land of Uz in Idumæa or in Ausitis, it is by no means likely that the Arabs of the south would extend their excursions so very far. We must, therefore, look for this tribe in Desert Arabia; and it is singular enough, that besides the Seba of Cush, and the Shaba of Joktan, there is another Sheba, son of Jokshan, and grandson of Abraham, by Keturah (Gen. xxv. 33); and his posterity appear to have been 'men of the wilderness,' as were their kinsmen of Midian, Ephah, and Dedan. To them, however, the above-cited passage in the prophecy of Joel could not apply, because in respect neither to the lands of Judah nor of Uz could they be correctly described as a people 'afar off.' As for the Sabaim of Ezek. xxiii. 42 (which our version also renders by Sabæans), while the Keri has DD, the Kethib has D'ID, i. e. 'drunkards,' which better suits the context. Yet, as if to increase the confusion in the use of this name of 'Sabæans,' it has also been applied-4th. To the ancient star-worshippers of Western Asia, though they ought properly to be styled Tsabians, and their religion not Sabaism but Tsabaism, the name being most probably derived from the object of their adoration, NY, the host, i. e. of heaven (see an excursus by Gesenius in his translation of Isaiah, On the Astral Isaiah (ch. xliii. 3; xlv. 14), and his testimony is confirmed by the profane writers of antiquity. The passages quoted, however, are the only places in Scripture where the Sabæans of Africa are expressly mentioned; for the Sabæans of Job i. 15 were a tribe of Bedowees, or 'men of the desert,' descended from Sheba, grandson of Keturah; and the Sabæans of Joel iii. 8 were the posterity of another Sheba, son of Joktan, in Arabia Felix. There was, indeed, another Sheba, the son of Raagmah and the grandson of Cush, and consequently the nephew of the Seba who is the subject of the present article, but his posterity appear to have mingled with those of his uncle. As for the Sabæans' mentioned in our version at Ezek. xxiii. 42, although the Keri reading be Sabaim, the Kethib has □□ Sobeim, 'drunkards,' which gives a better sense; besides that elsewhere the African Sabæans are not styled Sabaiim but Sebaiim, and the Arab Sabæans, Shebaiim.-N. M. SHEBAT (; Sept. Zaßár), the eleventh month of the Hebrew year, from the new moon of February to the new moon of March. The name only occurs once in Scripture (Zech. i. 7), and is the same which is given in the Arabic and Syriac languages to the same month. Worship of the Chaldeans). 5th. The name of the prefect of the palace to king Hezekiah (Isa. SHEBNA (N, a youth; Sept. Zouvâs), Sabæans, or Sabians, has also been given to a modern sect in the East, the Mandaïtes, or, as xxii. 15); afterwards promoted to be scribe or they are commonly but incorrectly called, the secretary to the same monarch, when his former Christians' of St. John; for they deny the Mes-office was given to Eliakim (Isa. xxii. 15; xxxvi. siahship of Christ, and pay superior honour to 3; 2 Kings xviii. 26, 27; xix. 2). John the Baptist. They are mentioned in the Koran under the name of Sabionna, and it is probable that the Arabs confounded them with the ancient Tsabians above mentioned. Norberg, however, says that they themselves derive their own name from that which they give to the Bap tist, which is Abo Sabo Zakrio; from Abo, father; Sabo, to grow old together;' and Zakrio, e. 9. Zecharia. The reason they assign for calling him Sabo is because his father, in his old age, had this son by his wife Aneschbat (Elizabeth), she being also in her old age (see Norberg's Codex Nasaraus, Liber Adami Apellatus, and Silvestré de Sacy, in the Journal des Savans for 1819). SHECHEM (D; Sept. Zxéμ, also rà Zikua), a town of central Palestine, in Samaria, 1 Kings xii. 25), in the narrow valley between among the mountains of Ephraim (Josh. xx. 7; the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim (comp. Judg. ix. 7; Joseph. Antiq. iv. 8. 44), and consequently within the tribe of Ephraim (Josh. xxi. 20). It is in N. lat. 32° 17', E. long. 35° 20, being thirty-four miles north of Jerusalem and seven miles south of Samaria. It was a very an cient place, and appears to have arisen as a town in the interval between the arrival of Abraham in Palestine and the return of Jacob from Padanaram, for it is mentioned only as a place, described by reference to the oaks in the neigh SEBA (ND) was the eldest son of Cush (Gen. x. 7; 1 Chron. i. 9), and gave name to the coun-bourhood, when Abraham came there on first try of Seba or Saba, and to one of the tribes called entering the land of Canaan (Gen. xii. 6). But, Sabæans, not, however, the Shebaiim (with a in the history of Jacob it repeatedly occurs as a shin), but the Sebaiim (with a samech). There town having walls and gates: it could not, howseems no reason to doubt that their ultimate setever, have been very large or important if we may tlement was in that region of Africa which was judge from the consequence which the inhabitants known to the Hebrews as the land of Cush, and attached to an alliance with Jacob, and from the to the Greeks and Romans as Ethiopia; and the facility with which the sons of the Patriarch were Scriptural notices respecting them and their able to surprise and destroy them (Gen. xxxiii. country have been already anticipated in the 18, 19: xxxiv. 1, 2, 20, 24, 26). After the articles CUSH and ETHIOPIA. If the kingdom conquest of the country, Shechem was made a of Seba was the far-famed Meroë, and the king-city of refuge (Josh. xx. 7), and one of the Ledom of Sheba the no less famous Yemen, then it is with peculiar propriety that the king of African Seba in the west, and the king of Asiatic Sheba in the east, are represented by the Psalmist (Ps. lxxii. 10) as bearing their united homage to the 'great king of Judah.' The commerce and wealth of these Sabæans of Ethiopia, as also their gigantic stature, are alluded to by the prophet vitical towns (Josh. xxi. 21), and during the lifetime of Joshua it was a centre of union to the tribes (Josh. xxiv. 1, 25), probably because it was the nearest considerable town to the residence of that chief in Timnath-serah. In the time of the judges, Shechem became the capital of the kingdom set up by Abimelech (Judg. ix. 1, sq.), but was at length conquered and destroyed by submission, and Tancred took possession of them without resistance (Will. Tyr. ix. 20). Neapolis was laid waste by the Saracens in A.D. 1113; but a few years after (A.D. 1120) a council was held here by king Baldwin II., to consult upon the state of the country (Fulcher, p. 424; Will. Tyr. xii. 13). Neapolis was not made a Latin bishopric, but belonged probably to that of Samaria, and the property of it was assigned to the abbot and canons of the Holy Sepulchre (Jac. de Vitriacus, ch. lviii.). After some disasters in the unquiet times which ensued, and after some circumstances which show its remaining im portance, the place was finally taken from the Christians in A.D. 1242, by Áhu Ali, the col him (Judg. ix. 34). It must, however, have been ere long rebuilt, for it had again become of so much importance by the time of Rehoboam's accession, that he there gave the meeting to the delegates of the tribes, which ended in the separation of the kingdom (1 Kings xii. 10). It was Shechem which the first monarch of the new kingdom made the capital of his dominions (1 Kings xii. 25; comp. xiv. 17), although later in his reign the pleasantness of Tirzah induced him to build a palace there, and to make it the summer residence of his court; which gave it such importance, that it at length came to be regarded as the capital of the kingdom, till Samaria eventually deprived it of that honour (1 Kings xiv. 7; xvi. 24; see ISRAEL). She-league of Sultan Bibars, and has remained in chem, however, still throve. It subsisted during Moslem hands ever since. the exile (Jer. xli. 5), and continued for many ages after the chief seat of the Samaritans and of their worship, their sole temple being upon the mountain (Gerizim), at whose foot the city stood (Joseph. Antiq. xi. 8. 6; comp. John iv. 20; and see also the articles EBAL and GERIZIM, SAMARITANS). The city was taken, and the temple destroyed, by John Hyrcanus, B.C. 129 (Joseph. Antiq. xiii. 9. 1; De Bell. Jud. i. 2. 6). In the New Testament it occurs under the name of Sychar (Zvxáp; John iv. 5), which seems to have been a sort of nick-name (perhaps from sheker, falsehood,' spoken of idols in Hab. ii. 18; or from 1 shikkor, drunkard,' in allusion to Isa. xviii. 1, 7),—such as the Jews were fond of imposing upon places they disliked; and nothing could exceed the enmity which existed between them and the Samaritans, who possessed Shechem. Stephen, however, in his historical retrospect, still uses the proper and ancient name (Acts vii. 16). Not long after the times of the New Testament the place received the name of Neapolis, which it still retains in the Arabic form of Nabulus, being one of the very few names imposed by the Romans in Palestine which have survived to the present day. It had probably suffered much, if it was not completely destroyed, in the war with the Romans, and would seem to have been restored or rebuilt by Vespasian, and then to have taken this new name; for the coins of the city, of which there are many, all bear the inscription, Flavia Neapolis the former epithet no doubt derived from Flavius Vespasian (Eckhel, Doctr. Num. iii. 433; Mionnet, Med. Antiq. v. 499). The name occurs first in Josephus (De Bell. Jud. iv. 8. 1), and then in Pliny (Hist. Nat. v. 14), Ptolemy (Geog. v. 16). There had already been converts to the Christian faith at this place under our Saviour, and it is probable that a church had been gathered here by the Apostles (John iv. 30-42; Acts viii. 25; ix. 31; xv. 3). Justin Martyr was a native of Neapolis (Apolog. ii. 41). The name of Germanus, bishop of Neapolis, occurs in A.D. 314; and other bishops continue to be mentioned down to A.D. 536, when the bishop John signed his name at the synod of Jerusalem (Reland, Palæst. p. 1009). When the Moslems invaded Palestine, Neapolis and other small towns in the neighbourhood were subdued while the siege of Jerusalem was going on (Abulfeda, Annal. i. 229). After the taking of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, Neapolis and other towns in the mountains of Samaria tendered their There is no reason to question that the present town occupies the site of the ancient Shechem, although its dimensions are probably more contracted. The fertility and beauty of the deep and narrow valley in which the town stands, especially in its immediate neighbourhood, have been much admired by travellers, as far exceed ing what they had seen in any other part of Palestine. This valley is not more than 500 yards wide at the town, which stands directly upon its water-shed, the streams on the eastern part flowing off east into the plain, and so towards the Jordan, while the fountains on the western side send off a pretty brook down the valley N.W. towards the Mediterranean. The town itself is long and narrow, extending along the N.E. base of Mount Gerizim, and partly resting upon its declivity. The streets are narrow; the houses high, and in general well built, all of stone, with domes upon the roofs as at Jerusalem. The bazaars are good and well supplied. There are no ruins which can be called ancient in this country, but there are remains of a church of fine Byzantine architecture, and a handsome arched gateway, both apparently of the time of the first crusades. These occur in the main street, through the whole length of which a stream of clear water rushes down-a rare circumstance in the East. The population of the place is rated by Dr. Olin at 8000 or 10,000, of whom 500 or 600 are Christians of the Greek communion, and the rest Moslems, with the exception of about 130 Samaritans, and one-third that number of Jews. The inhabitants bear the character of being an unusually valiant as well as a turbulent race, and some years since maintained a desperate struggle against the Egyptian government in some bloody rebellions (Robinson, Palestine, ii. 94-136; Olin, Travels. iì. 339-365; Narrative of the Scottish Deputation, p. 208-218; Schubert, Morgenland, iii. 136-154; Winer, Real-wort. s. v.; Lord Nugent, Lands Classical and Sacred, ii. 172-180. 2. SHECHEM, son of Hamor prince of the country or district of Shechem, in which Jacob formed his camp on his return from Mesopotamia. This young man having seen Jacob's daughter Dinah, was smitten with her beauty, and deflowered her. This wrong was terribly and cruelly avenged by the damsel's uterine brothers, Simeon and Levi, as described in the article DINAH (Gen. xxxv.). It seems likely that the town of Shechem, even if of recent origin, must have existed before the birth of a man so young as Hamor's son appears to have been; and we may therefore suppose it a name preserved in the family, and which both the town and the princes inherited. Shechem's name is always connected with that of his father Hamor (Gen. xxxiii. 19; xxxv.; Acts vii. 16). SHEEP, seh, NY tzon, both it appears occasionally used as a collective term, including goats; Arab. zain; kebes, a lamb under a year old; ajil, the adult ram, but originally applied also to the males of other ruminants, such as deer, &c.; rachal, a female or ewe sheep-all referable to Hebrew roots with apposite meanings, deserving the more confidence since the earliest patriarchs of the nation, being themselves shepherds and graziers, had never at any time received this portion of their domesticated cattle from foreign nations, and therefore had indigenous names for them. 494. [Syrian Sheep.] Domestic sheep, moreover, although commonly regarded as the progeny of one particular wild species, are probably an instance, among many similar, where the wisdom of Providence has provided subsistence for man in different regions, by bestowing the domesticating and submissive instincts upon the different species of animals which the human family might find in their wanderings; for it is certain that even the American argali can be rendered tractable, and that the Corsican musmon will breed with the common sheep. The normal animal, from which all or the greater part of the western domestic races are assumed to be descended, is still found wild in the high mountain regions of Persia, and is readily distinguished from two other wild species bordering on the same region. What breeds the earliest shepherd tribes reared in and about Palestine can now be only inferred from negative characters; yet they are sufficient to show that they were the same, or nearly so, as the common horned variety of Egypt and continental Europe: in general white, and occasionally black, although there was on the upper Nile a speckled race; and so early as the time of Aristotle the Arabians possessed a rufous breed, another with a very long tail, and above all a broad-tailed sheep, which at present is commonly denominated the Syrian. These three varieties are said to be of African origin, the red hairy, in particular, having all the characteristics to mark its descent from the wild Ovis Tragelaphus or Barbatus (S), Kebsch of the Arabian and Egyptian mountains [RAMS SKINS, RED]. Flocks of the ancient breed, derived from the Bedouins, are now extant in Syria, with little or no change in external cha- | or racters, chiefly the broad-tailed and the common horned white, often with black and white about the face and feet, the tail somewhat thicker and longer than the European. The others are chiefly valued for the fat of their broad tails, which tastes not unlike marrow; for the flesh of neither race is remarkably delicate, nor are the fleeces of superior quality. Sheep in the various conditions of existence wherein they would occur among a pastoral and agricultural people, are noticed in numerous places of the Bible, and furnish many beautiful allegorical images, where purity, innocence, mildness, and submission are pourtrayed-the Saviour himself being denominated the Lamb of God,' in twofold allusion to his patient meekness, and to his being the true paschal lamb, slain from the foundation of the world' (Rev. xiii. 8). The meaning of the Hebrew word Dp kesitah, occurring only in Gen. xxxiii. 19, and Job xlii. 11, has, we think, been contested with more earnestness than candour, Bochart himself pointing to the Greek, Onkelos, Syrian, Arabic, and Vulgate trauslations, where we find sheep or lambs-these authorities being supported by the Chaldee. On the other hand, the Rabbinical expounders have rendered it money; while in Costard's dissertation on the subject neither interpretation seems to him satisfactory; for he, in common with Bochart and others, finding no Hebrew word or root to justify the version sheep or lambs, would prefer money, but that, according to him, there was none coined till the era of Cyrus, and never any bearing the impression of a lamb, &c. Now here we have assumptions, and not proofs; there is no reason why sheep should not in the East, a land eminently pastoral, have been an object of barter in kind, and why in process of time the same word should not have been applied to a piece of metal, as pecus in Italy, which likewise at first denoted sheep or ox, and subsequently a coin. There is every reason to believe that metals, very anciently, in the shape of mere rings or plates of a given weight, represented the value of sheep in a more convenient form. The Jewish p shakal, 'to weigh,' indicates this early character of money; and its use is plainly shown in Gen. xxiii. 16, where Abraham, buying a field and cave, weighs out four hundred shekels of silver, a kind of current money, the medium of exchange between merchants, but not therefore coin, which implies a characteristic impression on the metal. In Gen. xxxiii. 19, Kesitah may be a Canaanitish, or more properly a Scytho-Chaldaic designation of sheep in the time of Jacob, already represented by silver, most probably cast in the form of that animal, and of a standard weight, for the Hebrews were not as yet a people, and the Egyptians cast their weights in metal shaped like cattle, &c.; and that Phoenicia, at a later period, had sheep actually impressed on a silver coin, is proved by that figured in the travels of Clarke. It is a medal found in Cyprus, of irregular form, with the impression of a ram recumbent on one side, and on the other a sun-flower, Heliotropium or Calendula, which occurs also on the peltæ of Amazons, and among Indian bas-reliefs. Two Phoenician letters are visible at the sides of the flower. But in Job xlii. 11, where Kesitah is rendered in the Authorized Version by 'money,' |