Eleph
Eleph
(Hebrews with the art. ha-Eleph, , Vulg. Eleph), one of the second group of towns allotted to Benjamin, and named between Zelah and Jerusalem (Jos 18:28). It is possibly the ruined site marked as Katamon on Van de Velde’s “Map of the environs of Jerusalem,” about one mile S.W. of Jerusalem. The Sept. unites the preceding name with this, under the compound form (Vat. MS. ), and accordingly assigns only thirteen () cities to this group. Eusebius and Jerome (in their Onomasticon, s.v.) mention Sela (, ) as distinct from Eleph. The Peshito strangely renders the name as Gebira. From the occasional use of in the bucolic sense of “ox,” it has been conjectured that “Eleph and its villages” was a pastoral district. The extremely frequent numerical sense, however, of , a thousand, points rather to the populousness of these towns, which lay in the neighborhood of Jebus or Jerusalem. Schultens (Proverbs Solom. 2:17) refers to the Arabic alaph, “union,” in illustration of both the numerical and the domestic sense of the Hebrews root. (See further Meier, Hebrews W. w. b. page 379.) Simonis (in his Oonomasticon, page 141) refers to the name of the Cilician town in illustration, and to Deu 1:11; Psa 91:7, etc., for an indefinite use of , to designate a great multitude. Furst, in his Hebraisches Worterb. (1:91, 98), finds in Zec 9:7 another mention of our town Eleph, under the form or , Alluph; which, like Jebusi, he makes a frontier city belonging to Benjamin and Judah. He quotes from Jephet (or Jefet ben-Ali), a Jewish commentator who lived at Jerusalem in the 10th century, a statement that the words of Jos 18:28; Jos 18:6 , are, in fact, the designation of but a single city or still less, apparently, than even that, for he further quotes Jefet as saying that in his time a ward of Jerusalem bore that aggregate name, in which was the sepulcher of Zechariah. We reject this view as not only doing violence to the distinct enumeration of the group of cities given in Jos 18:28, but as disturbing the sense of the passage in Zec 9:7 (see Hengstenberg, Christology, 3:392-394). The phrase (tribe-prince in Judah), used by the prophet in this passage, is by him repeated twice (see Zec 12:5-6). In the Pentateuch and 1 Chronicles the same noun, , in the plural, designates the chieftains or “dukes” of Edom. For some valuable remarks on the phrase, as indicating the genuineness of the passages in Zechariah, see also Hengstenberg, 4:67, note.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Eleph (2)
Lieut. Conder identifies this place with the present village of Lifta, west of Jerusalem (Quar. Report of the “Palest. Explor. Fund,” January 1881, page 51), a site which he elsewhere (Tent Work in Palest. 2:339) assigns to Nephtoah (q.v.).
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Eleph
(“ox”.) A town of Benjamin, whose inhabitants followed pastoral life (Jos 18:28).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Eleph
ELEPH (Jos 18:28 only).A town of Benjamin, probably the present village Lifta, W. of Jerusalem.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Eleph
elef (, ha-‘eleph, the ox): A place in the lot of Benjamin not far from Jerusalem (Jos 18:28). The name is omitted by Septuagint, unless, indeed, it is combined with that of Zelah. It may be identical with Lifta, a village W. of Jerusalem (Conder, HDB, under the word). Others identify Lifta with Nephtoah.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Eleph
[E’leph]
City in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:28. Identified by some with Lifta, 31 48′ N. 35 11′ E.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Eleph
H507
A town allotted to Benjamin.
Jos 18:28
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Eleph
E’leph. (the ox). One of the towns allotted to Benjamin, and named next to Jerusalem. Jos 18:28.