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TadmorAid to Bible Understanding
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work sometime after 1017 B.C.E. (2 Chron. 8:1, 4) Tadmor is commonly identified with the city known to the Greeks and Romans as Palmyra. Its ruins lie in an oasis on the northern edge of the Syrian Desert about 130 miles (209 kilometers) NE of Damascus. A nearby village is still called Tudmur by the Arabs. If correctly identified with Palmyra, Tadmor may have served as a garrison city for defending the distant northern border of Solomon’s kingdom and also as an important caravan stop.
The Tamar (“Tadmor,” marginal reading of the Masoretic text) mentioned at 1 Kings 9:18 as being “in the land” is perhaps the same as Tadmor. Its being “in the land” may simply mean that Tamar was part of Solomon’s dominion (1 Ki. 9:19) and, therefore, Tamar could be Palmyra. However, if the phrase “in the land” is more restricted, then the names “Tamar” and “Tadmor” may designate two different locations, Palmyra (Tadmor) in the N and a city of Judah in the S (Tamar); or both names could apply to a Judean Tamar.—Compare Ezekiel 47:19; 48:28.
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TahanAid to Bible Understanding
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TAHAN
(Taʹhan), Tahanites (Taʹhan·ites).
Tahan was the founder of an Ephraimite tribal family, the Tahanites. (Num. 26:35) It is not certain whether he is the same Tahan mentioned at 1 Chronicles 7:25, 27.
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TahashAid to Bible Understanding
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TAHASH
(Taʹhash) [sealskin].
A son of Abraham’s brother Nahor by his concubine Reumah.—Gen. 22:23, 24.
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TahathAid to Bible Understanding
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TAHATH
(Taʹhath) [the underpart; underneath].
1. A descendant of Ephraim through Shuthelah.—1 Chron. 7:20.
2. Another Ephraimite, related to No. 1 above.—1 Chron. 7:20.
3. A Kohathite Levite; forefather of Samuel and Heman.—1 Chron. 6:22, 24, 33, 37, 38.
4. A wilderness campsite of Israel; its location is unknown.—Num. 33:26, 27.
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TahchemoniteAid to Bible Understanding
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TAHCHEMONITE
(Tah·cheʹmo·nite).
A designation for one of David’s mighty men, Josheb-basshebeth. (2 Sam. 23:8) Spelled Hachmonite at 1 Chronicles 11:11, it indicates a descendant of Hachmoni.
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TahpanesAid to Bible Understanding
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TAHPANES
(Tahʹpan·es), Tahpanhes (Tahʹpan·hes), Tehaphnehes (Te·haphʹne·hes) [perhaps, mansion of the Nubian].
A city in Egypt regularly mentioned with other cities of northern (Lower) Egypt, such as Noph (Memphis), On (Heliopolis), and Pibeseth (Bubastis).
During the last years of the Judean kingdom, the prophet Jeremiah consistently warned against political alliances with Egypt or reliance on Egypt for help against the rising power of Babylon. Noph (Memphis), the Egyptian capital, and Tahpanhes are spoken of as “feeding on [Judah and Jerusalem] at the crown of the head” due to the apostasy of the Jews. Any support from Egypt was doubtless obtained at a high cost to the royal leaders of Judah; but they would become ashamed of Egypt, even as they had become ashamed of Assyria.—Jer. 2:1, 2, 14-19, 36.
AFTER JERUSALEM’S FALL, REMNANT FLEE THERE
Following the Babylonian conquest of Judah in 607 B.C.E., and the subsequent assassination of Gedaliah, the remnant of Jews went down to Egypt, taking the prophet Jeremiah with them. The first place mentioned at which they arrived (or settled) in Egypt is Tahpanhes. (Jer. 43:5-7) This would evidently locate Tahpanhes in the eastern Delta region, that is, the NE corner of Lower Egypt. Some of the refugees settled in Tahpanhes. (Jer. 44:1, 7, 8) On arrival at Tahpanhes, Jeremiah enacted a prophetic scene directed by Jehovah, placing stones in the mortar of “the terrace of bricks that is at the entrance of the house of Pharaoh in Tahpanhes” in the presence of the other Jews. Then he made the proclamation that Nebuchadnezzar would come and place his throne and extend his state tent right over those very stones.—Jer. 43:8-13; compare 46:13, 14.
EZEKIEL FORETELLS OVERTHROW
In faraway Babylon (in the twenty-seventh year of the first exile, that is, 591 B.C.E.), the prophet Ezekiel also foretold that Nebuchadnezzar would conquer Egypt and “in Tehaphnehes the day will actually grow dark,” for Jehovah would there break the yoke bars and the pride of Egypt’s strength. This statement and Ezekiel’s reference to the “dependent towns” of Tahpanhes indicate that the city was one of importance and size.—Ezek. 29:19; 30:1, 2, 10-18.
SUGGESTED ORIGIN OF NAME
Some authorities translate the name Tahpanhes as meaning (in Egyptian) “the fortress of Penhase,” Penhase being a general from the southern city of Thebes who overcame rebellious elements in the Delta region of Egypt, apparently in the latter part of the second millennium B.C.E. Professor T. O. Lambdin states that this “resulted in the perpetuation of his fame in the names of several places.” (The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 4, p. 510) Professor K. A. Kitchen also refers to the finding in Egypt of a Phoenician letter considered to be of the sixth century B.C.E., bearing the same consonants (Thpnhs) as in the Hebrew spelling of Tahpanhes, though not identifying the location of such place.
The Greek Septuagint Version renders Tahpanhes as Taphʹnas, and it is generally believed that this name coincides with that of an important fortified city on Egypt’s eastern border called Daphnai by the Greek writers of the classical period. For this reason most geographers identify Tahpanhes with Tell Defneh, nearly thirty miles (48.3 kilometers) S-SW of Port Said and about twenty-two miles (35.4 kilometers) SW of Pelusium, the suggested site of Sin.
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TahpenesAid to Bible Understanding
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TAHPENES
(Tahʹpe·nes).
Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh contemporary with David and Solomon. Tahpenes’ sister was given in marriage to Hadad, a resister of Solomon. Tahpenes raised Genubath, the child of this marriage, with her own children in the house of Pharaoh.—1 Ki. 11:19, 20.
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TahreaAid to Bible Understanding
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TAHREA
(Tahrʹe·a) [possibly, assembly].
A ‘son’ of Micah and descendant of King Saul. (1 Chron. 9:39-41) He is called Tarea at 1 Chronicles 8:35.
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Tahtim-hodshiAid to Bible Understanding
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TAHTIM-HODSHI
(Tahʹtim-hodʹshi).
A “land” on the route of the census takers sent out by David. (2 Sam. 24:4-6) The exact location of Tahtim-hodshi is not known. However, it is mentioned between Gilead and Dan-jaan, placing it in the northern part of the Promised Land. The Lagardian edition of the Greek Septuagint says “land of the Hittites toward Kadesh,” a similar reading being used by some modern translations.—JB, NE (1970 ed.), RS.
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TalentAid to Bible Understanding
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TALENT
The largest of the Hebrew units of weight and of monetary value. (Ex. 38:29; 2 Sam. 12:30; 1 Ki. 10:10; 2 Ki. 23:33; 1 Chron. 29:7; 2 Chron. 36:3; Ezra 8:26) Calculated on the basis of its equaling 60 minas or 3,000 shekels (Ex. 38:25, 26; see MINA), a talent weighed about seventy-five pounds avoirdupois or ninety-two pounds troy (c. 34 kilograms). In modern values a talent of silver would be reckoned at about $1,423.59 and a talent of gold at about $38,661.00. Since a mina equaled 100 Greek drachmas in the first century C.E., a talent of 60 minas weighed less (about 45 pounds avoirdupois or 55 pounds troy [c. 20 kilograms]) than in Hebrew Scripture times. Accordingly, in modern values, a first-century silver talent would be worth $845.64, and a gold talent $22,965.21.
Whether reckoned according to the ancient Hebrew or the later Greek standard, the symbolic hailstones
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