“And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad named the altar. It is
a witness between us that Jehovah is God.” This great altar stood
probably on the east side of the Jordan, in the land of Gilead, “over against
the land of Canaan.” After the division of the Promised Land, the tribes of
Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, on returning to their own
settlements on the east of Jordan (Joshua 22:1-6), erected a great altar,
which they affirmed, in answer to the challenge of the other tribes, was not
for sacrifice, but only as a witness (‘Ed) or testimony to future generations
that they still retained the same interest in the nation as the other tribes.
- EDAR tower of the flock, a tower between Bethlehem and Hebron, near
which Jacob first halted after leaving Bethlehem (Genesis 35:21). In Micah
4:8 the word is rendered “tower of the flock” (marg., “Edar”), and is used
as a designation of Bethlehem, which figuratively represents the royal line
of David as sprung from Bethlehem. - EDEN delight. (1.) The garden in which our first parents dewlt (Genesis
2:8-17). No geographical question has been so much discussed as that
bearing on its site. It has been placed in Armenia, in the region west of the
Caspian Sea, in Media, near Damascus, in Palestine, in Southern Arabia,
and in Babylonia. The site must undoubtedly be sought for somewhere
along the course of the great streams the Tigris and the Euphrates of
Western Asia, in “the land of Shinar” or Babylonia. The region from about
lat. 33 degrees 30’ to lat. 31 degrees, which is a very rich and fertile tract,
has been by the most competent authorities agreed on as the probable site
of Eden. “It is a region where streams abound, where they divide and
re-unite, where alone in the Mesopotamian tract can be found the
phenomenon of a single river parting into four arms, each of which is or
has been a river of consequence.”
Among almost all nations there are traditions of the primitive innocence of
our race in the garden of Eden. This was the “golden age” to which the
Greeks looked back. Men then lived a “life free from care, and without
labour and sorrow. Old age was unknown; the body never lost its vigour;
existence was a perpetual feast without a taint of evil. The earth brought
forth spontaneously all things that were good in profuse abundance.”
(2.) One of the markets whence the merchants of Tyre obtained richly
embroidered stuffs (Ezekiel 27:23); the same, probably, as that mentioned