ARNON (PIN [from `]1 stridere, strepere, sonare]; Sept. Appc2n,), a river or torrent Oro) forming the southern boundary of trans-Jordanic Palestine, and separating it from the land of Moab (Num. xxi. 13, 26; Dent. ii. 24; iii. 8, 16; Josh. xii. I; Is. xvi. ; Jer. xlviii. 20). Burckhardt was the first to give a satisfactory account of this river, under the name of Wady Modjeb, which it now bears. It rises in the mountains of Gilead, near Katrane, whence it pursues a circuitous course of about eighty miles to the Dead Sea. It flows in a rocky bed, and, at the part visited by Burckhardt, in a channel so deep and precipitous as to appear inaccessible; yet along this, winding among huge fragments of rock, lies the most frequented road, and, not being far from Dibon, probably that taken by the Israelites. The descent into the valley from the south took Irby and Mangles (Letters, p. 461), one hour and a half; the descent from the north took Burckhardt (Syria, p. 372) thirty-five minutes. The last-named traveller declares that he had never felt such suffocating heat as he experienced in this valley from the concentrated rays of the sun and their reflection from the rocks. The stream is almost dried up in summer ; but huge masses of rock, torn from the banks, and deposited high above the usual channel, evince its fulness and im petuosity in the rainy season. Irby and Mangles suppose that it is this which renders the valley of the Amon less shrubby than that of most other streams in the country. "There are, however, a few tamarisks, and here and there are oleanders growing about it.' Near this place the old Roman road comes down upon the stream; and here there remains a single high arch of a bridge, all the others having disappeared (Rob. ii. p. 2o4).—J. K.
AROB occurs Exod. viii. 21, 22, 24, 29, 31; Ps. lxxviii. 45, and cv. 21; all which passages relate to the plague of flies inflicted upon Pharaoh and his people. In the Sept. it is uniformly rendered tazokcyza, or the dog-fly. In Exodus Jerome renders it by the following phrases and words, omne genus muscarum, muscm diversi generis, muscie hujusmodi, musca gravissima, and musca. In the Psalms he renders it cynomyia. It seems most probable that a single species only is intended, whatever it may be, from the way in which it is introduced, I will send nyrrriN, the arob,' compared with verses, 29, 31, `there re mained not TIN one,' that is, one arab, of8cula, nec una quidem. The words, the arob, may be substituted for ' swarms of flies,' throughout the narrative, with only an apparent exception in the 24th verse ; but there, the words 117 Z11), etc., may be rendered, the arob came numerously or grievously (Sept. 1'7 tayouvaz 7-Xijeas, ' the dog-fly arrived, a multitude') ; since instances of a similar use of the word 177 occur Gen. 1. 9; Exod. ix. 3; x. 14, etc., where it appears to be used like the word gravis by the Romans. It has,
however, been much debated what particular spe cies is meant. Nothing can be gathered from the references to it in the Hebrew, farther than that it was upon Pharaoh, and upon the Egyptians,' that it filled their houses, covered the ground, cor rupted or destroyed the land (Query, the inhabi tants, Gen. vi. 12), and devoured their persons. (See also Wis. xvi. 9). The rendering of the Sep. tuagint, Kupo,uuta, is entitled to much consideration. It is evidently compounded of xocup, a dog, and utlia, a fly ; and because both the one and the other of these creatures come uninvited, on some occasions, and though driven away, as often return, so the word formed of the union of the two, is used by ancient authors to indicate consummate impu dence. Thus Homer represents Mars as applying the epithet to Minerva, for instigating the gods to quarrel (R. xxi. 394). It is also referred to, as an insect, by "Elian, who, in describing the myops, tabanus, or horse-fly, says, it is similar to what is called the KuvbAina (Hist. Anim. iv. 51). Philo, in his .Life of Moses (i. 23, p. 401, ed. Mangey), ex pressly describes it as a biting insidious creature, which comes like a dart, with great noise, and rushing with great impetuosity on the skin, sticks to it most tenaciously. It seems likely that Jerome, in translating Exodus, derived the word from 11.1), to mingle,' and understood by it a mixture of noxious creatures, as did Josephus, Aquila, and all the ancient translators. The diversity of Jerome's renderings in Exodus, however, betokens his un certainty, and in the Psalms he has adopted that of the Septuagint. More modern writers, reasoning on other senses of the Hebrew word, and which are very numerous, have proposed several different insects. Thus, one of the meanings of TV is to darken,' and Mouffet observes that the name cynomyia agrees with no kind of flies better than with those black, large, compressed flies, which boldly beset cattle, and not only obtain ichor, as other flies, but also suck out blood from beneath, and occasion great pain. He observes that they have no proboscis, but, instead of it, have double sets of teeth, like wasps, which they infix deeply in the skin ; and adds that they greatly infest the ears of dogs (Theist. Insect. cxi.) Pliny describes an in sect of this kind (Hist. Nat. xi. 40). So also Columeila (vii. t3). See Pliny by Grandsagne and Cuvier, Parisiis, 1828, vol. ii. p. 461, note. Others have proposed the blatta Orientalis or YEgyptia of Linnaeus, as answering considerably to the charac teristics of voracity, intrusion into houses, etc. etc. (Forskal, Descrip. Animal., Prf. p. 22). The miracle involved in the plague of flies consisted, partly at least, in the creature being brought against the Egyptians in so great an abundance during winter. The particular species is, however, at present undetermined.—J. F. D.