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Thousand Burnt Offerings
[Christian Life]The thousand burnt offerings are the sacrifices Solomon offered at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4). In Korean Protestant churches, the expression also names a devotional practice of praying and giving offerings on a thousand occasions or over a thousand days.
Absalom
[People]Absalom was the third son of King David, an Old Testament figure who rebelled against his father in an attempt to seize the throne and was killed in battle. His story is recorded chiefly in 2 Samuel.
Ben-hadad
[People]Ben-hadad is the name of a king, or kings, of Aram (capital Damascus) in the Old Testament. The name means "son of Hadad," Hadad being the Aramean storm god, and it appears in accounts from the reigns of Asa, Ahab, and Joash. Scholars disagree on whether it refers to one king or to several.
Rimmon
[Bible]Rimmon is the name of a god worshiped in Damascus, the capital of Aram. The name appears in 2 Kings 5, where Naaman, the Aramean commander who had been healed of leprosy, asks pardon for entering the house of Rimmon when he accompanies his king there to worship.
Nehushta
[People]Nehushta was the mother of Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), king of Judah, and the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem. In the early sixth century BC she was carried off to Babylon with her son in the first Babylonian deportation.
1 Samuel 15
[Bible]1 Samuel 15 is the chapter in which King Saul, though commanded to utterly destroy the Amalekites, spares King Agag and the best of the livestock. Samuel rebukes him, declaring that "to obey is better than sacrifice," and announces his rejection as king.
1 Samuel 13
[Bible]1 Samuel 13 is the chapter in which war with the Philistines begins early in Saul's reign. Failing to wait for Samuel at Gilgal, Saul offers the burnt offering himself, and Samuel declares that his kingdom will not continue.
Ezra 6
[Bible]Ezra 6 is the chapter in which King Darius locates the decree of Cyrus and supports the rebuilding of the temple. The Jerusalem temple is completed in the sixth year of King Darius, and the people celebrate its dedication and keep the Passover.
Acts 12
[Bible]Acts 12 is the chapter in which King Herod kills James and imprisons Peter, an angel leads Peter out of prison, and Herod is struck down and dies.
Acts 26
[Bible]Acts 26 records the defense Paul made before King Agrippa and the governor Festus while imprisoned in Caesarea, recounting his life and his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Those who hear him conclude that he has done nothing deserving of death.
Medes
[Bible]The Medes were an ancient people, and their kingdom, on the plateau of what is today northwestern Iran. The Old Testament prophesies that they would overthrow Babylon, and the books of Daniel and Esther name them together with the Persians as "the Medes and Persians."
Deuteronomistic History
[Doctrine & Theology]The Deuteronomistic History is a theory in Old Testament scholarship that regards Joshua through 2 Kings as a single historical work shaped by the theology of Deuteronomy. It was first systematically formulated in 1943 by the German scholar Martin Noth.
Judges of Israel
[Bible]The judges were leaders whom God raised up after the death of Joshua and before Saul became king to deliver Israel from foreign enemies and to govern the people. They appear chiefly in the Book of Judges.
Edict of Cyrus
[Bible]The Edict of Cyrus was a command issued by Cyrus, king of Persia, in the first year of his reign. It permitted the people of Judah who had been carried captive to Babylon to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, and it is recorded in 2 Chronicles and Ezra.
Athaliah
[People]Athaliah was a queen of Judah from the house of Ahab, king of northern Israel. She became the wife of Jehoram, king of Judah, and after the death of her son Ahaziah she killed the royal family and ruled Judah for about six years.
Rizpah
[People]Rizpah was the daughter of Aiah and a concubine of King Saul. She is known from 2 Samuel 21 for guarding the bodies of her two executed sons and of Saul's grandsons from the beginning of harvest until rain fell.
Nehushtan
[Bible]Nehushtan is the name given to the bronze serpent that Moses made in the wilderness, in connection with its destruction by King Hezekiah of Judah. It appears only once, in 2 Kings 18:4, which records that Hezekiah broke the serpent in pieces to put an end to idolatry because the people had been burning incense to it.
Valley of Berachah
[Bible]The Valley of Berachah is the valley where Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, assembled with his people to bless the LORD after they were delivered from a coalition of Moabites, Ammonites, and others. The Hebrew name "Berachah" means "blessing" or "praise."
Hezekiah's Tunnel
[Bible]Hezekiah's Tunnel is a rock-cut tunnel that Hezekiah, king of Judah, is believed to have dug to bring the waters of the Gihon Spring into Jerusalem in preparation for an Assyrian invasion. Today it is also called the Siloam Tunnel.
Cave of Adullam
[Bible]The Cave of Adullam was a cave in the western foothills of Judah where David hid from King Saul and where people in difficult circumstances gathered to him, as recorded in 1 Samuel 22.