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Nephthar

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

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• Nephthar; Nephthai

NEPHTHAR. The name given by Nehemiah to a ‘thick substance’ which was found in a dry pit after the return from Babylon ( 2Ma 1:18-35 ). The legend relates how certain priests, before the Captivity, took the sacred fire and hid it. On the Return, when a search was made, there was found in its place this highly inflammable substance, which seems not to have differed much from the naphtha of commerce. Some of it was poured over the sacrifice, and was ignited by the great heat of the sun and burned with a bright flame. The name nephthar or nephthai [v. 36] has not been satisfactorily explained, although it is said by the writer to mean ‘cleansing.’

T. A. Moxon.