CIIEBAR on: ; Sept. Xopdp), a river upon the banks of which king Nebuchadnezzar planted a colony of Jews, among whom was the prophet Ezekiel (2 Kings xxiv. 15 ; Ezek. i. 1, 3 ; iii. 15, 23 ; x. 15, 22). The prevailing opinion is that this river is identical with the 'Ailigar (Strabo. xvi. p. 747), or Xapthpas (Ptol. v. 18) of the ancients ; which rising in the vicinity of Nisibis, passes through upper Mesopotamia, flows for a while parallel .0 the Euphrates, and then, sud denly turning to the right, falls into the Eu phrates at Circesium. For this identification the similarity of the names strongly speaks. It has, however, been objected to this, that in the O. T. the name of Chaldtea is never extended so far northwards.' But Chebar is not placed by Ezekiel in Chaldtra, but 'in the land of the Chafe/awns ;' an expression which might apply to any part of the territory ruled over by the king of Babylon. Bochart's conjecture that Chebar was the Nahr Ala/Ma, or royal canal, cut by order of Nebuchad nezzar, and which Pliny (IL vi. 26) says was made under the superintendence of a person named Chobar, is ingenious ; but can be entertained only through the supposition that the .A'iritr-ilta/cha was called also the Eahr-Chobar, from the name of the officer under whose directions it was made—a sup position entirely irreconcilable with the usages of Oriental despotisms ; if the work was called Nahr Malcha Amen regium quia regia curs effossum,' we may be very sure it would not be called also, and at the same time, Nahr Chobar, a Chobaris nomine 'Jule operi prufecti.' Tradition places the tomb of Ezekiel at AVil, and this has been sup posed to favour the opinion that Chebar must be sought in Babylonia and not in Mesopotamia. But
such a tradition has only a faint bearing on the question : if tradition would indicate Tel Jib/6 for us, it would lend us more important aid, as it would help us to determine where Ezekiel lived. From this name, however, something may be borrowed in support of the identification of Chebar with the Aborras. Tel Abib means corn-hill or grass-mount, and might well be on the banks of that river, of which it is said, Aborm amnis her blike rim' (AM711. Marc. xiv. 3). Whether the Chebar (1M7) of Ezekiel be the same as the Habor (-Toro of 2 Kings xvii. 6 ; xviii. ; Chron. v. 26, admits of doubt. 1-1 abor was a river of Gozan. If Gozan be the Gauzanitis (Mygdonia) of the ancients, it must have flowed in the same district as the Chebar, and is therefore probably to be identified with it. But it has been suggested that Gozan is the modem Zozan, a term applied by the Nestorian to the pasture lands of Assyria ; and as there is a river still bearing the name of Habor, or Khabour, which flows through a rich pasture land till it joins the Tigris near Jezirah, it has been proposed to identify this with the Habor to which the Israelites were deported (Grant, The Nato rians, p. 129, ff ) What gives weight to this sug gestion is, that all the other places which are men tioned along with Habor lie in Assyria, and that it was by the kings of Assyria the Israelites were car ried away. In this case Chebar and Habor are not the same.—W. L. A.