to synchronize with the crossing of the Jordan on the day previously announced by Jehovah through Joshua.—Josh. 3:5-13.

ADAMAH

(Adʹa·mah).

One of the fortified cities in the territory assigned to the tribe of Naphtali. Its location is not definitely known.—Josh. 19:32, 36.

ADAMI-NEKEB

(Adʹa·mi-neʹkeb) [red earth of the narrow pass].

A place in the southern part of Naphtali. (Josh. 19:33) Its site is generally identified as modern Khirbet ed-Damiyeh, about five miles (8 kilometers) SW of the Sea of Galilee and approximately midway between Tiberias and Mount Tabor. Its position commanded a pass on an old caravan route between Gilead and the Plain of Acco.

ADAR

(A·darʹ).

The postexilic name of the twelfth Jewish lunar month of the sacred calendar, but the sixth of the secular calendar. (Esther 3:7) It corresponds to part of February and part of March. The name is thought by some to mean “dark” or “clouded.” It is after the month Adar that the intercalary month, called Veadar or Adar Sheni or Second Adar is added in leap years.—See VEADAR.

During this month, which came at the close of the winter season and led into spring, the carob trees began to blossom in parts of Palestine, and in the warm lowlands the orange and lemon trees were ready for harvesting.

By a royal decree of King Ahasuerus of Persia the thirteenth day of Adar was to mark the destruction of all the Jews in the jurisdictional districts of his domain, this at the instigation of his prime minister, Haman. A new decree, issued through Queen Esther’s mediation, enabled the Jews to gain a victory over their would-be assassins, and thereafter Mordecai ordered the fourteenth and fifteenth days of Adar to be celebrated in commemoration of their deliverance. (Esther 3:13; 8:11, 12; 9:1, 15, 20, 21, 27, 28) This Jewish festival is known as “Purim,” a name derived from “Pur, that is, the Lot.”—Esther 9:24-26; see PURIM.

Adar is also the month in which Governor Zerubbabel finished the reconstruction of the temple in Jerusalem. (Ezra 6:15) Elsewhere in the Bible it is mentioned only as the “twelfth month.”—2 Ki. 25:27; 1 Chron. 27:15; Jer. 52:31; Ezek. 32:1.

ADBEEL

(Adʹbe·el) [disciplined or invited by God].

A grandson of Abraham, listed third among the twelve sons of Ishmael, his mother being an Egyptian. He was the chieftain of a tribal clan bearing his name.—Gen. 21:21; 25:13-16; 1 Chron. 1:29.

ADDAR

(Adʹdar) [amplitude, or wide, open place].

1. A son of Bela, a Benjamite.—1 Chron. 8:1, 3.

2. A southern border town of Judah located near Kadesh-barnea. (Josh. 15:3) In Joshua’s account it is listed as lying between Hezron and Karka, but at Numbers 34:4 it appears that the name “Hezron” (meaning “enclosure”) is combined with Addar to form Hazar-addar, since the accounts are parallel. The book Biblical Archaeology (by G. Ernest Wright, p. 71) suggests as a possible location that of ʽAin el-Qudeirat, where a perennial spring waters a small but fertile valley. It lies about five miles (8 kilometers) from ʽAin Qedeis, the possible location of Kadesh-barnea.

ADDI

(Adʹdi) [ornament].

The son of Cosam and father of Melchi. As a descendant of David through Nathan, Addi was an ancestor of Jesus.—Luke 3:28, 31.

ADDON

(Adʹdon).

Apparently an unidentified location in Babylonia, from which some returning to Jerusalem in 537 B.C.E., at the end of the seventy-year desolation of Judah, were unable to establish their genealogy from the public records. As a consequence, they were disqualified from serving in the priesthood. Other authorities think Addon was an individual who was unable to prove his ancestry.—Ezra 2:59-62; Neh. 7:61-64.

ADIEL

(Adʹi·el) [an ornament is God].

1. The father of Azmaveth, whom King David appointed to be over his royal treasure house.—1 Chron. 27:25, 31.

2. One of the chieftains of the tribe of Simeon, who, in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah in the eighth century B.C.E., shared in the dispossession of the Hamites from the region near Gedor.—1 Chron. 4:36, 38-41.

3. An Aaronic priest of the paternal house of Immer whose father was Jahzerah. His son Maasai served at Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile.—1 Chron. 9:12.

ADIN

(Aʹdin) [pleasure-given, voluptuous].

One of the paternal heads of Israel, several hundred of whose descendants returned from Babylonian exile with Zerubbabel. (Ezra 2:15; Neh. 7:20) Later, fifty-one more of his lineage returned with Ezra in 468 B.C.E. (Ezra 8:6) A princely representative of Adin’s paternal house was among those who attested to the “trustworthy arrangement” drawn up in the days of Nehemiah.—Neh. 9:38; 10:1, 16.

ADINA

(Adʹi·na) [ornament, delicate].

The son of Shiza, and an officer over thirty other Reubenites in David’s army.—1 Chron, 11:26, 42.

ADINO

See JOSHEB-BASSHEBETH.

ADITHAIM

(Ad·i·thaʹim) [perhaps, double crossing].

One of the cities of Judah located in the Shephelah or lowlands. (Josh. 15:33, 36) The exact site is uncertain.

ADJUTANT

[Heb., sha·lishʹ, third man, referring to the third warrior in a war chariot].

The word sha·lishʹ has been translated in various Bible versions as “captain,” “chariot-leader,” “lord,” “warrior,” “adjutant.”

Some monumental inscriptions illustrating “Hittite” and Assyrian war chariots show three men: one, the driver; another, the fighter with the sword, lance or bow, and a third, the carrier of the shield. Though no monuments have been found showing Egyptian three-manned chariots, the term is used at Exodus 14:7 with respect to Pharaoh’s charioteers. The third chariot warrior, usually the one carrying the shield, was an assistant commander in the war chariot, an adjutant. The English word “adjutant” literally means “one that helps: assistant.”

After mentioning that none of the sons of Israel were constituted slaves by Solomon, 1 Kings 9:22 states: “For they were the warriors and his servants and his princes and his adjutants and chiefs of his charioteers and of his horsemen.” C. F. Keil, in Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, states that the term sha·li·shimʹ (plural), used in this passage, could be understood as “royal adjutants, captains over the royal war-chariots and cavalry.”

In the days of King Jehoram of Israel, the Syrians put Samaria under siege, which in time caused famine conditions within the city. When Elisha prophesied that there would be plenty of food, Jehoram’s special adjutant ridiculed the prophecy. As Elisha had foretold, the adjutant saw the fulfilment of the prophecy but did not get to eat any of the food, being trampled to death in the gateway.—2 Ki. 7:2, 16-20.

At Jehu’s command, his runners and adjutants, likely including Bidkar, struck down the Baal worshipers. (2 Ki. 9:25; 10:25) Pekah, another adjutant referred to in the Scriptures, assassinated Pekahiah the king of Israel and succeeded him to the throne.—2 Ki. 15:25; see Ezekiel 23:15, NW, ftn., 1960 ed.

ADLAI

(Adʹlai) [justice of Jehovah].

Father of Shaphat, who served as overseer of the herds of David in the low plains.—1 Chron. 27:29.