to make his ways ready,” he wore clothing made from the hair of an “unclean” animal. (Luke 1:76; Matt. 3:4; Lev. 11:4) All this tends to indicate that the distinction of clean and unclean was simply dietary, though at times also with reference to sacrifice, and did not require that the Israelites regard “unclean” animals with general abhorrence. (Lev. 11:46, 47) Also, these, like the “clean” animals, were created by God and therefore good, not loathsome in themselves.—Gen. 1:21, 25.

HOW OBTAINABLE BY ISRAELITES

If the taʹhhash of the Bible does designate a kind of seal, then a question may arise as to how it was possible for the Israelites to obtain sealskins. While seals are generally associated with Arctic and Antarctic regions, some seals favor warmer climates. Today monk seals still inhabit part of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as other warmer waters. Over the centuries man has greatly reduced the number of seals, and in Bible times these animals may have been abundant in the Mediterranean and in the Red Sea. As late as 1832 Calmet’s Dictionary of the Holy Bible (p. 139) observed: “On many of the small islands of the Red sea, around the peninsula of Sinai, are found seals.”

The ancient Egyptians engaged in commerce on the Red Sea and, of course, received goods from many of the Mediterranean regions. So the Egyptians would have had access to sealskins. Hence, when the Israelites left Egypt, they might have taken with them the sealskins they already had, along with others obtained when the Egyptians gave into their hands an abundance of valuable things.—Ex. 12:35, 36.

SEA MONSTER

This generally translates the Hebrew word tan·ninʹ (tan·nimʹ at Ezekiel 29:3, “sea monster”; 32:2, “marine monster,” NW). This term is rendered “big snake” (NW) when not mentioned in connection with the sea or water (Jer. 51:34), or when a reference to snakes is definitely indicated by the context. (Ex. 7:9, 12; compare Exodus 4:2, 3) Undoubtedly tan·ninʹ includes a variety of large marine animals (Gen. 1:21; Ps. 148:7), but this term is usually employed in a figurative sense. The destruction of Pharaoh and his hosts appears to be alluded to by the phrase: “You [Jehovah] broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.” (Ps. 74:13) At Isaiah 51:9, “sea monster” appears in parallel with Rahab (Egypt; compare Isaiah 30:7) and hence may denote Egypt, as is probably also the case at Isaiah 27:1 (compare Isaiah 27:12, 13), or the reference is to Pharaoh, as in Ezekiel 29:3 and 32:2. Faithful Job asked whether he himself was a “sea monster” that had to have a guard set over him.—Job 7:12; see LEVIATHAN.

SEASONS

A season is a period when a specific type of agricultural work is normal or a certain kind of weather prevails; a suitable or appointed time for something.

As the earth revolves around the sun, the tilt of the earth’s axis at an angle to the plane of the ecliptic produces a cycle of weather seasons. As markers of the passing of time, the heavenly bodies serve as indicators of seasons. (Gen. 1:14) Genesis 8:22 says that the earth’s seasons will “never cease.” For a correlation of the months of the Jewish and Gregorian calendars and the festival, weather and agricultural seasons, see pages 278 and 279.

Closely connected with the agricultural seasons were the annual “festival seasons” when the festivals established by the Mosaic law were celebrated. (1 Chron. 23:31; 2 Chron. 31:3) Hence, when Paul counseled some Jewish Christians who were “scrupulously observing days and months and seasons,” he meant the festival seasons that were a part of the Law, not simply weather or agricultural seasons.—Gal. 4:10.

“Season” can therefore refer to a fixed or an appointed time or a period possessed of certain characteristics. (Acts 3:19; Rom. 8:18; Gal. 6:9; see APPOINTED TIMES OF THE NATIONS.) In time what constituted healthful teaching and proper conduct were made very clear to Christians. Accordingly, it was the “season” to be awake. (Rom. 13:11-14) The “times or seasons” or periods when Jehovah’s will in certain matters would take place were of real interest to his worshipers (Acts 1:7), who understood them as they were progressively revealed.—1 Thess. 5:1.

In regard to the dwelling of nations on the earth, God “decreed the appointed seasons” (Acts 17:26; “fixed the epochs of their history,” NE) in that he determined when certain changes should occur, such as when the divinely appointed time came to uproot the Canaanite inhabitants of the Promised Land.—Gen. 15:13-21; Jer. 25:8-11; Dan. 2:21; 7:12.

SEBA

(Seʹba).

1. One of the five sons of Cush.—Gen. 10:7; 1 Chron. 1:9.

2. A people of E Africa. At Isaiah 43:3 Seba is linked with Egypt and more particularly with Ethiopia (Cush), as being given as a ransom in place of Jacob. In a similar listing Isaiah 45:14 has “Sabeans” in place of “Seba,” indicating that the people of Seba were called Sabeans. These verses suggest that Seba bordered on or was included in Ethiopia. This is supported by Josephus, who says that the name applied to the city of Meroe on the Nile and to the large section (Isle of Meroe) between the Nile, Blue Nile and Atabara Rivers. The reference to these Sabeans as “tall men” (Isa. 45:14) is borne out by Herodotus, who speaks of the Ethiopians as “the tallest and handsomest men in the whole world.”—See CUSH Nos. 1 and 2.

Meroe was long an important trading place. Among the distant places mentioned in Psalm 72 in describing the dominion and influence of Jehovah’s king, Seba and Sheba are named as places whose kings would present a gift.—Ps. 72:10; Joel 3:8.

SEBAM

(Seʹbam).

Apparently an alternate name for Sibmah.—Num. 32:3, 38; see SIBMAH.

SECACAH

(Se·caʹcah) [thicket, cover].

A City of Judah in the wilderness. (Josh. 15:20, 61) Secacah is often identified with Khirbet es-Samrah, on a hill about four miles (6 kilometers) W of the northern part of the Dead Sea. This is in the heart of el-Buqeʽah, a barren plateau, in the northern section of the Judean wilderness.

SECRETARY

Usually an appointed official skilled at writing and keeping records. The Hebrew word so·pherʹ can be rendered in a number of ways, such as “secretary,” “scribe” and “copyist.”

At least at times in Israel there was a trusted court official of high rank called the “secretary of the king,” or the “secretary.” (2 Chron. 24:11; 2 Ki. 19:2) He was not simply a scribe such as would be employed in merely making documents, or a copyist of the Law. (Judg. 5:14; Neh. 13:13; compare 2 Samuel 8:15-18; 20:23-26; see COPYIST; SCRIBE.) On occasion the secretary of the king handled financial matters (2 Ki. 12:10, 11) and spoke as a representative of the king, in a capacity similar to that of a ‘foreign secretary.’ (Isa. 36:2-4, 22; 37:2, 3) Under Solomon’s rule two of the “princes” are named as secretaries.—1 Ki. 4:2, 3; compare 2 Chronicles 16:11; 34:13.

In addition to the “secretary of the king,” the Bible mentions the secretary “of the house of Jehovah” (2 Ki. 22:3), “of the chief of the army” (2 Ki. 25:19; Jer. 52:25) and “of the Levites.” (1 Chron. 24:6) Baruch was a scribal secretary for Jeremiah.—Jer. 36:32.

SECRETARY’S INKHORN

See RECORDER’S INKHORN.

SECT

The Greek word (haiʹre·sis, from which comes the English “heresy”) thus translated means “a