CIIERETHITES and PELETHITES onnD 43-6D1, Crethi and Plethi without the final CI in the plural ; Sept. Xep€01. Kai names borne by the royal life-guards in the time of David (2 Sam. viii. 18 ; r Chron. xviii. 17). Prevailing opinion translates their names ' Headsmen and Foot-run ners.' In the later years of David, their captain, Benaiah, rose to a more commanding importance than the generals of the regular troops ; just as in imperial Rome the przefect of the praetorian guards became the second person in the empire. It is evident that, to perpetrate any summary deed, Benaiah and the guards were chiefly relied on. That they were strictly a body-guard is distinctly stated in 2 Sam. xxiii. 23. The grammatical form of the Hebrew words is nevertheless not quite clear ; and, as the Cherethites are named as a nation of the south (I Sam. xxx. 14), some are disposed to be lieve Crethi and Plethi to be foreign Gentile names used collectively. No small confirmation of this may be drawn from 2 Sam. xv. 18 ; 'All the Chereth ites, and all the Pelcthites, and all the Gittites, 600 men,' etc. If the two first words were gram matical plurals, like the third (Gittites), it is scarcely credible that final ? should be added to the third, and not also to the other two. As the word
all is repeated three times, and 600 men is the number intended the third time ; the Cherethites and Pelethites must have been reckoned by the hundred ; and since the Gittites were clearly foreigners, all the a priori improbability which some have seen in David's defending himself by a foreign guard falls to the ground.
That in 2 Sam. xv. r, Absalom's runners are called by the name ?rsn, which they also after wards bear, may perhaps go to prove that Plethi or Pelethites does not mean runners.' Indeed, as such a meaning of the word cannot be got out of pure Hebrew, but recourse to the Arabic language is needed, the probability would in any Case be, that the institution, as well as the name, was im ported by David from the south. Ewald believes that Plethi means Philistines, and that it has been slightly corrupted to rhyme with Crethi. May not Plethi have been from another dialect ? Be this as it may, these body-guards for the prince are not found under the reign of Saul. [ARMY; CARIA.] —F. W. N.