Page:Light and truth.djvu/170

168 who was employed by Solomon on some of the most difficult of the fixtures and furniture of the temple, for which Solomon gave him 20 cities in Galilee. (1 Kings xi. 11.)

. (2 Sam. x. 2.) A king of the Ammonites. We are informed that David had received tokens of kindness from Nahash, the father and predecessor of Hanun. After the death of Nahash, David sent messengers to Hanun to comfort him, and to express his respect for the memory of the deceased king. But Hanun thought, or pretended to think, that David sent them as spies; so he took them and shaved off one half their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, and in this condition sent them home. David heard of their situation and sent to meet them, with directions to stay at Jericho until their beards were grown. This ungenerous conduct of Hanun was the occasion of along war, in which multitudes of the Ammonites and their allies, Syrians and others, were slain.

(Num. xxiv. 7) was a king of the Amalekites. Some think this was the common name of their kings, as Pharaoh was the common name of the kings of Egypt. From the allusion to him in the prophetic passage above cited, we may suppose him to have been one of the greatest kings of the earth.

. (Esth. iii. 1.) Haman's father. He is called the Agagite; and Josephus says he was a descendant from Amalek, and probably of the family or stock of Agag. If Agag was the common name of their kings, it is not improbable that an Amalekite would be called an Agagite, as one of the people of Agag.

. 1. (Gen. xx. 2, and xxvi. 1.) King of Gerar, being deceived by Abraham, he sent and took Sarah, Abraham's wife, to be his wife. God warned him, however, in a dream, of Sarah's relation to Abraham, and thus withheld him from the commission of sin, because he did it in ignorance. (Gen. xx. 6.) Abimelech, having rebuked Abraham, restored Sarah to him with many gifts, and offered him a dwelling-place in any part of the land. God afterwards remitted the punishment of the family of Abimelech. At a subsequent period, Abimelech [or his successor of the same name