JEKUTHIEL (9Nimp,, Goth's my hop ; LXX.
XercliX ; Vulg. Icuthiel), a proper name occurring Chren. iv. 18. This passage, as it DOW stands, is in utter confusion. To remedy this, Michaelis and others have proposed to trans fer the last clause of ver. 18 to the middle of ver. 17, which in some measure answers the purpose. Jekuthiel then appears as the son of Mered by Jehudijah, or rather, the yewess, to distinguish her from Mered's uther wife, Bithiah, a daughter of Pharaoh (see BrrmAH). Yet, much as this con. jectural emendation helps to clear the passage, it is not wholly satisfactory, for it still leaves the i9th verse isolated and meaningless. The probability is, that the words Bithiah and Mend have fallen out of the text in ver. 17 ; which being supplied before Miriam,' the confusion is removed, and any disturbance of the text rendered unneces.
sary—` And Bithiah bore to Mered,' etc. Then his Jewish wife and children are named, after which the annalist adds the latter part of the iSth and Igth verses as an emphatic repetition.* The Targum of Rabbi 7oseph on Chronicles makes Jekuthiel to be Moses. The passage is so curious as to deserve transcription :—` And his wife (Ezra's) brought up Moses when he was drawn out of the water, and called his name Jered, because he made manna to descend for Israel ; Prince of Gedor, because he restored (or built up) the desolation of Israel ; and Cheber, because he united Israel to their Father who is in heaven ; Prince of Socho, because he overshadowed the house of Israel with his justice (or purity) ; and JEKUTHIEL, because Israel waited on the God of heaven in his days forty years in the wilderness ; Prince of Zanoach, because God remitted the sins of Israel for his sake. By- these names the
daughter of Pharaoh called him, in the spirit of prophecy, for she became a proselyte, and Mered took her to himself for a wife. This is Caleb, so called, because he opposed the purpose or counsel of the spies.' In the prayers of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, a curious reference to Jekuthiel occurs 0 may Elijah the prophet come to us speedily, with Messiah, the son of David, to whom tidings of peace were delivered by the hand of Jekuthiel' (Allen's Mod. 7ud., p. 229, 2d ed.)—I. J.