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Tent of Meeting
[Bible]The Tent of Meeting is the tent where God met with Moses and Israel and spoke to them. In the Old Testament the term is used chiefly as another name for the tabernacle.
Valley of Elah
[Bible]The Valley of Elah is a valley in western Judah where Saul's Israelite army faced the Philistine army in 1 Samuel 17. It is known as the place where David struck down Goliath.
Euphrates
[Bible]The Euphrates is a great river of western Asia. In the Bible it appears as one of the four rivers into which the river flowing out of the Garden of Eden divided, and as the northeastern boundary of the land promised to Abraham's descendants.
Song of Moses
[Bible]The Song of Moses refers to two Old Testament poems attributed to Moses: the hymn of deliverance sung after the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15) and the song bearing witness to the covenant that he delivered before his death (Deuteronomy 32).
Dead Sea
[Bible]The Dead Sea is a salt lake in eastern Palestine into which the Jordan River flows. The Old Testament calls it the "Salt Sea," the "Sea of the Arabah," and the "Eastern Sea." It is known as the lowest lake on the earth's surface.
Holy Place
[Bible]The holy place, or sanctuary, is a sacred place set apart for God. In its narrower sense, it refers to the outer room of the tabernacle and the temple, located in front of the Most Holy Place, where the lampstand, the table of showbread, and the altar of incense stood.
Abyss
[Bible]The Abyss, or "bottomless pit," is a New Testament term for a deep place in which demons and evil powers are confined or from which they ascend, or for the realm of the dead.
Feast of Trumpets
[Bible]The Feast of Trumpets was an Old Testament festival observed on the first day of the seventh month of Israel's religious calendar. It was marked by the blowing of trumpets and a holy convocation, as prescribed in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29.
Two Witnesses
[Bible]The Two Witnesses are two prophetic figures in Revelation 11 who prophesy for 1,260 days, are killed by the beast, and then come back to life and ascend to heaven. Interpreters differ over who they are.
Table of Nations
[Bible]The Table of Nations is the list of the descendants of Noah's three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, recorded in Genesis 10. Arranged in genealogical form, the passage describes how the various peoples spread across the earth after the Flood.
Poetic Books
[Bible]The Poetic Books are the five books of the Protestant Old Testament written in poetic form: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.
Conquest of Canaan
[Bible]The conquest of Canaan was Israel's entry into the land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua, when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and took possession of a number of cities. It is recorded chiefly in Joshua 1–12.
Fall of Jerusalem
[Bible]The fall of Jerusalem was the event in which Jerusalem, the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah, fell to the army of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the temple was burned. It took place during the reign of King Zedekiah, bringing the kingdom of Judah to an end and marking the beginning of the Babylonian exile.
Prayer of Manasseh
[Bible]The prayer of repentance offered by Manasseh, king of Judah, during the affliction of his captivity. It is recorded in 2 Chronicles 33, and a short Greek prayer bearing the same name has been transmitted among the Apocrypha (writings outside the canon).
Red Heifer
[Bible]The red heifer is a purification ordinance found in Numbers 19. A red heifer without blemish was burned whole outside the camp, and its ashes were mixed with water and used to purify a person who had become unclean through contact with a dead body.
Star of Bethlehem
[Bible]The Star of Bethlehem is the star in Matthew 2 that the wise men from the east saw and that led them to seek the child born King of the Jews. Scripture calls it "his star."
Seventy Elders
[Bible]The seventy elders were a group of seventy leaders chosen from among the elders of Israel in the time of Moses. They appear in Exodus 24 and Numbers 11, and a group of seventy elders also appears in Ezekiel 8.
Sign of Jonah
[Bible]The sign of Jonah is Jesus' reply to those who demanded a sign, that no sign would be given "but the sign of the prophet Jonas." The saying appears in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.
Veil (Tabernacle and Temple)
[Bible]The veil was the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle and the Jerusalem temple. The Gospels record that the veil of the temple was torn when Jesus died on the cross.
Maccabean Revolt
[History]The Maccabean Revolt was a Jewish uprising begun in 167 BC by the priest Mattathias and his sons after Antiochus IV of the Seleucid dynasty outlawed the practice of Judaism. It led to the rededication of the Jerusalem temple and the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty.