JERAHMEEL (Heb. " May

See also:

• GOD

God pity ")  , in the Bible, a. clan which with Caleb, the Kenites and others, occupied the southern steppes of Palestine, probably in the district around Arad, about 17 M . S. of Hebron . It was on friendly terms with David during his residence at Ziklag (I Sam. xxx . 29), and it was apparently in his reign that the various elements of the south were united and were reckoned to Israel . This is expressed in the chronicler's genealogies which make Jerahmeel and Caleb descendants of Judah (see DAVID; JUDAH) . On the names in 1 Chron. ii. see S . A . Cook, Ency . Bib., col . 2363 seq . Peleth (v . 33) may be the origin of the Pelethites (2 Sam. viii .

18; xv . 18; xx . 7), and since the name occurs in the revolt of Korah (Num. xvi . I), it is possible that Jerahmeel, like Caleb and the Kenites, had moved northwards from Kadesh .

Samuel (q.v.) was of Jerahmeel (I Sam. i . 1; Septuagint), and the consecutive Jerahmeelite names Nathan and Zabad (i Chron. ii . 36) have been associated 'with the prophet and officer (Zabud, 1 Kings iv . 5) of the times of David and Solomon respectively . The association of Samuel and Nathan with this clan, if correct, is a further illustration of the importance of the south for the growth of biblical history (see KENIrES and RECHASIrss) . The Chronicles of Jerahmeel (M . Gaster, Oriental Translation Fund, 1899) is a late production containing a number of apocryphal Jewish legends of no historical value . (S .

A . C.) Similarly a Syrian

story tells how the Druses came to slay Ibrahim Pasha's troops, and desiring to spare the' Syrians ordered the men to say gamal (camel) . As the Syrians pronounce the g soft, and the Egyptians the g, hard, the former were easily identified . Other examples from the East will be found in H . C . Kay, Faman, p . 36, and in S . Lane-Poole, History of Egypt in the Middle Ages, p . 300 . Also, at the Sicilian Vespers (March 13, 1282) the French were made to betray themselves by their pronunciation of ceci and ciceri (Ital. c like tch; Fr. c like s) .