible Dictionary

A heathen god.  Amos 5:26 . Supposed by some to be the same as REMPHANin  Acts 7:43 .

Holman Bible Dictionary

 Amos 5:26 kiyun siqquts Kaiwan Sikkuth

People's Dictionary of the Bible

 Chiun.  Amos 5:26. An idol. See Remphan.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Amos 5:26  Acts 7:43

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

(See  REMPHAN.)

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(Hebrews Kiyun ´,  כַּיּוּן ), a word that occurs only once in the Scriptures, and that in an obscure and variously-interpreted passage ( Amos 5:26), "But ye have borne the tabernacle of your  Moloch and  Chiun, your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." The Sept. translates it as a proper name,  Rhephanz (  ῾Ραιφάν or  ῾Ρηφάν, which became still further corrupted into  ῾Ρεμφάν ), and it is quoted in that form by Stephen ( Acts 7:43). (See Remphan). The Syriac translates it by  Saturn, whom the Shemitic nations are known to have worshipped. But it apparently is not a proper name at all, being derived from the root  כּוּן, kun, to  stand upright, and therefore signifies simply a  statue or idol, as the Vulgate renders it (in connection with the following word),  "imaginemn idolorum vestrum." The same is probably true of the word rendered "Moloch" in the same passage, so that the whole may be translated (with Gesenius), "Ye bore the tabernacle of your  king, and the statue of your  idols, the star of your god which ye made to yourselves;" referring not to any specific deity by name, but to the secret idolatrous practices which the Jews kept up along with the worship connected with the divine ark in the wilderness, and which reappeared in different forms from time to time in their later history. (See Calf). Yet, as a "star" is mentioned, it has naturally been inferred that the worship of some  planet is alluded to, and this Jerome supposed to be Lucifer or Venus. Layard thinks the name identical with that of the Egyptian goddess Ken, figured on the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments in the character of Astarte or Venus (Nineveh, 2:169); but he admits that her worship was borrowed from Assyria into Egypt at a period later than the Exodus (p. 170). On the whole, the above supposition that the planet Saturn is intended is the most plausible, although this interpretation cannot be successfully defended merely from the name, either in the form Chium or Remphan. (See Mains, in his Select. Exercitt. 1:763 sq.; Jahr, De Chiun [Viteb. 1705]; Harenberg, De idolis Chiun et Remphan [Brunsw. 1723]; Meyer, De sacello et basi idolor. etc. [ad loc.], [Helmst. 1726]; Wolf, De Chiun et Remphan [Lips. 1741]; Braun, Selecta Sacra, p. 477 sq.) (See Saturn).

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Chi´un [REMPHAN]