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Ambassador, Ambassage

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

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• Ambassador, Ambassage
Vines' Expository Dictionary
• Ambassador, Ambassage

AMBASSADOR, AMBASSAGE . As diplomatic agents of sovereigns or other persons in high authority, ambassadors are frequently mentioned in OT and Apocrypha from the days of Moses (see below) to those of the Maccabees ( 1Ma 9:70; 1Ma 11:9; 1Ma 14:21; 1Ma 15:17 ). Insult to their persons was a sufficient casus belli ( 2 Samuel 10:4 ff.). In several passages ( e.g. Numbers 20:14; Numbers 21:21 , Deuteronomy 2:26 , Judges 11:12; Judges 11:19 , 2 Samuel 5:11 , 2 Kings 19:9 ) the ‘messengers’ of EV [Note: English Version.] are practically ‘ambassadors,’ as the Heb. word is elsewhere rendered ( 2 Chronicles 35:21 , Isaiah 30:4 , Ezekiel 17:15 ). Joshua 9:4 , however, should be read as in RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] . The ambassador of Jeremiah 49:14 (= Obadiah 1:1 ) is probably an angel. In NT the word is used only metaphorically ( 2 Corinthians 5:20 , Ephesians 6:20 ).

‘Ambassage,’ the mission of an ambassador ( 2Ma 4:11 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), is used also as a collective for ambassadors themselves (Luke 14:32; Luke 19:14 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ). In 1Ma 14:23 read with RV [Note: Revised Version.] ‘the copy of their words.’

A. R. S. Kennedy.