Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/299

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(2) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters)): Jer. 5127, after Ararat and Minni.[1] It has been usual (Bochart, al.) to connect the name with the Ascania of Il. ii. 863, xiii. 793; and to suppose this was a region of Phrygia and Bithynia indicated by a river, two lakes, and other localities bearing the old name.[2] Recent Assyriologists, however, find in it the Ašguza[3] of the monn.,—a branch of the Indo-Germanic invaders who settled in the vicinity of lake Urumia, and are probably identical with the Scythians of Herod, i. 103, 106. Since they are first mentioned by Esarhaddon, they might readily appear to a Heb. writer to be a younger people than the Cimmerians. See Wi. ll.cc.; ATLO2, 259 f.

(3) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters), (Symbol missingGreek characters): but 1 Ch. 16 (Symbol missingHebrew characters)): otherwise unknown. According to Josephus, it denotes the Paphlagonians. Bochart and Lagarde (Ges. Abh. 255) put it further west, near the Bosphorus, on the ground of a remote resemblance in name to the river (Symbol missingGreek characters) and the district (Symbol missingGreek characters). Che. (EB, 4114) favours the transposition of Halevy ((Symbol missingHebrew characters)), and compares Bit Burutaš, mentioned by Sargon along with the Muški and Tabali (Schr. KGF, 176).

(4) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters), (Symbol missingGreek characters)) = (Symbol missingHebrew characters), Ezk. 385 2714: in the latter passage as a region exporting horses and mules. Jos. identifies with the Phrygians. The name is traditionally associated with Armenia, Thorgom being regarded as the mythical ancestor of the Armenians; but that legend is probably derived from G of this passage (Lag. Ges. Abh. 255 ff.; Symm. i. 105). The suggested Assyriological equivalent Til-Garimmu (Del. Par. 246; ATLO2, 260; al.), a city on the frontier of the Tabali mentioned by Sargon and Sennacherib, is not convincing; even though the Til- should be a fictitious Ass. etymology (Lenorm. Orig.2 ii. 410).

(5) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters)): Ezk. 382 396. The generally accepted identification with the Scythians dates from Jos. and Jer., but perhaps reflects only a vague impression that the name is a comprehensive designation of the barbarous races of the north, somewhat like the Umman-manda of the Assyrians. In one of the Tel-Amarna letters (KIB, v. 5), a land Ga-ga is alluded to in a similar manner. But how the author differentiated Magog from the Cimmerians and Medes, etc., does not appear. The name (Symbol missingHebrew characters) is altogether obscure. That it is derived from (Symbol missingHebrew characters) = Gyges, king of Lydia (Mey. GA1, i. p. 558), is most improbable; and the suggestion that it is a corruption of Ass. Mât Gôg (Mât Gagaia),[4] must also be received with some caution.

(6) (Symbol missingHebrew characters) ((Symbol missingGreek characters)): the common Heb. name for Media and the Medes; 2 Ki. 176 1811, Is. 1317 212, Jer. 2525 5111. 28, Est. 13. 14. 18f. 102, Dn. 820 91 [111]

  1. Ass. Mannai, between lakes Van and Urumia, mentioned along with Ašguza in KIB, ii. 129, 147.
  2. Lag. (Ges. Abh. 254) instances Ashken as an Armenian proper name; and the inscription (Symbol missingGreek characters) on Græco-Phrygian coins.
  3. Whether the Heb. word is a clerical error for (Symbol missingHebrew characters) (Wi. Jer.), or the Ass. a modification of Ašgunza, the Assyriologists may decide (see Schmidt, EB, iv. 4330 f.).
  4. Del. Par. 246 f.; Streck, ZA, 321; Sayce, HCM2, 125.