traditions of men; they saw and spoke false things about God’s holy nation. They looked to Assyria for help instead of to God. (Isa. 29:1, 9-14; 2 Ki. 16:5-9) As foretold, drunken Israel was carried off by Assyria in 740 B.C.E. Later, apostate Judah was forced to drink the cup of Jehovah’s rage and was sent reeling into exile to Babylon in 607 B.C.E. (Isa. 51:17-23) Because of Babylon’s harsh treatment of God’s people, Babylon (“the king of Sheshach”) drank the same cup sixty-eight years later.—Jer. 25:15-29.

Symbolic “Babylon the Great” is depicted in the Bible as a drunken prostitute, having in her hand a golden cup “full of disgusting things and the unclean things of her fornication.” Earth’s inhabitants have been made drunk with the “wine of her fornication.” She herself is “drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.” Her debauchery will result in her everlasting destruction.—Rev. 17:1-6, 16; 14:8; 18:8; see BABYLON THE GREAT.

DRUSILLA

(Dru·silʹla).

The third and youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I, born about 38 C.E.; sister of Agrippa II and Bernice. Her mother’s name was Cypros. (See HEROD.) Before she was six years old her marriage to prince Epiphanes of Commagene was arranged, but it never materialized due to refusal of the groom-to-be to embrace Judaism. A Syrian king, Azizus of Emesa, met the terms of circumcision, and Drusilla became his bride at the age of fourteen. Aggravated by his cruelty, and nettled by the envy of her less attractive sister Bernice, Drusilla was easily induced to divorce Azizus, contrary to Jewish law, and marry Governor Felix about 54 C.E. Perhaps she was present when prisoner Paul “talked about righteousness and self-control and the judgment to come,” which proved to be most disquieting subjects for Governor Felix. After two years, when Felix turned the governorship over to Festus, he left Paul in chains “to gain favor with the Jews,” which some think was done to please his youthful wife “who was a Jewess.” (Acts 24:24-27) Drusilla’s son by Felix was another Agrippa, reportedly killed in the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

DUKE

[Heb., na·sikhʹ].

A man who is appointed, installed, invested as a prince or principal one. Five Midianite chieftains, “dukes of Sihon,” called “kings of Midian” at Numbers 31:8, were killed when Israel took vengeance on the Midianites for the affair of the Baal of Peor. (Josh. 13:21) The leaders of the enemies of God’s people are called “dukes” (“princes,” AT; AV; RS) at Psalm 83:11. The term appears also at Ezekiel 32:30.

A Messianic prophecy states that, when the enemies of God’s people come against them, “seven shepherds, yes, eight dukes of mankind [“princes of men,” AV, margin, RS]” will be raised up. Seven representing completeness, the “eight dukes” would evidently mean that a considerable number of capable men appointed under the Messiah would be taking the lead among Jehovah’s people.—Mic. 5:5.

DUMAH

(Duʹmah) [silence].

1. The sixth in the list of Ishmael’s twelve sons. By the marriage of his sister Mahalath, Dumah became the brother-in-law to his half-cousin Esau. Dumah also became a chieftain and head of a clan or nation, in fulfillment of Jehovah’s promise to Abraham.—Gen. 17:20; 25:14-16; 28:9; 1 Chron. 1:30.

The Ishmaelite Dumah evidently gave his name to a region in N Arabia about midway between Palestine and S Babylonia. The name continues in that of the oasis Dumat al-Ghandal. Ancient inscriptions from Assyria and Babylon give the name as Adummatu and Adummu and show it to have been conquered by Sennacherib and Esar-haddon of Assyria and later by the Babylonian Nabonidus.

2. A city listed among those assigned to the tribe of Judah after the conquest of the land by Joshua. (Josh. 15:52) It was in the mountainous region and is evidently identified with modern ed-Domeh, about ten miles (16 kilometers) SW of Hebron.

3. At Isaiah 21:11 a pronouncement is made against “Dumah.” However, mention is immediately made of “Seir,” and this may indicate that the message is directed against Edom. (Gen. 32:3) The Septuagint Version at Isaiah 21:11 says “Idumaea” (Edom) rather than “Dumah.”

DUNG

Excrement of humans, birds and beasts is represented by various words in Biblical languages. In the Scriptures, dung often has figurative associations.

A “private place” or “privy” was at the service of Israel’s soldiers outside their army camps, and they were to cover their excrement. (Deut. 23:12-14) This preserved the army’s cleanness before Jehovah and also helped to prevent the spread of fly-borne infectious diseases.

One of Jerusalem’s gates was the “Gate of the Ash-heaps,” usually called “the Dung Gate.” (Neh. 2:13; 3:13, 14; 12:31) Situated a thousand cubits (c. 1,458 ft., or 444 meters) to the E of the Valley Gate and hence to the S of Mount Zion, this gate probably was so named because of the refuse heaped up in the Valley of Hinnom located below it and to which it led, the city’s garbage possibly being taken out through this gate.

Some of the nomadic heathen peoples may have used dung as fuel. Ezekiel, enacting a scene prophetic of Jerusalem’s siege, objected when God commanded him to use human excrement for fuel in baking bread. God kindly permitted him to use cattle manure instead. (Ezek. 4:12-17) This seems to indicate that it was not the normal practice in Israel.

Dung was used as manure to fertilize the soil. Straw and dung seem to have been mixed in a “manure place,” the straw possibly being trodden into it by animals. (Isa. 25:10) A way to fertilize a fig tree was to “dig around it and put on manure.”—Luke 13:8.

Generally, dung was considered to be offensive refuse, something for disposal. Expressive of its offensiveness, and also giving force to the thought of removal, were Jehovah’s words concerning the wayward house of Israel’s King Jeroboam: “I shall indeed make a clean sweep behind the house of Jeroboam, just as one clears away the dung until it is disposed of.”—1 Ki. 14:10.

Turning a man’s house into a public privy was the greatest insult and a punishment. (Ezra 6:11; Dan 2:5; 3:29) During the test of godship atop Mount Carmel, Elijah taunted the prophets of unresponsive Baal by saying: “He must be concerned with a matter, and he has excrement and has to go to the privy.” (1 Ki. 18:27) Jehu later had the house of Baal pulled down and “they kept it set aside for privies.”—2 Ki. 10:27.

Dung or manure is also employed as a simile to denote an ignominious end of an individual or a nation. (2 Ki. 9:36, 37; Ps. 83:10; Jer. 8:1, 2; 9:22; 16:4) God foretold that during his controversy with the nations those slain by Jehovah would not be bewailed, gathered up or buried, but they would become “as manure on the surface of the ground.”—Jer. 25:31-33; compare Zephaniah 1:14-18.

According to the Law, no sin offering, the blood of which was brought into the sanctuary to make atonement, was to be eaten by the priest. Its carcass and its dung were to be burned in a clean place outside the camp. (Lev. 4:11, 12; 6:30; 16:27) This was because none of the animal was to be put to any other use or allowed to decay. It was “clean,” that is, sanctified to Jehovah and therefore had to be burned in a clean place.—Compare Hebrews 13:11-13.

Paul, who highly esteemed spiritual things and greatly valued his hope in Christ, declared: “On account of him I have taken the loss of all things and I consider them as a lot of refuse, that I may gain Christ and be found in union with him.” (Phil. 3:8, 9) The Greek word here rendered “refuse” (skuʹba·lon) denotes either excrement or the things left from a feast and thrown away from the table. Even if the apostle had the latter meaning in mind, his evaluation of “all things” as “refuse” emphasizes the high value he placed on gaining and being found in union with Christ.—See DOVE’S DUNG.

DUNGEON

David felt as though he was in a dungeon at the time he was hiding in a cave as an outlaw refugee from King Saul. His circumstances looked very dark, with his life constantly in danger, traps in his pathway and no other place to flee. He prayed to Jehovah for liberation. (Ps. 142:7) Isaiah uses the term symbolically in two places: (1) at chapter 24, verse 22, speaking of kings being gathered together in a dungeon in the day when Jehovah becomes king, and (2) chapter 42, verse 7, concerning those in spiritual darkness and imprisonment. The aged Simeon, under inspiration, applied the latter prophecy to those to whom Jesus Christ would bring the light of truth.—Luke 2:25-32; see PRISON.

DURA

(Duʹra).

The plain where Nebuchadnezzar set up a gold image.—Dan. 3:1.

Though places as distant as 270 miles (434 kilometers) from Babylon have been suggested as Dura’s location, it is Biblically described as being “in the jurisdictional district of Babylon,” and so apparently was relatively near that city. For this reason, most geographers today accept Tulul Dura, six miles (9.7 kilometers) SE of Babylon, as the most likely of the many proposed sites. The ruins of a dried-brick mound measuring forty-six feet (14 meters) square were discovered here and have been conjectured by some to be the base of Nebuchadnezzar’s image. Nevertheless, the Akkadian term dûru, meaning “circuit,” “wall” or “walled place,” appears frequently in Mesopotamian place-names, making any positive identification impossible at this time.

DUST

Fine particles of matter, light enough to be raised and borne easily by currents of air. Strong winds passing over dry desert regions, common to Bible lands, often produce violent dust storms that are considered by some to be more dreadful than storms encountered at sea. Volcanic eruptions, fires, and agricultural activities are among common causes of mineral dust. Vegetable matter produces dust in the form of pollen, molds, plant fiber and seed parts. Dust is also indirectly produced by animals, resulting from dried dung, fine hair and bacteria.

Although some may consider dust to be a nuisance, it is a provision of the Creator that is essential to mankind’s existence and comfort. (Prov. 8:22, 26) Scientists hold that no condensation of moisture as rain, fog or mist could occur if it were not for certain water-absorbing salts that comprise a portion of the atmosphere’s dust. Moreover, without the light-scattering property of atmospheric dust, the eyes of earth’s creatures would be exposed to unbearable glare of the sun’s direct rays, and the familiar phenomenon of dusk and beautifully colored sunsets would cease to occur.

The Creator used “dust from the ground” when he formed the first man (Gen. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:47, 48), and when Adam was sentenced for disobeying God’s law, Jehovah decreed: “To dust you will return.” (Gen. 3:19) God also pronounced a curse of great prophetic significance when saying to the serpent in Eden: “Upon your belly you will go and dust is what you will eat [bite] all the days of your life.” (Gen. 3:14) While the serpent would not subsist only on dust, it would ingest some dust with its food because of its lowly condition on the ground.

SIGNIFYING FRAILTY, MORTALITY AND LOWLINESS

In view of man’s fall from perfection, dust is sometimes used figuratively for mankind’s frailty. God shows mercy to those fearing him, “remembering that we are dust.” (Ps. 103:13, 14; Gen. 18:27) It is also symbolic of the mortality of humans, for at death “back to their dust they go.” (Ps. 104:29; Eccl. 3:19, 20; 12:1, 7) Since man returns to the dust at death, the grave is sometimes figuratively called “the dust.” (Ps. 22:29; 30:9) The dust of the ground can denote a lowly condition. Jehovah is “a Raiser of a lowly one from the dust.”—1 Sam. 2:8; Ps. 113:7

REPRESENTING NUMEROUSNESS

In the Scriptures great numbers of people are compared to dust for their numerousness. Thus, God promised Abram (Abraham): “I will constitute your seed like the dust particles of the earth.” (Gen. 13:14, 16) Jehovah also made a similar promise to Jacob. (Gen. 28:10, 13, 14) Concerning the Israelites during their wilderness trek, Balaam asked: “Who has numbered the dust particles of Jacob, and who has counted the fourth part of Israel?” (Num. 23:10) Jehovah had greatly increased Abraham’s offspring through Isaac and Jacob. Jehovah’s bountiful provision of manna for his covenant people in the wilderness is indicated by the statement that “he proceeded to make sustenance rain upon them just like dust, even winged flying creatures just like the sand grains of the seas.”—Ps. 78:24-27; Ex. 16:11-18; Num. 11:31, 32.

USE IN GOD’S JUDGMENT OF NATIONS

Due to the nations’ relative insignificance from God’s standpoint, he accounts them “as the film of dust on the scales.” (Isa. 40:15) Jehovah’s fear-inspiring power was manifested in connection with his blows against one such nation, Egypt. When the third blow was to begin, in keeping with God’s command to Moses, “Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and the gnats came to be on man and beast.” When this occurred throughout Egypt, the magic-practicing priests, unable to duplicate this miracle, had to admit. “It is the finger of God!”—Ex. 8:16-19.

The Israelites, too, were told that if they failed to keep God’s commandments, they could expect various maledictions, one of these being drought, for it was stated: “Jehovah will give powder and dust as the rain of your land. From the heavens it will come down upon you until you have been annihilated.”—Deut. 28:15, 24.

SYMBOLIC OF LAMENTATION AND DEBASEMENT

To symbolize their mournful lamentation over Jerusalem’s destruction by the Babylonians in 607 B.C.E., the older men of the city are represented as sitting on the earth in silence, having “brought up dust upon their head.” (Lam. 2:10) Many years earlier, through Isaiah, Jehovah prophetically called upon Babylon to come down off her throne, saying: “Come down and sit down in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit down on the earth where there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans.” (Isa. 47:1) Babylon was reduced to this low state in 539 B.C.E., at her conquest by the Medes and Persians. And, due to the destruction of symbolic Babylon the Great, ship captains, voyagers, sailors and all those making a living by the sea are depicted as throwing dust upon their heads and bemoaning her devastation.—Rev. 18:17-19

OTHER USES

Dust is also Scripturally linked with repentance. When Job made a retraction for talking without understanding in arguing his case before God he said: “I do repent in dust and ashes.”—Job 42:1, 3, 6.

Causing foes to “lick the dust” means vanquishing them, effecting their complete subjection. (Ps. 72:9; Mic. 7:16, 17) Tossing dust into the air or throwing it at a person were ways of registering strong disapproval of him. It is a custom in parts of Asia to