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•LAODICEA The city of this name mentioned in Scripture lay on the confines of Phrygia and Lydia, about 40 miles east of Ephesus (Revelation 3:14), on the banks of the Lycus. It was originally called Diospolis and then Rhoas, but afterwards Laodicea, from Laodice, the wife of Antiochus II., king of Syria, who rebuilt it. It was one of the most important and flourishing cities of Asia Minor. At a very early period it became one of the chief seats of Christianity (Colossians 2:1; 4:15; Revelation 1:11, etc.). It is now a deserted place, called by the Turks Eski-hissar or “old castle.”
•LAPIDOTH torches. Deborah is called “the wife of Lapidoth” (Judges 4:4). Some have rendered the expression “a woman of a fiery spirit,” under the supposition that Lapidoth is not a proper name, a woman of a torch-like spirit.
•LAPPING of water like a dog, i.e., by putting the hand filled with water to the mouth. The dog drinks by shaping the end of his long thin tongue into the form of a spoon, thus rapidly lifting up water, which he throws into his mouth. The three hundred men that went with Gideon thus employed their hands and lapped the water out of their hands (Judges 7:7).
•LAPWING the name of an unclean bird, mentioned only in Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18. The Hebrew name of this bird, dukiphath, has been generally regarded as denoting the hoope (Upupa epops), an onomatopoetic word derived from the cry of the bird, which resembles the word “hoop;” a bird not uncommon in Palestine. Others identify it with the English peewit.
•LASAEA a city in the island of Crete (Acts 27:8). Its ruins are still found near Cape Leonda, about 5 miles east of “Fair Havens.”
•LASHA fissure, a place apparently east of the Dead Sea (Genesis 10:19). It was afterwards known as Callirhoe, a place famous for its hot springs.