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487 — Amaea Amber

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

487

AMATTJNI

Members of one of the most powAniieuiiui thins, whose liiil)itation was along the slopes of Mount Anirat. Their vilof which ruins are still visihle laircs anf the I'ailhian kings, brought them into Armenia, ami Ihal they were in his day a powerful The Armenian king clan in the region of Ahmatan. Artashes the mythical contemporary of Domilian. erful ol the



olil

—

—

— gave them villages. Accordsource. Awfiliiiii incimliiitrt'nw, "new

Trajan, and Hadrian

ingto thesiime

settlers." or, eciually, " proselytes "

and it is perhaps word itinut. The Amatuni were probably a Judaized clan. They are nienlioned in the tifth century by Agathangelos and Lazar of Pharp, and they furnished leading captains, counselors, and ecclesiastics to Armenia until the beginning of the crusiiding epoch.

the Persian

known how long Amaziah survived

these disasters,

but the reconstructed chronology of the kings of Judah would reduce his twenty-nine years' reign to fourteen or lifleen years. He, like hisfather(II Kings,

who

was the victim of a.ssassins, bent upon putting out of the way one had brought upon the land such dire disasters.

bil),

Moses ibn HaIn Rabbinical Literature in his work, "Darke Noam"(ed. Rodelheim,

xiv.

I'J,

20, xii. 2o' 21),

!i|>parentl3'

I.

M. P.



ISOG. p. ah), gives an alleged epitaph of Amaziah's It is as folgeneral, found in Morviedro, Valencia.

mpb ^n:

lows: n'

God

-:-b

mn^ipa nrp ixcc'Haisc

lament, for the great chief whom hath taken"); then follows something illegible;

your voice

in bilter

The epiat the end. ITSOnS ("'to Amaziah"). taph, probalily authentic, and belonging to some one of the name of Amaziah. gave ri.se to the belief that it referred to the "great chief" Amaziah. L. G. and

AMBER "aniljir

"



The Hebrew word

hnafunn!. rendered in Ezekiel (three

by the A. V., occurs only

There

is nothing imi>robable in the tradition preserved by Moses of Chorene, since all the towns in Armenia and Caucasian Iberia were, according to See chroniclers of the tifth century, full of Jews. ahso H.VOK.VTUNI.

BinLiOGRAPnY: Moses of Ctiorene, JJIMnry of Armenia, [i. m, 8.5, 111. a, .51, 05; I. Berkbln. Iz Diinw Mi7iuvsliavo, Uml AmatunU In VmkUnd, 188.3, Nos. 11. li'. F. C. C.

AMAZIAH.— Biblical Data:

1. Priestat

Beth

el

When

the prophet Amos came to Beth -el. and there prophesied he death of Jerobdam and the caiitivity of Israel. Amaziah tried toe.xpel him from the kingdom of Israel (Amos, vii. 1(», 12. 14). 2. A Simeonite (I Chron. iv. 34). Levite of the familv of Merari and ancestor of 3. " in

the irign nf Jeroljoam

II.

I

A

Ethan

(I

Chron.

G.

vi. 30).

15.

L.

In Rabbinical Literature: According Jleir. the priest Amaziah is iilentical with the

to H. false

prophet mentioned

(Yer.

Sanli.

.i.

8oN OK


 * !i)/<

in

I

Kings,

and Cant. U.

(il.llslloM.

ii.

-xiii.

5).

l it

net/.

See Jos.th.x. L, G.

AMAZIAH, KING OF JTJDAH.— Biblical Data: Son

of Joash an), but contrary to custom pirmilled Ihiir children to live. Very early in his reiL'n he lil led out an army to reeon(iuer Kdom. which had rebelled during the reign of Jehoram (II Kings, viii. 2(>-2'J), his great-grandfather. Amaziah achieved a great victory over the Edoniites. and slew 10,0(10 (the ehronicler," II Chron. x.w. 11, 12, sjiys 20,0(10) of them. He carried homo and set up liic gndsof SeirdI Chron, ..v. 14) as objects of worship His brilliant victory over I'Mom inllaled his pride, and he challenged toacombal Jehoash, gnmdsonof Jehu, king of Israel (II Kings, xiv. H-14). The hitter's disdain and scorn for .maziali are emluxliiil in the slinging i)anible of the thistle an<t the cedar (II Kings. .iv. U). In his resentment. Amaziah rusheil into a disastrous ballleat Heth shemesh. and a humil The iiiting defeat overtook his army and the land. king was captured, 4110 cubits of the wall of Jerusalem broken down, the city. Temple, and palace were It is not looted, and hostages carried to Samaria.

Spet^lniens of Aiiii»-i in lui- Minomloclcal Museum of the Jardln (les I*lnnl<^, Paris : exUlbltlnff Files, Spiders, and Beellea em-

bedded. Its meaning has puzzled commentators from Talmudic times to the present day. Hag. W> gives lie mianiiig as if it were a composite word, "beasts Ihal ullcr lire." The Septuagint does not throwauy light upon the subject, as its rendering, "elektron," is an ambiguous word, and may mean Amber or au Friedrich Delilzsch (in alloy of silver and .gohl. his notes to Haer and Delitzseh, text of Ezek. xii.) identilics "hashmal" with the As,syrian "eslimaru." which was a shining metallic alloy. The .ssyrian homeof this compound would explain whv the word

times). I

peculiar to Kzekiel. renilering of Ezek. i.

If

is

"Amber"

is the

correct

a bituminous substance found in various parts of the world in two different varieties: in the Baltic district it is of a yellow color, while in the .south of Europe it is red. Neither variety, however, tils the re(|uirenients of the ])a.ssages in Ezekiel, where something metallic and shining is intended. 4.

27.

viii.

2.

it

refers to

G. B. L.