traditions of men; they saw and spoke false things about God’s holy nation. They looked to Assyria for help instead of to God. (Isa. 29:1, 9-14; 2 Ki. 16:5-9) As foretold, drunken Israel was carried off by Assyria in 740 B.C.E. Later, apostate Judah was forced to drink the cup of Jehovah’s rage and was sent reeling into exile to Babylon in 607 B.C.E. (Isa. 51:17-23) Because of Babylon’s harsh treatment of God’s people, Babylon (“the king of Sheshach”) drank the same cup sixty-eight years later.—Jer. 25:15-29.

Symbolic “Babylon the Great” is depicted in the Bible as a drunken prostitute, having in her hand a golden cup “full of disgusting things and the unclean things of her fornication.” Earth’s inhabitants have been made drunk with the “wine of her fornication.” She herself is “drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.” Her debauchery will result in her everlasting destruction.—Rev. 17:1-6, 16; 14:8; 18:8; see BABYLON THE GREAT.

DRUSILLA

(Dru·silʹla).

The third and youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I, born about 38 C.E.; sister of Agrippa II and Bernice. Her mother’s name was Cypros. (See HEROD.) Before she was six years old her marriage to prince Epiphanes of Commagene was arranged, but it never materialized due to refusal of the groom-to-be to embrace Judaism. A Syrian king, Azizus of Emesa, met the terms of circumcision, and Drusilla became his bride at the age of fourteen. Aggravated by his cruelty, and nettled by the envy of her less attractive sister Bernice, Drusilla was easily induced to divorce Azizus, contrary to Jewish law, and marry Governor Felix about 54 C.E. Perhaps she was present when prisoner Paul “talked about righteousness and self-control and the judgment to come,” which proved to be most disquieting subjects for Governor Felix. After two years, when Felix turned the governorship over to Festus, he left Paul in chains “to gain favor with the Jews,” which some think was done to please his youthful wife “who was a Jewess.” (Acts 24:24-27) Drusilla’s son by Felix was another Agrippa, reportedly killed in the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

DUKE

[Heb., na·sikhʹ].

A man who is appointed, installed, invested as a prince or principal one. Five Midianite chieftains, “dukes of Sihon,” called “kings of Midian” at Numbers 31:8, were killed when Israel took vengeance on the Midianites for the affair of the Baal of Peor. (Josh. 13:21) The leaders of the enemies of God’s people are called “dukes” (“princes,” AT; AV; RS) at Psalm 83:11. The term appears also at Ezekiel 32:30.

A Messianic prophecy states that, when the enemies of God’s people come against them, “seven shepherds, yes, eight dukes of mankind [“princes of men,” AV, margin, RS]” will be raised up. Seven representing completeness, the “eight dukes” would evidently mean that a considerable number of capable men appointed under the Messiah would be taking the lead among Jehovah’s people.—Mic. 5:5.

DUMAH

(Duʹmah) [silence].

1. The sixth in the list of Ishmael’s twelve sons. By the marriage of his sister Mahalath, Dumah became the brother-in-law to his half-cousin Esau. Dumah also became a chieftain and head of a clan or nation, in fulfillment of Jehovah’s promise to Abraham.—Gen. 17:20; 25:14-16; 28:9; 1 Chron. 1:30.

The Ishmaelite Dumah evidently gave his name to a region in N Arabia about midway between Palestine and S Babylonia. The name continues in that of the oasis Dumat al-Ghandal. Ancient inscriptions from Assyria and Babylon give the name as Adummatu and Adummu and show it to have been conquered by Sennacherib and Esar-haddon of Assyria and later by the Babylonian Nabonidus.

2. A city listed among those assigned to the tribe of Judah after the conquest of the land by Joshua. (Josh. 15:52) It was in the mountainous region and is evidently identified with modern ed-Domeh, about ten miles (16 kilometers) SW of Hebron.

3. At Isaiah 21:11 a pronouncement is made against “Dumah.” However, mention is immediately made of “Seir,” and this may indicate that the message is directed against Edom. (Gen. 32:3) The Septuagint Version at Isaiah 21:11 says “Idumaea” (Edom) rather than “Dumah.”

DUNG

Excrement of humans, birds and beasts is represented by various words in Biblical languages. In the Scriptures, dung often has figurative associations.

A “private place” or “privy” was at the service of Israel’s soldiers outside their army camps, and they were to cover their excrement. (Deut. 23:12-14) This preserved the army’s cleanness before Jehovah and also helped to prevent the spread of fly-borne infectious diseases.

One of Jerusalem’s gates was the “Gate of the Ash-heaps,” usually called “the Dung Gate.” (Neh. 2:13; 3:13, 14; 12:31) Situated a thousand cubits (c. 1,458 ft., or 444 meters) to the E of the Valley Gate and hence to the S of Mount Zion, this gate probably was so named because of the refuse heaped up in the Valley of Hinnom located below it and to which it led, the city’s garbage possibly being taken out through this gate.

Some of the nomadic heathen peoples may have used dung as fuel. Ezekiel, enacting a scene prophetic of Jerusalem’s siege, objected when God commanded him to use human excrement for fuel in baking bread. God kindly permitted him to use cattle manure instead. (Ezek. 4:12-17) This seems to indicate that it was not the normal practice in Israel.

Dung was used as manure to fertilize the soil. Straw and dung seem to have been mixed in a “manure place,” the straw possibly being trodden into it by animals. (Isa. 25:10) A way to fertilize a fig tree was to “dig around it and put on manure.”—Luke 13:8.

Generally, dung was considered to be offensive refuse, something for disposal. Expressive of its offensiveness, and also giving force to the thought of removal, were Jehovah’s words concerning the wayward house of Israel’s King Jeroboam: “I shall indeed make a clean sweep behind the house of Jeroboam, just as one clears away the dung until it is disposed of.”—1 Ki. 14:10.

Turning a man’s house into a public privy was the greatest insult and a punishment. (Ezra 6:11; Dan 2:5; 3:29) During the test of godship atop Mount Carmel, Elijah taunted the prophets of unresponsive Baal by saying: “He must be concerned with a matter, and he has excrement and has to go to the privy.” (1 Ki. 18:27) Jehu later had the house of Baal pulled down and “they kept it set aside for privies.”—2 Ki. 10:27.

Dung or manure is also employed as a simile to denote an ignominious end of an individual or a nation. (2 Ki. 9:36, 37; Ps. 83:10; Jer. 8:1, 2; 9:22; 16:4) God foretold that during his controversy with the nations those slain by Jehovah would not be bewailed, gathered up or buried, but they would become “as manure on the surface of the ground.”—Jer. 25:31-33; compare Zephaniah 1:14-18.

According to the Law, no sin offering, the blood of which was brought into the sanctuary to make atonement, was to be eaten by the priest. Its carcass and its dung were to be burned in a clean place outside the camp. (Lev. 4:11, 12; 6:30; 16:27) This was because none of the animal was to be put to any other use or allowed to decay. It was “clean,” that is, sanctified to Jehovah and therefore had to be burned in a clean place.—Compare Hebrews 13:11-13.

Paul, who highly esteemed spiritual things and greatly valued his hope in Christ, declared: “On account of him I have taken the loss of all things and