HAHULUb IfcLLlBhAh, 

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSIT 

PROVO. UTAH 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
Brigham Young University 



http://www.archive.org/details/sacredgeographyaOObarr 




nA\ (ij- 'HI JlAlITis 



^ [ji: LTi: op^ cmrmij 




H 






R i: 



\ Th. Ho^ of Holu- 

B TlieHiJrPbx.e 

r The Vba ol Burnt ode-u.-, 

t The court ol le P.ies« 
b l-K- court „f Uro^l 

?].:\X OF TilK • 


H The .-..UH ol- tlte Wumru 

1 ITve «:«;.- BeautUttl 

.1 Tl,. c.ui-l 01- th- G-oaes 

K Th. K;.=.ter,. ...■ ShusLau 

I Solomotts Porch or t.-.On 

M TKe ao.ysd Porch 

S TKe outei-WiUJ 

'\V,FA\\.\r\F. 


1 CO./? 


T- O F 






iLiiiJIiSIKESlXiiJ^JlllFJEib'iEa Wl(]Illjii!MMQ:i!KiiIieraiai]rrf kliHrni'i—t^MlF^MTT'r^T^Wilif 

2>/' f//f time of Chn'st 



\ Holy ' jTabl]- cd' Siiuw Ki. ail 

' HolieH o CiUIeu C.uidl.-BVK-Ji. 

} ' ^ 

I 

I THE T A B E R N A 



-I 

i 

IAllar rV ij^ 

\ 

- £ y 



AM.PHOTO-UTHOSffAPHIC CO.N.Y.IOSBORNES P/fOCESSj 



SACRED GEOGRAPHY, 

i>3 



AND 



5^7 



ANTIQUITIES. 



WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



BY REV. E. P. BARROWS, D. D, 




AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YOEK. 



Entered, accordiug to Act of Congress, in the year 187 , by the Amebioam 
Thact Society, in the OflQce of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



HAROLD B. LEE LIBRAW 

W«QHAM YOUWG Ur^lVK^TY 

P«OVO. UTAH 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 



The geograpliical features of the Holy Land were peculiar, as 
well as the institutions of its inhabitants. It lay in the centre of 
the great empires of antiquity, and was yet isolated from them in a 
remarkable way. On the south were Egypt and Ethiopia ; on the 
east, Assyria and Babylonia, and beyond them the Medes and Per- 
sians ; on the west, Greece and Eome. With all these empires they 
were successively brought into contact, and with some of them their 
relations were very intimate and long continued. At the same time 
they were separated from Egypt and the eastern empires by deserts 
on the south and east ; between them and the western empires lay 
the Mediterranean ; and on the north were the mighty walls of 
Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, admitting access to Palestine only by a 
few narrow defiles. Palestine proper had on the east the addi- 
tional barrier of the deep Jordan valley, Avith its continuous west- 
ern wall of mountains stretching without interruption from the 
southern desert to the plain of Esdraelon. Thus were the Hebrews 
shut out, in a great measure, from the surrounding heathen na- 
tions ; while, at the same time, these nations stood ever ready, as 
God's ministers, to execute from age to age his high purposes of 
discipUne and training, till the way should thus be prepared for the 
advent of Christ, and the spread of the gospel from Palestine as a 
centre though all the surrounding lands. 

Before the Assyrian and Babylonish captivities the Hebrew peo- 
ple were mainly confined to their own territory. In it their national 
character was formed, and its peculiar geograpliical isolation con- 
spired with their peculiar institutions to cherish an intense national 
spirit. Palestine was their world, and all that they wrote bore the 
impress not only of the Mosaic institutions and the national history 
connected with them, but also of the natural scenery that surrounded 
them and the natural objects with which they were familiar. It fol- 
lows that the reader who would enter fully into the spirit of the 



4 PREFATORY REMARKS. 

biblical writings, especially those of the Old Testament, mnst make 
himself familiar with the geography and natural history of the 
Holy Land. 

Within the present century the investigations of missionaries and 
intelligent travellers have shed a flood of Hght on many points once 
involved in obscurity. Still clearer light may be expected as the 
result of further investigations. Meanwhile it seems eminently de- 
sirable that the great mass of valuable information already collected, 
which is scattered through so many volumes, should be condensed 
and put into a methodical form, that it may thus be made available to 
the great body of biblical students. In the present Outlines of Sacred 
Geography the attempt is made to perform this work with as much 
brevity as is consistent with a clear statement of the various topics 
that come up for consideration. In the Geography of the Holy Land 
its natural divisions have been followed, all of which lie in a north 
and south direction. To the description of each division is appended 
an account of its principal cities and villages, with the scriptural 
reminiscences connected with them. Then follows a brief account of 
the Countries adjacent to Palestine — on the south, on the southeast and 
east, on the northeast and north ; and finally a notice of the More 
Distant Empires and Regions in their relation to the covenant people. 

In the preparation of these outHnes a large number of works has 
been consulted, and it has been the author's aim to give credit for 
everything distinctive or peculiar. If in any instance he has failed 
to do so, it is from inadvertence, not from design. In a multitude 
of cases the information used comes from so many sources, and is so 
blended together, that particular references are unnecessary. The 
references to Eobinson's Biblical Researches are always to the sec- 
ond edition, containing his latter researches, unless otherwise speci- 
fied. In the references to Ritter's Geography of Palestine, the trans- 
lation made by the Rev. William L. Gage has been used : a trans- 
lation for which American students of Scripture are much indebted 
to Mr. Gage. 

The final end of these Outlines being the illustration of Holy 
Writ, numerous quotations from Scripture or references to it have 
been added. The writer hopes that the bibhcal student will de- 
rive vahiable assistance from these in the study of God's word. 



CONTENTS. 



PART T. 

OUTLINES OF SACRED GEOGRAPHY 



CHAPTEE I. 

GENEEAL VIEW OF PALESTINE. 

1. Ancient Syria. Its extent and boundaries. The Hebrew term Aram, how 
employed, 2. Palestine in the modern sense of the word. It should be 
carefully distinguished from the Palestine of our version. Various Scriptu- 
ral designations — Land of Canaan ; Land of Israel in its earlier sense, and 
in its later as distinguished from the land of Judah ; Glorious land ; Holy 
land ; Land of promise. 3. Extent of the promised land according to the 
original grant. The whole of this territory never permanently possessed. 
Distinction between the river of Egj^pt and the torrent of Egypt. 4. The 
promised land as described by Moses and Joshua — its western boundary, its 
eastern, its southern. Its northern border as described by Moses. Position 
of "the entering in of Hamath." Its eastern border to the base of Hermon 
and the Jordan. Its northern border as defined in the Book of Joshua. 
This lay far south of that given by Moses. 5. Extent of the region perma- 
nently occupied by the Israelites. Its boundaries on the west and north. 
Various measurements of the Israelitish territory. Oriental modes of com- 
puting distances. General outlines of Palestine compared with those of 
New Hampshire. 6. General features of Palestine — the deep valley of the 
Jordan and Dead sea. 7. The broad mountainous belt on the west side. 
Interruption by the plain of Esdraelon. Its eastern border precipitous. 
Offset of lower hills on its western border. Its breadth. 8. The Mediter- 
ranean plain. Hebrew names for the different parts of this plain. Its extent. 
9. The highland east of the Jordan. 10. Summary of the outlines of Pales- 
tine. Direction of the numerous ravines. Color of the soil in the limestone 
region ; in the basalt region. 11. Remarks on the roads of Palestine. Lines 



6 CONTENTS. 

of travel north and south ; east and west between the highlands and the 
valleys. Military route between Egypt and the eastern empires. Remarks 
on the use of wheeled carriages, 12. Peculiar situation of Palestine in rela- 
tion to the great empires of antiquity. Strength of Palestine in a military 
point of view. Its adaptation to the purposes of the theocracy page 29 

CHAPTER II. 

HIGHLANDS WEST OF THE JORDAN VALLEY. 

I. Northern Section — Galilee in Part 1. Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon with the inter- 

vening valley. The Leontes and its course. 2. Elevated tract north of the 
plain of Esdraelon. Its eastern border. Its western border. Plains of Phoe- 
nicia and Akka. Mount Naphtali. Hills around Nazareth. 3. Mount Tabor. 
Its character. View from its summit. Incorrect tradition respecting this 
mountain. 4. Interspersed plains — Ramah, el-Buttauf. 5. The great plain 
of Esdraelon — its eastern side ; its southwestern, its northern. Its general 
character and condition. Its three great arms. Description of the middle 
arm called the valley of Jezreel. Position of Jezreel and Beth-shan. Foun- 
tain of Jezreel. 6. The Kishon described. Explanation of Elijah's message 
to Ahab. 7. General features of the Galilean mountains. 8. Scriptural 
reminiscences connected with this region. 9. Notice of its towns. Naza- 
reth, Cana of Galilee, Dabareh, Yafa, Sepphoris, Hattim, Safed, Kedesh of 
Naphtali, Hazor, Taanach and Megiddo, Hadad-rimmon, En-gannim, Jez- 
reel. The ridges of Gilboa and Duhy. Shunem, Nain, and Endor 41 

II. Middle Section — Samaria in Part. 10. Carmel. Its direction and extent. Its 

character. Beauty of its scenery. Scene of Elijah's sacrifice. 11. Moun- 
tainous tract of Samaria. How distinguished in character from that of Gal- 
ilee. It is the Mount Ephraim of the Old Testament. 12. Plains of this 
region — plain of Dothan, Merj-el-Ghuruk, plain of Mukhna. 13. Situation 
of Shechem and Samaria. 14. Various names of Shechem. Description of 
the place. Its abundant fountains, verdure, and fruitfulness. 15. Its antiq- 
uity and Scriptural associations. 16. Notices of Ebal and Gerizim. Jotham's 
parable. 17. Notice of the people called Samaritans. Their origin. Their 
worship. Enmity between them and the Jews. Their temple on Gerizim. 
18. Jacob's well. Tomb of Joseph. 19. Position of Samaria. Its beauty 
and strength. Its modern name and condition. 20. Scriptural reminiscen- 
ces connected with Samaria. 21. Other places in Mount Ephraim — Dothan, 
Tirzah, Thebez, Shalem, Shiloh, Gilgal of the mountainous tract, Timnath- 
serah • - • 52 

III. Southern Section — Judea in Part. 22. General features of the mountainous 
region of Judea. 23. Difference between its western and eastern slopes. 
Desert character of the eastern slope. Middle region on the west between 
the mountains and the plain. Greater and more rapid descent on the east. 
24. Wilderness of Judah. Its general features. Its cavsrn^. Names by 



CONTENTS. 7 

which the mountainous tract south of Mount Ephraim was designated. 
Notice of the South or South country. 25. Historical notices and sacred 
reminiscences. 26. Topography of Jerusalem. Its general position. The 
valley of Kidron on the east of the city. Its origin, course, and general 
features. Tombs in its sides. Not a perennial stream. Modern name of 
this valley. 27. Valley of Hinnom on the south. Its origin, course, and 
character. Figurative use of the name Gehenna. 28. Particular description 
of the site of Jerusalem. 29. Internal divisions of the city. Account of 
Tacitus ; of Josephus, with remarks on his description. Course of the val- 
ley of Cheesemongers. Ritter's view preferred. Zion and Akra according 
to this view. Robinson's view, with the objections to it. 30. Josephus' 
account of the walls and towns. The question of the site of the tower of 
Hippicus and the holy sepulchre. Course and character of the modern walls. 
Gates of the ancient city. 31. Zion. The hill described. David's tomb. 
Zion only partly enclosed by the modern walls. Traditional holy sepulchre. 
Other suggestions respecting its site. 32. The ancient temple area. Re- 
marks on its extent. Substantial identity of the temple area with the pres- 
ent Haram. Remains of ancient foundations. 33. General structure and 
appearance of the temple. 34. The fortress Antonia according to Josephus' 
description. 35. The New City or Bezetha on the north. Ophel on the 
south. 36. Dome of the Rock. Mosque el-Aksa. 37. Pool of Siloam described. 
Not a fountain, but a receptacle of waters from the Fountain of the Virgin. 
Subterranean channel connecting the latter with the former. Fountain of 
the Virgin described. Its irregular flow. Subterranean canal leading to it. 
38. Immense substructions under the Haram. Vast subterranean excava- 
tion northwest of the Haram. This an ancient quarry. 39. Wells and foun- 
tains — well west of Ihe Haram wall, vast reservoir under the Haram, subter- 
ranean water-channels, well En-rogel. 40. Cisterns and pools. Pool of 
Hezekiah, of Bethesda so-called. Upper pool of Gihon, Lower pool of Gihon. 
41. Solomon's pools. Their number, situation, and dimensions. Sealed 
fountain above them. Aqueduct from them to Jerusalem. Their site the 
Etam of the Talmud and Etham of Josephus. The favorite resort of Solo- 
mon. Josephus' account of his retinue. 42. Site of Tophet. Jerome's 
description of the place. Defiled by Josiah. Origin of the term Gehenna, 
and its typical import. Typical use of Tophet. 43. Tombs around Jerusa- 
lem. Their general form. More elaborate tombs. Tombs of the Prophets 
so-called, of the Kings, of the Judges. Fondness of the ancients for mag- 
nificent sepulchres. 44. Garden of Gethsemane. Aceldama and the Pot- 
ters' field. The Fullers' field. 45. Mount of Olives. Its course and extent. 
Its character. Mount of Offence. Sacred associations connected with the 
Mount of Olives. Time place of the ascension. 46. Valley of Rephaim. 
47. Places in the environs of Jerusalem — Bethany, Anathoth. Gibeah of 
Saul, Ramah of Benjamin. Various other places bearing the same name. 
Ramah of Samuel. Question respecting its site. Geba. This place not to 
be confounded with Gibeah. Michmash, et-Taiyibeh. Its probable identity 



O CONTENTS. 

with the Ophrah of the Old Testament and the Ephraim of the New. Beth- 
el. Scriptural notices of this place. Its desecration by Jeroboam. Ai, 
Mizpeh. Scriptural incidents connected with the place. Gibeon. Its situ- 
ation. Scriptural incidents connected with it. The two Beth-horons. Their 
situation described. Valley of Ajalon. Kirjath-jearim. Beth-lehem. Its 
original name. Its site and environs. "Well of Beth-lehem. Alleged place 
of our Lord's birth and its surroundings. Rachel's tomb. Frank mountain. 
Tekoa. 48. Hebron. Its antiquity. Scriptural events connected with it. 
Its situation. Its pools. The great Haram of Hebron. It encloses the cave 
of Machpelah. Some account of its structure. Other names of Hebron. 
Valley of Hebron. 49. Places south of Hebron — Ziph, Carmel, and Maon, 
Juttah, Anab, etc. 50. Beer-sheba and the historic incidents connected with 
it. Wells of Beer-sheba 66 

CHAPTEK III. 

- \ 

THE MEDITERRANEAN PLAIN. 

I. Plain of Akka or Acre. 1. Coast from Ras-el-Abyad to Carmel. 2. Plain and 

town of Akka. 3. Other places on the plain — Haifa, Achzib, Cabul 116 

II. Plain of Sharon. 4. General description of the plain south of Carmel. 5. Its 
northern part is the ancient Sharon. Its extent and general character. Its 
present deserted state.- Custom of the inhabitants of Palestine to select hills 
for their cities and villages. 6. Ruins of ancient places in Sharon. Csesarea. 
Its ancient name. Built with great splendor by Herod the Great, and made 
his residence. Notices of Caesarea in the New Testament. Its present ruins 
described. 7. Antipatris. Its site, and notice of it in the New Testament. 
Dor. Arsuf. 8. Joppa, the seaport of Jerusalem. Scriptural notices of it. 
Description of the modern city and its environs. 9. Lydda. Its various 
names. Its position. Ramleh. Plain of Ono. Gilgal of the plain 117 

III. The Shephelah or Philistine Plain. 10. Line of division between this and 
Sharon. Various renderings of the term in our version. Extent and char- 
acter of this plain. Hilly district on its eastern border. 11. This plain the 
proper home of the Philistines. Scriptural notices of the origin of this 
people. 13. The five Philistine cities — Ekron, Gath, Ashdod, Ashkelon, 
Gaza. Samson's exploit in connection with Gaza. Notice of the place in 
the New Testament. Its present name and condition. Notice of some other 
places on the Philistine plain— Jabneel and Eglon. 14. Prophetic denunci- 
ations upon the Philistine cities, and their fulfilment. 15. Places among the 
hills on the eastern border. Eleutheropolis. Ruins of the place described. 
These identified by Robinson. Importance of this to sacred geography. 
16. Valley of Elah and its environs. This the scene of David's encounter 
with Goliath. 17. Mareshah. Beth-shemesh. Timnath. Zorah. Eshtaol. 
Zanoah. Emmaus of Josephus. Question of the identity of this place with 
the Emmaus of the New Testament. 18. Desert south of the plain. Gerar. 
Rehoboth 122 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTEK IV. 

VALLEY OF THE JORDAN AND DEAD SEA. 

I. General Remarks. 1. Extent and direction of the chasm with its continuations 
south and north. 2. Position of the Dead sea and its immense depression. 
Waters flowing into it. Waters of the valley of Coelesyria and of the Leba- 
non ranges. Waters of Wady-et-Teim. 3. The Jordan never flowed into 
the Eed sea - -- 134 

//. Uppei' Jordan and Lake Huleh. 4. Chief sources of the Jordan. At Tell el- 
Kady. This the site of the ancient Dan. At Banias, the ancient Caesarea 
Philippi. The Hasbany. This the most remote but smallest source of the 
Jordan. Other minor streams. 5. Lake Phiala. 6. Basin of the Huleh. 
Its extent and adjacent marshes. This lake probably identical with the 
AVaters of Merom. 7. Course of the Jordan between the Hideh and sea of 
Galilee. Eidge. Rapids. Elevation of the surface of Huleh 135 

[11. Sea of Oalilee and the Jordan below. 8. Sacred associations connected with 
the Sea of Galilee. 9. Various names of the sea. Description of it. 10. Plain 
of Gennesaret. 11. Towns around the lake. Tiberias. Situation of the 
place. Founded by Herod Antipas. Long a seat of Jewish learning. Warm 
baths in its vicinity. Magdala. Dalmanutha. Capernaum. Question re- 
specting its site. Khan Minyeh, Tell Hum, the Round Fountain. Chorazin 
and Bethsaida. Another Bethsaida east of the Jordan. Place where the 
multitude were miraculously fed. Scene of the healing of the demoniacs. 
Wady Hamam and Beth-arbel. 12. Names applied to the Jordan valley — 
modern Arabic, Greek and Roman, Hebrew. 13. General description of 
the Ghor or outer Jordan valley. Its length and width. Mountains on the 
west and east. Its upper and lower divisions. Character of the different 
parts. 14. Inner valley of the Jordan. Its width and straight direction. 
Tortuous course of the Jordan within it. Verdure along its banks. 15. An- 
nual rise of the Jordan. "The pride of Jordan." 16. Saracenic bridge. 
Ruins of Roman bridges. Fords. 17. Tributaries of the Jordan. The 
Hieromax. The Jabbok. Nahr el-Jalud. 18. Climate of the Ghor. Some 
notice of its peculiar productions. 19. Unique character of the Jordan in 
its origin, course, and termination. Its unique history. Its waters thrice 
miraculously divided. Healing of Naaman. Swimming of iron. Baptism 
of John. Our Lord baptized in its waters. 20. Account of Jericho. Diff'er- 
ent sites of the place in diff'erent ages. Scriptural incidents connected with 
it. Immense descent from Jerusalem to Jericho. Dangerous character of 
the road. 21. Oasis of Jericho, how produced. Its two principal fountains. 
Josephus' description of its extent and character. Notice of some of its prod- 
ucts. Its present condition. 22. Other places in the Jordan valley. Gil- 
gal. Fusail. The brook Cherith. Beisan with its Scriptural reminiscences. 
Site of Succoth. Ford of Beth-barah. ^non. Place of our Lord's baptism 
unknown 1 10 

1* 



10 CONTENTS. 

IV. The Dead Sea and its Vicinity. 2.3. Place of the Dead sea in the valley, how 
determined. Its immense depression. Its depth. Elevation of Jerusalem 
above the brow of the cliffs on its western side. These three measures 
equal. No known chasm has as great depression. Variable depth of -its 
waters. 24. Extent of the sea, how determined. Average length and 
breadth. Terraces on its banks. 25. How shut in on both sides. Western 
brow. Eastern brow. Valleys and gorges in the adjacent cliffs. Character 
of the rocks. Low belt of shore. Peninsula in the southern part. The 
Sabkhah, or salt marsh at the southern end of the sea. Cliffs of Akrabbim. 
Marshes at the north end of the sea. Beference to these in Ezekiel. 26. Ex- 
cessive heat of the region, and tropical character of its vegetation. Legends 
respecting it. 27. Salt mountain on the southern shore. Its extent and 
character. It accounts for the saltness of the waters of this sea. Valley of 
salt, and City of salt. 28. Volcanic character of the region. Hot springs. 
Sulphurous formation. Earthquakes. Connection between the earthquakes 
of Italy and Sjaia. 29. Bitumen of the Dead sea. It is thrown up from the 
bottom after earthquakes. Traces of bitumen on the shore. 30. Character 
of the water. Its intense saltness. Its buoyancy. Analysis. 31. Various 
names applied to this sea — The Salt sea, Sea of the Arabah, East sea, 
Asphaltic lake, Sea of Sodom, Sea of Lot, Dead sea. 32. Places of 
interest on or near its shore. Pass of En-gedi. Its position. Fountain. 
Vegetation. Description of the pass. Its use in ancient times. Scriptural 
references to it. Streams entering the Dead sea. Zurka Main. Arnon. 
"Wady Kerak. Streams entering the southern bay. Fertile spots on the 
shore. The ancient fortress Masada. Convent of Mar Saba 157 

V. Destruction of Sodom and the Neighboring Cities. 33. The Dead sea existed 

before that event. 34. Various hypotheses respecting the mode in which 
the chasm of the Jordan and Dead sea was formed. 35. Site of Sodom and 
the neighboring cities. Grove's hypothesis that it was at the north end of 
the sea. The common hj'pothesis that it was at the south end. Argument 
in favor of this. 36. Manner of the overthrow of these cities. Scriptural 
account of the same. Changes connected with the catastrophe 168 

CHAPTER Y. 

THE BEGION EAST OF THE JOEDAN VALLEY. 

1. Joshua's account of this region. Its two main divisions 173 

I. Bashan. 2. Extent of Bashan, and its divisions under the Romans. 3. Gen- 
eral description of Bashan. Jebel Heish. Gaulonitis and Auranitis. Bata- 
naea. Question respecting the Mount of Bashan. 4. Trachonitis or the 
Lejah. It is the Argob of the Old Testament. Singular character of Lejah. 
Its borders studded with the remains of ancient cities. Josephus' account 
of Trachonitis. 5. Fertility of Bashan. Scriptural notices of it. 6. Ancient 
populousness of the region Its present desolate condition. Some account 



CONTENTS. 11 

of its deserted cities and ruins. 7. Ancient towns of Bashan. Bozrah. 
The capital city of the region under Koman s\vay. Account of its ruins. 
Its citadel. To be distinguished from the Bozrah of Edom. Salcah. Beth- 

gamul. Ashtaroth and Edrei. Kenath 173 

//. Gilead. 8. Its extent and two general divisions. Its northern boundary. 
Application of the term Mishor. 9. Northena division of Gilead or Jebel 
Ajlun described. 10. Southern part of Gilead or the Belka. Site of Pisgah. 
Magnificent view from its summit. Balaam prophesied from the same 
height. 11. Eivers of Gilead — Hieromax, Jabbok, Zurka Main, and Anion. 
12. Remains of ancient cities. Gadara. Tombs in its vicinity. Gerasa. 
Its ruins the most extensive east of the Jordan. Site of Jabesh-gilead. 
Scriptural notices of this place. Site of Pella. Site of Eamoth-gilead, and 
its Scriptural history. Question respecting the site of Mahanaim. 13. Buins 
in the southern part of the Belka. These places originally belonged to the 
Moabites, and fell again into their hands upon the decline of the Israelitish 
power. Ileshbon, Elealeh, Beth-meon, Medeba, Kiriathaim, Dibon, and 
Aroer. 14, Remarks on the present condition of the land of promise, and 
its future prospects - 180 

CHAPTEK VI. 

ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE ISRAELITISH LAND. 

1. Recapitulation of its natural divisions-- ini 

/. Hebrew Division by Tribes. 2. The boundaries of the tribes can be only proxi- 
mately determined. 3. Tribes east of the Jordan. Extent of the kingdoms 
of Sihon and Og. How divided between the two and a half tribes. Terri- 
tory of Reuben. Of Gad. That of the half tribe of Manasseh. 4. The 
eastern frontier of the above-named tribes. Their warlike character and 
conquests. Valor of the Gadites. 5. Remarks on the first attempt at dis- 
tribution w^est of the Jordan. Idea under which it was commenced. This 
idea not realized. 6. Territory originally assigned to Judah. Its northern 
boundary, 7. Territory of Simeon. It fell within the lot of Judah. Jacob's 
prophetic words respecting Simeon, Remarkable decrease of the tribe in 
the wilderness. 8. Territory of Benjamin. Jerusalem lay within this tribe. 
9. Territory of Dan. Its small size. Their expedition to the northern bor- 
der of the land, 10. Territory of Ephraim. Of the half tribe of Manasseh, 
Excellence of the portion that fell to the sons of Joseph. 11. Issachar. 
12. Zebulun, 13. Asher and Naphtali. Beauty and fertility of this part of 
Galilee. Prophetic encomiums of Jacob and Moses, 14. The tribe of Levi 
received no separate territory, but forty-eight cities with their suburbs. 
Form and dimensions of these cities, 15, The terms Judah and Israel after 
the separation of the ten tribes 193 

//. Divisions of Palestine in the Roman Age. IG. The three provinces west of the 
Jordan, 17, Galilee. Its boundaries and two subdivisions. Origin of the 



12 CONTE^^TS. 

term, and its original application. 18. Boundaries of Samaria. Joseplms' 
account of its southern border. 19. Boundaries of Judaea. The South 
country of the ancient kingdom of Judah reckoned to Idumaea. 20. Bashan 
and its divisions under the Bomans. The Galaaditis of the Romans substan- 
tially the same as Peraga - - 203 

CHAPTER VII. 

CLIMATE, SOIL, AND NATURAL HISTORY OF PALESTINE. 

I. Climate. 1. Geographical position of Palestine contrasted with that of the 

gulf states of America. 2. Rainy and dry season. 3. Period of the rainy 
season. Wonderful transformation of the face of nature produced by it. 
4. Meaning of the terms Early or Former and Latter Rain. 5. Region from 
which the rain comes. Scriptural illustrations. 6. Beginning and duration 
of the dry season. Its effect upon vegetation. 7. Distribution of rain. How 
determined. 8. Temperature of the different sections of Palestine. How 
determined. 9. Climate of the mountainous regions. Bad condition of the 
winter roads. 10. Climate of the Jordan valley. Of the Mediterranean 
plain. 11. Means of determining the relative temperature of these different 
regions. Direct observation of the thermometer. Times of harvest. Pro- 
ductions peculiar to the different regions. 12. The Sirocco. Its debilitating 
effects. Origin of the name. Scriptural notices of it 206 

II. Soil. 13. Limestone the basis of the rocks of Palestine. Remains of a later 
chalk formation. Sandstones east of the Jordan valley. Basalt formations. 
14. Natural capabilities of the soil. Question respecting the physical dete- 
rioration of the climate. A bad government the main cause of the present 
desolations of Palestine. Proofs of the natural fertility of the soil. Jose- 
phus' account of Galilee. Standard of comparison in Moses' description of 
the promised land ---^ - •■ 213 

HI. Natural History. 15. General remarks, 16. Plants furnishing food to man. 
17. Plants furnishing clothing. 18. Fruit-bearing trees. Excellence of the 
vineyards of Palestine. Olive orchards. The fig, The sycamore. The 
pomegranate. Question respecting the apple-tree of our version. Oranges 
and other fruits. 19. Nut-bearing and other forest trees. The oak. Pista- 
cia. Carob-tree. 20. Odoriferous and other plants, The hyssop of Scrip- 
ture. 21. Egyptian plants in the valley of the Jordan and Dead sea. Notice 
of the papyrus. 22. Variety and beauty of wild flowers. 23. Use of flower- 
stalks and weeds for fuel. Of the ordure of animals. Burnings of lime. 
24. Domestic animals of Palestine. Buffaloes tame and wild. Broad-tailed 
sheep. 25. Wild animals. The cony of Scripture. Dogs without owners 
in Palestine. 26. Birds of Palestine. Notice of the Sj^rian nightingale. 
Pigeons in the clefts of the rocks. 27. Reptiles. Different Scrij)tural names 
for venomous serpents. The fiery serpents of the wilderness, and fiery flying 
serpents of Isaiah. 28. Fishes and marine animals. Badger of our version. 



CONTENTS. 13 

Coraciiius of Joseplius. 29. Insects. Bees. Different kinds of honej'. Lo- 
cust of the east described. Its ravages. Use of locusts for food. 30. Uni- 
corn of Scripture. Not a one-horned animal. It was of the ox kind, and 
known to the inhabitants of Palestine, but the particular species is uncer- 
tain. Question respecting the behemoth of Job. It was- either the hippo- 
potamus or the elephant. Meaning of the word leviathan 215 



CHAPTEK VIII. 

COUNTRIES ON THE SOUTH OF PALESTINE. 

General remark • 228 

7. Egypt and Ethiopia. 1. Claim of Egypt on our attention. Its names and 
ancient divisions. 2. Manetho's list of Egj^ptian dynasties. Remarks on 
Egyptian chronology. 3. Religion of the Egyptians. Their multiplication 
of deities. Relics of the primitive revelation. Why shepherds were an 
abomination to the Egyptians. 4. Government of Egypt. Its sacerdotal 
character. 5. Civilization of the Egyptians. Their progress in the arts and 
sciences. 6. Early relation of the covenant people to the Egyptians. 7. Their 
relation after the exodus. 8. Geographical features of Egypt. General 
divisions and extent of Egypt. 9. Upper Egj^pt. Its extent and character. 
Its subdivisions. Pathros. 10. Lower Egypt. Its boundaries. The coast. 
The alluvial plain behind it. 11. Land of Goshen. Its position and char- 
acter. Intercourse between the Israelites and Egyptians. 12. Description 
of the Nile. 13. Annual rise of the Nile. Its amount at different places. 
Effect of excessive or defective inundations. The Nile to Egypt the source 
of both plenty and famine. 14. Great fertility of Egypt. Modes of culture 
and irrigation. 15. Productions of Egypt. 16. Climate of Egypt. Liability 
to famines. 17. Ancient cities of Egypt — Alexandria, Zoar, Sin, Tahpanhes. 
Hanes probably identical with Tahpanhes. Migdol. Pi-beseth. Pithom 
and Rameses. On. Noph. Thebes, the No-amon of Scripture. Syene. 
18. Egyptian doctrine of the transmigration of souls. 19. Processes of 
embalming. 20. Tombs. The pyramids a class of these. Their form and 
dimensions. Fruitlessness of the toil bestowed by the Egyptians on the 
bodies of the deceased. 21. Ancient Ethiopia, the Cush of the Old Testa- 
ment. Relation of Ethiopia to Egypt and the covenant people. 22. Can- 
dace and her territorj' • -- - - 228 

II. Arabia. 23. The Sinaitic peninsula. 24. The two gulfs that enclose the 
peninsula. Ezion-geber and the site of Opliir. 25. DescrijDtion of the 
peninsula. 26. Passage of the Red sea by the Israelites. 27. The wil- 
derness of Shur. Route of the Israelites to Sinai. Distinction between 
Horeb and Sinai. 28. Question of the place whence the law was given. 

29. Route of the Israelites after leaving Sinai. Wilderness of Paran. 

30. Question of the site of Kadesh. 31. Sinaitic inscriptions. 32. Adapta- 



14 CONTENTS. 

tion of this region to the designs of God. 33. Question of the maintenance 
of the flocks and herds of the Israelites in the desert. The manner of the 
forty years' wandering. 34. The Amalekites. 35. The Kenites 247 

CHAPTEE IX. 

COUNTEIES ON THE SOUTHEAST AND EAST. 

/. Edom. 1. Territory of Edom before and after the Babj^lonish captivity. 
2. Mount Seir described. 3. Tlie Arabah at its western base. 4. Places 
of interest in and aronnd Mount Seir. Petra. Its situation described. 
Approach from the east by the Sik. The Khuzneh. General remarks. Sela 
and Petra probably identical. Mount Hor. Bozrah and Tophel. 5. Rela- 
tion of the Edomites to the Israelites. The occupancy by them of the south 
country of Judah during the captivity. Present desolation of Idumaea- 259 

TL The Country of the Moabites. 6. Proper Moabitish territory, and its charac- 
ter. 7. Its eastern cliffs bordering on the Dead sea, Wady Kerak. 8. Ar 
Moab. Kir Moab, the modern Kerak. 9. Relation of the Moabites to the 
children of Israel. Present desolation of their territory. The water that 
came by the way of Edom - - 264 

TIL TJie Country of the Ammonites. 10. Boundaries of Amnion. In what sense 
half their land was given to the tribe of Gad. Their nomadic character, and 
the fewness of their towns. 11. Rabbah. Its site described. Its magnifi- 
cent ruins. 12. Relation of the Ammonites to the covenant people 267 

IV. The Midianites, and other Arabian Tribes. 13. Seat of the nation. 14. Rela- 
tion of the Midianites to Israel. 15. Various Arabian tribes. Ephah. Sheba. 
Kedar. Nebaioth. The Hagarites. Tema. Dumah. The land of Uz-- 269 

CHAPTEE X. 
COUNTRIES ON THE NORTHEAST AND NORTH. 

I. Mesopotamia. 1. Remarks on the terms Aram and Hebrew. 2. Hebrew and 
Greek names of Mesopotamia. 3. Extent and divisions of Mesopotamia. 
4. Haran. Habor, Halah, and Hara. Modern Mesopotamian towns. 5. Con- 
nection of the Israelitish nation with Mesopotamia 273 

TL Syria Proper. 6. Its boundaries and extent. 7. Grand feature of this region. 
8, The range of Lebanon. Its direction and extent. Its highest peaks. 
Its western declivity. Its eastern. Origin and signification of the name 
Lebanon. View of Lebanon from below and from above. Products of Leb- 
anon. Its fruits. Its vineyards. Cedars of Lebanon. 9. Ridge of Anti- 
Lebanon. Its two divisions. Its character. Its southern part the Hermon 
of the Old Testament. Ridges radiating from Hermon. 10. Ccele-Syria 
and Wady et-Teim. Different extensions given by the ancients to the term 
Ccele-Syria. 11. The Leontes. Its stupendous chasm. Ancient castle at 



CONTENTS. 15 

its bend. 12. Entering in of Hamath. Jebel en-Nusairiyeh. Mount Ca- 
sius. Plain of Hums and mountain range north of it. Valley of el-Ghab. 
13. Course of the Orontes. 14. Chain of Amanus and the hilly tract to the 
east. Gates of Syria and plain of Issus. 15. Places of chief interest in the 
great Syrian valley. Beth-rehob. Abel-beth-maachah. Ijon. Baal-gad. Has- 
beiya and Rasheiya. Euins of Baalbec. Belies of heathen temples along this 
valley. Ribleh and its Scriptural associations. Hums, the ancient Emesa. 
Hamah, the Hamath of Scripture. Antioch. Its situation, and Scriptural 
notices of it. Seleucia. 16. Plain of Damascus. Its boundaries, form, and 
extent. 17. Irrigation of the plain. The Abana and Pharpar. Comparison 
' of these streams with the Jordan. 18. Approach to Damascus from the 
west. The city described. 19. The plain of Damascus. Its lakes ar>d 
marshes. 20. Antiquity and history of Damascus. Scriptural notices of it. 
21. Helbon and its wine. 22. Aram-Zobah. 23. Abilene. 24. Palmyra. 

Its ruins described - - 276 

III. Phoenicia. 25. Boundaries of Phoenicia Proper. 26. Phoenicia in the wider 
sense. 27. Commercial character of the Phoenicians. Wide extent of their 
commerce. Circumnavigation of Africa. 28. Their progress in the arts and 
sciences. The Greeks had from them their primitive alphabet. Substantial 
agreement of their language with that of the HebreM^s. 29. Their friendly 
relation to the Hebrews in David's and Solomon's time. Their unfriendly 
conduct at a later date. 30. Phoenician cities, Tj're. Its site. Converted 
into a peninsula by Alexander's causeway. Its harbor. Its great antiquity. 
Sieges sustained by it. Its present miserable condition. Ezekiel's descrip- 
tion of the Tyrian commerce with the surrounding regions— Senir, the isles 
of Elishah, Lud and Phut, Tarshish, with the questions concerning it, Javan, 
Tubal and Meshech, Togarmah, Dedan, Vedan. Zidon, or Sidon. Its an- 
tiquity and history. Beauty of its environs. Zarephath, the Sarepta of the 
New Testament. Gebal. Arvad. The modern cities of Beirut and Tara- 
bulus, or Tripolis 291 

CHAPTER XI. 

ASIA MINOR AND GREECE. 

1. Application of the modern term Asia Minor. Meaning of the w^ord Asia in 
the New Testament. Character of Asia Minor. Loose use of the term Asia 
in the apocrypha. 2. Greece. General remark on the region. Designa- 
tions of Greece and the regions west of it, in the Old Testament. Meaning 
of the word "isles." Chittim. Asia Minor and Greece very prominent. in 
the history of the apostolic labors. 3. The seven churches in Asia. Their 
general position and relation to each other. Ephesus, with its port Miletus. 
Smyrna. Pergamos. Thyatira. Sardis. Philadelphia. Laodicea. Colosse 
and Hieropolis in the neighborhood of Laodicea. 4. Paul's first missionary 
tour. Cyprus, with its towns Salamis and Paphos. Attalia. Perga. Anti- 



16 CONTENTS. 

och in Pisidia. Iconium. Lystra and Derbe. 5. Paul's second missionary 
tour. His course through Cilicia, Phrygia, and Galatia to Troas; from Troas 
by Samothrace and Neapolis to Philippi in Macedonia; from Philippi through 
Amphipolis and Apollonia to Thessalonica. Description of this place. The 
apostle at Athens, and at Corinth. 6. Paul's third missionary tour. He 
passes through Asia Minjor to Ephesus. His long stay at Ephesus. He 
visits Greece and returns to Troas. Illyricum and Dalmatia. The apostle's 
route from Troas by Assos, Mitylene, Chios, Samos, Miletus, Coos, Rhodes, 
to Patara. His return to Jerusalem. 7. Places noticed in connection with 
Paul's voyage to Rome. Adramyttium. Course to Myra. Promontory of 
Cnidos. Island of Crete. Promontory of Salmone. The Fair Havens near 
Lasea. Phoenice, Clauda. Melita, the modern Malta. Position of the 
quicksands. Course from Melita to Eome by Syracuse, Rhegium, Puteoli, 
and The Three Taverns 299 

CHAPTEK XII. 

THE EASTERN EMPIRES. 

General remark ■ 309 

I. Assyria. 1. Assyria Proper and the Assyrian empire. 2. Relations of this 

empire to the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. 3. Former flourishing condi- 
tion of the Assyrian region, and its civilization in ancient times. 4. Ruins 
of the Assyrian cities. Ancient Nineveh. 5. Fulfilment of prophecy. 
6. Other Assyrian places - 309 

II. Chaldma. 7. Chaldaea Proper. Babylonia. Chald^a in the wider sense. 
Chaldseans as a class of learned men. The land of Shinar. Eden. 8. An- 
tiquity of the Babylonian kingdom. The Chaldsean monarchy of Scripture 
history. Date and duration of the Babylonish captivity. 9. Ancient Baby- 
lon. 10. Other Babylonian cities - 314 

III. The Medes and Persians. 11. Upper Media, Lower Media. 12. The two 
cities called Ecbatana. The Achmetha of Ezra. 13. Persia in the strict 
sense. The Persian empire. Elam. Susa. 14. Empire of the Medes and 
Persians 31 7 

CHAPTEE XIII. 

OTHER REMOTE REGIONS. 

1. Scriptural notices of Italy few and general. Rome. Prevalence of Greek 
literature in that city. 2. Armenia. Ararat. 3. Gog and Magog. 4. India. 
5. The land of Sinim or China 320 



CONTENTS. 17 

PART n. 

BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



FIRST DIVISION— DOMESTIC ANTIQUITIES. 

CHAPTEE XIV. 

AGRICULTURE. 

I. Adaptation of Palestine to agricultural pursuits. 2. The Mosaic laws favorable 

to agriculture — the sabbatical year ; the year of jubilee. 3. Irrigation of the 
soil ; its various modes and Scriptural references to it. 4. Terraces. 5. Im- 
plements of agriculture — the plough, mattock or hoe, harrow. 6. Animals 

employed in agriculture. The ploughman's goad 335 

Peincipal Depaetments of Ageicultuke. I. The Cereal and Leguminous Plants. 
7. Wheat, barley, etc. — beans, lentiles, etc. 8. Seedtime — modes of sowing. 
9. Barley and wheat harvest. Mode of reaping and gathering. 10. Thresh- 
ing-floors. Modes of threshing. The threshing sledge. Threshing a sym- 
bol of destroying judgments. 11. Winnowing. The winnowing shovel or 
fan. Winnowing a symbol of discriminating judgments. 12. Storehouses 
for grain. 13. Provision made for the poor in the Mosaic code. Harvest 
scenes in the book of Ruth — 342 

II. Culture of the Vine. 14. Palestine celebrated for its vineyards. The vine of 
Sorek. Wild grapes. 15. Appointments of a vineyard. The hedge, tower, 
etc. 16. The vintage. Raisins, and honey of grapes. 17. Wine and its 
manufacture. The winepress and vat. Treading of the grapes, and its 
symbolical import. 18. Different preparations from the must. Exposure of 
wine bottles to smoke. 19. Strong drink, how prepared. Drugged wine 
and its symbolical import. 20. Various terms for the juice of the grape 
or preparations made from it. Distinction between new wine and wine. 
Honey of grapes. Sweet wine. Wine on the lees. Vinegar of wine 348 

III. Culture of the Olive. 21. The olive-tree and its wood. 22. Olive-berries and 
oil. 23. Modes of expressing the oil. Beaten Oil. Various oil-mills. Ques- 
tion respecting the treading of olives. 24. The storing of olive-oil 356 

IV. Fndt-Trees. 25-27. The date-palm. 28. The fig-tree. 29. The sycamore. 
30. The pomegranate. 31. The apple of the Old Testament. The almond 359 

V. Various Other Departments of Agricultural Labor. 32. Gardens and orchards. 

Hebrew idea of a paradise. Scriptural allusions to gardens. 33. The bal- 
sam of the Old Testament. Opobalsamum. Myrobalanum. 34. Honey of 
bees. Abundance of bees in Palestine. Food of the Baptist in the wilder- 
364 



18 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE XV. 

CAEE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS AND OTHER ANIMALS. 

1. Nomadic character of tlie early patriarchs, and of the two and a half tribes 
east of the Jordan. 2. The civilization of nomads inferior to that of agri- 
cultural people. Their roving life. Their abode in tents. Oriental tents 
described, and their furniture. Order of encampment. The nomadic life 
unfavorable to stable institutions, and favorable to predatory expeditions. 
Ancient plundering incursions of the nomadic tribes. 3. The camel. 
4-8. Sheep and goats. 9. Neat-cattle. 10. Fountains and cisterns. 11. Asses. 
12. Horses. 13. Hunting and fishing 367 

CHAPTER XVI. 

HOUSES AND THEIR APPOINTMENTS. 

1. Caves as dwelling-places. 2. Different classes of houses. 3. General idea and 
plan of an oriental house. It fronts inwardly, and presents a mean appear- 
ance externally. The doorway or gate. The porch. 4. Courts of oriental 
houses. These distinguished from the court of the temple. 5. The verandah 
around the court, and chambers behind it. Gallery of the second floor, with 
its chambers. Different quality and uses of the chambers. Outer and inner 
courts. Height of oriental houses. Cellars for storage. 6. The reception- 
room. This the room of the high-priest's palace where Jesus was arraigned. 
Circumstances of the evangelic narrative. Guest chambers. Divans. The 
corner of the divan the seat of honor. 7. Flights of stairs. Windows and 
lattices. 8. Flat roofs of oriental houses. Manner of their construction, and 
materials employed. Their imperfection. Case of the paralytic who was let 
down through the roof. 8. Uses made of these roofs. Samson's exploit in 
. the temple of Dagon. 9. Battlements around the roofs. Upper chambers. 
Our Lord's admonition to him who is upon the housetop. Proclamations 
from roofs. 10. Fireplaces and absence of chimneys. Summer and winter 
houses. Egyptian mode of ventilation. 11. Materials of eastern houses. 
12. Their appointments. 13. Their Aspect. Walls of ancient cities — 383 

CHAPTER XVII. 
DRESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS. 

1. General remarks. 2. The tunic. 3. The girdle. Girding up the loins. 4. 
The robe. 5. The mantle. Its use as a covering at night. Varieties of it. 
Modern oriental outer garments. Breeches. 6. The oriental shoe a sandal. 
Oriental usages in respect to sandals and shoes. 7. The hair and beard. 
Head-dresses. 8. The staff. The signet and its use. The necklace. Cloth- 
ing an officer with robes of office. 9. Veils. 10. Ezekiel's description of the 
dress of a woman of rank. Isaiah's catalogue of female adornments. Paint* 



CONTENTS. 19 

ing the eyebrows. Wearing of artificial horns not a Hebrew usage. 11. Ma- 
terials employed for clothing. Prohibition in respect to garments of mixed 
materials, and to the interchange of garments between the sexes. Fringes 
on the borders of garments. Phylacteries. 12. Colors of garments, and 
their significance. Changes of raiment 396 

CHAPTEK XVIII. 

THE PREPARATION OF FOOD AND MEALS. 

1. The primitive mortar and pestle. 2. Oriental mills. Women grinding at 
them. Manner of working them. Sound of the millstone. 3. Kneading- 
troughs. 4. Bread unleavened and leavened. Unleavened cakes baked in 
the ashes. Modern Arabic process. Unleavened bread of the modern Jew- 
ish passover. Loaves of leavened bread. 5. Ovens and bakeries. Public 
ovens. Private ovens portable and fixed. 6. Other modes of cooking. 
7. Articles of diet. 8. Posture at meals. Of the ancient Hebrews, of the Jews 
in our Saviour's time. 9. Mode of taking food. Washing of hands. An 
Arab feast described. Wedding and birthday festivals. The wedding garment 
of our Lord's parable. 10. Oriental hospitality, ancient and modern — 408 

CHAPTER XIX. 

DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND USAGES. 

I, The Family. 1. Origin of polygamy. Position of the Mosaic law with respect 
to it. Its discontinuance under the gospel. 2. Distinction between the wife 
and the concubine. General remark. 3. Hebrew usage in regard to the 
choice of a wife. 4. The espousal. 5. Marriage dowry given on the side of 
the bridegroom. No dowry in the case of concubines. 6. Consummation of 
the marriage. The marriage-feast, and ceremonies connected with it. 7. The 
law of the Levirate. 8. Forbidden degrees of consanguinity. Question 
concerning the marriage of a deceased wife's sister. Intermarriages with the 
Canaanites forbidden. Special restrictions in the case of the high priest, and 
of common priests. General remark on second marriages. 9. The Hebrew 
law of divorce. Our Saviour's rule. 10. Adultery as defined by the Mosaic 
law. Penalty attached to the crime. Ordeal for a woman suspected of adul- 
tery. 11. The Hebrew wife's desire of offspring. Birthday festivities. The 
rite of circumcision, and naming of the child. Purification of the mother. 
Significance of Hebrew names. The giving of new names. 12. Power of the 
father over his children, and its limitation by the Mosaic law. Prerogatives 
of the first-born son. Figurative use of the term first-born 419 

n. Masters and Servants. 13. Distinction between hired servants and bond- 
servants. The Hebrew servant not a personal chattel. His rights as a man. 
Every religious privilege secured to him. Question in respect to the rite 



20 CONTENTS. 

of circumcision. 14. Classes of servants. Man-stealing a capital oflfence. 
15. Limitations of the time of servitude. Two classes of passages consid- 
ered, and the different ways of reconciling them. 16. Servitude among the 
Gentile nations • - - 430 

III. Forms of Social Intercourse. 17. Ancient Hebrew forms of salutation illus- 
trated from Scriptural examples. Various forms of greeting. Modern orien- 
tal forms of salutation. Their tediousness and heartlessness. 18. Dancing 
as a religious act. Social dancing. 19. Place of woman among the Hebrews. 
Keserve in the social intercourse between the sexes. The degradation of 
woman in Mohammedan countries. 20. Ceremonial of visits. The gates of 
cities places of common resort. 21, The bestowal of gifts and alms 434 

IV. The Burial of the Bead. 22. The loss of burial considered as a great calamity. 
23. Funeral rites of the ancient Hebrews. Burning of the corpse not cus- 
tomary among them. 24. Oriental expressions of mourning. Professional 
mourners, ancient and modern. Self-laceration for the dead forbidden to 
the Hebrews 439 

Appendix. Grecian and Eoman games 443 

CHAPTER XX. 

THE SCIENCES AND ARTS. 
1. General Remark 447 

I. Hebrew Divisions of Time. 2. Hebrew years and months. 3. Intercalary month. 

Jewish way of determining the beginning of the month. 4. Beginning of 
the Jewish year. In what sense the Hebrews had a sacred and a civil year. 
Names of the Jewish months. 5. Division of time into weeks. The week of 
weeks. The week of years. The week of Sabbatical years. 6. The Hebrew 
day reckoned from evening to evening. The time denoted by the two even- 
ings. 7. Hours and modes of determining them. Hebrew and Roman 
watches - 447 

II. Domestic and Mechanical Arts. 8. Hebrew proficiency in these arts. They 

were not preeminent in them 451 

III. The Art of Writing. 9. Understood in Egypt before Moses' day. He used 
the Shemitic alphabet. Notices of writing in the Pentateuch. 10. Materials 
of writing. Paper and parchments the most important of these. Manufac- 
ture of paper from the papyrus plant. 11. Instruments of writing. Ink. 
12. Form of ancient books. 13. Epistles 453 

rV. Music and Musical Instruments. 14. General remarks. 15. Origin of the 
Hebrew instruments. 16. Egyptian and Assyrian stringed instruments — 
the harp, lyre, guitar or lute. Question of the identification of Scriptural 
stringed instruments. 18. Wind instruments — the horn and trumpet, the 
flute and pipe, the organ. 19. Instrumeiits of percussion — the timbrel, the 
cymbal, etc. - 456 

V. The Medical Art. 20. General remarks. 21. Remarks on the leprosy of an- 

cient times, and on demoniacal possessions 460 



CONTENTS. 21 

CHAPTEK XXI 
TRADE AND COMMERCE. 

1 , The Hebrews before the captivity eminently an agricultural people. Change 
of their habits consequent on their dispersion among the Gentiles. 2, The 
early Hebrews not distinguished for their commerce. 3. Character of an- 
cient navigation. Ships of war, and of burden. 4. Commerce by overland 
routes. The caravan. Chief caravan routes. 5. Inns, so called, of ancient 
times. They were either lodging-places in the open air, or caravanserais. 
6. Weights and measures indispensable to trade and commerce. Tables of 
Hebrew weights and measures ,- 463 

SECOND DIVISION— CIVIL ANTIQUITIES. 
CHAPTEK XXII. 

THE PATRIARCHAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 

1. The covenant made with Abraham, and its conditions. The transaction at 
Sinai, and Joshua's charge to the people. 2. Mosaic legislation in the civil 
sphere. 3. Origin of the patriarchal form of government, and its defects. 

4. Primary division of the Israelites into tribes, with their subdivisions, 

5. Divisions made by Moses at Jethro's suggestion. Origin of the term 
"thousands " as applied to the families of the tribes. 6. Chiefs of the tribes, 
and divisions of tribes with their designations. These constituted the elders 
and representatives of the people, and the people were addressed through 
them. 7. Hebrew officers. Their close relation to the judges. They prob- 
ably had the charge of the genealogical tables. 8. Courts appointed by 
Moses in the wilderness, and their relation to each other. Courts in the 
land of Canaan. Josephus' account of them. 9. Extraordinary rulers. The 
two offices of Moses. 10. The offices of Joshua. 11. The judges in an emi- 
nent sense. 12. Administration of the government during the patriarchal 
period. Loose relation of the tribes to each other. 13. The religious and 
social bond during this period. The three great national festivals, and their 
influence. The policy of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Closing remark- - 469 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE KINGLY FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 

1. General remark. 2. In the manner of establishing the kingly form of govern- 
ment God asserted his continued supremacy. 3. The bright side of this 
form — increase of national strength, internal tranquillity, suppression of idol- 
atry by the pious kings. 4. The dark side — abridgment of personal liberty 
in accordance with the oriental idea of monarch)', arbitrary demand of ser- 



22 CONTENTS. 

vice, onorous taxes, patronage of idolatry by the wicked kin^s. Checks to 
the abuse of the royal prerogative. 5. Administration of the kingly govern- 
ment. The power of the kings subordinate to the Mosaic law. 6. Kite of 
inauguration. 7. Officers of the kingdom — the commander-in-chief, the 
commander of the body-guard, the recorder, the scribe, the officer over the 
levy, the king's counsellor, the king's friend. Officers of the royal house- 
hold. 8. Sources of the royal revenue — presents, the produce of the royal 
possessions, tribute, the spoils of conquered nations, tribute imposed upon 
merchants. 9. The appointments of the royal household. Its splendor and 
luxury under Solomon, with the evils that ensued - 482 

CHAPTEE XXIV. 

THE FOKM OF GOVEENMENT AFTER THE CAPTIVITY. 

1. Remarks on the captivity of the ten tribes, and the origin of the Samaritans. 
The Babylonish captivity. Return of the Jews to Palestine, and incorpora- 
tion with them of a remnant of the ten tribes. 2. The distinction of tribes 
practically lost after the captivity. The Jews reestablished under their old 
constitution and laws, but in subordination to the Persian empire. Transfer 
of the power to the Greeks under Alexander the Great. 3. Their condition 
after the division of his empire. Their sufferings under Antiochus Epipha- 
nes. Their independence, and subsequent subjection to the Romans. Herod 
the great and his sons. 4. Judea made a Roman province. The two classes 
of provinces. The prerogatives of Pontius Pilate as procurator of Judea. 
5. Origin of the great sanhedrim. Its number and constitution. Its presi- 
ding officers and servants. Its prerogatives 492 

CHAPTER XXV. 

THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

1. Introductory remarks 492 

I. Processes of Justice. 2. The Mosaic law the supreme rule of judgment. Qual- 

ities required of judges. Provision for the execution of their decisions. 
3. Ordinary places of trial. The time of trial. 4. Simple and summary 
character of the process. The examination of witnesses. Number of wit- 
nesses required. Penalty for bearing false testimony. Question whether an 
oatb was administered to witnesses. Question as to the employment of 
written documents. 5. The sentence carried into execution without delay 498 

II. Hebrew Penalties. 6. Preliminary remarks. 7. Imprisonment not used as a 
form of penalty. Prisoners of state. Places used for prisons, and the treat- 
ment of prisoners. 8. Fines and compensation in kind. 9. Corporal pun- 
ishment. 10. Punishment by the loss of freedom. 11. The penalty of death. 
12-14. Forms of capital punishment. 15. The punishment of excision. 
16. The avenger of blood and the cities of refuge - 502 



CONTENTS. 23 

III. Penalties of ForeUjn Nations. 17. Imprisonment as a penalty not common. 
Scourging. Decapitation. Hanging and strangulation. Beating to death. 
Dichotomy. Burning. Exposure to wild beasts. Crucifixion. The sub- 
jects of this punishment. The process described 510 



CHAPTEE XXVI. 

MILITARY AFFAIRS. 

I. The Levying of Ti'oops. 1. The Israelites entered Canaan as a nation of soldiers. 

2. Levying in mass for brief expeditions. Remarkable provision of the 
Mosaic law. 3. Standing armies under the kings. General levyings of the 
men of war under the kings 514 

II. (Jonstitution of the Army. 4. Cavalry and war chariots not employed by the 
early Hebrews. Their use in later times limited. Division of the foot sol- 
diers into light-armed and heavy-armed. 5. Division of the army into thou- 
sands and hundreds, with their officers 516 

III. Arms Offensive and Defensive. 6. Offensive weapons of the heavy-armed 
troops — the sword and its sheath, the spear, the javelin, the mace. 7. Offen- 
sive weapons of the light-armed troops. These partly common to them with 
the heavy-armed soldiers. Their distinctive weapons the bow and arrow 
with the quiver, the sling. 8. The ancient war-chariot. Its construction. 
Its horses. Its complement of men. 9. Defensive armor 51G 

IV. The Order of Battle. 10. The Roman order. The charge of the orientals 
impetuous. Ambuscades. 11. Personal encounters in ancient battles - 523 

v. T'he Siege of Cities. 12. Prominence of this part of warfare. Defences of 
ancient towns, artificial and natural. 13. Preparations for a siege on the 
part of the besieged. Engines for throwing stones and javelins. Fiery darts. 
Preparations on the part of the assailants. Engines of war on their side. 
Lines of circumvallation. The besiegers' mount. Towers, fixed and mova- 
ble. The battering-ram. The Roman battering-ram described. Sheds to 
protect the besiegers. The running of mines. References in the Old Testa- 
ment to the above appliances. 14. Remarkable sieges of antiquity — the 
siege of Ashdod, of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, of Tyre by Nebuchadnez- 
zar, of Babylon by Cyrus, of Tyre by Alexander the Great, of Jerusalem by 
the Romans 524 

VI. The Bights Claimed hy the Victors. 15. Remarks on the extent of these. 
16. The rule prescribed by Moses for the Israelites. Remarks on the sever- 
ity of ancient warfare. Merciful spirit of the Hebrew kings. 17. Remarks 
on the extirpation of the Canaanites - 528 

Appendix. On Roman citizenship 531 

1. The apostle Paul's use of this prerogative. 2. Ways in which foreigners ob- 
tained it. 3. Paul had it as the son of a Roman citizen. 4. Privileges of 
Roman citizens - 531 



24 CONTENTS. 

THIED DIVISION— SACKED ANTIQUITIES 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

HISTOEICAL SURVEY. 

1. General remarks. 2. The history of the antediluvian world. 3. The law 
against mnrder after the deluge. The call of Abraham, and God's purpose 
in selecting one family to be the depositary of revelation. The patriarchal 
age. 4. The tabernacle. The Mosaic economy. God its immediate author. 
It regulated the whole life of the Hebrews, civil and religious, was supple- 
mentary to the Abrahamic covenant, preparatory to Christ's advent, tempo- 
rary, adapted to the childhood of the covenant people, and given immedi- 
ately by God in all its details. 5. It taught mainly by types. No provision 
for stated weekly instruction before the captivity. 6. Introduction of psalm- 
ody and music by David. Notice of this part of worship in Hezekiah's time, 
and after the captivity. 7. The first and second temple. 8. The establish- 
ment of the Jewish synagogue after the captivity. Its importance as prepar- 
ing the way for the Christian sanctuary 534 . 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 
THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FUENITURE. 

I. Structure of the Tabernacle and Court. 1. The essential idea of a sanctuary. 
2. General description of the tabernacle. Eemarks on the boards of which 
its framework was composed. The bars and their rings. 3. The coverings 
of the sanctuary — the innermost curtain called the tabernacle, the second 
curtain called the tent, the two coverings above. 4. Arrangement of the 
curtains. Various views on this point. Pins of the tabernacle. 5. The 
court of the tabernacle. Position of the tabernacle in the court 542 

n. Furniture of the Tabernacle. 6. The ark of the covenant. The mercy-seat. 
The cherubim at its two ends. The mercy-seat not a mere lid. Eemarks 
on the form of the cherubim. 7. The altar of incense. 8. The table of 
showbread and its apparatus. The showbread. Eepresentation of the table 
on the arch of Titus. Different names applied to the loaves placed upon it. 
Size of the loaves. 9. The golden candlestick and its implements. Its form 
on the arch of Titus. 10. The brazen altar in the court. Form and position 
of its grate. Filling of earth for the interior of the altar. Apparatus for the 
altar. 11. The laver and its base. Materials of which these were made. 
12. The holy anointing oil. 13. The holy sweet incense 549 

in. Removal of the Tabernacle and its Furniture. 14. Arrangements for encamp- 
ing and journeying. 15. Distribution of service in the removal of the taber- 



CONTENTS. 25 

nacle. 16. Preparation of the most holy things for removal. Their conceal- 

m<3nt from the eyes of the people. Remarks on the order of service 557 

IV. Symbolism of the Tabernacle and its Furniture. 17. General remarks. 18. Sj'm- 
bolism of the tabernacle as a whole. 19. Of the inner sanctuary, with 
its ark, mercy-seat, and two tables of the law. Meaning of the expression 
"tabernacle of the congregation." Symbolical meaning of the cherubim. 

20. Meaning of the golden lamps and showbread, and of the altar of incense. 

21. Symbolism of the materials used in the construction of the tabernacle 
and its furniture. 22. The cloud a symbol of God's presence. Remarks on 
the word "shekinah" 560 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE PRIESTHOOD, SACRIFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 

1. Points in which the Levitical priests typified Christ. Points of dissimilarity. 
Mediatorship between God and men the essence of priesthood. No proper 
priests known to the New Testament. The essential idea of sacrifices - - 567 

I. The Aaronlc Priesthood. 2. Selection of the tribe of Levi for God's special 

service, and of Aaron's family for the priesthood. Notice of the two lines of 
Eleazar and Ithamar. 3-9. The holy garments for Aaron and his sons. 
10. Significance of the priestly garments. Symbolism of the mitre, with its 
golden plate. 11. Inauguration of Aaron and his sons. Anointing the sign 
of consecration. 12. Sacrifices, and sprinkling of blood connected with this 
inauguration. 13. Continuance of the rites of inauguration. Offerings ou 
the eighth day for the congregation 5')8 

II. The Sacrifices and Oblations. 14. Difi'erent kinds of sacrifices, and the natu- 
ral order of the same. 15. The sin-offering. Its signification, and rites con- 
nected with it. Question of the distinction between sin-offerings and tres- 
pass-offerings. 16. The burnt-offering and its significance. 17. The peace- 
offering. Meaning of the term, and various divisions of this class of offer- 
ings. Their festive character, and the rites connected with them. General 
remarks on the Hebrew feasts. 18. The unbloody oblations, and their sig- 
nificance. 19. Typical transactions connected with sacrifices. 20. God 
approached under the Mosaic economy only through the mediation of the 
priest. Under the New Testament all believers are a spiritual priesthood, 
approaching God through Christ's intercession — 576 

lY. The Priests and Levites as Classes. 21. The gradations in respect toihe rela- 
tion of the Israelites to God. 22. Special regulations pertaining to the 
priestly office. Summary of the duties of the common priests. 23. Duties 
of the Levites in the wilderness. Reorganization of the Levites by David. 
Their various offices under this organization. 24. Provision for the main- 
tenance of the Levites and priests. 25. The so-called second tithe. Remarks 
on the practice of giving tithes. 26. Regulations respecting the first-boru 
of men and beasts. 27. Offerings of first-fruits. 28. The Levitical cities 584 

2 



26 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE DISTINCTIONS OF CLEAN AND UNCLEAN. 

1. General remarks 590 

I. Distinctions of Clean and Unclean in Respect to Food. 2. The Levitical specifi- 

cations. 3. Principle of these distinctions — * 591 

II. Uncleanness from Conditions of the Body. 4. General remark. 5. Uncleanness 

from leprosy. The so-called leprosy of houses and garments. Other sources 
of uncleanness. 6. Death the culmination of uncleanness 593 

III. Purifications from Uncleanness. 7. Kites of purification in less important 
cases. 8. Purification of women after childbirth ; 9. Of persons defiled by 
the touch of a corpse. 10. Bites of purification prescribed in the case of 
those who had recovered from the plague of leprosy. 11. Expiation in case 
of a murder committed by an unknown person 594 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

SACKED SEASONS OF THE HEBREWS 

I. ISahbaths, Sabbatical Years, and New Moons. 1. The Sabbath existed from the 

beginning. 2. Essential idea of the Sabbath. 3. Ordinances engrafted upon 
it by the Mosaic law. These local and temporary. Change of the day under 
the New Testament. 4. The Sabbatical year. 5. The year of jubilee. Re- 
marks on the meaning of the word "Sabbath." 6. The new moon, and rites 
connected with it 598 

II. The Original National Festivals. 7. The three annual festivals appointed by 
Moses. 8. The passover. 9. Occasion of its establishment, and manner of 
its celebration. 10. Feast of unleavened bread connected with it. 11. Sac- 
rificial character of the passover. It was both commemorative and typical. 
Remarks on the various rites of the passover. 12. Sheaf of first-fruits. 
13. Observance of the passover by the later Jews. 14. The passover preemi- 
nently a type of Christ. Its passage into the ordinance of the Lord's supper. 
15. Feast of the pentecost. 16. Presentation of the two wave-loaves, and the 
sacrifices connected therewith. 17. The law given according to Jewish tradi- 
tion on the day of pentecost. The Christian dispensation inaugurated on 
this day. 18. The feast of tabernacles. 19 Rites observed on the occasion 
of this festival — the dwelling in booths the numerous sacrifices and obla- 
tions, the holy convocations on the first and eighth days. Later Jewish 
usage of drawing water from Siloam, and pouring it out on the altar. 
20. General remarks- - 600 

III. Later Jewish Festivals. 21. The feast of purim. 22. The feast of dedication. 
23. Annual fasts of the later Jews - G08 



CONTENTS. 27 

CHAPTEE XXXII. 
VOWS AND DEVOTED THINGS. 

1. The Herem, or devotion to destruction. 2. Affirmative vows. 3. Remarks on 
the significance of these. 4. Regulations in respect to vows. 5. Negative 
vows. Nazarite vows the most important of these. The three rules imposed 
on the Nazarite — abstinence from every product of the vine, leaving the hair 
unshorn, avoiding defilement. Eites at the close of the period of consecra- 
tion. Underlying idea of the Nazarite vow. Significance of the various 
rules pertaining to it. 7. Remark on the common formula of swearing - GIO 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE FIRST AND SECOND TEMPLE. 

1. General remarks 615 

I. The Temple of Solomon. 2. Site and general form. 3. Interior arrangements. 

4. The oracle or inner sanctuary, with its doorway and veil. The doorway 
and veil of the outer sanctuary. 5. Furniture of the sanctuary. 6. The 
porch with its two pillars of brass. 7. The chambers around the temple. 
8. The inner and outer court. 9. Furniture of the inner court •• 615 

II. The Temple of Zeruhhabel. 10. General account of its structure. 11. Com- 
parison of it with the first temple. Articles wanting in it 620 

III. The Temple of Herod. 12. Herod's mode of procedure. Why the temple as 
renewed by him was still called the second temple. 13. Dimensions of the 
temple area. The outermost enclosure called the court of the Gentiles, with 
its porches. 14. The inner court with its walls. Its subdivision into the 
court of the Israelites, and court of the women. The court of the priests. 

15. Gates in the outer wall of the temple area. Gates in the inner wall. 

16. Porch of the temple, with its open gateway. Gates to the outer and inner 
sanctuary, with their veils. Size of the two sanctuaries and of the temple. 

17. The altar of burnt-offering 622 

CHAPTER XXXIY. 

THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE. 

1. Origin and silent growth of the synagogue. 2. The synagogue as a religious 
system to be distinguished from synagogue buildings. 3. Description of the 
synagogue buildings. Oratories. 4. Organization of the synagogue. 5, Order 
of service. 6. Influence of the synagogue on the Jews themselves. 7. On 
the Christian church. 8. The worship of the Christian church contrasted 
with that of Ihe tabernacle and synagogue. 9. The so-called Great Sjiia- 
gogue • 627 



28 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEE XXXV. 

THE JEWISH SECTS OF LATEB TIMES. 
1. General remarks on the sources of information concerning these sects C35 

I. The Pharisees. These both a party in the state and a sect in religion. Mean- 

ing of the name. Origin of the sect. 3. Its essential cliaracter. Predomi- 
nant influence of the Pharisees in religion and in political life. 4. Their 
system of traditions. 5. Their theological tenets. Belief in angelic beings, 
good and evil. Belief in the immortality of the soul, and in a future resur- 
rection. Josephus' account of this latter doctrine as held by them. Germs 
of the above two doctrines in the Old Testament. Doctrine in respect to the 
divine decrees and human freedom. 6. Our Saviour's denunciation of the 
Pharisees. Bemarks on the terms scribe and lawyer -• 635 

II. The Sadducees. 7. Bemark respecting the name. The Sadducees both a sect 
and a party. 8. Essential feature of Sadduceeism. 9. Their theological 
tenets — denial of the immortality of the soul, of the existence of angels or 
spirits, of divine foreordination. Our Saviour's mode of refuting the Sad- 
ducees 640 

III. The Essenes. 10. Sources of knowledge respecting them. They were an 
ascetic community. General features of their system. 11. Their theological 
belief 641 

rV. The Herodians. 12. They were partisans of Herod and supporters of the 
Boman dominion in Palestine. Question of the Pharisees and Herodians 
respecting the tribute-money - - 643 

APPENDIX TO THE THIKD DIVISION. 
ON THE IDOLATBY OF THE HEBBEWS. 

I.. Remarks on the Ancient Systems of Idolatry. 1. Sin the ground of man's apos- 
tasy from God. Systems of idolatry the necessary sequel. 2. The confound- 
ing of God with nature. 3. Loss of the idea of God's unity. Higher and 
lower forms of nature worship. Worship of the spirits of the dead and of 
demons. 4. Degradation of the idea of deity. 5. Image-worship in its vari- 
ous forms. Apology of the philosophers for image-worship. 6. Bites of 
idolatrous worship. 7. Means of discovering the future — responses of ora- 
cles, dreams and visions, divination by means of certain outward signs. 
Unbelief the main element of criminality in the employment of these means. 
8. Sorcery in its various forms - 644 

n. Principal idols worshipped by the Hebrews. 9. The golden calf 10. Baal 
and Ashtoreth. 11. Signification of the word "Baal." He was probably the 
sun-god. 12. Ashtoreth the corresponding female deity. 13. Bemarks on 
the word "Asherah," rendered "grove "in the English version. 14. Bites 
observed in the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. 15. Molech, and the rites 
of his worship. Human sacrifices oflered to him in the valley of Hinnom. 
16. Notice of other false gods — Bel, Chemosh, Dagon, Gad and Meni, Nebo, 
Bemphan, Tammuz. 17. Closing remarks 649 




SACRED GEOGIUPHY. 



FIRST DIVISION, PALESTINE 



CHAPTEE I. 



General View of Palestine.* 

1. The term Syria was sometimes employed by the ancients 
in a loose way as extending on the north to Paphlagonia, and 
even as including Assyria. But ancient Syria, in the proper 
sense of the word, lay along the Mediterranean, from Egypt on 
the south to the gulf of Issus (now the gulf of Iskanderun) in 
the northeastern angle of the Mediterranean. It was separa- 
ted from Asia Minor by Mount Amanus, which extends from the 
above-named angle of the Mediterranean in a northeasterly 
direction to the Euphrates. It had for its eastern border the 
Euphrates on the north, and lower down the Arabian desert. 
On the south it was bounded by Arabia Petrsea and Egypt. 
Hence it appears that it included substantially the same terri- 
tory as that of modern Syria. The Hebrew term Aram, com- 
monly rendered Syria in our version, is not identical with the 

* Writers on the Geography of Palestine and the adjacent regions find it 
very convenient to employ a number of modern Arabic terms ; as Ain, fountain^ 
Beit, house or place; Kefr, village; Tell, kill; etc. The reader will find the expla- 
nation of these terms in the First Appendix to this Part ; where are added also 
some brief rules for the pronunciation of Arabic words. In the study of the pres- 
ent Outlines of Sacred Geography constant reference should be made to tho 
accompanying maps. 



30 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

Syria just defined ; for, on the one hand, it excluded the land of 
Canaan, Philistia, and Phoenicia, and, on the other, it included 
Mesopotomia, which lies between the Euphrates and Tigris. 

2. Palestine, in the modern sense of the word, is the south- 
western part of Syria ; that is, if we reckon only the territory 
lying west of the Jordan and Dead sea. But if, as seems most 
proper, we include also the region occupied by the ancient 
Israelites east of the Jordan and Dead sea, Palestine is the 
southern part of Syria. The Bibhcal student, however, should 
carefully remember that everywhere in the English version of 
the Old Testament the term Palestine (or, in the Latin form, 
Pahstina) means the land of the Philistines, It is so used by our 
translators in Exod. 15 : 14; Isa. 14 : 29, 31 ; Joel 3 : 4. But in 
the Psalms the same Hebrew word (Pelesheth) is rendered Phil- 
istia, Psa. 60 : 8; 87 : 4; 108 : 9; once Philistines, Psa. 83 : 7. In 
like manner Josephus everywhere calls the Philistines Palestini- 
ans and their land Palestine, though he occasionally uses the 
word in a wider sense. Herodotus applies the term Syria 
Palestine (Greek '^vpirj nalaianvn) to the region between Phoe- 
nicia and Egypt (7. 89, and compare 1. 105; 2. 104; 3. 5), but 
whether he means to include the mountainous region east of 
the Mediterranean plain — this latter being the proper home 
of the Philistines — has been doubted. However this may be, 
the term Palestine was gradually extended, in the usage of the 
later Greek and the Eoman writers, to the whole country of 
the Jews on both sides of the Jordan, and this is the sense in 
which we here employ it. 

Other designations of this territory are the following : 
Canaan or the Land of Canaan. Canaan signifies lowland, 
and the Canaanites were properly the inhabitants of the low 
regions on the Mediterranean and in the Jordan valley (Gen. 
10 : 19 ; Numb. 13 : 29 ; Josh. 11 : 3) ; but sometimes the word 
Canaanite is used in a wider sense of all the tribes west of the 
Jordan (Gen. 24 : 3, etc.). Hence the terms Canaan and Land 
of Canaan are often appHed to the whole country west of the 
Jordan. 



PAl^ESTINE. 3i 

Israel or the Land of Israel , a term which signified, before 
the division of the nation into two kingdoms, the Avhole terri- 
tory of the IsraeHtes; but afterwards the territory of the ten 
tribes as distinguished from the Land of Judah. But the later 
writers, who Hved after the destruction of the northern king- 
dom, sometimes apply the terms Judah and Israel to the whole 
region occupied by the covenant people. The Land of the 
Hebrews (Gen. 40 : 15) is used by Joseph when addressing for- 
eigners, by whom the posterity of Abraham were customarity 
known as Hebreivs, while in their mutual intercourse they called 
themselves the children of Israel. 

During the captivity it was called by Daniel the Glorious 
Land (chaps. 8:9; 11 : 16), for the explanation of which term 
see Jer. 3 : 19 ; Ezek. 20 : 6, 15. After the captivity Zechariah 
called it the Ilohj Land, (chap. 2 : 12), and this is its common 
appellation at the present day. To all believers it is liol}^ 
ground, as the place where God revealed himself for man's 
redemption, first to the patriarchs and prophets, and afterwards 
in the person of his Son. 

In the New Testament it is once called the Land of Promise 
(Heb. 11 : 9) as being the land promised to the patriarchs for an 
everlasting possession. 

The later divisions of Palestine will be considered here- 
after. 

3. The original j^^^omise to Abraham included much more 
than the territory actually occupied by the Hebrews. In Gen. 
15 : 18 it is thus expressed : *' Unto thy seed have I given this 
land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river 
Euphrates." The river of Egypt (Hebrew nahar, not nahal) is 
the Nile. The meaning of the promise is not that the Nile with 
its fertile borders, which constitute the land of Egypt, shall be 
included; for in the enumeration of nations which follows Egypt 
is omitted. But the territory granted extends from that river 
and country to the Euphrates; that is, to that part of the Eu- 
phrates which bends to the westward and is accessible from 
Palestine, for lower down the Euphrates is separated from Syria 



32 SACBED GEOGRAPHY. 

by a vast desert. The same promise was renewed to the Israel- 
ites upon their departure from Egypt : " I will set thy bounds 
from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from 
the desert unto the river." Exod. 23 : 31. The sea of the Phil- 
istines is the Mediterranean, the river is the Euphrates, and the 
desert that south of Palestine. A line drawn from the Red sea 
north leaves Egypt to the west, as it should do in accordance 
with the true intent of the former promise. 

The passages quoted above give the land of promise in its 
ideal — the territory which the Hebrews might have permanently 
possessed, had they fully complied with the conditions of God's 
covenant with them ; but which was never permanently pos - 
sessed by them in its whole extent by reason of their unfaith- 
fulness. Numb. 33:55, 56; Deut. 7:12-26; Josh. 23:11-13; 
Judges 1 : 27-36 ; 2 : 1-5, 20-23. In the reigns of David and 
Solomon, however, most of this territory was subject to Israel. 
2 Sam. chaps. 3-15. 

We must not confound the two expressions, river of Egypt [iiahar miz- 
ralm) and iori^ent of Egypt [nahal mizrabn). The Hebrews use the word 
naliar only of a perennial stream, that is, a proper river ; while the word 
nalial denotes a torrent-bed in which water flows only during the rainy sea- 
son. The ordinary name for the Nile is Yeor ; yet it is called a river in 
Isa. 19:5. The torrent of Egypt (Numb. 34 :5 ; Josh. 15 :4, 47 ; 1 Kings 
8:65; 2 Kings 24:7; Isa. 27:12) or simply the torrent (Ezek. 47:19; 
48 : 28) is thought with good reason to be the modern Wady el-Arish on 
tlie confines of Egypt and Palestine. 

4. A second descriptio7i of the promised land is that given by 
Moses just before his death (Numb. 34 : 1-12) ; but which does 
not include the territory east of the Jordan, this having been 
already assigned to the tribes of Eeuben, Gad, and the half 
tribe of Manasseh. Numb. chap. 32. StiU a tJdrd is contained 
in the book of Joshua, where the boundaries of the several 
tribes are given, with the cities and towns belonging to each. 
Chaps. 12-19. Except for the north border, these two descrip- ' 
tions agree. The western boundary is the Mediterranean. The 
eastern, south of Hermon (the two and a half tribes east of the Jor- 



PALESTINE. 33 

dan being included), is Edom and the Dead sea as far nortli as the 
Arnon (the modem Wady-el-Mojib), and after that Ammon and 
the desert. The southern border began apparently at the south- 
eastern part of the south bay of the Dead sea, ran thence south 
along the Arabah (the long narrow valley south of the Dead 
sea) to the ascent of Akrabbim, a line of chalk chffs running 
across the Arabah a few miles south of the Dead sea. Here it 
turned westward, and pursuing a general westerly course, came 
out at the torrent of Egypt on the Mediterranean. It thus coin- 
cided substantially, as Eobinson remarks (Physical Geog. p. 17), 
with the paraUel of lat. 31^ N. 

The wiklerness of Zin was in the south of Palestine west of Edom, per- 
haps extending into the Arabah. Mount Seir, the ancient home of the 
Edomites, was on the east of the Arabah. Hence aline drawn in a southerly 
direction "from the salt sea, from the bay that looketh southward" (Josh. 
15 : 2), beginning at its southeastern part would pass "along by the coast 
of Edom. " Numb. 34 : 3. If, as is tliought by Robinson and others, the 
site of Kadesh-barnea, by which the line of the south border passed (Numb. 
34 : 4 ; Josh. 15 : 3), was at the modern fountain Ain-el-Weibeh in the des- 
ert some 25 miles S. S. W. of the southern bay of the Dead sea, then the 
line of the south border must have curved considerably to the south from 
the ascent of Akrabbim, and then have returned again, as will be evident 
from an inspection of the map of the Mount Sinai peninsula. Of the other 
places named in the description of Moses and Joshua nothing is known 
with certainty. 

The nortli border of the territory assigned to Israel in the 
description of Moses (Numb. 34 : 7-9) passes from the great sea, 
that is, the Mediterranean, to Mount Hor ; thence to the entrance 
of Hamath ; thence to Zedad, Ziphron, and Hazar-enan. Ha- 
matli lies in the valley of the Orontes on both sides of that river 
above the 35th parallel of north latitude, consequently far north 
of the territory permanently occupied by the Israelites. By the 
Greeks and Eomans it was called Epiphania, but its ancient 
name remains to this day on the lips of the common people, 
who call it Hamah. Eobinson, Bib. Kes. 3, p. 551. Some have 
placed "the entering in of Hamath" (Numb. 34:8, etc.) under 
the base of Hermon at the southern entrance of the valley of 

2* 



34 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

Coelesyria which separates the ridges of Lebanon and Anti- 
Lebanon ; others at the water-shed in this valley between the 
Leontes, which flows south, and the Orontes, which runs north. 
But Eobinson and others place it with good reason at the north- 
ern extremity of Lebanon in the great interval or opening be- 
tween that mountain and the range of Bargylus on the north. 
See Eobinson, Bib. Ees. 3, pp. 568, 569; Porter's Damascus, 
2, p. 354, seq. Mount Hor is then the northern peak of Leba- 
non, whence the boundary line passes through the entering in 
of Hamath, and so on to Zedad, supposed to be the modern 
Sudud, about 35 mil^ southeast of Hums, the ancient Emessa. 
The eastern border passed through Eiblah, the modern Eibleh, 
on the upper course of the Orontes, and so on past the base of 
Hermon to the Sea of Chinneroth, that is, Gennesaret, and the 
Jordan. 

The northern boundary of the IsraeHtish territory as defined 
in the hook of Joshua is to be ascertained from the allotments of 
Asher and Naphtali west of the Jordan and the half tribe of 
Manasseh east of that river, for these were the three northern 
tribes. From the description of Asher's territory (Josh. 19 : 24- 
31) we learn that it lay along the Mediterranean from Mount 
Carmel to Zidon. East of Asher was the territory of NaphtaH, 
having on the north the opening of the great valley of Coele- 
syria and the southern extremity of Mount Hermon. According 
to Josephus (Bk. 1, 22) it extended above the sea of Galilee 
eastward to Damascus, but this must have been before the rise 
of the Syrian monarchy. See Grove, in Smith's Bible Diet., art. 
Palestine. Baal-gad, in the valley of Coelesyria, under Mount 
Hermon, was the limit of Joshua's conquest. Josh. 11:17; 
12 : 7, and compare 13 : 5. It appears, then, that the northern 
boundary, as defined by Moses, was some 75 miles or more north 
of that as given in the allotments of Asher and Naphtali under 
Joshua. The intervening region was the northern part of the 
land that yet remained to be possessed. Josh. 13 : 1, 5. 

5. For the reason already referred to (No. 3 above), the 
region permanently occupied hy the twelve tribes was still more 



PALESTINE. 35 

circumscribed ; for it excluded all Phoenicia on the northwest 
coast, and the land of the Philistines in the southwest. Its 
southern and eastern borders have already been sufficiently 
indicated (No. 4 above). Its western border was Philistia and 
the Mediterranean. For its northern border Kobinson assumes 
a line beginning near the northern base of Rus-el-Abyad, that is, 
White Promontory (the Promontorium Album of the ancients), 
which lies south of Tyre in about lat. 33" 10' N., and drawn thence 
slightly north of east, and curving so as to take in Kana, the 
fortress Tibnin and also Hunin, until it strikes near Dan and 
BAnias at the southern base of Hermon, in lat. 33" 16' N. 
Physical Geog. of Palestine, p. 18, and see also the map of Pal- 
estine. The following are the dimensions of this territory as 
given by the same author. From north to south 136 minutes of 
latitude, that is, 136 geographical, or 158 English miles. The 
breadth from west to east, reckoning from near Gaza, about 90 
minutes of longitude ; and the same reckoning from the prom- 
ontory of Carmel, that is between 85 and 90 English miles. 
This measurement of width includes the region east of the Jor- 
dan and Dead sea. We add a few other measurements. A 
line drawn north from the latitude of Beersheba to the north- 
ern border will measure about 139 English miles. "From 
Dan," at the southern base of Mount Hermon, "even unto 
Beersheba," in a line bearing west of south, is between 144 and 
145 English miles. The breadth of the country from the shore 
of the Mediterranean near Gaza to the Dead sea three miles 
south of Engedi is, according to the latest and most accurate 
measurements, a trifle less than 58 statute miles. In the ex- 
treme northern part it is not much over 23 English miles in 
width from the Mediterranean to the Jordan. But, as Kobinson 
remarks, all these distances, if measured by hours along the 
road, will become greater. 

In the oriental regions distances are reckoned by hours, the distance 
varying with the kind of animal, and also the nature of the grouncl. X^i^ 
following are Robinson's specifications : 

1 hour with camels = 2 geographical or 2 J statute miles. 

1 hour with horses or mules = 2.4 geographical of 3 statute miles. 



36 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

There is a striking resemblance in form between the general outlines 
of Palestine and the state of New Hampshire, the Connecticut river an- 
swering to the Mediterranean. Nor is the difference in extent very great, 
the length of New Hampshire from north to south being 176 miles, its 
extreme breadth about 90 miles, and its average breadth 45 miles. Rob- 
inson computes the whole area of Palestine on both sides of the Jordan at 
12,000 square miles, of which about 7,000 square miles, constituting by far 
the most imi^ortant portion, lie on the west side of the Jordan ; while the 
entire area of New Hampshire is 9,280 square miles. Thus limited are the 
boundaries of the land appointed by God to be the theatre of the most 
stupendous events affecting the destiny of the whole human family. But 
the eternal principles of truth and the moral power of which they are the 
source are not measured by extent of territory. 

6. The most striking feature of Palestine, upon tlie knowledge 
of wliieli the proper apprehension of its general structure de- 
pends, is the deep valley of the Jordan- and the Dead sea, which, 
running in a line north and south, divides it into two unequal 
parts ; the western, which is the proper land of Canaan, and the 
eastern, which includes Gilead and Bashan. This valley, which 
has no parallel anywhere on our globe for depth, is, as we shall 
see hereafter, an immense rift extending all the way from Anti- 
och to the mouth of the sea of Akabah, through more than eight 
degrees of latitude. In the most depressed part of it, shut in 
on either side by precipitous frowning cliffs, lies the Dead sea, 
more than 1,300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and 
having itself also a depth of 1,300 feet or more. Into the north- 
ern extremity of the Dead sea rushes the Jordan through a tor- 
tuous and rapidly descending channel, to lose itself in its brmy 
waters. 

7. The valley of the Jordan and Dead sea has on its west 
side a broad and mountainous belt extending all the way from 
Lebanon to the southern desert, except where it is interrupted 
by the ]3lain of Esdraelon. North of the plain of Esdraelon 
this hill country extends to the border of the Mediterranean, 
leaving only a narrow strip of level land on the seashore, and 
has some beautiful and fertile plains interspersed among its 
ridges, one of which, Merj-el-Buttauf, is of large extent. South 



PALESTINE. 37 

of the plain of Esdraelon the mountainous belt now under con- 
sideration sinks down abruptly on the east to the valley of the 
Jordan and Dead sea ; but on the west it descends by an offset 
into a range of lower hills which lie between it and the great 
plain of the Mediterranean. It is highest in the vicinity of 
Hebron ; and its breadth, inclusive of the line of hills on the 
west, is stated by Bobinson to be not less than from twenty to 
twenty-five geographical miles. Bib. Eesearches, vol. 1, p. 258. 
The breadth of the upper mountainous region is, according to 
the same authority, some fifteen or twenty miles. Physical 
Geog., p. 34 

8. The general direction of the mountainous belt is from 
north to south, while the coast of the Mediterranean trends to 
the S. S. W. Thus there is left between the Mediterranean and 
the hill country a triangular plain interrupted in its northern 
part by the range of Carmel. The southern part of this plain, 
as far north as Lydda and Joppa, was called by the Hebrews 
the Shephelah, that is, lotv country. North of Lydda and Joppa 
is the Sharon of the Old Testament, so celebrated for its fertility, 
extending to the vicinity of the ancient Csesarea. North of the 
promontory of Carmel is the plain of Akka. In the vicinity of 
Gaza the breadth of this plain is about twenty miles. Oppo- 
site to Joppa it is not more than half that distance. The length 
of Sharon and the Shephelah taken together is not less than 
seventy miles. 

The Hebrew terms, shephelah, low country ; viishor, level tract or table- 
land; kikkdr, circuit; ardhah, desert tract, are confounded in the English 
version. The first of these, shephelah, is rendered in a variety of ways : 
vale (Deut. 1:7; Josh. 10 : 40 ; 1 Kings 10 : 27 ; 2 Chron. 1 : 15 ; Jer. 33 : 13) ; 
valley (Josh. 11 : 2, 16 ; 15 : 33 ; Judg. 1:9; Jer. 32 : 44) ; valleys (Josh. 
9:1; 12 : 8) ; low country (2 Chron. 26 : 10 ; 28 : 18) ; low j^lains (1 Chron. 
27 : 28 ; 2 Chron. 9 : 27) ; plain (Jer. 17 : 26 ; Obad. 19 ; Zech. 7 : 7). But 
it always refers to the plain of the Mediterranean below Joppa. 

9. Beyond the valley of the Jordan and Dead sea on the 
east is a high table land broken by deep ravines. Viewed from 
the west, this high plateau, sloping down precipitously to the 



38 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

Jordan and Dead sea, presents the aspect of an immense wall oi 
nearly uniform elevation. It rises from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above 
the level of the Mediterranean, to which is to be added, in the 
lower part, 1,300 feet for the depression of the Dead sea below 
the same level. This, as already remarked, is the region of 
Gilead and Bashan. Stretching off to the east, it gradually 
merges itself in the desert which forms the eastern boundary of 
Palestine. 

10. We have thus, for the general outlines of Palestine, two 
mountainous belts and two depressed regions, all running north 
and south. Intimately connected with this general configura- 
tion, as also with the geological character of the region in which 
limestone prevails, is another striking feature of Palestine, its 
intersection everywhere by numerous ravines having a general direc- 
tion of east and west. Some of these have the character of broad 
and fertile depressions, but most of them are narrow gorges, 
sometimes of immense depth with precipitous sides. A few 
only of these gorges are watered by perennial streams, the rest 
being torrent-beds through which the water rushes with violence 
in the rainy season, while they are dry the rest of the year. By 
these torrent-beds the high land of Palestine is wonderfully cut 
up into ridges and rounded hills, varying in color from white 
to yellowish or reddish brown. Where basalt abounds, as in 
the cliffs back of Tiberias and over the northern part of the 
country east of the Jordan and Dead sea, they impart a dark 
hue to the soil. The limestone region abounds everywhere in 
caverns. 

11. The peculiar configuration of Palestine just noticed 
makes t^^avel from north to south impracticable except in certain 
lines. From the south of Palestine to the north the traveller 
can pass along the lowland of the Mediterranean, or over the 
high country along the water-shed that divides the ravines run- 
ning east into the Jordan and Dead sea from those running west 
into the Mediterranean. But this latter route is made labori- 
ous in some parts by the interlapping of the ravines, the heads 
of some that run off to the east lyiug a mile or two westward 



PALESTINE. 39 

of the commencement of others that run in a contrary direc- 
tion. Eobinson, Phys. Geog. p. 34. The road along the valley 
of the Jordan and Dead sea on the western side is l^roken off 
by the two promontories Ras-el-Feshkhah and Ras-el-Mersed, 
that run out into the waters of the Dead sea. But south and 
north of these headlands the way is uninterrupted. The access 
to the highlands laterally from the lowlands of the Mediterra- 
nean and from the valley of the Jordan and Dead sea is, as a 
general rule, through these ravines or icadys, as the Arabs 
call them. In some places, as at the upper and lower Beth- 
horon, the pass up and down is by a zigzag path over the ridge 
between two wadys; but there is no passing north and south 
except by the routes above indicated. Thus the bands of the 
Moabites and Ammonites that came against King Jehoshaphat 
passed around the south end of the Dead sea and along its 
western border to En-gedi (the modern Ain Jidy, that is, in both 
Hebrew and Arabic, Fountain of ilie Icid), then up the pass at 
En-gedi to the wilderness of Tekoa southeast of Beth-lehem. 
2 Chron. 20 : 1, 2, 20. Thus also Joshua, when he marched 
from his camp at Gilgal near Jericho to the relief of the Gibe- 
onites (Josh. 10 : 7), must have ascended by the gorge of the 
great Wady Kelt directly back of Jericho, through which the 
road to the higher region lies at the present day ; and when he 
had discomfited the confederate kings at Gibeon, he drove them 
westward down the pass at the Beth-horons (now the upper and 
lower Beit-Ur). In like manner the Philistines invaded the 
mountainous region from their native plain through these 
passes; or going northward they entered the plain of Esdrae- 
lon, and thus the valley of Jezreel, north of the ridge of Gilboa, 
and the mountainous region south. 

The peculiar features of Palestine that have now been con- 
sidered furnish a full explanation of the fact that the road over 
which the armies of Egypt, on the one side, and Assyria and 
Chaldea, on the other, passed in their mutual conflicts, lay 
along the plain of the Mediterranean to that of Esdraelon, and 
so OQ across the Jordan to the northeast; that the strong fort- 



40 SACRED GEOGEAPHY. 

ress of Gaza (Heb. Azzali, strong) on the southern confines of 
Philistia, was the key of Egypt ; and that the plain of Esdrae- 
lon has been for ages a celebrated battle ground. 

Roads for wheeled vehicles are unknown at the present day in Palestine, 
nor do they appear ever to have been in general use except on the plains. 
"We find, however, chariots in use in ancient days not only in the lowlands, 
but also in the more elevated regions ; as at Ramath-gilead east of the Jor- 
dan (1 Kings 22 : 31-34; 2 Kings 9 : 16), and around Samaria (1 Kings 
20 : 21, 25 ; 22 : 37, 38 ; 2 Kings 5 : 9, 21 ; 10 : 15, 16). When Josiah was 
slain at Megiddo his servaiits carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem. 
2 Kings 23 : 30 ; 2 Chron. 35 : 24. The eunuch who had been up to Jeru- 
salem to worship was returning sitting in his chariot when Philip met him 
(Acts 8 : 28), j)erhaps on the Roman road. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, 
\y. 134. For the purpose of regal display, Absalom lorepared him horses 
and chariots apparently at Jerusalem. 2 Sam. 15 : 1. Carts were also 
used to some extent in agriculture. Amos 2:13. But wheel carriages 
were never in common use in Palestine for travel, where at the present 
day only miserable bridle paths lead from one hill to another. Thomson, 
The Land and the Book, 1, jo. 103. 

12. Palestine, as we have previously noticed, was at once 
situated in the centre of ancient civilization, and yet remark- 
ably separated from it by natural barriers. It was thus a 
strong country in a military point of view. The main passages 
to it for armies were from Egypt on the southwest and the east- 
ern empires on the northeast, and these gave access only to the 
low lands. The mountainous regions could be approached 
only through the difficult passes above noticed. This secluded 
character of the land of Israel was also eminently favorable to 
the education of the Israelites as a peculiar people under pecu- 
liar institutions, in accordance with the prophetic announce- 
ment : " Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reck- 
oned among the nations." Numb. 23 : 9. If their perverseness 
in imitating the idolatrous practices of their heathen neighbors 
counteracted the benevolent design of God, and made it neces- 
sary that he should administer to them through these same 
nations severe discipline, it was not because their situation, 
geographically considered, was not eminently favorable to the 
training which God had in view. 



PALESTINE. 41 



CHAPTEK II. 



Highlands West of the Jordan Valley. 

I. NOKTHERN SECTION— GALILEE IN PART. 

1. The mighty ranges of Lebanon on the west, and on the 
east Anti-Lebanon ("Lebanon toward the sun-rising," Josh. 
13 : 5, with which description its modern Arabic name Jehel-esh- 
Shurky, that is. East mountain, well agrees) are separated by the • 
valley of Coelesyria. Through the southern part of this vale 
flows the Litany (the ancient Leontes) in a general south- 
southwest direction, till, curving round the southern end of 
Lebanon, it passes westward through a deep and narrow gorge 
into the more open region towards the coast, and so to the 
Mediterranean, into which it empties itself a few miles above 
Tyre under the name of el-Kasimiyeh. 

2. From the southern end of Lebanon there stretches tow- 
ards the south, as far as the great plain of Esdraelon, a hroad 
■elevated tract, broken by mountainous ridges and peaks. On 
the east this region is bounded by the valley of the Jordan. On 
the west it is skirted as far south as the promontory Bas-en- 
Nakurah by the southern end of the Phenician plain, a narrow 
strip of land, which Kobinson describes as not more than three 
or four miles in breadth, with low ridges running doTvn into it 
from the hill country. Phys. Geog., p. 125. South of en-Na- 
kurah is the plain of Akka, extending some twenty miles to the 
base of Carmel with an average breadth of from four to six miles. 
Robinson, ibid. The highest part of this elevated tract lies west 
of the Jordan between the lakes Huleh (the tvaters of 3Ierom, 
Josh. 11 : 5, 7) and Gennesareth. This is Mount Napldali of the 
book of Joshua. Chap. 20 : 7. Here is the town of Safed on a 
lofty hill 2,775 feet above the sea, while a little to the west is 
the cliff called Jebel Jermijk about 4,000 feet in heiglit. Sy- 



42 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

nionds as quoted in Yan de Yelde's Memoir, p. 177. The hills 
skirting the plain of Esdraelon on its northern border are high 
and precipitous. On the west of Nazareth is one rising to the 
height of about 1,600 feet. Eobinson, Phjs. Geog., p. 23. 

3. But the most interesting and remarkable eminence in 
this region is Mount Tabor (Josephus, Itabyrion; Polybius, 
Atabyrion ; Septuagint, Itabyrion ; Jer. 46 : 18 ; Hosea 5:1; 
elsewhere Tliabor ; modern Arabic name, Jebel-et-Tur) lying 
about two and a quarter hours southeast by east from Naza- 
reth, in the northeastern arm of the great plain of Esdraelon, 
It is wholly of limestone, beautifully symmetrical in form, and 
standing out prominently to view in the plain. Seen from the 
west-northwest, it presents, according to Eobinson, the appear- 
ance of a truncated cone ; but viewed from the southwest, that 
of the segment of a sphere. Its sides are studded with bushes 
and oak orchards with a sprinkling of pistacio-trees, presenting 
a beautiful appearance and fine shade. The top of the moun- 
tain consists of an oblong plain or basin, embracing a circuit of 
about half an hour's walk, and extending from northwest to 
southeast, with ledges of rock on both sides. Tabor was once 
the site of a city, remains of which, as also of fortifications be- 
longing to different periods, are still visible. Eobinson, Phys.. 
Geog., p. 24. Its height is given by Yan de Yelde at 1,865 
feet. Memoir, p. 177. 

Travellers are agreed in regarding the view from the summit 
of Tabor as one of the finest in the Holy Land. Not only is it 
in itself very beautiful and extensive, but it embraces also a 
remarkable assemblage of objects endeared to the Christian by 
the holiest reminiscences. 

On the east are seen the whole outlines of the basin in which reposes 
the sea of Galilee, though only a small part of the lake itself is visible. Be- 
yond the lake, in the distant east, the eye rests on an endless succession of 
hills and valleys, embracing the high table land of Jaulan and Hauran ; and, 
farther south, the mountains of ancient Baslian and Gilead. On the south 
the summit of Gilboa rises behind the nearer ridge of ed-Duhy, while still 
farther south appear confusedly the mountains of Central Palestine. The 
western part of the great plain is visible as far as Megiddo, with a part of 



^■^^/J> M. 




MOUNT TABOE. 




MODERN NAZARETH, SEEN FROM THE EAST. 



PALESTINE. 43 

the ridge of Carmel, though not that which Hes directly on the sea. Look- 
ing towards the southwest across an arm of the great plain, one sees on the 
northern slope of the ridge ed-Duhy the little hamlet of Nain, where the 
Saviour raised to life the widow's son ; and on the northern slope of a 
lower and nearer parallel ridge, Endor, so famous in the history of Saul, 
On the north, a little east, beyond the mountains about Safed, rises the 
snow-capped summit of Hermon. 

The Christians, as early as the days of Jerome (Ep. 86), regarded Tabor 
as the mount on which the Saviour was transfigured. The decisive objec- 
tion to this tradition is the fact "that long before and after the event of 
the transfiguration, the summit of Tabor was occupied by a fortified city, 
the ruins of which are yet visible " (Robinson, Bib. Res., vol. 2, pp. 357-9), 
while the scene of the transfiguration was a solitary mountain, where there 
could be no hiMnan witnesses but the three disciples (Matt. 17:1; Mark 
9: 2). 

4. A very interesting feature of the region now under con- 
sideration is the plains interspersed among the ridges. Eobinson 
describes a series of them south of the mountains of Naphtali 
stretching from east to west, and separated by intervening 
ridges. Phys. Geog., pp. 129-131. The northernmost of these 
is the plain of Eamah, about ten miles in length by two in 
breadth, over which passes the great road from Akka to Damas- 
cus. It is very fertile and full of old olive-trees. Passing by 
two or three smaller plains south of the plain of Eamah, we 
come to the noble plain now known as el-Buttauf (called by 
Josephus the great plain of Asochis, Life 41), extending about 
ten miles from east to west with a breadth of ten miles. " This 
whole plain," says Eobinson, "is of the richest fertihty; and 
was a glorious portion of the inheritance of Zebulun." 

5. We come now to the great plain of Esdraelon, that is, of 
Jezreel, Esdraelon being a Greek form for the Hebrew Jezreel. 
It is twice spoken of in the Old Testament as the plain (Eng. 
version, valleij) of Megiddo. 2 Chron. 35:22; Zech. 12:11. 
Its modern Arabic name is Merj Ihn Amir, Meadoiv of the son of 
Amir. This majestic plain is of a triangular form. In descri- 
bing it we follow for the most part Eobinson in his Physical 
Geography of Palestine, 131 seq. Beginning at its southern- 
most angle near Jenin, a hne drawn northward grazes the west- 



44 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

ern extremities of tlie ridges Gilboa and Duliy, or Little Her- 
mon as it is called; and strikes the northern hills some two 
miles southeast of Nazareth. The length of this eastern side is 
not far from fifteen miles. The southwestern side, which is 
skirted by the hill country of Samaria, is eighteen or twenty 
miles in length. The length of the northern side, which extends 
in the general direction from east-northeast to west-southwest, 
is about twelve miles. This large triangle is nearly level — 
Thomson describes it as rolling up in long swells like gigantic 
waves (The Land and the Book, 2, p. 215) — and of unsurpassed 
fertility; but owing to the wretched government of the region, 
and the consequent insecurity of life and property, it is mostly 
neglected and overgrown with rank weeds. 

Thus far we have considered the body of the plain. But it 
sends out on its eastern side towards the brow of the Jordan 
valley three great arms, each nearly an hour in breadth, and 
separated from each other by the ridges of Gilboa and ed-Duhy 
or Little Hermon. Of these arms the northern in its western 
part and the southern throughout its whole extent have a slope 
towards the west, and send off their waters through the Kishon 
to the Mediterranean. But the middle arm declines rapidly 
toivards the east, so that its waters flow off into the Jordan. 
This latter is the valley of Jezreel, so celebrated in Israelitish 
history; having at its western extremity Jezreel (the modern 
ZerinJ, and at its eastern Beth-shan (now called Beisan), both 
places being in sight of each other. Bobinson describes this 
valley as a beautiful meadow- like plain, from two to three miles 
in breadth by about fifteen in length. Zerin, the ancient Jez- 
reel, stands at its head on the south side, on the brow of a very 
steep rocky descent of a hundred feet or more sloping towards 
the northeast. Here the watchman of Joram, standing on the 
tower of Jezreel, could look down the whole valley, and see the 
company of Jehu coming up through it from Bamoth-gilead 
l)eyond the Jordan. 2 Kings 9 : 17. The valley has several 
fountains, one of which, now called Ain Jalud, is of great size, 
flowing out of a cavernous recess at the base of Gilboa, about a 



PALESTINE. 45 

mile and a haK below Zerm. The water spreads at once into a 
limpid pool, whence a stream flows down the valley of sufficient 
size to turn a mill. This is believed with good reason to be the 
"fountain which is in Jezreel," where Saul and Jonathan pitched 
before their last fatal battle. 1 Sam. 29 : 1. Perhaps it is iden- 
tical with "the well of Harod" (H.eb. fountain of Barod, Judg. 
7:1), where Gideon encamped with his host, while the Midian- 
ites pitched on the north side of the same valley. 

6. With the exception of the valley of Jezreel, and the east- 
ern part of the northern arm, the plain of Esdraelon and its 
branches is drained by the Kislion and its tributary streams. 
The Kishon flows off to the northwest along the northeastern 
base of Carmel, and enters the Mediterranean in the bay of 
Acre under the name of el-Mukutta. A spur of the northern 
mountains running down towards Carmel separates the two 
plains of Esdraelon on the east and Acre on the west. Between 
this spur and Carmel the river passes through a narrow valley. 
It is a permanent stream only in the last few miles of its course, 
below the strong fountains at the eastern base of Carmel. But 
in the wet season all its tributarj^ streams are swollen with rain, 
and it becomes deep and dangerous to those who would ford it. 
In the vicinity of Lejjun, the ancient Megiddo, it is described 
as flowing in a deep bed through marshy ground. It was at 
this very place that the forces of Sisera were swept away : " The 
kings came and fought; then fought the kings of Canaan in 
Taanach" (the modern Taamiiik near Lejjun, that is Megiddo) 
" by the waters of Megiddo ; they took no gain of money. They 
fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against 
Sisera" (apparently by the instrumentahty of a violent tempest), 
u rjij^Q river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the 
river Kishon" (Judg. 5:19-21), as its northern branch higher 
up the plain did the Turks in the battle of Mount Tabor in 1799. 
See in Eobinson's Bib. Ees., vol. 2, p. 328, note. It was un- 
doubte'dly the liability of detention by the swollen waters of the 
Kishon, which Ahab must pass in going from Carmel to Jezreel, 
that Elijah had in view when he sent to that monarch the mes- 



46 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

sage : " Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain 
stop thee not." 1 Kings 18 : 44. 

The statement of Josephus (Antiq. 5. 5. 4) that, when the battle 
between the Canaanites and the Israelites under Barak had begun, there 
arose a great storm with much rain and hail, and that the wind drove the 
rain in the faces of the Canaanites, while the Israelites had the storm upon 
their backs, is based apparently upon the short scriptural notice that " the 
stars in their courses fought against Sisera." 

^ 7. The region that has been described constitutes the moun- 
tainous part of Galilee with its interspersed plains, according to 
the Roman division of provinces; for Galilee extended south 
as far as Mount Carmel, whence its southern boundary ran 
across the country by Ginsea (the modern Jenin) to Scythopolis, 
that is, Beth-shean, in the Jordan valley; thus including the 
great plain of Esdraelon. Josephus, Jewish War, 3. 3. 4. It 
abounds in beautiful and picturesque scenery. "Forests of 
evergreen oaks sweep round the flanks of the hills in graceful 
belts, and line the sides of the valleys, leaving open glades and 
undulating expanses of green grass, such as are seen in English 
parks. Here too are upland plains, like vast terraces, with rich 
soil and rank vegetation." " Galilee was, and is, also remarka- 
ble for the beauty and variety of its wild flowers. In early 
spring the whole country is spangled with them, and the air is 
filled with their odors. Birds, too, are exceedingly numerous. 
The rocky banks are all ahve with partridges; the meadows 
swarm with quails and larks, 'the voice of the turtle' resounds 
through every grove, and pigeons are heard cooing up in the 
cliffs and glen-sides, and are seen in flocks hovering over the 
corn-fields." Porter in Alexander's Kitto, Art. Galilee. 
"^ 8. To the Christian this part of Galilee is also hallowed by 
many scriptural reminiscences. It was in an emphatic sense the 
home of our Lord and the scene of very much of his ministry. 
Here, lying in a secluded vale among the mountains which skirt 
the plain of Esdraelon on the north, is Nazareth, wKere the 
Saviour passed the days of his childhood and all the years of 
his youth till called by God to the work of his public ministry ; 



PALESTINE, 47 

while north of Nazareth, at the distance of about nine miles, are 
the ruins of Cana of Galilee, the scene of our Lord's first mira- 
cle and the home of Nathanael. A few miles to the east is 
Mount Tabor, whither Barak collected his forces from Zebulun 
and Naphtali, and whence he descended to the plain for his 
encounter with Sisera. Judg., chap. 4. Here also Zebah and 
Zalmunna slew the brethren of Gideon. Judg. 8 : 18. South of 
Nazareth lies the great plain of Esdraelon, the battle-field of 
nations. The central arm of this plain on the east is the valley 
of Jezreel, so celebrated in Israelitish history. By this valley 
the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the 
east invaded the land of Israel, following the present route of 
marauding parties, and here they were overthrown by Gideon 
with his three hundred men, and chased down the valley to the 
Jordan, and across it to Karkor. Judg., chaps. 7 and 8. In 
the same valley Saul and Jonathan "pitched by a fountain that 
is in Jezreel" before their last fatal battle with the Philistines; 
and when the armies of Israel were routed they "fied from 
before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa," 
which overhangs the valley on the south. 1 Sam. 29 : 1 ; 31 : 1-6. 
At the lower end of this valley is Beth-shean, to the wall of 
which place the Philistines fastened the bodies of Saul and his 
sons. 1 Sam. 31 : 10, 12. At the head of the same valley, 
standing on the brow of a steep rocky descent, and overlooking 
both the valley and the plain of Esdraelon, is Zerin, the ancient 
Jezreel, where Naboth "had a vineyard hard by the palace of 
Ahab king of Samaria," for the sake of which, at the instigation 
of Jezebel his wife, he caused Naboth to be murdered. It was 
in this vineyard that Elijah met Ahab, and denounced upon him 
the wrath of heaven for this bloody deed ; and up the same val- 
ley, commissioned by God as the minister of his vengeance, rode 
Jehu when he slew Joram and trampled the body of Jezebel 
under his horses' feet. On the southwestern border of the plain 
of Esdraelon are Taanach and Megiddo, where the host of Sis- 
era was discomfited by Deborah and Barak, when "the river 
Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon." 



4:8 SACEED GEOGKAPHY. 

Judg. 5 : 19-21. It was at Megiddo also that the good King 
Josiah met Pharaoh-necho on his way to the Euphrates, and 
was slain by him. 2 Kings 23 : 29 ; 2 Cliron. 35 , 23, 24. Skirt- 
ing the great plain on the southwest is the range of Carmel, 
whither EKjah gathered all Israel to decide the great question 
whether Jehovah or Baal should be worshipped as the true 
God ; and at the brook Kishon which flows at its base he slew 
the prophets of Baal. Thence ascending to the top of the 
mountain, and casting himself down upon the earth in fervent 
prayer, he sent up his servant seven times to the summit to 
watch for the tokens of rain; and when these appeared, he 
girded up his loins and ran before Ahab, as he rode in his char- 
iot across the plain to Jezreel. It was at Mount Carmel also 
that the Shunammite woman afterwards found Elisha when she 
sought him that he might restore her son to life. At the east- 
ern border of the great plain lying on the northern slope of the 
ridge ed-Duhy are Endor and Nain, and on the southwestern 
declivity of the same ridge is Shunem, all three places famous 
in scriptural history. Finally, in a beautiful plain running up 
among the southern hills from the southwestern side of Esdrae- 
lon, and separated from it by a narrow tract of rolling land, 
stands Tell Dothan, that is the hill of Dothan, with a fountain. 
This is the site of the ancient Dothan, where Joseph's brethren 
sold him to the Midianites. " The route of the Midianites was 
obviously the same that is now followed. Crossing the Jordan 
at Beth-shean and Jezreel, their way then lay through this fine 
plain; and down the valley at its southwestern quarter to the 
w^estern plain, and so to Eamleh and Egypt." Eobinson, Phys. 
Geog., p. 135. 

9. "We add a more particular notice of the towns belonging 
to this section. 

Nazareth retains its ancient name, being called by the Arabs en-Ndsi- 
rah. It lies in a narrow oblong basin running nearly east and west, about 
a mile long, and having an average breadth of something less than a quar- 
ter of a mile. "A girdle of rounded hills encircles it, shutting out all 
view of the world beyond, and giving that air of quiet, peaceful seclusion 



PALESTINE. 49 

which constitutes its chief charm, and its peculiar adaptation to the early 
history of our Lord." "The narrow rugged glens that branch off in all 
directions among the hills seem as if made for meditation. The hill on 
the northwest of the vale overtops all the others, rising to a height of some 
four hundred feet above the village, and is crowned by a white-domed 
tomb. Its side is steep, furrowed by ravines, and broken by ledges of 
bare rock. On its lower declivities, partly in the ravines, partly on the 
shelving base, and partly on the sides and tops of the rugged ledges, stand 
the houses of Nazareth — plain, neat, substantial stone buildings. This is 
the hill on which the evangelist tells us ' the city was built' (Luke 4 : 29) ; 
and there is more than one cliff along its side that might have served the 
purposes of the fanatical populace when they led Him unto a broio of the 
hill, that they might cast him down headlong." Porter in Alexander's 
Kitto. See also his Handbook for Syria and Palestine, p. 343, seq. ; Rob- 
inson's Bib. Res. , vol. 2, p. 333, seq. They led the Saviour, namely, uj? 
from the lower declivity on which their city was built towards an over- 
hanging brow. That the brow was in the near vicinity of the village is 
plain from the evangelist's words. Hence appears the absurdity of the 
monkish legend which places it on the so-called "mount of Precipitation," 
a hill about two miles southeast of the town, for no better reason, appa- 
rently, than that it is a striking object as seen from the plain of Esdraelon. 
Under the grand altar of the Latin convent is the grotto where, according 
to the legend, the Virgin Mary once lived and received the salutation of 
the angel Gabriel. This is the Latin church of the Annunciation. But 
the Greeks have their church of the Annunciation by the side of the one 
fountain of Nazareth, a short distance east of the village. Legends like 
these are of no authority. From the crest of the western hill above Naza- 
reth, wdiere stands the Wely — saint's tomb — of Neby Ismail, is one of the 
noblest prospects in all Palestine, very similar to that from the top of 
Tabor already described (No. 3 above). 

In the vicinity of Nazareth are tlie following places : 

Kdna-el-Jelll, that is, literally rendered into English, Cana of Galilee, 
on the northern side of the plain el-Buttauf, about three hours north of 
Nazareth. Its claims to be the scriptural Cana of Galilee are forcibly sta- 
ted by Robinson. Bib. Res., vol. 2, pp. 346-9 ; vol. 3, p. 108, note. The 
claims of Kef)- Kenna, a small village an hour and a half northeast of 
Nazareth, do not rest on equally soUd grounds. 

Deburieh is a small and unimportant village lying on the side of a ledge 
of rocks at the western base of Tabor. It is believed with good reason 
to be the Dahareh (more correctly Daheraih) of Josh. 21 : 28. 

Ydfa, a little village half an hour southwest of Nazareth, the Japhia of 
Josh. 19 : 12. 

SeffurieJi, the Sepphoris so often mentioned by Josephus as the largest 



50 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

and strongest city of Galilee. See the references in Robinson, Bib. Res., 
vol. 2, p. 3-15. At present it is a small village lying on an isolated hill in 
the southern part of the plain el-Buttauf, about an hour and a half north 
by west of Nazareth. 

Hattin, on the high uneven part of the plain el-Buttauf towards its east- 
ern border, is celebrated for the disastrous battle which took place July 5, 
1187, between the forces of the Crusaders on the one hand and the Sara- 
cens under Saladin on the other, and which resulted in the total overthrow 
of the Christian host, and the loss of Jerusalem and nearly all Palestine. 

Leaving Nazareth and its environs, and passing on to the north, the 
traveller sees Sa/ed lying on a high isolated peak upon the northern end 
of a steep ridge, a trifle south of the thirty-third parallel of north latitude, 
having the sea of Galilee to the southeast and the lake Huleli to the north 
east. It is emphatically "a city set upon a hill." Before the great earth- 
quake on the first day of January, 1837, it was a thriving town, with a 
population variously estimated at from 7,000 to 10,000, a large proportion 
of whom were Jews ; for Safed, like Tiberias, is one of the holy places of 
the Jews, and v\^as formerly a seat of rabbinical learning. In the terrible 
earthquake above referred to, the castle which crowned the summit of the 
hill was utterly thrown down, most of the houses were ]3rostrated, and 
thousands of the inhabitants buried in the ruins, the Jewish quarter suf- 
fering most severely." 

Still farther north in the high country northwest of the lake Huleli is 
Kedes, the ancient Kedesh of Naplitali, out of which Deborah "sent and 
called Barak the son of Abinoam" for the encounter with Sisera the cap- 
tain of Jabin's army. Judg. 4:6, 7. It was a Levitical city, and one of 
the three cities of refuge west of the Jordan. Josh. 20 : 7 ; 21 : 32. It is 
now a miserable village, but its j)osition is strong and its site beautiful. 
"High up among the mountains of Naplitali is a little green plain, embos- 
omed in wooded hill-tops. On its western side is a rounded tell (that is 
hill), on which the modern village stands. From the tell a low narrow 
ridge projects into the plain, with flat top and steep sides, covered with 
rank vegetation. Both ridge and tell are strt^wn with ruins." Porter in 
Alexander's Kitto. 

The sites of Hazor where Jabin king of Canaan reigned, and Harosheih 
of the Gentiles where Sisera the captain of his host dwelt (Judg. 4:2), are 
not determined with certainty. Josephus says that the former place over- 
looked the lake Semechonitis, that is, the "waters of Merom" (Josh. 11 :5), 
and the modern el-Huleh. The most probable site is that suggested by 
Robinson, namely. Tell Khuraiheh, a prominent hill of great strength over- 
looking the lake and plain of Huleh, and about an hour south of Kedes. 
Bib. Res., vol. 3, pp. 364-6. 

On the southwestern border of the plain of Esdraelon are Taannuk and 



i 



PALESTINE. 51 

Lejjun, that is, Leg'io, as the Komans called the latter place. Taannuk is 
undoubtedly the ancient Tannach, and there is strong evidence in favor of 
identifying Lejjun with Megiddo. Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon as 
quoted by Robinson) give the distance of Taanach from Legio at three or 
four Roman miles. This agrees with the circumstance that Taanach and 
INIegiddo are five times mentioned in near connection with each other. 
Josh. 12 : 21 ; 17 : 11 ; Judg. 1 : 27 ; 5 : 19 ; 1 Kings 4 : 12. Lejjun lies 
moreover on the great military road between Egypt and the Mediterranean 
plain, on the one hand, and Damascus and the eastern empires on the 
other, on the banks of one of the principal tributaries to the Kishon. The 
miry nature of the soil makes this stream difficult to ford when the water is 
high, and when swollen by a violent storm it would be utterly impassable. 
Here, then, we may find "the waters of Megiddo." Judg. 5 : 19. " About 
three-quarters of a mile north of the ruins [of Lejjun] is a large truncated 
tell, called Tell el-Mutsellim, ' Tlie Governors' Hill. ' It is a most commanding- 
site, affording a view of the whole plain and of the ancient cities of Shu- 
nem, Jezreel, and Taanach. " Porter in Alexander's Kitto^ We may assume 
with much confidence that Megiddo occupied either the site of the mod- 
ern Lejjun or this adjacent tell. 

About one hour and a half south of Tell el-Mutsellim is Rummaneh, 
which Yan de Velde (Memoir, p. 333) identifies with " Hadad-rimmon in 
the valley of Megiddon." Zech. 12 : 11. 

Jenin stands at the mouth of a picturesque glen in the southeastern 
extremity of the plain of Esdraelon. Robinson and others identii^^ it with 
En-gannim, one of the Levitical cities (Josh. 19 :21; 21 :29), and with 
Ginaea of Josephus. 

North of Jenin, on the western declivity of Gilboa, and overlooking 
the valley of Jezreel and the plain of Esdraelon, is Zerln, the ancient Jez- 
reel. It is a noble site, and Ahab might well have a palace there, though 
Samaria was the proper residence of the kings of Israel. The ridge of 
Gilboa is a range of gray limestone rocks, bleak and bare, jutting out from 
southeast to northwest into the plain. Its jijgged cliffs and bare crowns 
give it a look of desolation in wonderful harmony with David's imprecation : 
"Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain 
upon you, nor fields of offerings : for there the shield of the mighty is 
vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed 
with oil." 2 Sam. 1 :21. 

Parallel to Gilboa, on the northern side of the valley of Jezreel, is the 
ridge ed-Duhy, called Hermon in the days of Jerome, and commonly called 
Little Hermon, in distinction from the true Hermon of the Old Testament. 
On and around the ridge are some places of note in scriptural history. 
Solam, on the declivity at the southwestern end of Duhy, is thought with 
good reason to be the Shunem of the Old Testament belonging to the tribe 



62 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

of Issacliar (Josh. 19 : 18), where the PhiHstines encamped before Saul's 
last battle ; whence Abishag the Shunammite was brought to David 
(1 Kings 1:3); and Avhere also the Shunammite woman lived who enter- 
tained the prophet Elisha (2 Kings chap. 4). See Robinson, Bib. Res. 2, 
p. 325, and note. On the northern slope of Duhy are Nein, the Nain of 
the New Testament, and Endor, the former celebrated for the stupendous 
miracle wrought there by our Lord (Luke 7 : 11-16) ; the latter as the place 
where Saul, in his extremity, sought counsel from the woman that had a 
familiar spirit (1 Sam. chap. 28). Thomson describes Endor as a most 
wretched-looking place at the northeast corner of Duhy. " You observe 
that the declivity of the mountain is everywhere perforated with caves, and 
most of the habitations are merely walls built around the entrance to these 
caverns. Observe, too, that the cattle are stalled with them along with 
their owners ; and so it was in the time of Saul." Land and Book, 2, p. 
161. ''The woman had a fat calf in the house," and Thomson sjoeaks of 
half a dozen little calves kept up at the mouth of one of these caves, while 
their mothers were at pasture under the care of a shepherd. 

II. MIDDLE SECTION — SAMARIA IN PART. 

10. We have seen liow tlie great plain of Esdraelon with 
the adjacent plain of Acre on the northwest (which is connected 
with the plain of Esdraelon by the narrow valley through w^hich 
the Kishon flows) entirely separates the mountains of Galilee 
from those of Samaria and Judea. In passing to the mountain- 
ous region south of Esdraelon, we naturally begin with Carmel. 
The majestic range of Carmel branches off from the northern 
end of the mountains of Samaria, and runs in nearly a straight line 
from south-southeast to north-northwest some fifteen or sixteen 
miles, terminating in a bold promontory which forms the southern 
headland of the bay of Acre — a headland which is rendered the 
more conspicuous by the fact that it is the only one along this part 
of the Mediterranean coast. The mountain is of compact lime- 
stone, deeply furrowed with rocky ravines filled with dense jun- 
gle, and tenanted by jackals, hyenas, wolves, and wild swine. 
In the sides of the mountain, especially around its western end, 
are numerous caves and grottos, formed partly by nature and 
partly by art ; for Carmel formerly swarmed with monks and her- 
mits who made these caves their home. Through the prophet 
Amos Jehovah says of transgressors : " Though they hide them- 




SAMAEIA. 




SHKCHEM, EBAL AND GERIZIM. 



PALESTINE. 53 

selves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out 
thence." Amos 9 : 3. Whether the reference be to these laby- 
rinths of caverns and grottos, which, as travellers tell us, are 
very tortuous and open one into another, or, as Thomson seems 
to intimate (Land and Book, 2, p. 230), to the deep and winding 
ravines filled with tangled brushwood, it is equally beautiful and 
pertinent. The northeastern side of the ridge is more steep and 
precipitous than the southwestern; which latter *' sinks down 
gradually into wooded hills with well-watered valleys, present- 
ing to the eye a district of great beauty, rich in tillage and pas- 
turage, declining gently into the southern plain and the adja- 
cent lower hills." Eobinson, Phys. Geog. p. 29. The ridge of 
Carmel is tolerably continuous, rising from the northwestern 
end, where its elevation is about 600 feet above the sea, to the 
village of Esfieh, where it attains to the elevation of 1,729 feet. 
Thence it falls off again to 1,635 feet at its southeastern end. 
See in Van de Velde's Memoir, p. 177, the different measure- 
ments. 

The Hebrew word Carmel signifies pa^^Z:*, garden-like tract ; a 
name which the mountain may well claim from its beauty and 
fruitfulness, especially as contrasted with the bare southern 
hills. It is sprinkled with fine oaks and other forest-trees in its 
upper parts, and olive and fruit trees further down. *'Long 
deep ravines of singular wildness wind down the mountain-sides, 
filled with tangled copse, fragrant with hawthorn, myrtle, and 
jessamine, and alive with the murmur of tiny brooks and the 
song of birds. At intervals along the slopes are open glades, 
carpeted with green grass, and spangled with myriads of wild- 
flowers of every hue." Porter, in Alexander's Kitto. The north- 
western extremity is more bleak and barren ; and here, over- 
looking the blue w^aters of the Mediterranean, stands the con- 
vent of the Carmelites, a modern building erected on the site 
of a more ancient structure. 

The scene of EHjah's sacrifice seems to have been at the east- 
em extremity of the ridge. Modern travellers have thought 
that they could identify the very spot ; namely, a terrace of nat- 



54 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

ural rocks at the southeastern extremity of Carinel, which bears 
the name el-IIulirahah, the sacrifice ; but Bobinson thinks that 
the transaction took place at the foot of the mountain. See 
Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 345-8 ; Grove in Smith's 
Bible Diet. ; Porter in Alexander's Kitto ; Thomson, Land and 
Book, 2, pp. 220-6; Eobinson, Phys. Geog., pp. 30, 31. 

11. In its scenery and general character, Carmel belongs to 
the mountains of Galilee, though separated from them, as we 
have seen, by the plains of Esdraelon and Acre. But the moun- 
tainous tract of Samaria and Judea, with which the ridge of 
Carmel connects itself by an offset at its southeastern extrem- 
ity, presents in its general features a striking contrast to the 
northern mountainous region. The interspersed plains become 
smaller and less frequent. " The summits are more rocky and 
more rounded than those in Galilee ; and the sides, though in 
many places bare, are generally clothed with scraggy woods of 
dwarf-oak, terebinth, and maple, or with shrubberies of thorn- 
bushes." "The hill-sides around" the plains "get steeper and 
wider towards the south. The valleys running into Sharon are 
long, winding, mostly tillable, though dry and bare ; while those 
on the east, running into the chasm of the Jordan, are deep and 
abrupt ; but being abundantly watered by numerous fountains, 
and being planted with olive groves and orchards, they have a 
rich and picturesque appearance. In fact, the eastern declivi- 
ties of the mountains of Ephraim, wild and rugged though they 
are, contain some of the most beautiful scenery and some of the 
most luxuriant orchards in Central Palestine." " The features 
of the mountains are different from those of Galilee. Here 
there is more wildness and ruggedness, the tracts of level 
ground are smaller, the valleys are narrower, and the banks 
steeper. While the rich upland plains produce abundant crops 
of grain, yet this is a region on the whole specially adapted for 
the cultivation of olives, orchards, and vineyards. The more 
carefully its features, soil, and products are examined, the more 
evident does it become that Ephraim was indeed blessed with 
* the chief things of the ancient mountains ' — vines, figs, olives. 



PALESTINE. 55 

and corn, all growing luxuriantly amid ' the lasting liills.' " Por- 
ter in Alexander's Kitto, art. Palestine. 

The mountainous region now under consideration was inclu- 
ded in the Samaria of our Lord's time, lying north of a line 
draw^n east from Joppa to the Jordan. In the division of the 
land under Joshua, it fell to the tribe of Ephraim, and is the 
*' Mount Ephraim" of the Old Testament. Josh. 17 : 15 ; 20 : 7 ; 
Judg. 2:9; 7 : 21, etc. Another designation employed by the 
later writers is, "the mountains of Samaria" (Jer. 31 : 5; Amos 
3:9; 4:1), so called from Samaria, tlie royal city of the Israel- 
itish kings from the time of Omri. 

12. Of the few plains that are found in the mountainous 
region of Samaria the following are w^orthy of notice : 

The plain aroiincl Dothcm, of which some account has already 
been given. See above, No. 8. 

Not far southeast of the plain of Dothan Robinson describes 
" another beautiful plain, oval or round in form, three or four 
miles in diameter, and surrounded by picturesque hills, not very 
elevated. It is perfectly level, with a soil of rich dark loam, 
exceedingly fertile. The plain has no outlet for its waters; 
which therefore in winter collect upon it and form a tempo- 
rary lake." Hence the name 3Ierj-el-G]iuriil\ that is, Droicned 
meadoiv. Bib. Res. 2, pp. 313, 314. 

The great plain of Miiklina extends along the eastern base of 
the mountains in which Nabulus, the ancient Shechem, is situa- 
ted, for eight or nine miles in a direction from south-southwest to 
north-northeast, with an average breadth of one and a half to two 
miles. At about two-thirds of its length from south to north, 
the valley of Nabulus comes in from the w^est between Gerizim 
and Ebal ; and opposite to the mouth of this latter valley is an 
arm of the Mukhna running up east among the hills for nearly 
three miles with a breadth of about half a mile. This plain is 
described as under good cultivation and presenting a beautiful 
appearance. Robinson, Bib. Res. 2, pp. 273, 274 ; Phys. Geog., 
pp. 135, 136. 

The two most celebrated places in this mountainous region 



56 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

are, Shechem (rendered Sichem in Gen. 12 : 6) and Samaria. The 
former lias the preeminence in antiquity, the latter in dignity, 
having been from the days of Omri and onward the royal city 
of the Israelitish monarchs. Both are distinguished for the 
beauty of their situation and the many scriptural associations 
that cluster around them. Shechem lies on the main road from 
Jerusalem to Nazareth, and is almost equidistant between the 
two places. According to Robinson's Itinerary, it is fourteen 
and a half hours from Jerusalem to Shechem, including a short 
detour to visit Shiloh; and fifteen and a quarter hours from 
Shechem to Nazareth by way of Samaria. From Shechem to 
Samaria is two hours and ten minutes, or about six miles, in a 
northwesterly direction. We add a more particular account of 
each place. 

14. The modern name of Shechem is Nabulus, or, in the 
abbreviated mode of utterance, Nablus, which is a corruption 
of the name Neapolis (on the coins, Flavia Neapolis), imposed 
on it by the Romans not long after the times of the New Tes- 
tament. 

The most common form in the Sei:)tLmgint for the Hebrew Shechem is 
Sychem ['S.vxeii), as in Acts 7 : 16. In John 4 : 5 the place is called Sychar. 
It has been conjectured that this latter form was originally a corruption of 
the true form for the purpose of assimilating it to the Hebrew word Shik- 
kor, drunkard (in allusion to Isa. 28 :1, 7), or to the word sheker, false- 
hood, that is, false worship) (Hab. 2 : 18). But all this is uncertain. 

The situation of Nabulus is beautiful and romantic. It lies 
in a long narrow valley, extending from southeast to northwest, 
between Mount Gerizim on the south and Mount Ebal on the 
north ; and is half an hour distant from the great eastern plain 
of the Mukhna already described. The two mountains rise on 
either side in steep rocky precipices apparently some eight 
hundred feet high, leaving between them a deep glen not more 
than five hundred yards wide where the tow^n is situated. 
Directly on the water-shed of this valley, and stretching along 
the northeastern base of Mount Gerizim, lies the modern Nabu- 
lus, the streams on the eastern part flowing oif into the plain, 



PALESTINE. 57 

and so towards the Jordan, while the fountains on the western 
side send off a brook down the valley northwest towards the Med- 
iterranean. The streets are narrow; the houses high, and in 
general well built of stone, with domes on the roofs ; the ba- 
zaars good and well supplied. Eobinson, Bib. Ees. 2, p. 275. 
Eobinson describes the sides of both mountains as equally naked 
and sterile, with the exception of a small ravine on Gerizim 
coming down opposite the west end of the town, which is full of 
fountains and trees. Ibid., p. 276. The fertility and beauty of 
the valley itself in which the town stands have been the admi- 
ration of all travellers. 

"Keeping tlie road," says Eobinson, "along its northern side we 
passed some high mounds, apparently of ashes ; where, all at once, the 
ground sinks down to a valley running towards the west, with a soil of 
rich black vegetable mould. Here a scene of luxuriant and almost unpar- 
alleled verdure burst upon our view. The whole valley was filled with 
gardens of vegetables and orchards of all kinds of fruits, watered by sev- 
eral fountains, which burst forth in various parts, and flow westward in 
refreshing streams. It came upon us suddenly, like a scene of fairy en- 
chantment. We saw nothing to compare with it in all Palestine. Here, 
beneath the shade of an immense mulberry-tree, by the side of a purling 
rill, we pitched our tent for the remainder of the day and night." Bib. 
Res. 2, p. 275. Dr. Rosen, as quoted by Prof. Hackett, says that the 
inhabitants boast of no less than eighty springs within and around the 
city, and he gives the names of twenty-seven of the principal ones. "The 
olive, as in the days when Jotham delivered his famous parable, is still the 
principal tree. Pigs, almonds, walnuts, mulberries, grapes, oranges, apri- 
cots, pomegranates, are abundant. The valley of the Nile itself hardly 
surpasses Ndhulus in the production of vegetables of every sort." Prof. 
Hackett in Smith's Bib. Diet. 

The substantial identity of the site of the present Nabulus with that of 
the ancient Shechem is admitted by almost all biblical scholars ; though 
it is thought with reason that the ancient city lay, in part at least, farther 
east than the modern one, and thus nearer to Jacob's well. Robinson, 
Bib. Res. 2, p. 285; Hackett in Smith's Bib. Diet., art. Shechem. The 
present population of Shechem is variously estimated at from 5,000 to 
8,000. 

15. Shechem is a place of great antiquity. It is mentioned 
in the history of Abraham's migration to the land of Canaan 



58 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

(Gen. 12:6) as "the place of Shecliem" (Eng. vers. SicJiem), 
In the days of Jacob it is called a city (Gen. 34 : 20, 27), unless, 
indeed, we assume that SJialem, the modern Saliwij three mile's 
east of Shechem, is the city where the bloody transaction which 
is recorded in Gen. chap. 34 took place. Compare Gen. 33 : 18. 
It was under the oak (or terebinth) by Shechem that Jacob hid 
the strange gods of his household as he was departing for Beth- 
el. Gen. 35 : 4. 'It was at Shechem also that the man found 
Joseph wandering in the field in search of his brethren. Gen. 
37 : 14, 15. Joshua made it a Levitical city, and also a city of 
refuge (Josh. 20 : 7 ; 21 : 21) ; thither, shortly before his death, 
he gathered all the tribes of Israel for the solemn renewal of 
their covenant with God (Josh. chap. 24) ; and there the Israel- 
ites buried the bones of Joseph (Josh. 24 : 32). Shechem was 
the seat of Abimelech's short and turbulent reign and the bloody 
scenes connected with it. Judg. chap. 9. To the same place 
the Israelites repaired in a later age for the purpose of install- 
ing Rehoboam as king over all Israel; and there he frustrated 
their purpose by his folly, so that the kingdom of his father was 
rent in twain. 1 Kings, chap. 12. 

16. Of the two mountains which rise in steep rocky precipi- 
ces above the city, Gerizim, on the south, has an elevation above 
the sea of 2,650 feet. Robinson says that the top of Ebal, as 
seen from the east, appears to be a hundred feet or more higher — 
apparently the highest land in all Mount Ephraim. Phys. Geog. 
p. 37. These two mountains were designated by Moses for the 
solemn pronunciation of the blessings and the curses ; the bless- 
ings to be pronounced on Gerizim, the curses on Ebal. Joshua 
was also directed to set up great stones on Mount Ebal, and 
plaster them with plaster, upon which was to be written a copy 
of the law of Moses; all which was faithfully performed by 
him. Deut. 11:29, 30; chap. 27; Josh. 8:30-35. The sum- 
mit of Gerizim is also distinguished as the place where Jotham 
pronounced in the hearing of the Shechemites below him his 
celebrated parable. "Several lofty precipices literally over- 
hang the city, any one of which would answer his purpose. 



I 



PALESTINE. 59 

Nor would it be difficult to be heard, as everybody knows who 
has listened to the public crier of villages on Lebanon. In the 
stillness of the evening, after the people have returned home 
from their distant fields, he ascends the mountaui side above the 
place, or to the roof of some prominent house, and there 'hfts 
up his voice and cries,' as Jotham did ; and he gives forth his 
proclamation with such distinctness that all can hear and under- 
stand it." Thomson, Land and Book, 2, pp. 209, 210. We 
may add that he was in entire safety, since the ascent to the 
summit is by a circuitous route through the ravine already men- 
tioned, which comes down opposite the west end of the city.- 

17. Erom the time of the Babylonish exile and onwards, 
Shechem was the chief seat of the Samaritans, and the feeble 
remnants of this people are found there at the present day* 

The scriptural account of the origin of the peoj)le afterwards called 
Samaritans is as follows. About 721 b. c, in the ninth year of Hoshea 
king of Israel, ** the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away 
into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Kabor by the river of Go- 
zan, and in the cities of the Medes." 2 Kings 17 : 6. Then follows an 
extended explanation of the reason why God allowed this calamity to 
befall the kingdom of Israel (verses 7-23), after which the sacred writer 
adds (ver. 24) : " And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and 
from Cutliah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and 
placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel : and 
they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof." By "Samaria 
and the cities thereof" we are to understand Samaria and the adjacent cit- 
ies and villages, which alone remained to the kings of Israel ; for their ter- 
ritory had been curtailed by previous invasions, and did not then include 
either Galilee or the region east of the Jordan valley. 2 Kings 10 : 32, 33 ; 
15 : 29. The Assyrian inscriptions ascribe to Sargon, the successor of Shal- 
maneser, the deportation of the Israelites, 27,280 families. Nor is this 
inconsistent with the succinct scriptural narrative, which names Shalma- 
neser indeed as the Assyrian monarch who reduced Hoshea to a state of 
vassalage (2 Kings 17 : 3), but in recording the subsequent transactions, 
speaks simply of "the king of Assyria" (vers. 4, 5, 6, 24). The colonists 
themselves represent Esar-haddon, the son and successor of Sennacherib, 
and grandson of Sargon, as the man who brought them up to the Samari- 
tan region. Ezra 4:2. " The great and noble Asnapper," to whom they 
ascribe the same work (Ezra 4 : 10), was either identical with Esar-haddon, 
or was the satrap to whom he intrusted the enterprise. The latter is the 



GO SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

more probable opinion. As a punishment for the impiety of these colonists, 
the Lord sent Hons among them (2 Kings 17 : 25); whereupon the king of 
Assyria sent them an Israelitish priest, who should ' ' teach them the man- 
ner of the God of the land." The result was a mongrel religion, which 
the sacred writer describes by saying that "they feared the Lord, and 
served their own gods." "So these nations feared the Lord, and served 
their graven images, both their children, and their children's children : 
as did their fathers, so do they unto this day" (vers. 29-41). 

In all this narrative it is implied that the colonists were of purely hea- 
then origin. The account which Josephus gives is substantially the same. 
His only error is in ascribing the deportation of the Israelites and the 
mission of the colonists to the same monarch, Shalmaneser (Antiq. 9. 14. 
1 ; 10. 9. 7), which was with him an inference from the form of the scrip- 
tural narrative. How far these colonists became mingled before the days 
of Ezra by intermarriage with the remnants of the Israelites that certainly 
existed after the deportation in Ephraim and Manasseh, as well as farther 
north (2 Chron. 34 : 6, 7, and especially ver. 9), is a difficult question, on 
which eminent biblical scholars are divided. Josephus accuses them of 
double-dealing in regard to their origin. "When the Jews are involved 
in misfortunes," says he, "they deny that they are their kinsmen, confess- 
ing then the truth. But when they see any good fortune happening to 
them, immediately they leap into fellowship with them, affirming that they 
belong to them, and deriving their origin from Joseph through Ephraim 
and Manasseh." Antiq. 11. 8. 6. See also 9. 14. 3. On the, succession 
of the Assyrian monarchs, see especially Rawlinson's Herodotus, Appendix 
to Book 1, Essay 7. 

These are the people avIio, upon the return of the Jews from the Baby- 
lonish captivity, applied for a share of the work in rebuilding the temple, 
saying : "Let us build with you : for we seek your God, as ye do ; and we 
do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who 
brought us up hither" (Ezra 4:2), words which certainly imply that they 
were as a whole of foreign descent. Being sternly repulsed by the Jewish 
rulers under Zerubbabel and Joshua they took, and ever afterwards main- 
tained, the attitude of bitter enemies to the Jewish people, and their hatred 
was heartily reciprocated. The quarrel between the Jews and Samaritans 
finally culminated in the erection by the latter of a temple of their own on 
Mount Gerizim. The immediate occasion of this is generally thought to 
have been the expulsion from Jerusalem by Nehemiah of one of the sons 
of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, because he had married the 
daughter of Sanballat the Horonite. Neh. 13 : 28. Josephus, indeed, 
places this transaction some eighty years later than the time of Nehemiah, 
and represents that the temple on Gerizim was built by permission of 
Alexander the Great (Antiq. 11. 7. 2 ; 8. 4) ; but Kobinson (Bib. Res. 2. 



PALESTINE. 61 

p. 289 note) cons'ders this to be a chronological error on the part of Jose- 
plius. The Samaritan temple was destroyed by John Hyrcanus about 129 
B. c. (Josephus, Antiq. 13. 9. 1) but the Samaritans still adhered to their 
worship on Mount Gcrizim (John 4 : 20), as does also the small remnant 
of them at the present day. Eobinson, Bib. Ees. 2, pp. 277, 278. 

18. In the near vicinity of Sliechem are Jacob's icell and the 
so-called tomb of Josej^h. Jacob's well lies about a mile and a 
half east of the city, amid the ruins of a church formerly built 
around it. When Maundrell visited it in 1697, it was covered 
by an old stone vault now fallen into decay. Through this he 
descended by a square hole in the roof, and found the proper 
mouth of the well covered with a broad flat stone. The well is 
excavated in the solid rock, and is about nine feet in diameter, 
round, smooth, and regular. It appears to be slowly filling up 
with rubbish ; for Maundrell found its depth one hundred and 
five feet, of which fifteen were water ; while the Rev. S. Calhoun, 
in 1839, and Dr. Wilson in 1843, found the depth below the 
vault only seventy-five feet, and in 1855 Bev. John Mills could 
make it no more than seventy feet deep. The latter traveller 
found it entirely dry, and this seems to be its general state at 
present. 

There can be no reasonable doubt that this is the identical 
well on which the Saviour sat and conversed with the Samari- 
tan woman, while his disciples were gone into the city — proba- 
bly somewhat nearer to the well than the present Nabulus — 
to buy meat. Looking round upon the green cornfields four 
months before the time of harvest (so we prefer to interpret the 
Saviour's words), and seeing a nobler harvest of immortal souls 
streaming forth from the city, and already ripe for the spiritual 
reaper's sickle, he exclaimed : " Say not ye. There are yet four 
months, and then cometh harvest ? behold, I say unto you. Lift 
up your eyes, and look on the fields ; for they are white already 
to harvest." John 4 : 35. 

The question has been raised: Why dig a well in a region so abun- 
dantly watered by fountains ? The answer is, that Jacob wished to be 
independent of the inhabitants for a supply of water to the "parcel of a 



62 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

field" which he had bought. Gen. 33:18, 19. The position of the well 
"before the city," as well as the uniform tradition since the d*ys of Euse- 
bius, in which Jews, Samaritans, Christians, and Mohammedans agree, all 
conspire to prove the identity of the present well with that honored by the 
presence of our Lord. 

The torn!) of Joseph lies about a quarter of a mile north of the 
well, in the middle of the mouth of the valley between Gerizim 
and Ebal. It is a tomb of the ordinary kind, surrounded by a 
square enclosure of high whitewashed walls. 

The tradition respecting Joseph's tomb at Shechem (Josh. 24:32) is as 
old and as uniform as that concerning Jacob's well. The difficulty and 
uncertainty have respect to the exact spot — whether this tomb or the wely 
at the northeast foot of Gerizim. See on this point Prof. Haekett in 
Smith's Bib. Diet. , art. Shechem. 

19. Proceeding down the valley which leads off from Shech- 
em in a northwesterly direction we come, at the distance of 
about six miles, to a fine round swelling hill, or almost mountain, 
standing alone in the midst of a great basin of some two hours 
in diameter, and surrounded by higher mountains on ever}^ side. 
Robinson, Bib. Res. 2, p. 304. This is the ancient " hill of Sa- 
maria," which Omri, the father of Ahab, bought "of Shemer for 
two talents of silver, and built on the hill, and called the name 
of the city which he built after the name of Shemer, owner of 
the hill, Samaria," or, in the Hebrew form, Shomeron. 1 Kings 
16 : 24. It was therefore a chosen spot of great strength, as 
w^ell as fertility and beauty. All travellers speak of it with 
admiration. " It would be difficult," says Robinson, " to find in 
all Palestine a situation of equal strength, fertility, and beauty. 
In all these particulars it has very greatly the advantage over 
Jeiusalem." Bib. Res. 2, p. 309. 

The modern name of the hill of Samaria is Sehustieh, an 
Arabic corruption of the name Sebaste, which Herod the Great 
gave to the city in honor of his master, Augustus, who bestowed 
it upon him after the death of Antony and Cleopatra (Josephus, 
Antiq., 15. 7. 3; 8. 5; Jewish War, 1. 2. 7), Sebaste being the 



PALESTINE. 63 

Greek form answering to the Latin Augusta, Samaria and 
Shechem were the chief seats of the foreigners introduced by 
Esar-haddon. Josephus says that John Hyrcanus (about 106 
B. c.) destroyed the city to its foundations, so that no vestige of 
it remained. Antiq., 13. 10. 3. But it was afterwards rebuilt; 
and when Herod received it from Augustus, he enlarged it, sur- 
rounded it by a strong wall, and adorned it in every part. Ant., 
15. 8. 5. But all this glory has long since passed away. The 
whole hill is cultivated to the top. "The ground has been 
I^loughed for centuries ; and hence it is now in vain to look here 
for the foundations and stones of the ancient city." Eobin- 
son. Bib. Ees., 2, p. 307, where see a more particular account of 
the Jiistory of Samaria and its present ruins. 

20. The scriptural reminiscences connected with Samaria 
are many and interesting. Here Ahab, at the instigation of 
Jezebel his wife, built a temple and altar to Baal (1 Kings 
16 : 32) ; here the false prophets prophesied before him and 
Jehoshaphat "in a void place in the entrance of the gate of Sama- 
ria," and the true prophet Micaiah denounced upon him the 
speedy judgment of heaven ; to this place was his body brought 
and buried, " and one washed the chariot in the pool of Sama- 
ria, and the dogs licked up his blood" (1 Kings, chap. 22); here 
Jehu " slew all that remained unto Ahab in Samaria," and then 
destroyed by stratagem all the worshippers of Baal. 2 Kings, 
chap. 10. The city was honored by the presence and miracu- 
lous deeds of Elisha. Here this prophet healed Naaman the 
Syrian of his leprosy (2 Kings, chap. 5), and sending a messenger 
hither, apparently from Dothan, disclosed to the king of Israel 
the plans of the Syrian invaders. Chap. 6 : 8-12. Here also 
he predicted incredible plenty at a time of distressing famine. 
Chap. 7. After the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pen- 
tecost, Samaria with its villages was the first place without the 
limits of Judaea that received the gospel (Acts 8 : 5-25), and 
it early became the seat of a Christian bishoj). 

21. Other places of interest in Mount Ephraim are the fol- 
lowing : 



64 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

Dothan, wliicli yet retains its ancient name, on the little plain already 
noticed (No. 8 above) south of Esdraelon. On the southern side of this 
plain is a large mound or tell covered with ruins, with a fountain at its 
base, and near it some deep wells or cisterns, into one of which undoubt- 
edly Joseph was let down, and drawn out again that he might be sold to 
the Ishmaelites who were on their way to Egypt. It was to Dothan also 
that the Syrian king sent by night "horses, and chariots, and a great 
host," with the intention of capturing Elisha. But they were smitten with 
blindness, and led by the prophet to Samaria. The minute accuracy of 
the narrative is noticeable. When God, upon the prophet's petition, 
opened the eyes of the young man who attended him, "he saw, and behold 
the mountain (or 7iiU, for the Hebrew word for mountain and hill is the same) 
was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." 2 Kings 6 : 17. 

Dr. Robinson (Bib. Res. 3, pp. 302, 303) finds the probable site of 
the ancient Tirzali, celebrated in the Song of Solomon for its beauty (chap. 
6:4), and for some time the seat of the Israelitish kings (1 Kings 14:17; 
15:21, 33; 16:8, 15, 17, 23) in the modern Tullazali, a town a few miles north 
of Nabulus. The place lies in a sightly and commanding position, and is 
surrounded by immense gi-oves of olive-trees planted on all the hills around. 

The large village of Tubas, northeast of Nabulus, on the road to Beth- 
shean, is in all probability the ancient Tliehez, from the strong tower of 
which city a certain woman cast an upper millstone upon Abimelech's 
head and broke his skull. Judg. 9 : 53. It lies on the western slope of a 
basin with a beautiful plain in front, and large groves of olive-trees. Rob- 
inson, Bib. Res. 3, p. 305. 

A short distance east of the plain of the Mukhna which lies before 
Shechem is the village of Salim, which Robinson thinks is probably the 
^^ Slialem, a city of Shechem," to which Jacob came on his return from 
Padan-aram. Gen. 33:18. Since, however, Shalem signifies in the He- 
brew wliole, sound, some prefer to render: "And Jacob came unharmed to 
the city of Shechem." 

The ancient Shiloh has been identified in respect to site with the ruins 
called by the Arabs Seilun. The position of this place is very exactly 
defined in the Old Testament. It was "on the north side of Beth-el, on 
the east side of the way that goeth from Beth-el to Shechem, and on the 
south of Lebonah." Judg. 21:19. The ruins in question correspond well 
to this description. "The traveller at the present day," writes Professor 
Hackett (in Smith's Bib. Diet.) from his own note-book, "going north 
from Jerusalem, lodges the first night at Beitin, the ancient Beth-el ; the 
next day, at the distance of a few hours, turns aside to the right, in order 
to visit Seilun, the Arabic for Shiloh; and then passing through the nai'- 



PALESTINE. Go 

row wady, wliicli brings him to the main road, leaves el-Lehban, the Lebo- 
nah of Scripture, on the left, as he pursues the highway to Ndblus, the 
ancient Shechem." Seilun corresponds to the Hebrew Shilon, which 
appears to have been the original full form. Hence the term Shiloniie, 
that is, inhabitant of Shiloh (1 Kings 11:29; 12: 15, compared with 14: 2, 4) ; 
and hence also the form Siloim, which Josephus employs along with Silo 
(the former in Antiq., 5. 1. 19 and 20; 2. 9 and 12 ; the latter in Antiq., 
8. 7. 7 ; 11. 1). The main site of the ruins of Seilun is a small tell sur- 
rounded by hills. On the east a narrow valley, shut in at first by per> 
pendicular walls of rock, leads to an open tract with a fine fountain, in the 
vicinity of which Robinson suggests that the seizure of the daughters of 
Shiloh by the Benjamites ( Judg. 21 : 19-23) probably took place. 

Shiloh w^as selected by Joshua as the site of the tabernacle (Josh. 18:1), 
and here he completed the division of the land by lot. Josh. 18:8-10. 
It remained the religious centre of the Israelites through a period of three 
centuries, till the ark was taken captive by the Philistines. Here Hannah 
prayed before the Lord, and was graciously answered ; and here she dedica- 
ted her son Samuel to the Lord. 1 Sam., chap. 2. Here the terrible tidings 
of the capture of the ark were brought to Eli with the death of his two 
sons, Hophni and Phinehas ; whereupon the aged high priest **fell from 
off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he 
died." 1 Sam. 4:12-18. Hither also the wife of Jeroboam repaired to 
consult the prophet Ahijali in behalf of her son Abijah, and was fore- 
warned of his speedy death, and the extirpation of Jeroboam's family. 
1 Kings 14:1-17. The language of Jeremiah implies that Shiloh was des- 
olate in his day. Jer. 7:12, 14; 26:6, 9. 

The Gilgal of 2 Kings, chap. 2, is certainly not the Gilgal in the Jordan 
valley where Joshua encamped immediately after passing over Jordan. 
In this chapter Elijah goes down with Elisha from Gilgal to Beth-el ; then 
from Beth-el to Jericho, and from Jericho across the Jordan. The Gilgal 
of Joshua's first encampment is more than 3,000 feet below Beth-el (accord- 
ing to Van de Velde, Memoir, pp. 179, 182, about 3,300 feet) not to speak 
of the improbability of Elijah's going up from this Gilgal to Beth-el, to 
return immediately to Jericho in its near vicinity. But there is a large 
village bearing the name of JiljiUa which Robinson describes (Bib. Res. 
2, pp. 265, 266), and which fulfils w^ell all the conditions of Elijah's last 
journey. It is on higher ground than Beth-el, and the latter place lies 
about six miles south of it on the direct road from Jiljilia to Jericho. 
"The place stands very high, near the western brow of the high moun- 
tain tract. It affords a very extensive view out over the great lower plain 
and sea ; while at the same time the mountains of Gilead are seen in the 
east. Far in the north-northeast, too, we could see for the first time a 
lofty dark blue mountain, which we afterwards found to be no other than 



6G SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

Jebel-esli-Sheikh, the Hermon of Scripture, beyond Banias, still not less 
distant from lis than eighty minutes of latitude " — more than ninety Eng- 
lish miles. It is surprising that Robinson should not have even suspected 
the- identity of this place with the Gilgal of 2 Kings, chap. 2, but should 
have written : ' ' The form Jiljilia obviously corresponds to the ancient name 
Gilgal ; but I find no mention of any ancient place of that name in this 
vicinity." There is another Gilgal, Jiljuleh, a little south of Antipatris, but 
this cannot come into account in the present connection. It is probably 
the Gilgal of Josh. 12 : 23. 

The site and ruins of Timnaili-serah in Mount Ephraim, which was 
assigned to Joshua as his inheritance, and in the border of which he was 
buried, "on the north side of the hill Gaash " (Josh. 19 : 50 ; 24 : 30 ; Judg. 
2 : 9, where, by a transposition of consonants, we have Timnath-heres), have 
been probably identified by Rev. Eli Smith in the modern Tihneh, about 
six miles northwest of Gophna. Here is a gentle hill with the ruins of a 
considerable town on the north side of a valley which runs westward to the 
great wady Belat. Over against these ruins on the south side of the val- 
ley is a high hill, in the north side of which are several excavated sepul- 
chres, which in size and in the richness and character of their architecture, 
resemble the so-called "Tombs of the Kings" at Jerusalem. This is 
probably "the hiU Gaash." 

Beth-el, on the border between Ej)hraim and Benjamin, fell to the king- 
dom of Israel upon the separation of the ten tribes, but will be most con- 
veniently described from Jerusalem as a centre. 

III. SOUTHEKN SECTION— JUDEA IN PART. 

22. As we pass soutliward from the mountains of Ephraim 
to tliose of Judea, tlie physical features and scenery undergo 
a gradual but marked change. The little upland plains " almost 
disappear," says Porter (in Alexander's Kitto), "in Benjamin, 
and in Judali they are unknown. Those which do exist in Ben- 
jamin, as the plains of Gibeon and Bepliaim, are small and 
rocky. The soil, alike on plain, hiU, and glen, is poor and 
scanty; and the gray Hmestone rock everywhere crops up over 
it, giving the landscape a barren and forbidding aspect. Natu- 
ral wood disappears ; and a few small bushes, brambles, or aro- 
matic shrubs, alone appear upon the hillsides." Fountains 
become rare, and wells, hewn in the soft limestone rock, take 
their place. Covered cisterns also, in which the rain-water is 



PALESTINE. 67 

treasured up, and open tanks are very abundant. Now, as in 
ancient days, the wells of Palestine are the resort of caravans 
and wayfaring men. Thither the shepherds lead their flocks, 
and the women resort with their pitchers. "Bounded hills," 
says Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, pp. 136, 137), "chiefly of gray 
color — gray partly from the limestone of which they are all 
formed, partly from the tufts of gray shrub with which their 
sides are thinly clothed, and from the prevalence of the olive — 
their sides formed into concentric rings of rock, which must 
have served in ancient times as supports to the terraces, of 
which there are still traces to their very summits ; valleys, or 
rather meetings of these gray slopes with the beds of dry water- 
courses at their feet — long sheets of bare rock laid like flag- 
stones, side by side, along the soil — these are the chief features 
of the greater part of the scenery of the historical parts of 
Palestine." All travellers notice the profusion of aromatic 
shrubs which in the spring clothe the hills and valleys of Syria 
and Arabia. Characteristic of Palestine in the spring of the 
year is the profusion of wild flowers, especially those of a scar- 
let hue — anemones, wild tulips, poppies, etc. 

23. "The glens," continues Porter, "which descend west- 
ward are long and winding, with dry, rocky beds, and banks 
breaking down to them in terraced declivities. The lower slopes 
near the plain of Philistia are neither so bare nor so rugged as 
those near the crest of the ridge. The valleys, too, become 
wider, sometimes expanding, as Surar, es-Sumpt (Elah), and 
Beit Jibrm, with rich and beautiful cornfields. The eastern 
declivities of the ridge, so fertile and picturesque in Samaria, 
are here a wilderness — bare, white, and absolutely desolate; 
without trees, or grass, or stream, or fountain. Naked slopes 
of white gravel and white rock descend rapidly and irregularly 
from the brow of the ridge, till at length they dip in the frown- 
ing precipices of Quarantania, Feshkah, Engedi, and Masada, 
into the Jordan valley or Dead sea. Naked ravines, too, like 
huge fissures, with perpendicular walls of rock, often several 
hundred feet in height, furrow these slopes from top to bottom. 



68 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

The wild and savage grandeur of wadys Far ah, el-Kelt, en-Nar, 
and Khureitun is almost appalling." Robinson notices, in like 
manner, the difference between the eastern and western sides of 
this mountainous tract. The wall of the Dead sea and Jordan 
valley, he tells us (Phys. Geog., p. 33), "rises from one thousand 
to fifteen hundred feet above the depressed valley, is every- 
where steep and sometimes precipitous, and is often cleft to 
its base by the deep valleys and gorges that issue from the 
mountains. All is irregular and wild, presenting, especially 
along the Dead sea, scenes of savage grandeur." Along the 
western base of the mountainous region lies, as already re- 
marked, a tract of lower hills, constituting the middle region 
between the mountains and the plain. " This tract," says Rob- 
inson, " is, for the most part, a beautiful open country, consist- 
ing of low hills, usually rocky, separated by broad arable val- 
leys, mostly well adapted for grain, as are also many of the 
swelling hills. The whole tract is full of villages and deserted 
sites and ruins, and there are many olive groves. 

"One feature of this high mountain plateau has been disclosed only 
since the discovery of the deep depression of the Dead sea and Jordan val- 
ley. That sea lies (in round numbers) thirteen hundred feet below the level 
of the Mediterranean. The eastern brow of the mountain overhanging 
the Dead sea, is thirteen hundred feet above it, or almost precisely on *the 
level of the western sea. Jerusalem is two thousand six hundred feet, 
while the western brow is but two thousand feet above the Mediterranean. 
Hence, in the slope from Jerusalem to the western brow, there is a descent 
of six hundred feet ; while in that from Jerusalem to the eastern brow, a 
distance not much greater, the descent is two thousand six hundred feet ; 
a difference of two thousand feet ! This remarkable feature is chiefly con- 
spicuous south of Kurn Surtabeh [a promontory overhanging the Jordan 
valley. See the map]. The enormous descent of the eastern slope is very 
marked, as seen from the hill of Taiyibeh [a high conical hill northeast of 
Bethel] and the mount of Olives ; and is fully felt by the traveller in pass- 
ing from Hebron or Carmel of the south to the Dead sea." Eobinson, 
Phys. Geog., pp. 34, 35. 

24. In the above description it has been implied that the 
eastern part of the mountainous region of Judea is destitute of 
water and uncultivated. In truth, this eastern part, a tract 



PALESTINE. 69 

extending some thirty-five or forty miles from the parallel of 
Beth-el on the north to the southern border of Palestine, and 
having a breadth of about nine miles, has always been, and 
must continue to be, an uninhabited wilderness. This is the 
hvilderness of Judali or Judea. Psa. 63, title; Matt. 3:1. It is 
described by Yan de Yelde as "a bare, arid- wilderness ; an 
endless succession of shapeless yellow and ash -colored hills, 
without grass or shrubs, without water, and almost without 
life." Syria and Palestine, 2, p. 99. Like every other part of 
Palestine, it abounds in limestone caverns. It was in a cave 
near En-gedi in this wilderness that David took refuge from 
the fury of Saul, w^hen that monarch went to seek him "upon 
the rocks of the wild goats." 1 Sam., chap. 24. Any one of the 
innumerable caves which abound in the region may have been 
the scene of David's adventure with Saul on that occasion. 

The whole mountainous region south of the mountains of 
Ephraim is called collectively tlie moimtains of Judali (Josh. 
11 : 21 ; 2 Chron. 21 : 11 ; 27 : 4) and the hill country of Judea 
(Luke 1 : 39, 65). The mountainous tract south of Esdraelon 
gradually rises, as already remarked, until around Hebron it 
attains an elevation of two thousand eight hundred feet above 
the Mediterranean. South of Hebron it declines again, and 
some six miles south of Hebron, in about the latitude of Tell 
Main (probably the ancient Maon, 1 Sam. 23 : 24, 25 ; 25 : 2) it 
undergoes a marked physical change, the rocky hills with nar- 
row valleys giving place to gently rolUng downs, " mostly bare 
and desolate, burned up in summer by the unclouded sun, but 
covered in winter and spring with grass and green herbs, afford- 
ing excellent pasturage for sheep, goats, and camels." Porter 
in Alexander's Kitto, Art. Necjeh. See also Tristram's Land 
of Israel, pp. 382, 383. This is that part of Judea so often 
referred to as the south (Heb. Necjeb) and the soutli country (Gen. 
12:9; 13:1; 24:62; Deut. 1:7; 1 Sam. 30:1; etc.), terms 
which are to be understood as denoting a geographical division 
of the land. See especially Deut. 1:7; Jer. 32:44; 33:13; 
Zech. 7 : 7. The deep and rocky wadys by which it is inter- 



70 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

sected are dry except after heavy rains, when they flow with 
water. Hence the beautiful aUusion of the Psalmist : " Turn 
again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south." Psa. 
126 : 4. 

25. Jerusalem (el-Kuds, the Holy, as the Arabs call it) must 
ever be an object of solemn interest to the Christian. Already 
in the days of Joshua it was a place of great strength. Though 
the Israelites took and burned the city itself (Judg. 1:8), they 
could not drive out the Jebusites from their stronghold on Zion 
(Josh. 15 : 63 ; Judg. 1 : 21), but they kept possession of it, and 
thus of the city, till David's time, who "took the stronghold of 
Zion: the same is the city of David." 2 Sam. 5:7. David 
made it the seat of his kingdom ; and by the transference of the 
ark from " Baalah, which is Kirjath-jearim" (Josh. 15 : 9) to the 
same place (2 Sam., chap. 6), it became the seat and centre of 
the theocracy also ; and so it continued for eleven centuries, till 
the theocracy itself passed away through the ministry of the 
Eoman legions "with tumult, with shouting, and with the sound 
of the trumpet." Here Solomon built on Moriah the first tem- 
ple, and Zerubbabel with his companions the second, which was 
afterwards renewed by Herod with a magnificence surpassing 
that of the first. Here David reigned in warlike might, and 
Solomon in unrivalled splendor; and after them a long line of 
kings and princes. The city was set forth as a prize to the suc- 
cessive great monarchies of the world. Against it came Shishak 
king of Egypt, and "took away the treasures of the house of the 
Lord, and the treasures of the king's house." 1 Kings 14 : 25, 
26. Before it Sennacherib's host encamped, and were destroyed 
by an angel — a hundred fourscore and fiYe thousand in one 
night. 2 Kings 19 : 35. Nebuchadnezzar took it and burned 
it with its " holy and beautiful temple." 2 Kings 25 : 9. Under 
Cyrus it was restored. The mighty Alexander visited it and 
offered sacrifices upon its altar. Josephus, Antiq., 11. 8. 5. 
The kings of Egypt and Syria contended over it, and each of 
them in turn possessed and desolated it. The heroic Maccabees 
established its independence, till the Roman Pompey took it 



PALESTINE. 71 

with great slaughter, and by the right of conquest visited the 
inner sanctuary, where to his amazement he found " a vacant 
shrine and empty mysteries, with no image of the gods withm." 
Tacitus, Hist., 5. 9. From Pompey's day the city passed into 
the power of the Romans. It was destroyed by Titus with its 
people A. D. 70, and the Jews slaughtered by hundreds of thou- 
sands. Under the leadership of the celebrated Bar-cocheba 
the Jew^s revolted and took possession of Jerusalem, but were 
defeated with terrible slaughter A. D. 135. Then the emperor 
Hadrian demolished all remains of the old Jerusalem ; built a 
new city with a new name, that of ^lia Capitolina ; erected a 
temple to Jupiter on the site of the Jewish sanctuary, and a 
temple to Astarte on the place now known as the holy sepul- 
chre; and sculptured the military ensigns of Rome over the 
gates of the city. Afterwards the Persians stormed and took 
Jerusalem, A. D. 614. Next it fell into the hands of the Sara- 
cens under Omar, a. d. 637, who has left the existing mosque of 
Omar as a monument of his conquest. From the Saracens 
Jerusalem passed to the Turks, and from them it was taken by 
the Crusaders, a. d. 1099. Finally, it was captured from the 
Christians by the famous Saladin, October 2, 1187, and has ever 
since remained in the possession of the Ottoman power. Thus 
are fulfilled the words of our Lord : " Jerusalem shall be trod- 
den down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be ful- 
filled.". Luke 21: 24. 

But, wonderful and unparalleled as is the earthly history of 
Jerusalem, it has for us an interest of an infinitely higher char- 
acter; for it was here that our Lord wrought redemption for 
the human family by his ]3ropitiatory death on the cross. With- 
in the walls of Jerusalem he was condemned to death, scourged, 
and spit upon. Without her walls on Calvary he "redeemed us 
from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." Here 
he was buried, and rose again the third day ; and from this city 
he led his disciples forth to Bethany, where he was parted from 
them and carried up into heaven. It was in Jerusalem also, on 
the day of Pentecost, that the Holy Ghost descended upon the 



72 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

infant church as a rushing mighty wind, and the Christian dis- 
pensation was inaugurated ; and from Jerusalem as a centre was 
the gospel propagated among all nations. Thus began the ful- 
filment of the prophet's words : " Out of Zion shall go forth the 
law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." And what 
mighty events await the holy city in the coming future, when 
" the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled," who can tell ! 

26. Jerusalem lies not far from the centre, reckoning east 
and west, of the broad, mountainous tract that has been de- 
scribed, in lat. 31° 4.6V N., and long. 35° 18 ^ E. from Green- 
wich. The following description should be studied with con- 
stant reference to the maps of Jerusalem and its vicinity which 
accompany this volume. The valley of Kidron (in the New Tes- 
tament, the torrent Cedron, John 18 : 1) has its head some half 
an hour northwest of the city on the road to Neby Samwil. 
The valley runs a short distance directly towards the city, then 
turning nearly east, it passes to the northward of the tombs of 
the Kings, at the distance of about two hundred rods from the 
city. Then curving around to the south, it passes down be- 
tween the city on the west and the mount of Olives on the east. 
In the upper part it is shallow and rocky, and just after it 
curves to the south, it spreads out into a basin of some breadth, 
planted with olive and other fruit trees. As it descends to the 
south, the west side towards the city becomes steeper and more 
elevated, until at the gate of St. Stephen (the eastern gate) the 
height of the brow is about one hundred feet. Here a bridge on 
a causeway leads across towards the mount of Olives. Below the 
bridge the valley contracts and sinks rapidly, till at the southeast 
corner of the area of the mosque of Omar it becomes merely a 
deep ravine, or narrow torrent-bed, overhung by the wall of the 
area. The elevation of the wall above the bottom of the valley 
is estimated by Eobinson at one hundred and fifty feet. Pass- 
ing on south of the city it receives from the west the valley of 
Hinnom. Here at the junction is the place of Tophet, and a 
little farther down is the well En-rogel. Still farther south the 
valley bends towards the east, and so passes off to the Dead 



1 




JERUSALEM, FROM THE SOUTHEAST. 



^-^^^ 




GAEDEN OF GETHSEMANE, AND MOUNT OF OLIVES. 



PALESTINE. 73 

sea in an east-southeast direction. The valley abounds on both 
sides with excavated tombs from its origin all the way down to 
the city, and even opposite to its northern part. It is hardly 
necessary to add that 'Hhe brook Kidron" of Scripture is not 
a perennial stream, but only the bed of a torrent, where no 
water flows except during the heavy rains of winter. This 
indeed is indicated in both Hebrew and Greek by the word ren- 
dered brook in our version. 

The modern name of this valley Wady Jehoshofdt, valley of Jehoshapliat. 
is founded on a belief prevalent since tlie early ages of Christianity, that 
this is "the valley of Jehoshapliat'! of which the prophet Joel speaks 
(chap. 3:2, 12), and where the last judgment is to be held. But "the 
valley of Jehoshaphat " in Joel is, in all probability, a simple allusion to 
the meaning of the word Jehoshaphat, that is, Jehovah judgeth, or, Jehovah 
is judge. It is the valley of JehovaK s judgment, not the geographical name 
by which a valley in Joel's day was designated. Josephus knows nothing 
of such a name as applied to the valley of Kidron. j 

27. The valley of Hinnom (Josh. 15 : 8 ; 2 Kings 23 : 10 ; 
2 Chron. 28:3; 32 : 6), or more fully, the valley of the son of Hin- 
nom ( Jer. 19 : 2, 6 ; 32 : 35) has its commencement in a broad 
sloping basin west of the city. It runs in a southeasterly direc- 
tion towards the Yafa gate (the western gate) for about 2,100 
feet. "Wlien within about 400 feet of this gate it bends to the 
south, skirting the west side of Zion. After pursuing this 
course about the distance of 2,100 feet, it curves round the 
southwestern brow of Zion, thus assuming an easterly direction, 
and so it opens into the valley of Kidron at the distance of 2,880 
feet below the southeastern corner of the area of the mosque of 
Omar, according to Kobinson's measurements. The banks of 
this valley have at first a gentle slope, but they soon contract, 
and become steep and rocky. South of Zion the right bank rises 
in broken cliffs of limestone rock, which are full of excavated 
tombs. The total length of the valley is about a mile and a half. 

From the Hebrew form Ge Hinnom, valley of Hinncnn, comes the mod- 
ern Arabic name of this valley, Yehennam; also the Greek Geenna, used 
metaphorically to denote hell in the proper sense of the word, that is, the 
place where the wicked are punished. Sec below, No. 42. The term Ge- 

4 



74: SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

enna, or as it is called in English, GeJienna, should be carefully distinguish- 
ed from the Hebrew Sheol, to which the Greek Hades answers, these latter 
terms denoting the place of departed spirits. 

28. On the broad and elevated promontory between the two 
valleys that have been described lies the holy city, with a gen- 
eral slope towards the east. "All around," says Eobinson, 
"are higher hills; on the east the mount of Olives; on the 
south, the hill of Evil Counsel, so called, rising directly from the 
vale of Hinnom ; on the west, the ground rises gently," forming 
the high swell of ground on the east side of the great Wady 
Beit Hanina, which passes along in a southwest direction an 
hour or more west of Jerusalem; "while on the north, a bend 
of the ridge connected with the mount of Olives bounds the 
prospect at the distance of more than a mile." It is only on 
the southwest, where the plain of Eephaim lies, that the pros- 
pect is somewhat more open. Hence the beauty and pertinence 
of the psalmist's words: "As the mountains are round about 
Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from hence- 
forth even for ever." Psa. 125 : 2. 

29. We have seen the general situation of the site of Jeru- 
salem. "We may now conveniently attend to its internal divis- 
ions. To describe these as they now exist is an easy work. 
The difficulty lies in identifying the ancient with the modern 
divisions. We begin with the concise but very important 
description of Tacitus : 

' ' The city, difficult of approach by nature, had been fortified by works 
and structures which would have been a sufficient defence had it stood on 
a plain. For two hills of immense height were surrounded by walls with 
salient and reentering angles, so as to ex^Dose to assault the flanks of the 
besiegers. The extremities of the rock were abrux)t ; and towers were 
raised, where the hill aided, to the height of sixty feet ; in the lower 
slopes, to the height of one hundred and twenty feet. These were won- 
derful to behold, and their summits were level to the eye of those who 
viewed them at a distance. There were other walls within, surrounding 
the royal palace (regia), and the tower Antonia, so named by Herod in 
honor of Mark Antony, rose to a conspicuous height. The temple was 
fortified after the manner of a citadel, and had walls of its own built with 
special labor and care. The porticos themselves Avhicli surrounded the 



PALESTINE. 75 

temple were an excellent defence. There was a perennial fountain of 
water, the hills were excavated beneath," etc. Hist. 5. 11, 12. 

The above description Tacitus gives from the Koman be- 
siegers. To their view (and they had full opportunity of sur- 
veying the place) the city had hut tivo hills, which are described 
with reference to mihtary defence as being of immense height. 
If there was a third di\ision, it was too inconspicuous to attract 
their notice. These two hills, moreover, were surrounded by 
walls with salient and reentering angles, and lofty towers — a 
description which obviously applies to the outer wall. The 
description of Josephus is more elaborate, but agrees essentially 
with that of Tacitus : 

"The city was surrounded with a triple wall, except where it was 
encompassed by impassable ravines ; for here there was but one enclosure. 
It was built upon two hills lying face to face, and separated by a ravine, 
at which the houses, ])eing crowded one upon another, terminated. But of 
the hills, that which contained the upper city was much the higher and 
straighter in length. On account of its strength it was called by King 
David, the father of Solomon, who first built the temple, the Citadel ; but 
by us the Upper Market. The other hill, on which the lower city stood, 
was called Akra, being curved on both sides. Opj)osite to this there was 
a third hill lower by nature than Akra, and formerly separated from it by 
a broad ravine. But afterwards, during the time when the Asmonreans 
reigned, they filled up the valley for the purpose of uniting the city to the 
temple, and having cut down the summit of x\kra, they made it lower, so 
that the temple might appear over it. But the ravine of the Tyropoeon 
( CJieesemangers), so-called, by which we said that the hill of the upper city 
was separated from the lower hill, extends as far as Siloam ; for so we 
called the fountain, which has an abundance of sweet water. Without, the 
two hills of the city were encompassed by deep ravines, and on account of 
the precipices on both sides, neither of them afforded access to it." Jew- 
ish War, 5. 4. 1. 

From the above description it is plain : 

(1.) That at the time of the overthrow of Jerusalem by the 
Romans, the city stood on two hills, an upper and a lower, 
facing each other, and separated by a valley called that of the 
Cheesemongers. 

(2.) That the lower hill, which also contained the temple 



76 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

area, consisted originally of Akra and another hill, separated by 
a broad ravine ; but which two hills were made one in the time 
of the Asmonseans by the filling up of the intervening valley. 

(3.) That the hill of Akra was originally higher than that on 
which the temple was built, but was at the time of the junction 
cut down, in order that the temple might appear over it. 

(4.) That the valley of the Cheesemongers extended as far 
as Siloam — a trait of the description which enables us to iden- 
tify that celebrated fountain. 

(5.) That the two hills on which the city was built were 
encompassed by deep ravines, with precipices on each side, 
which cut off access. These two deep ravines are manifestly 
that of Kidron on the east, and that of Hinnom on the south 
and southwest. 

If now we compare with the above descriptions of Josephus 
and Tacitus the present site of Jerusalem, we find a rather 
broad valley, having its commencement in the plain just around 
and outside of the northern gate (the Damascus gate), and run- 
ning down through the city somewhat east of south. Into this 
opens near the southwestern angle of the Haram, that is the 
area of the mosque of Omar, a very shallow depression, at pres- 
ent scarcely perceptible to the eye, which comes down from the 
Yafa (Joppa) gate on the west. Below the junction the valley 
continues on in a southerly direction to Siloam, but with more 
precipitous sides and a deeper bed. It is agreed on all hands 
that the lower part of this valley south of the junction consti- 
tutes part of the valley of the Tyropoeon (Cheesemongers), 
which, according to Josephus, separated the two hills on which 
Jerusalem was built. Wliat, now, was its course above the 
junction? The most natural supposition certainly is that we 
are to seek for the northern continuation of the valley of Cheese- 
mongers in the marked depression which runs on in nearly the 
same line to the Damascus gate, rather than in a very incon- 
spicuous depression which comes into it from the west. This 
agrees well, moreover, with the description of Josephus ; for we 



PALESTINE. 77 

have on the west the higher hill of Zion, with its continuation 
to the north (the part which Eobinson and others call Akra), 
and on the east the lower ridge, on which the temple and lower 
city were built — a ridge once constituting tioo hills, but made 
one in the time of the Asmonoeans. Both hills, moreover, are 
encompassed by deep ravines with precipices ; the western by 
that of Hinnom on the southwest and south, the eastern by 
that of Kidron, now called the valley of Jehoshaphat, on the 
east. According to this view, which is that preferred by Hit- 
ter. (Geog. of Palestine, 4, p. 80, seq.) and others, Akra lay north 
of the temple, while the southern continuation of the ridge on 
which the temple stood is the ancient OjoJiel. According to the 
same view, all that part of the city lying west of the valley run- 
ning from the Damascus gate to Siloam was reckoned to Zion. 
This might well be called "much higher and straighter in 
length," for it extended directly north and south from the 
southern brow of Zion to near the present Damascus gate. Its 
height at the northwestern part of the present city is, accord- 
ing to Lynch, 2,610 feet; at the summit of Zion in the south, 
according to Schubert, 2,537 feet ; at the threshold of the Yafa 
gate, according to Kusseger 2,642, according to Schubert 2,636 
feet, which two measurements give a mean of 2,639 feet. The 
height of Moriah, on the other hand, is given by Schubert at 
only 2,537 feet, a difference of full one hundred feet. 

Dr. Robinson, however, maintains, in conformity with the 
more common view, that the valley of the Tyropoeon began at the 
western or Yafa gate in the shallow depression already noticed ; 
that it then ran towards the southwestern corner of the Haram, 
and there, receiving the valley coming from the Damascus gate, 
bent towards the south, and so extended to the pool of Siloam. 
He acknowledges that the depression is at present very incon- 
siderable, but thinks that it may have been once greater, as the 
rubbish of ages has accumulated in it. According to this view, 
the lower city called Akra lay north of Zion and ivest of Moriah. 
The objection that, upon this plan, the lower city Akra was 
not bordered by either of the deep valleys mentioned by Jose- 



78 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

phus as enclosing the two hills on which the city was built, he 
meets by the suggestion that these two hills are " a mere form 
of expression intended to embrace the whole site of the city." 
But according to Josephus, of the two hills on which Jerusalem 
was built, the one contained the upper, and the other the lower 
city, with an intervening valley, both hills being bordered by 
deep ravines. We cannot, consistently with this description, 
separate one of these hills from both the upper and the lower 
city, as is necessary according to Dr. Robinson's view. As to 
the shape of the lower city, Josephus describes it as "curved 
on both sides (ufx^mvprog), which is generally understood to mean 
gibbous; but, as Eobinson remarks, it "may also mean nothing 
more than that Akra was sloping on both sides," perhaps more 
exactly, had rounded slopes on both sides. 

The arguments for placing Akra nortJi of Zion and west of Moriah are 
ably presented by Robinson (Bib. Res. 1, sect 7 ; 3, sect. 5), to which the 
reader is referred. Ritter (Geog. of Palestine, vol. 4 of Gage's transla- 
tion, pp. 100-108) gives a forcible statement of his opposing view. Both 
plans are clearly stated and reviewed by Dr. Thompson in Alexander's 
Kitto, art. Jerusalem. The question cannot be regarded as settled at pres- 
ent. The question of the location of several other places of interest, as 
the tower of Hippicus and the gate Gennath, is obviously connected 
with that of the position of Akra. 

30. Josephus' account of the walls of Jerusalem is as follows : 

The first or old wall "began on the north side of the tower called Hip- 
picus, and, extending to the Xystus so called, was joined to the council- 
house, and ended at the west portico of the temple. On the other part 
[going the other way from Hippicus] it began on the western side with 
the same tower, and extended through the place called Bethso to the gate 
of the Essenes : then it bent around on the southern quarter above the 
fountain Siloam : thence, turning again on the eastern side at the pool of 
Siloam, it extended to a certain place which they call Ophlas [Ophel], and 
was joined to the eastern porch of the temple. The second wall had its 
commencement at the gate of Gennath, which belonged to the first wall, and 
circling round the northern quarter only, went up to Antonia. The third 
wall began at the tower of Hippicus, whence it reached as far as the portli 
quarter at the tower of Psephinos : thence, extending over against the 
monuments of Helena (she was queen of Adiabene and mother of King 
Izatus), it was carried along by the caves [sepulchral excavations in the 



PALESTINE. 79 

rocks] of the kings: then turning at a corner- tower by the Fuller's mon-» 
ument so called, and joining the old wall, it terminated at the valley of 
Cedron." Jewish War, 5. 4. 2. 

This third wall, as he tells us, was begun by Agrippa, for 
the purpose of including the northern suburb called Bezetlia, 
and afterwards completed by the Jews at great expense. Con- 
sequently it did not exist in our Lord's day. Josephus describes 
at length its magnificent towers, built up of sohd masonry 
twenty cubits square and of the same height, with chambers 
and cisterns above. Of these there were ninety distributed 
along its course at intervals of two hundred cubits. The mid- 
dle wall had fourteen like towers, and the old wall sixty, the 
entire circuit of the city being thirty-three stadia — a little less 
than four English miles. (Robinson gives the present circum- 
ference at two and a half English miles less seventy-four yards.) 
Then at the northwest corner rose conspicuously the tower of 
Psephinos, octagonal in form, and seventy cubits high, com- 
manding at sunrise a view of Arabia and the whole territory of 
the Jews as far as the sea. Over against this stood Hippicus, 
and near this two other towers, named respectively Phasaelus 
and Mariamne, all three built by Herod in the old wall, and 
which " for size, beauty, and strength surpassed every thing in 
the habitable world." Of these it will be sufficient to describe 
Hippicus, so named from Herod's friend. It was built up of 
solid masonry twenty-five cubits square and thirty cubits high. 
Above the solid work was a cistern twenty cubits high ; and 
over this a house with two stories of the height of twenty- 
five cubits, with various compartments ; and above all a breast- 
work and battlements adding five cubits more ; so that the en- 
tire height was eighty cubits. 

If, now, we knew the exact place of Hippicus, it would give 
us a point of departure for the several walls. Robinson finds 
a remnant of this in the northeastern tower of the so-called cit- 
adel of David, a little south of the Yafa gate. But he acknowl- 
edges that the measurements do not agree with those of Jose- 
phus; and as to the solidity of the structure, no argument can 



80 SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

■ be drawn from that, for it was common to all the towers in their 
lower part. It is probable that the site of the tower of Hippi- 
cus should be sought farther to the northwest, somewhere near 
the northwestern angle of the present wall. Thus it would be 
"over against Psephinos," which stood in the northwestern 
angle of the third wall. The gate Gennath, where the second 
wall took its departure, must have been somewhere to the east 
of Hippicus in the northern line of the old wall. Thence this 
second wall went circHng round the northern quarter to the 
fortress of Antonia. This is all that Josephus tells us of a wall 
with the origin and exact course of which is connected the vexed 
question of the holy sepulchre. 

According to Ritter's view, the traditional site of the holy sepulchre 
(see the map of Jerusalem) must be rejected, for it lay far within the sec- 
ond wall. According to Robinson's plan, it must probably be rejected 
also, since the second wall ran not straight, but circling round the north 
quarter, to Antonia. It may be that our Lord was led out of the city by 
the eastern gate, and that the crucifixion took place north of that gate by 
the road to Anathoth and near the brow of Kidron, where there are at the 
present day many tombs. But we can be partakers, through faith, of all 
the benefits of his death, though the place should remain unknown till the 
trump of the archangel. 

The course of the modern walls can be .best learned by an inspection of 
the map. They have, says Robinson, quite a stately and imposing appear- 
ance ; all of hewn stone, with towers and battlements ; the latter crowning 
a breastwork with loopholes." Their height varies with the irregularities 
of the ground from twenty to fifty feet. 

In his account of the rebuilding of the walls, Nehemiah 
mentions ten gates (chap. 3), and afterward (chap. 12 : 30) two 
others. Mention is also made elsewhere of the Corner gate 
(2 Chron. 25 : 23), and the gate of Benjamin. Jer. 37 : 13. Jose- 
phus names the gate of the Essenes and the gate Gennath in 
the old wall, not far from the tower of Hippicus. Josephus, 
Jewish War, 5. 4. 2. But it is uncertain whether these gates 
were all situated in the external walls, and also whether some 
of those last enumerated were not identical with gates men- 



PALESTINE. 81 

tioned under other names in Neli. chap. 3. It is impossible to 
ascertain with certainty the position of these gates. 

In his account of the rebuilding of the city, Nehemiah begins, as Rob- 
inson well suggests, with the Sheep gate, on the east of the citv, and 
proceeds first northward, and so towards the left around the city, till 
he again comes to the Sheep gate. This gives the probable order in 
which the ten gates stood. The Valley gate would more naturally be on 
the north, in the depression at the present Damascus gate, than on the 
west, as Robinson suggests ; and it may have been the same as the Gate 
of Ephraim : the Dung gate seems to have been in the western or south- 
western quarter, where was the place called Bethso, that is, probably, Dung- 
place: the Fountain gate was manifestly near Siloam in the south, as the 
name and the context show (Neli. 3 : 15) ; and the Water gate, which comes 
next in order, was in its vicinity: the East gate doubtless corresponded in 
position to its name. 

At present there are but four gates in use, one on each side of the city, 
for the names and position of which see the map of Jerusalem. But in 
the middle ages there are said to have been two gates on each side. One 
of these is the famous Golden gate, in the eastern wall of the Haram, of 
Roman architecture ; a second is the so-called Dung gate, south of the 
southwest corner of the Haram ; a third is Herod's gate, in the northern 
wall. All these are now closed. Of the fourth gate, on the western side, 
no traces are visible. 

31. Zion, the most prominent and extensive of the hills in 
ancient Jerusalem, rises abruptly in the southwest quarter from 
the valley of Hinnom, which, as already described, sweeps 
around its southwest corner almost at a right angle. " Its sum- 
mit," says Eobinson, "presents a level tract of considerable 
extent along its western brow. The eastern side of the hill 
slopes down steeply, but not in general abruptly, to the Tyro- 
poeon, which separates it from the narrow ridge [Ophel] south 
of the Haram ; while at the extreme southeast part, below Siloam, 
it extends quite down to the valley of Jehoshaphat." On the 
summit of Zion, within the present walls, is the Armenian con- 
vent, an enormous structure ; farther south, without the Walls, 
is the traditional tomb of David, underneath a room which is 
represented as the place of the last supper. The building is 
said to have been once a Christian church. Hard by are the 

4:* 



82 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

Christian cemeteries. The walls of the modern Jerusalem en- 
close only the northern part of the hill of Zion. The rest of 
the surface is under tillage. Thus Zion, the place where David 
and Solomon reigned in glory, and with the name of which is 
associated all that is precious in the visible church of God — 
the material Zion is now "ploughed as a field;" whereby God 
teaches us that it is not to the letter — the material outward 
structure — but to the spirit that the glorious promises made to 
Zion are addressed. Yet the material Zion may again arise in 
glory when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 

North of the hill of Zion, in that part of the city which Eob- 
inson calls Akra, are various Christian convents — Latin, Greek, 
Coptic; and directly on the brow of the hill is the Church of 
the Holy Sepulchre, where beneath one roof are shown the 
alleged place of our Lord's crucifixion, the holes in which the 
three crosses stood, the stone on which the Saviour's body was 
anointed for burial, and the so-called sepulchre in which he was 
laid, with various other particulars relating to his decease. Re- 
specting the identity of this spot there has been much contro- 
versy, and its claims have certainly gained nothing by the dis- 
cussion,. 

Mr. James Ferguson (in Smith's Bib. Diet. , art. Jerusalem) maintains 
that the place of the holy sepulchre is beneath the present mosque of 
Omar. Dr. Barclay (City of the Great King, p. 79) suggests that the 
place of the crucifixion may have been a spur of the ridge projecting 
southeastwardly into the Kidron valley north of the eastern gate. It is 
not necessary to pursue these conjectures any farther. 

32. The level area called el-Haram esh-Sherif, the noble Sanc- 
tuary (more briefly, tlie Haram), on which now stand the great 
mosque Kuhhet-es- Sukhrah, Dome of the Bock, and the mosque 
el-Aksa, that is, the farthest (so called, says Eobinson, as being the 
remotest of the Mohammedan holy places in distinction from 
Mecca and Medina), covers, as is aniversally admitted, the 
summit of the ancient Moriah, on which the temple stood. It 
is further agreed that the temple did not itself occupy the whole 
of this platform ; for its area was of a square form, while the 



PALESTINE. 8:] 

Haram is much longer from north to south than from east to 
west; its eastern side being 1,529 feet, while its southern end is 
only 926 feet. According to Josephus, the fortress Antonia, 
which overlooked and commanded the temple, stood at the 
angle where the northern and western porches of the temple 
met (Jewish War, 5. 5, 8), consequently on the northwestern 
part of the present Haram. The remains of the bridge thrown 
from the western side of the temple across the Tyropoeon to the 
Xystus on Zion, prove beyond doubt, as^Eobinson has shown 
(Bib. Kes. 1, pp. 287-289), that here we have the line of the 
western wall of the ancient temple area. If now this area was, 
as Josephus states (Antiq. 15. 11. 3), a stadium square, that is, 
6O64 English feet, it cannot be well made to cover the whole 
width of the Haram, even if its broad porticos be thrown outside 
of the above-specified area, as Robinson suggests. It would 
seem that there must have been an enclosure round the tem- 
ple, or a walled place around it distinct from the proper temple 
area, which extended east and north far enough to cover the 
present area of the Haram. See Josephus, Jewish War, 1. 21. 1. 
But whatever explanation of these difficulties be adopted, 
we have satisfactory evidence that the present area of the Ha- 
ram coincides substantially with that on which the temple and 
fortress Antonia stood. The immense stones which compose in 
part the lower courses of its wall were not laid by Saracen or 
Christian hands. They have every mark of high antiquity, and 
in the southwestern angle they are, moreover, continuous with 
those of the arch formerly thrown over the Tyropoeon, and this 
existed before Herod's day. See Eobinson, 1, pp. 286-289; 
3, sect. 5. Herod may have repaired this wall and enlarged 
the level platform within on the north; but the foundations 
must in all ■probabiHty be referred to the Jewish kings from 
Solomon and onward, for Josephus says that "long ages" were 
consumed upon the work. Jewish War, 5. 5. 1. 

In the southeastern corner of the Haram are several courses of stone, 
on both the east and south sides, alternating with each other, in which the 
stones measure from seventeen to nineteen feet in length by three or four 



84 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

feet in lieiglit, while one block at the corner is seven and a half feet thick. 
In the northeast corner is a stone measuring twenty-four feet in length by 
three in height and six in width. At the southwest corner huge blocks 
appear of a still greater size. One of the corner stones measures thirty 
feet ten inches in length by six and a half in breadth ; and several are 
from twenty and a half to twenty-four and a half feet long by five feet in ' 
thickness. Robinson calls attention to the bevelled character of these stones, 
which he considers to be a mark of high antiquity. See in Bib. Res. 1, p. 
285, seq. , where also may be found his account of the fragment of the arch 
that formerly spanned the Tyropoeon. 

33. A detailed account of the temple does not come within 
the plan of the present work. The reader may find it in Jose- 
phus, Antiq. 15. 11. 3-5 ; Jewish War, 5, chap. 5. "We simply 
notice its general structure and appearance. It was a stadium 
square, surrounded by magnificent courts, the inner rising above 
the outer; and the temple proper, that is, the house within the 
courts, lying highest of all, so as to appear over the courts in 
every direction. Josephus says that its external splendor struck 
the beholder with admiration: that it was everywhere covered 
with thick plates of gold, so that at the rising of the sun it 
reflected a very fiery splendor, which compelled those approach- 
ing it to turn away their eyes ; that to strangers coming from a 
distance it appeared like a mountain covered with snow; for 
where it was not overlaid with gold, it was of a brilliant white- 
ness; that some of its stones were forty-five cubits long, ^Ye 
high, and six wide ; and that the roof had sharp golden spikes, 
so that no bu'ds might light upon it and pollute it. In view of 
this description, how pertinent was the disciple's remark to our 
Saviour : " Master, see what manner of stones, and what build- 
ings are here!" and the Saviour's solemn reply: "Seest thou 
these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon 
another that shall not be thrown down." Mark 1^: 1, 2. 

It was the temple itself with its porches to which the Lord referred, 
and his prediction was terribly fulfilled by the Roman legions. We need 
not suppose that the external enclosure of the temple area was everywhere 
overturned to its foundations, built up as were its walls from the deep 
adjacent valleys. 

When the Saviour and tiie pcoi^le are spoken of as in the temple, we 



PALESTINE. 85 

are to understand this of its porches ; for into the proper sanctuary {naos) 
none but the priests could enter. Without a certain enclosure the Gen- 
tiles were allowed, but within none but Israelites might come. Josephus, 
Jewish War, 5. 5. 2. The temple had outer gates leading into its enclo 
sures, of which four were on the west side ; and also inner gates from one 
porch to another, with an ascent of steps to each. The gate " called Beau- 
tiful '* (Acts 3 : 2) is generally thought to have been an inner gate on the east- 
ern side of the temple leading from the court of the Gentiles into that of 
the Israelites, the magnificence of which is extolled by Josephus. Jewish 
War, 5. 5. 3. But some suppose that it was an outer gate opening into 
Solomon's porch, which lay on the east side. Of the ancient gates several 
have been identified by modern research. See Barclay's City of the Great 
King, p. 4:86, seq. 

34. The fortress Antonia stood at the northwest corner of 
the temple area, at the junction of the outer porches on the 
north and west. It was originally built by the Maccabean 
kings under the name of Baris. Herod rebuilt it with great 
magnificence and strength. It stood, Josephus tells us (Antiq. 
15. 11. 4; Jewish War, 5. 5. 8), on a rock fifty cubits high, pre- 
cipitous on all sides, covered from the bottom with smooth 
stone plates, which made it beautiful in appearance and difii- 
cult of ascent, and surrounded, moreover, by a wall three cubits 
in height. The castle itself was of a square form, and rose 
above this rock to the height of forty cubits, having the appear- 
ance of a palace with apartments and conveniences of every 
kind. Above it had four towers, one at each corner ; of which 
three were fifty cubits high ; but the fourth, which stood at the 
southeast corner, rose to the height of seventy cubits, so as to 
overlook the whole temple. It had flights of stairs descending 
to the northern and western porches of the temple, by which 
the Koman guards might pass and repass at all hours to main- 
tain order. The fortress was separated from Bezetlia on the 
north by a deep ditch, which added greatly to the height of the 
towers. Josephus, Jewish War, 5. 4. 2. Robinson thinks that 
in the so-called "Pool of Bethesda," which lies along the north- 
eastern border of the Haram, measuring 360 feet in length, 130 
in breadth, with a present depth of 75 feet, we have the remains 
of this trench. 



86 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

It was from this fortress, called the Castle, that Lysias "ran down" 
with soldiers and centurions to the multitude assembled around Paul in 
one of the porches of the temple ; and up one of the flights of stairs above 
mentioned he was borne by the soldiers ; and from the same stairs he 
addressed the people. Acts 21 : 32-40. 

35. North of the temple area and adjacent to the fortress 
Antonia, from which, it was separated by the trench already 
mentioned, lay Bezetlia, that is, as Joseplius interprets the word, 
the Neiv City — a suburb not included within the walls of Jeru- 
salem in our Saviour's time, but afterwards enclosed by Agrippa. 
According to Robinson, Akra lay west of the temple area. Ac- 
cording to Bitter's plan, " the hill Akra was the ridge north of 
the temple area sloping towards the Damascus [gate] valley, 
then the Tyropoeon — and Bezetha, the ridge rising northward 
from this, and skirted by the valley of Jehoshaphat." Thomp- 
son in Alexander's Kitto. 

South of the Haram the hill of Moriah is continued in a 
rocky ridge " between the deep valley of Jehoshaphat on the 
east, and the steep but shallower Tyropoeon on the west. The 
top of the ridge is flat, descending rapidly towards the south, 
sometimes by offsets of rocks," and ending "just over the pool 
of Siloam, in a steep point of rock forty or fifty feet high." 
Bobinson, Bib. Bes., 1, pp. 231, 267. This is the ancient OpJiel. 

36. On a marble-paved platform, raised to an average height 
of some ten feet above the general level of the Haram, stands 
the splendid edifice Kuhhet-es-Sukhrah, Dome of the Rock, com- 
monly called the Mosque of Omar. It is a true octagon, about 
170 feet in diameter, and of the same height. The dome which 
crowns the building is the admiration of all travellers. It is 
surmounted by a lofty bronze crescent. Immediately beneath 
the dome, in an inner enclosure overhung by the richest crim- 
son-silk canopy, is the venerated Sukhrah, that is, Bock, equally 
sacred to Jews and Mohammedans, and with which so many 
traditions and legends are connected. 

Against the southern wall of the Haram, rather nearer its 
western than its eastern side, stands the mosque el-Aksa, which 



TALESTINE. 87 

is thought with good reason to have been originally one of the 
clmrches built by the emperor Justinian, afterwards enlarged 
and changed in various respects by the Saracens, and converted 
into a Mohammedan mosque. For the other places of the Ha- 
ram see the work of Barclay above referred to, p. 494, seq. 

The great mosque which bears the name of Omar is said by the Arabian 
writers to have been rebuilt by the KhaUf Abd-el-Melek. The shape of 
the Sukhrah is irregular ; it is about sixty feet long from north to south, and 
fifty-five feet broad. It rises about five feet above the marble floor of the 
mosque. In the southeastern part of the rock is a small room about eight 
feet high and fifteen on each side, and there is evidence of further excava- 
tions. Jewish tradition represents this rock as the Beth-el of Jacob, the 
place where Abraham offered up Isaac, the threshing-floor of Araunah the 
Jebusite, and the site of the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple. For the 
Mohammedan legends connected with it, see Barclay as above. 

37. The pool of Siloam (Heb. Shiloah, Isa. 8:6; Shelah, Neh. 
3 :15; Septuagint version, Siloam; Latin Yulgate, Siloe) is one 
of the few undisputed locaHties in Jerusalem. We find it now 
in the precise spot where Josephus places it, at the mouth of 
the Tyropoeon (Jewish War, 5. 4. 1), and it retains its ancient 
name, being called Selivan by the Arabs. 

" The water flows out of a small artificial basin under the cliff, the en- 
trance to which is excavated in the form of an arch, and is immediately 
received into a larger reservoir fifty-three feet in length by eighteen feet 
in width [according to Barclay, fifty feet in length, with a breadth varying 
between fourteen and a half and eighteen and a half feet] . A flight of 
steps leads down to the bottom of the reservoir, which is nineteen feet 
deep." Alexander's Kitto. It is never filled at present, but the water 
may be retained to the height of three or four feet from the bottom, when 
it passes off through a duct, and soon reappears in a deep ditch under the 
perpendicular cliff of Ophel. Barclay, p. 524. It was situated, as we learn 
from the words of Josephus in his address to the Jews (Jewish War, 5. 9. 4), 
without the ancient city wall, but apparently near to it ; for the wall ran 
"above the fountain of Siloam." Jewish War, 5. 4. 2. The present wall 
is upwards of twelve hundred feet from it. Its water, which Josephus 
, calls "sweet and abundant," seems to have been more copious formerly 
than at present. Some of the subterranean channels which once fed it 
may have become obstructed. See below. 



88 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

Siloam is not a fountain, but only the receptacle of a stream 
conveyed to it by a subterranean channel from the so-called 
Fountain of the Virgin, which lies on the west side of the valley 
of Jehoshaphat, some 1,200 feet farther up. Through this zig- 
zag channel Robinson and Smith crawled in the year 1838, thus 
settling for ever the question of the connection between the two 
reservoirs. They found the length of the winding passage 1,750 
feet. The word ShiloaJi signifies sent or conducted. Robinson 
thinks that it refers to this very subterranean passage through 
which the water is sent down from the upper reservoir of the 
Virgin. 

The Fountain of the Virgin is a deep excavation in the solid 
limestone rock, to which one descends by two successive flights 
of steps to the depth of about twenty-five feet. The irregular 
flow of the water at this reservoir was noticed by ancient wri- 
ters as far back as Jerome, and has been fully verified by mod- 
ern observation. See Robinson, Bib. Res., 1, pp. 341, 342 ; Bar- 
clay, pp. 520-522. This reservoir does not appear to be a 
proper fountain any more than is the pool of Siloam to which it 
sends its water. Barclay explored a subterranean canal leading 
to it from Zion, as he thinks, for more than a thousand feet, 
which, though now dry, seems once to have supplied a copious 
stream ; and it is probable that there are other artificial chan- 
nels leading to it — Barclay thinks also to the canal between this 
pool and Siloam. 

The flowing of the water occurs at irregular intervals ; sometimes two 
or three times a day, and sometimes iu summer once in two or three days. 
A woman from Kefr Selwan (village of Siloam, lying near the two pools of 
Siloam and the Virgin on the eastern brow of the Kidron valley) told Rob- 
inson and Smith that " she had seen the fountain dry, and men and flocks, 
dependent upon it, gathered around and suffering from thirst ; when all 
at once the water would begin to boil up from under the steps, and (as she 
said) from the bottom in the interior part, and flow off in a copious stream." 
Bib. Res., 1, p. 342. The cause of this j^henomenon is as yet unknown. It 
admits, however, of an easy exx^lanation on the principle of the siphon. 

38. The remarkable words of Tacitus (Hist., 5. 12), " A peren- ' 
nial fountain of water ; the mountains excavated underground ; 



PALESTINE. 89 

and pools and cisterns for preserving the rain-water," are fully 
verified in every particular by modern research. The immense 
substructions under the southeast corner of the Haram and the 
mosque el-Aksa were explored, at least partially, by Catherwood 
and his companions in 1833, and at a later period by Barclay. 
They consist of spacious vaults, resting upon rows of lofty col- 
iimns, and their great extent fills the mind with wonder. Eob- 
inson has given from Catherwood a description of them, and a 
detailed account of them may be found in Barclay, pp. 503-511. 
It is probable that other like vaults remain farther north unex- 
plored. Whether they date from Herod's age or one still ear- 
lier, or, as some suppose, were built up by Herod on founda- 
tions laid by Solomon, is a question that has been much dis- 
cussed, and cannot be regarded as yet settled. 

Near the Damascus gate is an entrance to a vast subterra-. 
nean cavity, which, according to the description of Barclay 
(pp. 459-469), and a correspondent of the Boston Traveller quo- 
ted by him, is a quarry cavern on a grand scale. Here are 
heaps of marble chips, fragments of stone, and blocks but half 
quarried, and still attached to one side of the rock. The floor 
is of rock, smooth, but extremely uneven, the irregularities being 
caused by breaking off the blocks at the bottom ; and the roof, 
which is supported by colossal pillars of irregular shape, pre- 
sents a similar appearance. The marks of the cutting instru- 
ments are as plain and well defined as if the workmen had just 
ceased from their labor. The stone is the same as that of the 
portions of the temple wall still remaining, and referred by Dr. 
Robinson to the period of the first building. The mouth of the 
quarry is higher than the level of the platform on which the 
temple stood, making the transportation of the immense blocks 
of stone a comparatively easy task. The heaps of chippings 
which lie about show that the stone was dressed on the spot, 
which accords with the account of the building of the temple : 
"And the house when it was in building, was built of stone 
made ready before it was brought thither : so that there was 
neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house 



90 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

wHle it was in building." 1 Kings 6 : 7. Barclay gives the 
extent of this cavern in a direct line at 750 feet, and says that 
it is upwards of 3,000 feet in circumference. He thinks, more- 
over, that it is connected with the so-called Grotto of Jeremiah, 
lying north of it. Many other rock-hewn passages remain to be 
explored in these " mountains excavated underground." 

39. There was also, according to Tacitus, a perennial foun- 
tain of 2uater. In and around the Haram enclosure are many 
wells, which furnish a constant supply of water, whether from 
natural fountains or brought thither from a distance through 
artificial channels. One of these, west of the Haram wall, was 
explored by Eev. Samuel Wolcott in 1842, by Tobler in 1846, 
and by Barclay in 1853. Its depth is given by Wolcott at 
eighty-two and a half feet, with four and a half feet of water. 
At eleven feet from the bottom, in the north side of the well, is 
a doorway leading to a vaulted room eighteen feet long and 
fourteen wide. A passage artificially cut in the rock enters the 
well from the south side. This Wolcott succeeded in following 
eighty feet, and Barclay one hundred and five feet. The well 
does not seem to be connected with any other reservoir. See 
on p. 534 of Barclay's work a plan of the well and the passage 
leading to it from the south. Barclay also describes (pp. 525- 
527) a large subterranean reservoir, apparently of rainwater, 
under the enclosure of the Haram, which is seven hundred and 
thirty-six feet in circumference and forty-seven feet in depth. 
He found but little water in it, but estimates its capacity at two 
millions of gallons. He discovered no entrance to it from the 
aqueduct of Solomon's pools, nor exit from it, though both may 
possibly exist. 

Further explorations may solve the mystery of the way in which Heze- 
kiah "stopped the waters of the fountains which were without the city," 
and "the brook that flowed through the midst of the land" (2 Chron. 
32 : 3, 4); and "the upper water-course of Gihon, and brought it straight 
down to the west side [or on the west side] of the city of David " (ver. 30). 
That there is a system of subterranean water-channels under the city is 
evident from the various notices of the ancients. The evidence at present 



PALESTINE. 91 

preponderates for putting the fountain of Gilion, with Kobinson, on the 
west of the city. See in Bib. Kes., 3, pp. 243-5. 

A little below the junction of the Hinnom valley with that 
of Kidron is a well called by the Franks the well of Nehemiah, 
but by the natives Bir Eyuh, well of Job. It is of an irregular 
quadrilateral form, walled up with large square stones, termina- 
ting in an arch on one side, and has over it a small rude build- 
ing. The w^ell is one hundred and twenty-five feet in depth, 
with a variable quantity of water. In April, 1838, Robinson 
found fifty feet in it ; Barclay, in October, 1852, forty-two and a 
half feet; October 7, 1853, only six and a half feet; March 2, 
1854, the well w^as overflowing vigorously, as is sometimes the 
case during the rainy season. The position of this w^ll corre- 
sponds perfectly to that of En-rogel (Josh. 15 : 7, 8; 18 : 16, 17), 
which lay at the mouth of the valley of Hinnom. With its posi- 
tion its architectural character agrees ; for it bears the marks 
of high antiquity. This, then, is the well by which Jonathan 
and Ahimaaz stayed at the time of Absalom's insurrection 
(2 Sam. 17 : 17), and at which Adonijah made his feast (1 Kings 
1:9), which Josephus places " without the city, at the fountain 
which is in the royal garden." Antiq., 7. 14. 4. 

40. We may notice, also, the cisterns and pools for receiving 
the rainwater. The cisterns excavated in the soft limestone- 
rock are innumerable, almost every private house having one or 
more, and some of them being of great size. They have usually 
a round opening at the top, like that of an ordinary well. "Bro- 
ken cisterns" of high antiquity abound along the ancient roads 
of Palestine. One of these cisterns, in the court of the prison 
at Jerusalem, doubtless served as the dungeon into which Jere- 
miah was let down by cords, when he sunk in the mire. Jer. 
38 : 6. 

Of the pools within the limits of the present city wall we 
notice the following : 

The Pool of Hezeldah, called by the Arabs Birket (i-Hammd.in, Pool of 
'the Bath, its waters being used to supply a bath in the vicinity, is two hun- 
dred and fifty-two feet long, with an average breadth of about one hun. 



92 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

dred and twenty-six feet. Its average depth may be eight or ten feet. It 
is supplied with water from the upper pool of Gihon. Its position corre- 
sponds to that of the pool built by Hezekiah (2 Kings 20 : 20 ; 2 Chron. 
32 : 30) ; nor is there any thing in its structure that betrays a later age. It 
is thought to be identical with "the pool called Amygdalon," mentioned 
by Josephus. Jewish War, 5. 11. 4. 

The so-called Pool of Bethesda is a deep reservoir or trench on the north 
side of the Hariim wall, which is thought, with good reason, to be a rem- 
nant of the ancient ditch which separated the fortress Antonia on the north 
from Bezetha. "The main pool," says Barclay (p. 321), "is about one hun- 
dred and thirty feet broad and three hundred and sixty-five in length ; its 
length, however, is continued one hundred and forty-two feet farther, 
though the breadth of this extension is only forty-five feet. That they 
were both originally designed to hold water is evident from the cement 
with which they were lined, much of which still remains." Which of the 
existing jkjoIs about Jerusalem, if any, was the true Pool of Bethesda is 
unknown. Robinson is inclined to identify it with the present Fountain 
of the Virgin. Bib. Res., 1, pp. 312, 343 ; 3, p. 249. 

Without the present city walls we find, besides the Pool of 
Siloam and the Fountain of the Virgin, two immense reservoirs 
in the valley of Hinnom : 

Of these the upper pool, commonly called by the monks Gihon, but 
known to the natives as B b-Jcei-el-maonilla, Pool of Mamilla, lies about seven 
hundred yards west-northwest from the Yafa gate, in the basin forming 
the head of the valley of Hinnom. The sides are built up of hewn stone 
laid in cement, with steps to descend into it, and a level bottom. The 
dimensions, as given by Robinson, are as follows : 

Length from east to west 316 English feet. 

Breadth at the west end 200 " 

Breadth at the east end 218 " 

Depth at each end 18 " 

Water was probably conveyed to it formerly by subterranean channels ; 
but at present it is wholly dependent on the surface water in the surround- 
ing basin. Robinson would identify it with "the upper pool" of the Old 
Testament. Isa. 7 : 3. Barclay thinks (pp. 329-331) that it is the Sei-- 
pents' Pool of Josephus (Jewish War, 5. 3. 2) ; that, it was supplied by a 
higher aqueduct than the present from Etham (Solomon's pools) ; and that 
its waters were carried thence to the city. 

The Lower Pool of Gihon [BirTcet-es- Sultan, Pool of the Sultan) is per- 
haps " tlie lower pool" of Isa. 22 : 9. It is situated in the valley of Hin- 
nom, south of the Yafa gate, and is the largest reservoir in the vicinity of 
Jerusalem. The following are its measurements as given by Robinson : 



PALESTINE. 9J5 

Length along the middle (from north to south, 592 English feet. 

Breadth at the north end 245 ** 

Breadth at the south end 275 " 

Depth at the north end 35 ** 

Depth at the south end 42 '* 

It is now in ruins. Besides the water of the valley that flowed during 
the rainy season, it may once have been supplied in part from the aque- 
duct that leads from Solomon's pools to the city, and which crosses the 
valley just above it. 

41. Solomons Pools, though distant about eight miles from 
Jerusalem, belong to its water-system, and may therefore be 
appropriately considered here. These celebrated pools, called 
by the natives el-BuraJc, the reservoirs, are situated near the head 
of the Wady Urtas, which opens towards the east, about an hour 
southwest of Bethlehem. They consist of " three huge reser- 
voirs, built of squared stones and bearing marks of the highest 
antiquity. They he one above another in the steep part of the 
valley, though not in a direct line, and are so situated that the 
bottom of the one is higher than the surface of the next below, 
rising one above another towards the west." " The inside walls 
and bottoms of all the reservoirs, so far as visible, are covered 
with cement." " Flights of steps lead down in various places 
into all the pools." Eobinson, Bib. Kes., 1, p. 474. The follow- 
ing are their dimensions, as given by the same author : 

Lower pool. Middle pool. Upper pool. 

Length 582 feet. 423 feet. 380 feet. 

Breadth of east end ... 207 250 236 

Breadth of west end . . . 148 160 229 

Depth at east end .... 50 39 25 

The distance of the middle pool above the lower is 248 feet ; of the upper 

above the middle, 160 feet. 

A few hundred yards up the valley is * ' a spring shut up, a fountain 
sealed," whence the main supply of water for these reservoirs is derived. 
This is accomplished in the following way. A narrow shaft enclosed with 
masonry leads directly down to a vaulted room, according to Maundrell, 
some fifteen paces long and eight broad. Joining to this is another room 
of the same fashion, but somewhat less." Quoted by Robinson as above. 
Here the water rising in various places is conveyed by little rivulets into a 
kind of basin, and thence by a subterranean passage to the pools. In a 



94 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

similar way, as Robinson suggests, Hezekiah stopped [shut up> or hid, as the 
Hebrew means) all the fountains about Jerusalem. 2 Chron. 32 : 3, 4, 30. 
To such a sealed fountain the chaste bride is beautifully compared in Can- 
ticles 4 : 12. A vaulted room of considerable size has also been discovered 
under the eastern end of the lowermost of the above described pools of 
Solomon. Such subterranean chambers seem to have been one of the 
delights of Solomon and his successors. A small aqueduct, with branches 
to receive contiguous waters, is carried from the pools along the sides of 
the hills to Bethlehem and Jerusalem. Its course upon entering the city 
may be learned from an inspection of the majD of Jerusalem. Its termina- 
tion is under the southwestern part of the Haram. 

"Later Jewish writers, as cited in the Talmud, speak often of the man- 
ner in which the temple was supplied with water by. an aqueduct from the 
fountain of Etam, which lay at a distance from the city on the way to 
Hebron." Robinson in Bib. Res., 1, p. 348. This seems to have been the 
fountain above described, probably in connection with other adjacent foun- 
tains which contributed their share of water. It corresponds also very 
well to the Eiham of Josephus, which was one of the favorite resorts of 
Solomon. The Jewish historian gives (Antiq. , 8. 7. 3) a lively picture of 
this monarch's splendor, telling how his horses excelled all in the region 
for beauty and speed ; how their appearance was mnde more imposing by 
the character of those who mounted them — tall young men in the prime 
of life, clothed in robes of Tyrian purple, with long flowing hair which 
they every day sprinkled with gold-dust, so that their heads glistered when 
the rays of the sun smote upon them ; how, surrounded by this magnifi- 
cent guard, all of whom were armed and furnished with bows, the king 
himself, riding in a chariot and clad in white raiment, Avas accustomed to 
ride forth from the city at the morning dawn. "But there was," he adds, 
*'a certain place distant from Jerusalem two schoeni" — sixty stadia or 
about seven and a half Roman miles — "which is called Etham, pleasant 
by reason of its gardens and flowing streams, aad also fertile. To this he 
was accustomed to go forth borne aloft in his chariot." 

4'J. In an oblong plat at the junction of the valley of Hin- 
nom with that of Kidron are pleasant gardens irrigated by the 
waters of Siloam. Here Jerome places the Topliet of the Old 
Testament (Commentary on Jer. 7 : 31; on Matt. 10 : 28), which 
he describes as a pleasant place, with trees and gardens watered 
from Siloam. From the scriptural notices, it is plain that 
Tophet was a place in the valley of Hinnom. Its abominable 
character consisted not in its physical features, but in the hor- 
rid rites there practised (Jer. 7:31; 19 : 5), for which God threat- 



PALESTINE. 95 

ened that he would make the valley of Hinnom the valley of 
slaughter : '' for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place. 
And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of 
the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth, and none shall hay 
them away." Jer. 7 : 31, 32 ; 19 : 6, 7. Josiah, that he might 
brand this spot with infamy, defiled it, as he did the other high 
places before Jerusalem. 2 Kings 23 : 10. The manner of 
defilement is indicated in 2 Chron. 34 : 4, 5. 

The VaUey of Himiom (Hebrew Ge Hinnom, whence the Greek Geenna, 
and the Enghsh Gehenna) is a term which has been employed for ages to 
represent liell, that is, the place of future punishment. The current expla- 
nation is that into this valley were thrown, after Josiah's day, the car- 
casses and other ordure of the city ; and that a fire was kept continually 
burning to consume the filth collected there, while worms preyed on what 
the fire spared. It is not necessary to pronounce any judgment on this 
ajDocryphal and doubtful tradition, since the Old Testament itself furnishes 
a ready and natural explanation. We read in Isaiah (chap. 66 : 23, 24) that 
after the great overthrow of God's enemies (ver. 15-17), his worshippers 
assembled from all nations "shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of 
the men that have transgressed against me [Jehovah] : for their worm shall 
not die, neither shall their fire be quenched " — ^the worm, namely, that 
joreys upon these carcasses, and the fire kindled to consume them ; ' ' and 
tliey shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." In connection with the awful 
threatening of Jehovah above quoted, that he would make Tophet and the 
valley of Hinnom, where the idolatrous Jews burnt their children with 
fire " for burnt- offerings unto Baal," the valley of Slaughter, and that they 
should bury in Tophet till there should be no place left ; and also with the 
notice in Isaiah that the idolaters chose gardens for their abominable rites 
(chap. 65:3; 66:17), the Jewish rabbins seem naturally enough to have 
made the gardens of Tophet in the valley of Hinnom the scene of this 
great final burning; and to have interpreted the words: "their worm 
shall not die, neither shall their fire be q«jenched," not of material worms 
and fire, but as an image of the everlasting destruction of the wicked — an 
interpretation harmonizing fully with the use made of this passage by our 
Lord. Mark 9:43-48. Hence the valley of Hinnom (^6re7^e?maj became 
the representative of hell as the place of future punishment for the wicked. 
Again, the prophet Isaiah says (chap, 30 :33), with manifest reference 
to the destruction of the Assyrian host : " For Tophet " (Hebrew Tophteh, 
probably only a variation or jDerhaps an earlier form of the word Tophet) 
"is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; lie hath made it 
deep and large : the pile thereof is fire and much wood : the breath of the 



96 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." This mighty funoraj 
pile, kindled by the breath of Jehovah's wrath, represents in like manner 
the utter and perpetual destruction of the Assyrian invaders. Hence the 
transition was easy and natural to make Tophet also a symbol of hell 
Thus we have in the beautiful words of Milton : 

" The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence, 
And black Gehenna called, the type of hell." 

43. The valleys on tlie north, east, and south of Jerusalem 
are skirted with numerous ancient sepulchres — as a rule, on the 
side opposite to the city so far as this extends — making them a 
vast necropolis. Of these Eobinson gives the following descrip- 
tion: 

The numerous sepulchres which skirt the valleys on the north, east, 
and south of Jerusalem, exhibit for the most part one general mode of 
construction. A doorway in the perpendicular face of the rock, usually 
small and without ornament, leads to one or more small chambers excava- 
ted from the rock, and commonly upon the same level with the door. 
Very rarely are the chambers lower than the doors. The walls in general 
are plainly hewn ; and there are occasionally, though not always, niches 
on resting places for the dead bodies. In order to obtain a perpendicular 
face for the doorway, advantage was sometimes taken of a former quarry ; 
or an angle was cut in the rock with a tomb in each face ; or a square 
niche or area was hewn out in a ledge, and then tombs excavated in all three 
of its sides. Bib. Res. 1, p. 352. The reader should carefully notice in 
the above description that the recesses for depositing the dead are liorizan- 
tal, the bodies being slid into them, not let down. This was generally the 
case, whether the cavities were natural or artificial, a circumstance to be 
borne in mind in the narrative of the resurrection of Lazarus. 

Then there are more elaborate tombs in the vicinity of 
Jerusalem, as the so-called Tomb of Jehoshaphat, of Absalom, of 
St. James, and of Zechariah, on the east side of the Kidron val- 
ley, opposite to the southeast corner of the Haram ; the Tombs 
of the Prophets higher up on the western declivity of the Mount 
of Olives : the Tomb of Helena, commonly called the Tombs of 
the Kings, " about one hundred and seventy rods north of the 
Damascus gate, on the right of the Nabulus road" (Robinson); 
and the Tombs of the Judges, northwest of these, at the head of 
the valley of Jehoshaphat. Of the last three of these the read- 



PALESTINE. 97 

er may find an elaborate description in Eobinson, Bib. Res., 
1, pp. 355-364; 3, pp. 253, 254. Their essential parts are sub- 
terranean rock-hewn galleries leading to interior cliambers, 
around which are niches for depositing the bodies of the dead ; 
or, as in the case of the '' Tombs of the Prophets," the galleries 
themselves may be lined with these niches. 

The most remarkable of these are the so-called Tombs of the Prophets, 
which may with probability be assigned to the age of the Jewish kings. 
The entrance to them is through a hole in the rock leading down to a cir- 
cular apartment about ten feet high and twenty-one feet in diameter ; with 
this is connected a system of galleries, for the plan of which see the ac- 
companying engraving. 



' 



^ 



f 



J 



1 

\ - 1 ^ 



i 



TOMBS OF THE PKOPHETS. 



Far more magnificent and of later architecture are the so-called Tombs 
of the Kings. They consist of interior subterranean chambers lined with 
crypts, which are reached by rock-hewn passages from an outer sunken 
court about 90 feet square. The court itself is reached from another ex- 
cavation having at its western end a sloping descent. Robinson refers 
this splendid mausoleum to Helena queen of Adiabene. See the accom- 
panying engraving. Very similar are the arrangements of the so-called 
Tombs of the Judges. 

9»c. Oeog, 5 



98 



kSaceed geography. 




TOMBS OP THE KINGS. 



The ancients took great delight in splendid tombs. The soft lime-stone 
rock offered a ready means by which the higher classes among the Israel- 
ites might gratify their taste in that direction. To these magnificent mau- 
soleums — if not to the Egyptian pyramids above ground — there is an un- 
doubted reference in the words of Job (chap. 3 :13, 14): "For now should 
I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept ; then had I been at 
rest, with kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places 
for themselves." It was the vanity of Sliebna in constructing such a tomb 
which the prophet Isaiah was directed to rebuke : " What hast thou here, 
and whom hast thou here, that thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre 
here, as he that heweth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth a 
habitation for himself in a rock ?" Isa. 22 : 16. It was in the ancient un- 
tenanted sepulchres of Galilee, that the lunatics mentioned by the evange- 
lists (Matt. 8 : 28 ; Mark 5:2-5; Luke 8 : 27) had their abode.*^ 



44. The garden of Gethsemane, according to tlie unanimous 
testimony of the evangelists, was across the brook Cedron on the 
Mount of Ohyes. Matt. 26 : 30, 36 ; Mark 14 : 26, 32 ; Luke 22 : 39, 
40 ; John 18 : 1, 2. That this garden was not simply on the way 
to the Mount of Ohves, but on the mount itself, is clear from the 
words of Luke : "He came out and went, as he was wont, to the 



PALESTINE. 99 

Mount of Olives ; and his disciples followed him. And when he 
was at the place " — the place namely to which he was wont to re- 
sort — ''he said imto them," etc. With the words of Luke agree 
also those of John: "where was a garden into the which he en- 
tered, and his disciples. And Judas also which betrayed him, 
knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his 
disciples." The garden of Gethsemane was then on the Mount 
of Olives, and the Saviour's usual place of resort, manifestly for 
seclusion and prayer. That now shown to the traveller is just 
over the bridge of the Kidron at the fork of two roads lead- 
ing the one round the mount to the right, the other directly over 
it. It is an enclosure of stone some 150 feet on a side, contain- 
ing eight very old and gnarled olive-trees. The presumption 
from its position is against its being the true Gethsemane ; for 
it is not far enough removed from travel for the purpose of 
seclusion, nor can it be properly said to be on the Mount of 
Olives. We are told, moreover, by Josephus (Jewish War, 6. 1. 
1. and elsewhere) that Titus in order to procure materials for 
the siege, cut off all the trees for ninety stadia about Jerusa- 
lem. "The appearance of the ground," he says "was deplora- 
ble; for the places formerly adorned with trees and gardens 
were then desolate in every direction having been shorn of all 
their trees." And he adds that "one who had formerly known 
the place, coming suddenly upon it, would not recognize it, but 
being present at the city would seek to find it." No safe argu- 
ment therefore can be drawn from the age of these olive-trees. 
There has been time enough since the fourth century, from which 
apparently the tradition dates, for these oJive-trees to assume 
their present venerable appearance. It should be added that 
there are other enclosures in the vicinity with trees equally 
aged. All that we can safely affirm is that the Saviour's agony 
was in a garden somewhere in this vicinity. 

The position M Aceldama, the field of blood, and in connection with this, 
of the Pottei's' field, is uncertain. Tradition reaching back to the age of 
Jerome, places Aceldama on the steep southern face of the valley of Hin- 
nom near its eastern end. 



100 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

The road to the Fullei's' field led by the conduit of the upper pool. 
2 Kings 18 : 17 ; Isa. 7 : 3 ; 36 ; 2. It lay therefore on the west side of 
the city. 

45. The Mount of Olives is the well-known ridge east of 
Jerusalem, and separated from it by the valley of the Kidron, 
called at the present day the valley of Jehoshaphat. The ridge 
begins about three quarters of a mile south of the Haram, where 
the Kidron turns eastward towards the Dead sea. Thence it 
runs north past the city, having three rounded summits. The 
church of the Ascension is on the middle summit, opposite to 
the mosque of Omar. About a mile farther north it sweeps round 
to the west, being still higher than the city, and spreads out 
into the high level tract north of the city, which is with good 
reason regarded as the Scopus of Josephus, where the Roman 
armies encamped with the city and temple in full view. 

The general features of Olivet are not rugged but tame and rounded, 
as in other limestone hills. It is sprinkled all over with olive-trees, many 
of them old and gnarled. Of the three summits the middle and northern 
are the highest. Schubert gives the altitude of the church of the Ascen- 
sion at 2,724 feet, that of Zion being 2,537 feet, and that of Moriah 2,429 
feet. The elevation of the bridge near Gethsemane is 2,281 feet, of the 
well En-Rogel, 1,996 feet. Consequently from the bridge to the summit 
of the middle ridge, there is an ascent of 443 feet ; from the well to the 
same summit, of 728 feet. The lower southern hill is called "the mount 
of Offence," as being that on which Solomon built a high place for Che- 
mosh. This was "in the hill that is before Jerusalem," that is, east of it, 
and " on the right hand " (that is, south) "of the mount of Corruption" 
(1 Kings 11:7 ; 2 Kings 23 : 3), which may have been this very summit 
standing over against Tophet in the valley of Hinnom. 

Many sacred associations cluster around the Mount of 
Olives. It first appears in the Old Testament as the hill up 
which David went in his flight before Absalom, weeping and 
barefoot,- pausing on its summit to worship God, before he laid 
his course thetice eastward to the fords of the Jordan. 2 Sam. 
15:30, 32. E^dubtless it was often trodden by the feet of the 
Hebrew kings aiid prophets. This must be also the mount to 
which the people went forth in Nehemiah's day to " fetch olive- 



PALESTINE. 101 

branches, and pine-branches, and myi'tle-branches, and pahn- 
branches, and branches of thick trees to make booths, as it is 
written." Chap. 8 : 15. It would seem that during the long deso- 
lation of the land in the Babylonish captivity the mountain had 
been overgrown with trees and shrubbery, much of which re- 
mained now ninety years after the close of the captivity : for the 
land was yet but thinly peopled. More prominent is the Mount 
of Olives in the New Testament. It was a constant place of 
resort for our Lord and his disciples during his visits to Jerusa- 
lem. Thence he entered Jerusalem in triumph, riding on an 
ass, amid the hosannas of the people; and wept over the city 
as he approached, which lay in full view before him. Sit- 
ting on the same mount, and looking upon the magnificent 
structures of the temple, he predicted their utter overthrow. 
The fulfilment of this awful prophecy by the legions of Eome is 
a solemn commentary on his memorable words uttered on that 
occasion: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words 
shall not pass away." From Olivet also he ascended to heaven, 
when he had finished the work of man's redemption. 

From Luke (chap. 24 : 50, 51) we learn that the ascension took place at 
or in the vicinity of Bethany. But Bethany is on the eastern slope of 
Olivet. Hence the same evangelist says (Acts 1:12) that the disciples, 
after witnessing their Lord's ascent, returned to Jerusalem "from the 
mount called Olivet." The church of the Ascension, on the central sum- 
mit of the mountain, has no claim to be considered the real place of this 
event. 

46. The valley of Rephaim (2 Sam. 5 : 18, 22 ; 23 : 13 ; 1 Chron. 
11 : 15 ; 14 : 9), or, as the same Hebrew expression is translated 
in the book of Joshua (chap. 15:8; 18:16), the valley of the 
giants, so named from the Rephaim, an aboriginal race of gigan- 
tic stature, is a flat and fertile plain, shut in on all sides by 
rocky hilltops and ridges. It descends gradually from Jerusa- 
lem towards the southwest for more than a mile, when it con- 
tracts into a narrow valley called Wady el-Werd. It was the 
scene of several warlike exploits in David's day. See the refer- 
ences above. In ancient times, as now, it was distinguished for 



102 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

its fertility. Hence the reaper gathering ears in the valley of 
Bephaim furnishes the prophet with an expressive figure for 
God's desolating judgments on Israel and Damascus, Isa. 17 : 5. 

There is no occasion to seek another location for the valley o'f Rephaim. 
In describing the northern boundary of the tribe of Judah the sacred 
writer, tracing it upward from tlie east, comes to the well En-Rogel (Josh. 
15 : 5-7). The verse following may be literally rendered as follows : "And 
the boundary went up the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the shoulder" 
(that is, brow) "of the Jebusite on the south : the same is Jerusalem." 
"The brow of the Jebusite on the south" is a plain description of the 
southern brow of Zion. The narrator proceeds: "And the boundary 
went up to the top of the hill which is before the valley of Hinnom west- 
ward, which is in the border of the valley of Rej)haim northward." The 
meaning is that the hill before the valley of Hinnom on the west borders 
upon the northern part of the valley of Eephaim ; all which agrees with 
the situation of this plain. In Josh. 18 : 15-19, the southern boundary of 
Benjamin, which is this same northern border of Judah, is described in the 
reverse order downwm^d from the icest. Hence we read (ver. 16): "And 
the boundary went down to the border of the hill which is before the val- 
ley of the sou of Hinnom," which (that is, which border) "is in the val- 
ley of Rephaim northward : and it went down the valley of Hinnom to 
the shoulder (that is, brow) of the Jebusite southward : and [continuing 
its descent past the brow of the Jebusite] it went down to En-Rogel."' 

47. From Jerusalem as a centre, the following places may 
be conveniently described : 

Bethany, a small village on the eastern slope of Olivet, fifteen furlongs 
from Jerusalem (John 11 : 18), lying on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, 
at the edge of the wilderness of Judea. Shut out by a secondary ridge 
from the view not only of Jerusalem but also of the summit of Olivet it 
is, and must always have been a place of seclusion, and to it the Saviour 
loved to resort. Here was the family of Mary, and Martha, and Lazarus, 
where he found a quiet home. Here he raised Lazarus from the dead ; 
and hence he ascended to heaven. Its modern name is el-Azariyeh, that 
is, Lazarus-place, from the Arabic el-Azir, Lazarus. The site of Belhphage 
is not known. It lay in the near vicinity of Bethany, but whether east 
or west of it is a question among biblical scholars. 

Anata, situated betAveen two ravines on a broad swell sloping off tow- 
ards the southeast, an hour and a quarter north-northeast from Jerusalem, 
corresponds in name and position to the ancient Anathoth, which Joseph as 
places at twenty stadia from Jerusalem (Antiq. 10. 7. 3), and Jerome three 



PALESTINE. 103 

Eoman miles north of Jerusalem. Comment. Jer. 1:1. There can be no 
reasonable doubt of the identity of the two places. It was one of the 
cities assigned to the priests (Josh. 21:18), and here Jeremiah "of the 
priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin " had his home. 
Jer. 1 : 1 ; 32 : 7, 8, 9. It is now a miserable village, but with ruins of a 
former place. See Kobinson, Bib. Res. 1, pp. 437, 438. The approach 
of the king of Assyria towards Jerusalem from the north, would naturally 
cause a panic in "poor Anathoth." See Isa. 10 :30. 

Four miles north of Jerusalem, a little to the right of the Nabuhis road, 
stands a bare conical hill called Tideil-el-Ful that is, in English, Bean-lill- 
lock. A heap of ruins crowns its summit, which affords a wide view. Rob- 
inson has shown (Bib. Res. 1, pp. 577-579) by satisfactory arguments that 
this is the site of the ancient GibeaJi of Saul (1 Sam. 11 :4 ; 15 :34 ; 2 Sam. 
21 : G), so called as being the home of Saul (1 Sam. 10 :26 ; and also Gibe- 
ali of Benjamin (1 Sam. 13: 2, 15, 16), as belonging to that tribe ; also simply 
Glheah (Judg. chaps. 19, 20). Gibeah signifies a hill, and several other places 
bore this name, as Gibeah of Phinehas (Josh. 24:33) ; a place in Judah 
(Josh. 15:57), etc. Gibeah is notorious for the infamous transaction re- 
corded in the book of Judges with the terrible retribution that followed 
(chaps. 19-'21), by which the tribe of Benjamin was well nigh exterminated. 
Its site, four miles north of Jerusalem, with Ramali in full view two miles 
farther north, agrees perfectly with the narrative (Judg. 19:11-15). 

Rainah of Benjamin, the modern er-Ram, is about two miles north of 
Gibeah and five English miles north of Jerusalem. This site answers to 
the statement of Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon) that it was in the 
sixth mile (Roman mile) north of the Holy City, and also of Josephus that 
it was forty stadia distant from Jerusalem. This is the Ramah mentioned 
Josh. 18:25; Judg. 19:13; 1 Sam. 22:6; 1 Kings 15:17, 21, 22; Ezra 
2:26; Neh. 7:30; 11:33; Isa. 10:29; Jer. 31:15; 40:1; Hosea5:8; per- 
hajDs also in Judg. 4:5. It is at present "a small miserable village; but 
in the walls and foundations of the houses are many large hewn stones, and 
in the lanes and fields, broken columns and other remains of the ancient 
capital. The situation is commanding, on the top of a conical hill, half a 
mile east of the great northern road." Porter in Alexander's Kitto. Its 
strong position, commanding the road to Jerusalem from the north, ex- 
plains why Baasha king of Israel seized it and fortified it, "that he might 
not sufifer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah ;" and why Asa, 
when he had regained the place, demolished it. 1 Kings 15: 17-22. It was 
apparently with reference to a slaughter of the Benjamites at Ramah by 
the Chaldeans that Jeremiah wrote : " A voice was heard in Ramali, lamen- 
tation and bitter weeping ; Rachel [the mother of the Benjamites, repre- 
sented by a bold poetic figure as present in the land of her posterity] 



104 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because 
they were not" (Jer. 31:15); words that had a second fulfilment when 
Herod slew the babes "in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof/' 
Matt. 2:16-18. 

Ramah signifies height, high place. In ancient as in modern times, tiie 
cities and villages of Palestine were very commonly built on the summits 
of hills for greater security against the incursions of robbers and plunder- 
ers. Hence Ramah, or in the plural, Ramoth, is a name given to various 
places ; as to a town of Asher (Josh. 19:29), of Naphtali (Josh. 19:36), of 
Issachar. 1 Chron. 6 : 73. The same word appears with an added descrip- 
tion, when it takes in the singular the form Rardath. Thus we have Ra- 
math-mizpeh, high place of the watch-tower, in the tribe of Gad (Josh. 13 : 26) ; 
Ramath-negeb, high place of the south (Josh 19:8), and Ramoth-negeh, heights 
of the south (1 Sam. 30: 27), which two places are doubtless identical. 

In 1 Sam. 1:1, the home of Samuel's ]3arents is called Ramathaim-zo- 
phim^ that is, either the double height of the Zuphites, so-called from Zuph an 
ancestor of Elkanah ; or, the double height of the watchmen, double watch- 
tower. But in the 19th verse of the same chapter, and in chap. 2:11, the 
same place is called simply Ramah, and this is probably the Ramah of 
Samuel, where he had his house (chap. 7: 17 ; 8:4 ; 15:34 ; 16:13 ; 19:18— 
20:1), and was buried (chap. 25:1 ; 28:3). If so, we must look for it in 
Mount Ephraim ; for Elkanah was, as the original reads, from Ramath- 
aim-zophim/ro??2. Mount Ephraim (not, in Ramath-zophim [having come] 
fro7n Mount Ephraim, as some would explain), and the word /rom gives in 
both cases his present habitation. But now we encounter a serious diffi- 
culty. The place where Saul first met with Samuel, and where he was 
anointed, was certainly south of Mount Ephraim; for on his return he 
passed by Rachel's sepulchre near Bethlehem, chap. 10:2. We must, 
therefore, assume either that the Ramah of Samuel was not identical with 
Ramathaim-zophim in Mount Ephraim, or that Samuel was then away 
from his home on a circuit. The latter assumption is the more probable of 
the two ; since nothing in the narrative compels us to believe that * ' the city " 
there spoken of was the one in which the prophet resided. But where, 
then, was Ramathaim-zoiDhim ? It has been variously answered — at Ramah 
of Benjamin, at Mizpeh (see below), at Soba about six miles west of Jeru- 
salem. With the Hebrew article prefixed Ramathaim becomes Harama- 
thahn, and there is much probability in the opinion of Eusebius and 
Jerome that it is the Arimathea of the New Testament. They place it 
near Lydda, 

Proceeding northeast from Ramah of Benjamin we come at the dis- 
tance of about half an hour to the small village of Jeba, which is in all 
probability the Geba of the Old Testament. It stands on the top of a 
rocky ridge, on the southern edge of the deep glen called Wady-es-Su- 



PALESTINE. 105 

weinit, which separates it from Michmaslt, the modern Mtikhmas on the 
north. The words Geha and Gibeah both signify hill. It is thought that 
the two names are sometimes interchanged in the Hebrew text. However 
this may be, they are certainly confounded at times in our version, where 
the clearness of the narrative required that they should be kept distinct. 
Thus in the narrative of Jonathan's adventure, when attended by his 
armor-bearer, he crossed the passage of Michmash without'the knowledge 
of his father (1 Sam. 14: 1-18), Saul was in Gibeah a little south of Ramah 
(ver. 2), but Jonathan and his armor-bearer crossed the glen from Geba 
(not Gibeah). The sacred narrative, speaking of the two sharp rocks on 
either side of the passages says: "The forefront of the one was situate 
northward over against Michmash, and the other southward over against 
Geba,'' ver. 5. When the watchman of Saul in Gibeah saw the tumult, he 
numbered the people, etc. 

Dr. Robinson has identified Michmash in the modei-n Mukhmas which 
Eiisebius and Jerome (Onomasticon) describe as a large village nine Ro- 
man miles from Jerusalem and not far from Rama. It lies on the north- 
ern edge of the steep and difficult Wady-es-Suweinit, which is *'the pas- 
sage of Michmash." The two sharp rocks of which the sacred writer speaks 
still exist as two hills of a conical, or rather spherical form, having steej) 
rocky sides, with small wadys running up behind each, so as almost to 
isolate them. One of tliem is on the side towards Jeba, and the other 
towards Mukhmas. See in Bib. Res. 1, pp. 440-44:2. The four places 
Michmash, Geba, Ramah, Gibeah of Saul, are mentioLed in their exact 
order (Isa. 10:28, 29), when the prophet is describing the Assyrian king's 
approach to Jerusalem from the north, with the additional stroke that "at 
Michmash he hath laid up his carriages," that is baggage. He leaves his 
baggage there on account of the difficulty of the pass. 

About six miles north-northeast of Mukhmas, crowning the summit of a 
conical hill in a high tract of land, is the village of ei-Taiyibeh. Robinson 
thinks that this maj'- be the site of the ancient Ophrah in the tribe of Ben- 
jamin, Josh. 18:23; 1 Sam. 13:17. Of the three bands of spoilers that 
went out from the camp of the Philistines at Michmash, one company 
turned westward towards Beth-horon (&ee below) ; and another "towards 
the wilderness," which lay on the east. The third company went towards 
Ophrah, which must, therefore, have lain in a northerly direction from 
Michmash. Eusebius and Jerome place Ophrah (Onamasticon, Art. Aphra) 
five Roman miles east of Bethel, which accords with the site of et-Taiyi- 
beh. It is generally agreed that Ophrah was identical with the city of 
Ephraim (2 Sam. 13:23 ; 2 Chron. 13:19), to which place our Lord retired 
to avoid the enmity of the Jews, John 11:54. Ephraim was "near to the 
wilderness," as is the modern et-Taiyibeh. 



106 SACPvED GEOGRAPHY. 

About four miles northwest of Miclimasli, are the ruins called Be'ithi^ 
which Eobinson has fully identified with the site of the ancient Beth-el. 
Eusebius and Jerome (Onamasticon) place Beth-el twelve miles from Jeru- 
salem on the right hand of the road to Sichem. This agrees with the site 
of Beitin. The name also is identical, the Arabic substituting n for I, as 
in some other cases. See Robinson, Bib. Res., 1, p. 449, note. These 
ruins lie upon the brow of a hill sloping off to the southeast, and cover a 
space of three or four acres. Among them are the remains of a square 
tower, the broken walls of several churches, and the ruins of an immense 
reservoir, 314 feet in length by 217 feet in breadth. The whole region 
around is wdld and rugged, Avith gray bare rocks, every where cropping up 
over the scanty soi]. "Jacob," says Porter, "could scarcely have found 
any spot there on which a ' pillow ' of stone was not ready laid for his 
head." 

Beth-el, originally called Luz (Gen. 28:19; Judg. 1:23), first appears in 
Scripture as the place near which Abraham twice j)itched his tent, upon 
"a mountain on the east of Beth-el," "having Beth-el on the west, and 
Hai on the east," Gen. 12:8 ; 1^:3. No one can mistake the position of 
this mountain. It is the loftiest and most conspicuous hill in the neigh- 
borhood, with a broad summit commanding a wide view of the country all 
around. From its top Lot looked down across the intervening wilderness 
upon the green and well-watered valley of the Jordan, and Abraham, after 
his departure, looked from the place where he stood "northward, and 
southward, and eastward, and westward," upon his promised inheritance. 
Gen. 13:10-14. At Beth-el also Jacob tarried overnight on his lonely 
journey from Beer-sheba to Haran, and here he had that glorious vision of 
a ladder set on the earth and reaching to heaven, with the angels of God 
ascending and descending upon it, while the Lord stood above it, and 
proclaimed himself his covenant God. In the morning he named the 
place Beth-el, that is, house of God (Gen. 28:10-22), and on his return 
many years afterwards, he re-consecrated the spot (Gen. 35:1-7). Beth-el 
originally belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, lying on the very border be- 
tween it and Ephraim. Josh. 18 :13, 22. But upon the division of Solo- 
mon's kingdom, it fell to the king-dom of the ten tribes, and Jeroboam 
desecrated it by making it one of the two places for the worship of his 
golden calves. 1 Kings 12:28, 29. For this sin the prophet from Judah 
foretold its defilement by Josiah, but perished on his way home for his dis- 
obedience. 1 Kings, chap. 13. The curse pronounced by the prophet still 
rests on Beth-el. "Amid the ruins," says Porter in Alexander's Kitto, 
" are about a score of miserable huts, in which, when the writer last visit- 
ed it (1857), a few poor families, and a few flocks of goats found a home." 
"The desolation of Bethel, and the shapeless ruins scattered over its site are 
not without their importance even yet — they are silent witnesses to the 



I 



PALESTINE. 107 

truth of scripture, and the literal fulfilment of prophec;^ . Amos said many 
centuries ago : ' Seek not Beth-el, not' enter into Gilgal ; for Gilgal shall 
surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to naught.' " Chap. 5 :5. 

Hai, the AL oi Joshua and the Aiatli of Isaiah (chap. 10:28), lay not far 
east from Beth-el. About an hour southeast of Bethel, a little south of the 
village called Deir Duwan are some ruins which Robinson thinks may be 
the site of Ai. Bib. Res., 1, pp. 574, 575. 

Passing now to the northwest of Jerusalem, we come, at the distance of 
about five miles, to a lofty peak called Nehy SamwU (prophet Samuel), ris- 
ing some six hundred feet above the plain of Gibeon. It is one of the 
most marked sites in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and commands, accord- 
ing to Porter, a wider view than any other point in southern Pales- 
tine. Respecting the ancient place represented by Nehy Samwll there 
has been much controversy. The arguments of Robinson (Bib. Res., 
1, pp. 458-460) go far to show that here was the Mizpah of Benjamin 
(called in the Hebrew Mizpeh, Josh. 18:26; perhaps also 13:26, and 
often in our version); while Grove would, with less probability, identify 
Mizpah with the hill Scopus of Josephus, north of Jerusalem. It was at 
Mizpah that the Israelites assembled to inflict punishment upon the 
Benjamites for protecting the perpetrators of the crime recorded in the 
nineteenth chapter of Judges. At the same i^lace Samuel afterwards gath- 
ered all Israel together to offer sacrifices and pray for deliverance from the 
Philistines, and also to establish Saul in his kingdom (1 Sam. 7:5-12; 
10: 17-25) ; and this was one of the towns which he took yearly in his circuit 
as judge of Israel (1 Sam. 7 : 16). This place appears again in the later his- 
tory of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 25 : 23-26 ; Jer. chaps. 40, 41), 
where it is the scene of a bloody massacre. 

The names Mizpeh and Mizpah signify watch-tower, and are given to 
various other places on both sides of the Jordan valley. Josh. 11:8; 15 : 38 ; 
Judges 11:11, 29, 34; 1 Sam. 22:3. 

About a mile north of Neby Samwil, on the south side of the camel 
road from Jerusalem to Jojopa is el- Jib, the ancient Gibeon. Its distance 
from Jerusalem by the main travelled road is six and a half miles, by the 
most direct road not much over five miles. It stands on the top of a low 
isolated hill of an oblong form, composed of horizontal layers of limestone 
rock, rising above each other in succession with almost the regularity of 
steps. The hill is in some parts steep and difficult of access, and capable 
of being every where strongly fortified. All around its base lies a rich 
upland plain, covered near the village with vineyards and olive groves ; 
and "sending out branches," says Porter, " like the rays of the star-fish, 
among the rocky acclivities that encircle it." On the east side of the 
hill is a copious spring issuing from a chamber excavated in the limestone 



108 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

rock, and a little farther down, among olive-trees, are the ruins of an an- 
cient reservoir, according to Robinson one hundred and twenty feet by 
one hundred. Here is doubtless "the pool of Gibeon" (2 Sam. 2:13), 
where the men of Joab and Abner met in fierce encounter ; and here also 
are "the great waters that are in Gibeon" (Jer. 41:12), where Johanan 
rescued the captives whom Ishmael had taken. The natural strength of 
Gibeon and the fertility of the surrounding region are a sufficient" expla- 
nation of the fact that ' ' Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cit- 
ies," Josh. 10 : 2. It first comes into notice in connection with the famous 
stratagem by which its inhabitants obtained a league with the Israelites, 
Josh. , chap. 9. In consequence of this league Gibeon Avas assaulted by the 
confederate kings of Canaan, and Joshua came to its rescue. It was in the 
great battle following, which began at Gibeon, that Joshua said in the sight 
of Israel: "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the 
valley of Ajalon. " Chap. 10 : 12. 

When David removed the ark to Jerusalem, the ancient tabernacle with 
its altar was set up at Gibeon, and there the daily sacrifices were ofi'ered 
and the other services of the sanctuary maintained (1 Chron. 16:39-42 ; 
21 : 29) until the dedication of the temple by Solomon at Jerusalem ; and 
thus it became the ' ' great high place. " Hither Solomon, at the commence- 
ment of his reign repaired to oJEfer sacrifices — "a thousand burnt-ofi'erings 
did Solomon offer upon that altar ;" and there God appeared to him in a. 
dream, saying : " Ask what I shall give thee." 1 Kings 3:4-15. Biblical 
scholars have not failed to notice the retribution that overtook Joab at 
Gibeon where he had murdered Amasa. 2 Sam. 20: 8, 10. Upon the over- 
throw of Ad oni jail's conspiracy against Solomon, in which Joab was im- 
l^licated, he "fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord" — then at Gibeon — 
"and caught hold on the horns of the altar," and there where he had 
" shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle 
that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet " (1 Kings 
2:5), his blood was shed at Solomon's command by Benaiah (1 Kings 
2:28-34). 

Following northwestward, " the great road of communication and heavy 
transport between Jerusalem and the seacoast" (Robinson), we come at 
the distance of four miles from Gibeon and twelve Roman miles from 
Jerusalem — the exact distance given by Eusebius — to BetU-lioron the uppei% 
and three miles below to Beih-horon the nether (2 Chron. 8:5); the modern 
names of which are Beit Ur el-Foka, Beit Ur the upper ; and Beit Ur el- 
Tahia, Beit Ur the nether. The upper Beth-horon stands on the summit of 
a conical hill, the culminating point of a long narrow ridge that runs up 
from the lower region on the west. Down this ridge the road winds in 
a zigzag course between two deep ravines, steps being in many places 
cut into the rock. It was down this difficult passage that Joshua drove the 



PALESTINE. 109 

discomfited Canaanites, and here "in the gcing down of Beth-horon the 
Lord cast upon them great stones from the heavens to Azekah, and they 
died." Josh 10:11. Standing on the hill of the upper Beth-horon, one 
looks down upon a broad and beautiful valley in the southwest, Avhicli 
Robinson has satisfactorily identified with the ancient '^valley of AjaloJi,'' 
over which the moon stayed about a whole day. On its southern border 
lies the village of Ydlo, which is but an abbreviation of Ajalon (Heb. Ai- 
yalo-n). The modern name of the valley is Mey^j Ibn Omeir, Meadow of Llia 
son of Omeir. 

Dr. Robinson thinks that the ancient KlrjatJi-jearlm, that is, in English, 
City of Forests, may possibly be recognized in the modern Kuryei-el-Etiah, 
City of Grapes. It is a poor village, lying nine Roman miles from Jerusa- 
lem on the direct way from that city to Lydda and Ramleh, wliicli agrees 
with the situation assigned to it by Eusebius and Jerome. To Kirjath- 
jearim the ark was brought from Beth-shemesh when restored by the Phil- 
istines, and there it remained till removed by David to Jerusalem. 1 Sam. 
7:1, 2; 2 Sam., chap. 6. 

Two short hours south of Jerusalem, a little to the east of the road to 
Hebron, is BetldeJiem, a jolace which every Christian must regard with 
deep and solemn interest. It was the home of the sweet psalmist of 
Israel. Here he spent his youthful days in the humble capacity of a shep- 
herd, and here Samuel anointed him to be the shepherd of God's covenant 
people. A higher honor was conferred upon Beth-lehem when the Word 
made flesh appeared ; for here the Lord of glory was born and laid in a 
manger, " because there was no room for them in the inn." 

The original name of Beth-lehem was Ephrath or Ephratah (Gen. 35: 16, 
19 ; 48:7 ; Ruth 4:11 ; Psa. 132:6 ; Micah 5:2), that is, according to the 
most probable etymology, fruitful. The name Beth-lehem signifies house of 
bread; and it has taken in Arabic the form of Beit-Lahm, house of flesh. 
It covers the eastern and northeastern parts of a long gray ridge of lime- 
stone which runs out eastwardly from the central chain of mountains, with 
deep valleys on the north, south, and east. The soil in the immediate 
neighborhood is fertile, and the steep slopes below the town are carefully 
terraced, presenting a succession of olives, fig-trees, and vineyards. In the 
valleys below and on a little plain to the east are some corn-fields, but 
immediately beyond these lies "the wilderness of Judaea," with its white 
limestone hills and deep winding ravines in full view from the heights of 
Bethlehem. It was undoubtedly from tending his father's flocks amid 
these eastern hills that the youthful David was sent 'by Jesse to the camp 
of Israel, when his eldest brother Eliab met him with the reproachful 
words : " Why camest thou down hither ?" and with whom hast thou left 
those few sheep in the wilderness ?" 1 Sam. 17 :28. A quarter of a mile 



no SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

north of the gate of the modern village is pointed out the so-called "well 
of Bethlehem." It is merely a deep and wide cistern situated at the 
head of a ravine. Robinson was able to find no well in Bethlehem. 

On the eastern brow of the ridge and separated from the village by a 
level space is the great church of Mary, surrounded by its three spacious 
convents, the whole encompassed by an immense fortress-like wall. The 
church is that built by Helena over the alleged cave of the nativity. In 
this grotto, says Ritter, "the manger itself is exhibited, and a countless 
number of stations, each of which is hallowed by some monkish legend ; 
the events of many, very many saints from David down to Christ, and of 
the shepherds, the wise men, of Elisabeth, John, Joseph, and Mary, and 
of the good men of the first centuries of the Christian era down to the time 
of Jerome are localized here ; and even the most credulous of pilgrims may 
well have been surprised to learn that almost all the great events of which 
they heard, transpired in this little spot, and mainly in caves and grottos !" 
Geog. of Palestine, 3, p. 345. The tradition that the Saviour was born 
in a cave goes back to the middle of the second century. Justin Martyn, 
says (Dial. 2. 7) : "Because he had no place to stop in that village, he 
stopped in a certain cave close to the village ; and then, while they were 
there, Mary brought forth the Christ, and laid him in a manger." It may 
perhaps, be so ; but that the manger was in this grotto we cannot know, 
nor is there any necessity that we should. Our salvation comes from 
knowing Christ himself, as he is revealed to us by God's word and Spirit, 
not the place where Christ was born. 

The present population of Bethlehem is about three thousand souls, all 
nominal Christians. 

A mile north of Beth-lehem, on the road to Jerusalem, is a little build- 
ing which marks to the present day the place of RacheVs ioinb. The tradi- 
tion which places it here is fully sustained by the scriptural narrative 
(Gen. 35:16; 48:7), and its correctness cannot be reasonably called in 
question. 

Jehel Fureidls is the name given to a steep and round mountain, hav- 
ing the form of a volcanic cone, but truncated, which rises up some four 
miles southeast of Bethlehem. Frank mountain is the name by which it 
is known among the Franks. On the top are the ruins of a circular for- 
tress. Robinson suggests that this may be the site of the fortress and city 
Herodium erected by Herod the Great. 

About six miles south of Beth-lehem, on an elevated hill, steep but 
broad on the top, are the ruins of the ancient Tekoa, covering a space of 
four or five acres. The place retains its Hebrew name to the present day, 
being called Tekua by the Arabs. It was the birth-place of the prophet 
Amos (Amos 1:1), and hence Joab called the wise woman whom he em- 



PALESTINE. Ill 

ployed in bringing about the recall of Absalom. 2 Sam. 14: 2. It stands on 
the edge of the wilderness, which is here called from it " the wilderness of 
Tekoa." 2 Cliron. 20 : 20. Kehoboam fortified the place as a protection 
against incursions from the south. 2 Chron. 11 : 6. 

48. A second centre of the mountainous region of Judea is 
Hebron, one of the oldest and most venerable cities in the 
world, built says the sacred record, "seven years before Zoan 
in Egypt." Num. 13:22. It was one of the favorite abodes of 
the patriarch Abraham, and there in the cave of Machpelah, 
which he bought of Ephron the Hittite for four hundred she- 
kels of silver, he had his family sepulchre. See Gen., chap. 23. 
We find Isaac at the close of his life living in Hebron (Gen. 
35:27), and it was "out of the vale of Hebron" that Jacob 
sent Joseph to his brethren when they sold him to the Ishma- 
elites. Gen. 37 : 14. After Saul's death David went up by divine 
direction, from the Philistine plain to Hebron, and there he 
reigned over the tribe of Judah alone seven years and six 
months. It was at Hebron also that Abner was buried when 
murdered by Joab, and in his sepulchre was buried the head 
of Ishbosheth. 2 Sam., chaps. 2 and 3. Here also Absalom 
began his short and inglorious reign. 2 Sam. 15 : 7-12. 

The modern town of Hebron is eighteen miles south of Jeru- 
salem. It lies in a deep narrow valley running down in a south- 
erly direction into the great Wady that runs off southwest tow- 
ards the Mediterranean. The houses are all of stone, high, and 
well built, with windows and flat roofs, and on these roofs small 
domes. They occupy chiefly the sloping eastern side ; but in 
the southern part the town stretches across to the western side. 
The population amounts to some nine thousand souls. In the 
bottom of the valley towards the south is the loiuer pool of He- 
bron, a square reservoir built of hewn stones, measuring one 
hundred and thirty-three feet on each side, with a depth of over 
twenty-one feet, and flights of steps at the corners leading down 
to the water. At the north end of the main village is a small 
pool eighty-five feet in length by fifty-five broad, with a depth 
of over eighteen feet. These pools are of high antiquity, and 



112 SACBED GEOGRAPHY. 

doubtless over one of them the assassins of Ishbosheth were 
hanged by order of David. 2 Sam. 4:12. 

But the object of chief interest in Hebron is the great Haram 
on the eastern slope of the valley, which encloses without doubt 
the cave of Machpelah, of which Jacob said when directing that 
his body should be carried thither: "There they buried Abra- 
ham and Sarah his wife ; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah 
his wife; and there I buried Leah." Gen. 49:31. Here is a 
mosque, supposed to have been once a Christian church, sur- 
sounded by massive wails in the form of a parallelogram of very 
high antiquity. Eobinson, cautious as he is in respect to claims 
of antiquity, after quoting the Bourdeaux pilgrim's description 
of it, (a. d. 333), says : "I venture to suppose that this existed 
already in the days of Josephus and probably much earlier; 
and was either itself the monument referred to by him (Antiq., 
1. 14; Jewish War, 4. 9. 7), or perhaps the sacred enclosure 
within which the tombs of the patriarchs were erected. The 
whole appearance of the building, as well as its architecture, 
leads decidedly to such a conclusion." Bib. Res., 2, p. 77. The 
external enclosure is two hundred feet long, one hundred and 
fifty wide, and sixty high, surrounded by a colonnade of square 
pilasters forty-eight in number. The interior is guarded by the 
Moslems with great jealousy. For six hundred y^ears only one 
European had entered it, namely, Ali Bey in disguise. But in 
1862 the Prince of Wales and his suite were allowed to visit the 
interior; and an engineer of the pasha of Jerusalem named 
Pierotti has also had an opportunity of examining the building. 
The mosque contains the tombs, that is, monuments or cenotaphs 
of the bodies deposited there, each enclosed within a separate 
chapel or shrine ; but to the sacred cave itself, the real place of 
sepulture, no one is allowed access. Pierotti thinks that a part 
of the grotto exists under the mosque, and that the other part is 
under the court, but at a lower leveL See farther in Imp. Bib. 
Diet., art. Hebron. Stanley, in the appendix to his lectures on 
the Jewish church, has given an account of the survey made 
by him in 1862, as one of the suite of the Prince of Wales. 




HEBBON. 




YAFA, THE MODERN JOPPA, FEOM THE NORTH. 



PALESTINE. 113 

The name of Hebron in earlier times was Kirjalh-Arha, that is, city of 
Arba, "the great man among the Anakim." Gen. 23:2; Josh. 14:15, 
15 : 13; 21 : 11; Judg. 1 : 10. Another name appHed to Hebron is Mamre; 
from Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and Aner (Gen. 14 : 13), but 
in exactly what extent of signification cannot easily be determined. The 
cave of Machpelah, on the eastern side of the valley, is described as being 
before Mamre (Gen. 23 : 17, 19; 49 : 30), tJie natural interpretation of which 
words is, that Mamre lay opposite to it, on the western side of the valley. 
We must suppose, then, that Mamre was a particular quarter of Hebron; 
or, more j^robably, that Hebron at that time lay on the west side. Ancient 
tradition places the oaks of Mamre (or terehintlis, not plain, as in our ver- 
sion) where Abraham dwelt, some distance north of Hebron. 

The environs of Hebron are fertile, and it is particularly celebrated for 
its vineyards, which produce the largest and best graj^es in all the country. 
"This valley, says Robinson, "is generally assumed to be the Eshcol of 
the Old Testament." Although Hebron itself lies in a valley, the moun- 
tainous region in which it is situated here attains its greatest elevation. 
From one of the hills in its vicinity the patriarch Abraham "looked toward 
Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, 
and lo, the smoke of the country went up as tlie smoke of a furnace." 
Gen. 19 : 28. 

49. South of Hebron, in the hill country of Judea, is a con- 
siderable number of places which have been identified as those 
mentioned in the Old Testament. 

Tell Zlf Kurmul and Tell Main, on the border of the wilderness, rep- 
resent the ancient Ziph, Carmel of Judah, and, Maori, which are noticed 
in connection with the persecutions to which Da\dd was subjected through 
the enmity of Saul. Tell Zlf that is. Mil of Zif is a round eminence about 
four and a half miles south of Hebron. On its top is a level plot appa- 
rently once enclosed by a wall, with some cisterns. Ten minutes east of 
it are ruins which Eobinson considers to be the proper site of Ziph. It 
was in the adjoining "wilderness of Ziph" that David and his men were 
lurking w4ien the Ziphites attempte'd to betray him into the hand of Saul. 
1 Sam. 23 : 19. About seven miles south of Hebron is Tell 3Iam, the hill 
Main, which gave its name to the adjacent " wdlderness of Maon," where 
also Saul was frustrated in his attempt to take David, 1 Sam. 23 : 24-27. 
A little north of Main is Kurmul, the Carmel of Nabal, famous for the 
interview which David had there with Abigail, which resulted in her be- 
coming his wife. 1 Sam. chap, 25. This is also the Carmel where Saul 
"set him up a place" on his return from the slaughter of the Amalekites, 
who occupied the southern desert. 1 Sam. 15 : 12. The ruins of Carmel 



114 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

are extensive. "They lie," says Porter (in Alexander's Kitto), "around 
the semicircular head and along the shelving sides of a little valley, which 
is shut in by rugged limestone rocks." The most remarkable ruin is that 
of the castle, a structure dating back as far at least as the time of Herod. 

Other places are, Yuita, A nab, Shuweikeh, Semua; answering respect- 
ively to the ancient towns, Jutlah, Anab, Shochoh, Eshiemoa. Eor their 
position, see the map. West of Hebron are, Teffuli and Dura; the ancient 
Tappuah and Adoraim. The tenacity Avith which the old towns of Pales- 
tine retain their names is remarkable. By this means, in connection with 
ancient notices of their situation, Pobinson and others have been enabled 
satisfactorily to identify a multitude of them. 

50. Last of all we come to Beer-slieba, the ivell of the oath 
(Gen. 21 : 31 ; 26 : 32, 33), on the border of the southern desert, 
twelve good hours with camels from Hebron in a southwesterly 
direction. As the traveller approaches from the south the great 
JVady-es-Seha, which runs off in a westerly direction towards 
the Mediterranean, the shrubs of the desert begin to disappear, 
and the hills are covered with grass ; large flocks of sheep and 
goats and herds of camels and horned cattle are grazing around ; 
and he sees for the first time extensive patches of unfenced land 
covered with corn. All these are signs that the desert is at an 
end^ Crossing the broad bed of the wady, he comes upon its 
northern side to two immense wells surrounded by drinldng- 
troughs of stone, while farther up the hills north of the well are 
the scattered ruins of what Eobinson calls " a small straggling 
village," andEusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon) describe as a 
large village with a Eoman garrison. This is the ancient Beer- 
sheha, where the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob pastured 
their flocks. Hagar, when dismissed by Abraham, wandered 
"in the wilderness of Beer-sheba" on her way home to Egypt 
(Gen. 21 : 14) ; from this place Jacob fled to Padan-aram (Gen. 
28 : 10) ; and here, many years afterwards, on his way to Egypt, 
he offered sacrifices to the God of his fathers; here Samuel 
made his sons judges (1 Sam. 8:2); and from here EHjah set 
out on his journey to Horeb, casting himself down under a shrub 
of retem (English Yersion, juniper), just as the Arabs do at the 
present day. See Kobinson, Bib. Kes., 1, pp, 203, 205. In later 



PALESTINE. 115 

days Beer-sheba, like Beth-el, was desecrated by being made 
one of the seats of idolatrous worship. Amos 5:5; 8 : 14. 

The two wells described by Eobinson (Bib. Res., 1, p. 204) are fifty- 
five rods apart, of a circular form, and all that part of them which lies 
above the limestone rock is neatly built up Avith solid masonry. The 
larger well is twelve and a half feet in diameter, and the masonry reaches 
down, according to Robinson's measurement, twenty-eight and a half feet 
to the solid rock. When he visited the well in 1838, it was forty-four and 
a half feet to the surface of the water. Tristram, in 1864, found the depth 
to the water only thirty-eight feet. The entire depth of the Avell is not 
given. The smaller well is five feet in diameter, and Robinson found the 
depth to the water forty- two feet. Abraham digged a well at this place 
(Gen. 21 :31), and afterwards Isaac (Gen. 26 : 32, 33), apparently because 
the Philistines had stopped this among the other wells digged by his father 
(Gen. 26 : 18), and he found it more convenient to dig a new well than to 
open the old one. Both wells bear marks of great antiquity, and we have 
no good reason to doubt that they are the veritable wells opened by the 
patriarchs. 

Note. The results of the recent explorations in and around Jerusalem are con- 
firmatory of the statements of ancient writers. One of the most astounding revela- 
tions thus made is the immense height of the temple wall above the Kedron 
valley ; which goes far to justify the strong language of Josephus respecting it. 
Antiq. 15. 11. 5. The excavations made here show that at one point the bed of 
the ancient valley is a little over 125 feet below the present surface. Such is the 
depth of dibris here accumulated. For the details of these explorations, the reader 
is referred to the volume entitled, The Recovery of Jerusalem, London and New 
York, 1871. 



116 SACRED GEOGRAPHY, 



CHAPTEE III. 

The Mediterranean Plain. 
I. PLAIN OF AKKA, OR ACRE. 

1. Ebom Ras-el-Ahyad, the nortlierii promontory of Pales- 
tine, to Bas-en-Nakurali (the ancient Ladder of Tyre), a dis- 
tance of about six miles, is only a sandy strip of plain, not more 
than three or four miles wide. South of Pas-en-Nakurah the 
'plain of Akka or Acre opens, and extends to the base cf Carmel, 
a distance of about twenty miles, with an average breadth of 
from four to six niiles. On the east lies the hill country of Up- 
per GaHlee, sending forth frequent ridges which gradually lose 
themselves in the plain. The whole tract is fertile and well 
watered. Robinson, Phys. Geog., pp. 125', 126. The Kislion 
has been already described (chap. 2, No. 6). Earther north is 
the Nalir Nam an, River Namdn, the Belus of the ancients, and 
celebrated by them for the accidental discovery of the art of 
making glass. 

2. The plain of Akka derives its name from Akka, or more 
fully, according to the Erench orthography, St. Jean d'Acre, so 
called from the order of knights in the middle ages that took 
the name of St. John of Akka. It is the AccJio of the Old Tes- 
tament (Judg. 1 : 31), and the Ptolemais of the New (Acts 21 : 7), 
probably so called from one of the Ptolemies of Egypt. Akka 
is situated on a triangular projection of land that forms the 
northern limit of the great bay of Akka. Massive fortifications 
guard the city towards the sea on both sides. On the land side 
there is a double rampart. Its present harbor is shallow and 
exposed; so that vessels usually lie in the roadstead of Haifa, 
on the south side of the bay, under Carmel, where there is good 
anchorage. Akka was the stronghold of the Crusaders, being 



PALESTINE. 117 

in their day next in importance to Jerusalem. It is celebrated 
for the many sieges to which it has been subjected. In 1799 it 
was besieged in vain for sixty days by the French under Napo- 
leon Bonaparte, and it has undergone three investments since, 
the last in 1840, when it was bombarded by the combined fleets 
of England, Austria, and Tiirkey, and suffered great damage. 
Its present population is reckoned at about 10,000. 

3. Other places on the plain of Akka are the following : 

Haifa, at the foot of Carmel, on the southern shore of the bay, a place 
of considerable trade. Robmson thinks that it is the ancient Phoenician 
city Sycaminum. Bib. Res., 2, p. 340. 

Zib, the Ecdippa of the Greeks, and the AcJizih of Judges 1 : 31 (there 
was another Achzib in Judali, Josh. 15 : 44 ; Micah 1 : 14), a small village 
on the Mediterranean coast, about ten miles north of Akka. 

Kabul, southeast of Akka, on the confines of the plain, answers in name 
and position to the Cabiil oi Josh. 19:27, and the Cliabolo of Josephus. 
See Robinson, Bib. Res. , 3, p. 88. This Cabul is to be distinguished from 
the land of Cabul (1 Kings 9 : 13) containing the twenty Galilean cities 
given by Solomon to Hiram king of Tyre (1 Kings 9 : 11-13), which Jose- 
phus says (Antiq.. 8. 5. 3) lay not far from Tyre. 

II. PLAIN OF SHARON. 

4. The plain of the coast is wholly interrupted by the ridge 
of Carmel which extends far out into the Mediterranean, " dip- 
ping his feet in the western sea." South of Carmel the plain 
reappears, but at first very narrow, the interval between the 
mountains and the sea being filled up by a low ridge of rocky 
hills running parallel to the coast, so that little is left except a 
line of sand-drifts. But in the vicinity of the ancient Caesarea 
it opens to the extent of seven or eight miles, and continues 
without interruption to the southern extremity of Palestine. 
Since, moreover, the shore trends in a direction west of south, 
while the mountainous region on the east runs due north and 
south, the plain widens gradually towards the south to some 
twenty miles in the latitude of Gaza. All along the coast is a 
line of sand-dunes, generally flat and wavy, but rising in places 
into mounds from fifty to two hundred feet high. At Gaza tlie 



118 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

sand-belt lo said to be not less than three miles wide, and it is 
slowly but irresistibly encroaching upon the fertile plain all 
along the coast. 

5. The northern part of this plain, from the vicinity of Car- 
mel as far south as Joppa and Lydda, is the Sharon of the Old 
Testament, so celebrated for its beauty and fertility. Isa. 35 : 2. 
Its length is over thirty miles, with an average breadth of about 
ten miles. vThe plain is not so level as that of Akka, or as the 
plain of the PhiHstines, farther south. The sand-drifts on the 
coast choke up the streams, producing pools and marshes in 
their rear during the rainy weather. Farther back the soil is 
of exuberant fertility, and capable of supporting a dense popu- 
lation. We are told (1 Chron. 27 : 29) that over the herds of Solo- 
mon " that fed in Sharon was Shitrai the Sharonite." Sharon 
contains at the present day some of the finest pasture land in 
Palestine. In spring it is all spangled with flowers of the bright- 
est colors and forests of gigantic thistles. But, owing to the 
wretched government that prevails, this region has become to a 
great extent a solitude, and indicates its fertility only by the 
enormous growth of weeds that covers it. The fear of the 
Bedouin has driven the inhabitants to the mountains, and the 
exactions of Turkish rulers operate as an effectual discourage- 
ment to agriculture. 

The traveller in Palestine is struck with the fact that the people every- 
where select elevated spots — the summits of hills and stee]3 ridges difficult 
of access — for their villages. The reason is, that on the plains they arg 
liable to be plundered by the Arabs that roam over them. On the whole 
plain of Esdraelon is not a single village. Those who cultivate it reside on 
the neighboring hills. "In Sharon," says Porter, "and in the southern 
section of Philistia, there are stretches of twenty miles or more without 
a village." 

6. In Sharon we have to do more with the ruins of ancient 
places than with present cities and villages. Foremost among 
these ruins is Ccesarea, sometimes called, in distinction from 
Csesarea Philippi, Gcesarea Falcestince, Ccesarea of Palestine, or 
Ccesarea Stratonis, Ca'sarea of Strato, because built on the site 



PALESTINE. 119 

before called Stratos Tower. In modern Ai'abic it retains its 
ancient name under the form of Kaisarhjeli. This city was built 
by Herod the Great with much beauty and magnificence, and 
adorned with sumptuous public buildings, among which were a 
forum, a theatre, and in its rear an amphitheatre of immense 
capacity. It stood on the sea-shore, about twenty-one miles 
south of the promontory of Carmel. To form a safe anchorage 
for vessels on a coast destitute of natural harbors, he threw out 
from the southern wall of the city a semicircular mole con- 
structed of immense blocks of stone, and sunk in the sea to the 
depth of twenty fathoms, with an opening for vessels only on 
the north side. Having completed the whole work a few years 
before our Saviour's birth, he fixed his residence there, thus 
making Csesarea the capital of Judea. For an elaborate account 
of this place, see Josephus, Antiq., 15. 9. 6; Jewish War, 1. 
21. 5-8. 

C^esarea is frequently mentioned in the New Testament. It 
was the home of Philip the evangelist (Acts 21 : 8), which ex- 
plains the statement of Luke, that he preached in all the cities 
along the coast fi'om Azotus (Ashdod) " till he came to Csesa- 
rea." Acts 8 : 40. It was the residence also of the Boman cen- 
turion Cornelius, and the place where the Holy Spirit was first 
l^oured out on the Gentiles. Acts, chap. 10. From this place 
Paul embarked when the brethren sent him from Jerusalem to 
Tarsus. Acts 9 : 30. Here he landed on his way to Jerusalem, 
at the close of his second missionary tour. Acts 18 : 22. Hither 
he was afterwards sent from Jerusalem as a prisoner under a 
guard of Roman soldiers, that he might plead his cause before 
Felix, who, instead of releasing him, kepi; him two years in im- 
prisonment (Acts 23 : 23 ; chap. 24) ; and from the same place he 
was sent by Festus to Rome. Acts chaps. 25, 26. Finally, it 
was at Csesarea that the elder Herod Agrippa, the grandson of 
Herod the Great, was smitten by the angel of the Lord, " be- 
cause he gave not God the glory : and he Avas eaten of worms, 
and gave up the ghost." Acts 12 : 21-23. 

Csesarea, once the proud capital of Judea, is now a mass of 



120 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

ruins. A strong wall, built in the middle ages, encompasses it 
on the land side, enclosing an area about half a mile long and 
a quarter of a mile broad. Here the traveller wanders over im- 
mense piles of rubbish, amid dense jungles of thorns and this- 
tles. Of the mole described by Josephus, the ruins of nearly 
one hundred yards still appear above water, but a large portion 
of the materials of the structure has been carried off to rebuild 
the ramparts of Acre. The ancient city extended considerably 
beyond the present walls. Here are hewn stones and broken 
columns of granite and marble, around and among which the 
sands driven by the wind are continually silting. " The site of 
Csesarea is thus singularly lonely and desolate. Solitude keeps 
unbroken Sabbath there. The sighing of the wind as it sweeps 
over the shattered walls and through the sun-dried jungle, and 
the deep moaning of the sea as each wave breaks on the cav- 
ernous fragments of the ancient mole, are the only sounds that 
fall upon the traveller's ears as he wanders over the site of Cse- 
sarea." Porter in Alexander's Kitto. 

7. Another city built in Sharon by Herod the Great was 
Antipatris, on the eastern border of the plain, one hundred and 
twenty stadia northeast from Joppa. According to Josephus 
(Antiq., 16. 5. 2), he built it " on the plain called Kapharsaha, 
choosing a well-watered place and a soil propitious to plants, 
the city itself having a river flowing around it, and being sur- 
rounded by a grove of trees most beautiful for their size." The 
original name still survives under the form of Kefr Saba, village 
of Saba. The arguments for the identity of Kefr Saba with 
Antipatris are given by Eobinson, Bib. Ees., 3. pp. 138, 139. 
Nothing exists here at present but a village built of mud-houses. 
Antipatris lay on the route from Jerusalem to Csesarea, and 
through it the apostle Paul was carried by his escort of Eoman 
soldiers on his way to the latter place. Acts 23 : 31. 

Dor, one of the royal cities of the Canaanites (Josh. 12 : 23), stood on 
a rocky promontory on the coast fourteen miles south of Carmel and seven 
north of Caesarea. It was one of the Phoenician strongholds, and in the 
Ivoman age was still a flourishing town. Its modern representative is the 



PALESTINE. 121 

little fishing village Taniura, consisting of some thirty houses, lying south 
of the rocky promontory of the ancient Dor, which is now covered with 
rains. 

Ai^suf, a place renowned in the history of the Crusades, is now a de- 
serted village at the mouth of the Nalir Arsuf, six hours north of Yafa. It 
is probably the ancient Apollonia. Eobinson, Bib. Kes., 2, p. 242, note. 

8. JojJpa (or JcqjJio, Josh. 19 : 46 ; modern Arabic, Ya/a), one 
of the most ancient seaports in the world, is situated on the 
Mediterranean coast, in the southern part of Sharon, about 
thirty geographical miles northwest of Jerusalem, of which city 
it has been the port ever since the days of Solomon. It is first 
mentioned (Josh. 19 : 46) as fronting the border of Dan ; then as 
the port to which Hiram king of Tyre conveyed " in floats by 
sea" the timber cut by him on Lebanon for the temple in Jeru- 
salem (2 Chron. 2 : 16) ; then as the port at which Jonah em- 
barked on his way to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3); and once more, as 
the port to which cedar-trees were brought from Lebanon for 
the second temple (Ezra 3:7). Joppa appears as a stronghold 
in the wars of the Maccabees (1 Mac. 10 : 75 ; 14 : 5, 34), and it 
fell in the days of Pompey under the power of Eome with the 
rest of Palestine. Josephus, Antiq., 14. 4. 4. It was at Joppa 
that Peter raised Tabitha to life (Acts 9 : 36-42), after wMch 
miracle " he tarried many days in Joppa at the house of one 
Simon a tanner." There he had the vision recorded in Acts 
10 : 9-18, which taught him the abohtion under the gospel of 
the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, and thence he jour- 
neyed to the house of Cornelius in Csesarea. Acts 10 : 23. Since 
that day the place has been often taken and retaken by con- 
tending armies, and has been the theatre of some bloody scenes. 

The modern Yafa is built on the steep sides of a hill over- 
hanging the sea, and commanding from its summit a magnifi- 
cent view. The houses rise one above another, and when seen 
at a distance present a picturesque appearance. But as soon 
as one enters, he finds narrow, crooked, and filthy streets, as in 
most oriental cities. The place is encompassed on the land side 
by luxuriant groves of olives, figs, oranges, lemons, apricots, and 



122 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

other fruits. Its present population is variously estimated from 
7,000 to 15,000. Joppa has no harbor worthy of the name, or 
good landing-place, which is a great drawback to its prosperity. 

9. Lydda is the Lod of the Old Testament (1 Chron. 8 : 12 ; 
Ezra 2:33; Neh. 7:37; 11:35), and the Ludd of the modern 
Arabs. Under the Roman dominion it was called Diospolis. 
The place lies on a gentle eminence, twelve miles from Joppa, 
on the road to Jerusalem, where the fertile plain of Sharon 
approaches to that of the Philistines. It was built by a Benja- 
mite (1 Chron. 8 : 12), whence we infer that it lay within the 
boundaries of the tribe of Benjamin. It is memorable as the 
place where Peter healed the cripple Eneas (Acts 9 : 32-35). 
Under Boman sway, it became one of the most important places 
in Western Palestine. The modern village of Ludd contains 
about 1,000 inhabitants, living in small and poor houses, with 
dirty lanes for streets. 

Two and a half miles south of Lydda is er-Ramleh, lying on the east- 
ern side of a broad swell in the sandy though fertile plain, and, like Joppa, 
surrounded by olive-groves and gardens of vegetables and delicious fruits, 
the gardens being enclosed as often in this region, by impenetrable hedges 
of prickly pear. Ramleli is a larger and more important place than Lydda, 
but,as its origin was subsequent to the apostolic times we pass by it. For 
full information concerning this place see Robinson, Bib. Res., 2, pp. 230- 
242. 

Mention is several times made of Ono, and always in connection with 
Lod, that is, Lydda, 1 Chron. 8 : 12 ; Ezra 2 : 33 ; Neh. 7 : 37 ; 11 : 35. Hence 
it is evident that the two places lay near together. From this place "the 
plain of Ono" (Neh. 6 : 2) undoubtedly took its name. Robinson (Phys. 
Geog. , pp. 113, 127) suggests that it may be the plain around Beit Nuba 
north of Ajalon." 

Jiljuleh, a little south of Antipatris, is perhaps the Gilgal of Josh. 12 : 23, 
which is mentioned with Dor on the Mediterranean plain. Robinson 
Bib. Res., 2, p. 243. 

III. THE SHEPHELAH OR PHILISTINE PLAIN. 

10. Porter (in Alexander's Kitto, Art. Ekron) places the 
line of division between Sharon and the Philistine plain on " a 
low bleak ridge or swell," on the southern slope of which lies 



PALESTINE. 123 

AHr, the ancient Ekron. This plain bears in Hebrew the spe- 
cific name Shephelah, that is, low land ; and is never confounded 
in the original Hebrew with the Ardbahj the term applied to the 
valley of the Jordan and Dead sea. 

In our version the geographical name Shephelah is unfortunately not 
always kept distinct from the term Arabah, and other words also rendered 
2')lain. Arabah is with few exceptions, rendered plain. Shephelah is vari- 
ously rendered as will appear from the following synopsis. 

Vale, Deut. 1:7; Josh. 10 : 40 ; 1 Kings 10 : 27 ; 2 Chron. 1 : 15 ; Jer. 
33:13. 

VaUey, Josh. 11:2, 16; 15 : 33 '(twice) ; Judg. 1:9; Jer. 32:44. 

Valleys, Josh. 9 : 1 ; 12 : 8. — -' 

Plain, Jer. 17 : 26 ; Obad. 19 ; Zech. 7:7. . ^^^ 

Low plains, 1 Chron. 27 : 28 ; 2 Chron. 9 : 27. ^i^^ 

Loio country, 2 Chron. 26 : 10 ; 28 : 18. 

Of the above terms the most appropriate is low country, and plain is the 
most objectionable, as confounding this region with the Arabah, which 
denotes the valley of the Jordan and the Dead sea._^ 

The Philistine plain extends to Gaza and beyond. Its 
length is not less than forty miles. The breadth in the north- 
ern part is about ten miles ; in the southern, as much as twen- 
ty. On the coast, as already remarked, it is bordered by a line 
of sand hills, which exhibit a scene of utter desolation ; while 
on the east there is a tract of lower hills intervening between it 
and the mountainous region. The surface of the plain it- 
self is flatter, and its general elevation less than that of the 
plain of Sharon. In many parts it is almost a dead level, in 
others gently undulating, with here and there low mounds or 
hiUocks. It has a brown loamy soil, light but rich, and almost 
without stones. A striking feature is the depth of its wadys or 
torrent beds which have cut their way through the loamy or 
sandy soil. Except in the rainy season these beds are dry, and 
covered with dust, white pebbles, and flints. Now, as in ancient 
days, it is one enormous cornfield without fences or hedges, so 
that the traveller can ride all day without hindrance. " Its fer- 
tility," says Grove (in Smith's Bible Diet., Art. Palestine), "is 
marvellous ; for the prodigious crops which it raises are pro • 



124 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

dnced, and probably have been produced almost year by year 
for the last forty centuries, without any of the appliances which 
we find necessary for success — with no manure beyond that 
naturally supplied by the washing down of the hill-torrents — 
without irrigation, without succession of crops, and with only the 
rudest method of husbandry." The district of inferior hills on 
the eastern border between the proper plain and the "hill coun- 
try of Judea " is described by Eobinson (Phys. Geog., pp. 33, 34) 
as "a beautiful open country, consisting of low hills, usually 
rocky, separated by broad arable valleys mostly well adapted 
for grain, -as are also many of the swelling hills. The whole tract 
is full of villages and deserted sites and ruins, and there are 
many olive groves." 

11. Over the plain of the Philistines and Sharon lies the 
great highway between Egypt on the south, and Damascus and 
the eastern empires on the north. It has been often traversed 
in both directions by mighty armies that drew their suppHes 
from its rich cornfields and granaries. 

The coast road passes through Gaza, Joppa, and Csesarea, and around 
the promontory of Carmel to Akka. Thence the traveller can proceed 
north to ancient Phoenicia, or eastward across the Jordan between the 
lakes Huleh and Tiberias to Damascus. The inland or great caravan road 
from Egypt, passes through Ramleh and Lydda ; thence through Kefr 
Saba along the eastern border of Sharon to the southwestern base of Car- 
mel. Here the Damascus road turns oJBf to the northeast, and passes 
over the spur of Carmel by Lejjun, the ancient Megiddo ; while the road 
northward to Akka crosses the ridge farther to the northwest. 

12. The Shephelah was the country of the Philistines. In 
the division of the land of Canaan under Joshua it fell to the 
tribe of Judah (Josh., chap. 15), but was never actually in their 
possession before the captivity, as the scriptural history of the 
long and bloody struggle between the Philistines and the Israel- 
ites abundantly proves. Though humbled from time to time, 
the Philistines continued for many successive centuries to 
harass their neighbors the Jews ; till at last their territory be- 
came the prize for which the Egyptians on one side, and tho 



PALESTINE. 125 

Assyrians and after tliem the Chaldeans on the othsr, contend- 
ed. After the captivity, PhiHstia, no longer able to maintain 
an independent existence, fell successively under the sway of 
whatever one among the great contending powers had for the 
time being the ascendency. 

The scriptural notices of the origin of the Philistines are very scanty. 
From them we gather, however, that they were not the aboriginal inhabi- 
tants of the Shephelah ; but came forth from Caphtor and dispossessed 
the Avim and dwelt in their stead (Deut. 2 : 23 ; Jer. 47 : 4 ; Amos 9 : 7. 
From Gen. 10 : 13, 14, it may be inferred that they were of Egyptian ori- 
gin. Concerning the identification of Caphtor there has been much dis- 
pute. At present most biblical scholars regard it as having been either 
Crete or some maritime province of Egypt. In favor of Crete is adduced 
the fact that the CherethUes (assumed to be the same as Cretites) were mani- 
festly Philistines or a tribe of the Philistines (1 Sam. 30 : 14 compared with 
verse 16 ; Ezek. 25 :16 ; Zepli. 2 :5). It is not necessary here to discuss 
the question whether the CheretJiiies of David's body-guard were so called 
from their origin, or from their office (Heb. Karaih, to cut off) as execu- 
tioners. In favor of an Egyptian province is the geographical position of 
Philistia Avitli reference to Egypt. In the days of Abraham and Isaac, 
the Philistines were already a regularly organized nation. Gen. 21 : 22- 
34 ; chap. 20. 

13. There were five principal cities in the Philistine terri- 
tory — Ekron, Gath, Ashdod, Askelon, Gaza — ^under the jurisdic- 
tion severally of the five lords of the Philistines. 1 Sam. 6 : 4 
compared with ver. 17. We add a brief notice of these places, 
beginning with the most northerly and proceeding south. 

The modern representative of Ekron is Aklr, about five miles southwest 
of Ramleh. It lies on the southern slope of a low ridge or swell which 
forms the northern border of a broad shallow wady coming down from 
the northeast. It contains about fifty mud houses, built on the accumu- 
lated rubbish of past ages, with no vestige of antiquity except two large 
and deep wells and some stone water-troughs. It may be here remarked 
in general respecting the houses of the Philistine plain, that being built of 
mud or sun-dried bricks, they speedily crumble to dust if left untenanted 
for a few years. Ekron was the last Philistine city to which the captive 
ark of God was sent ; and thence it was returned to the IsraeHtes as rela- 
ted in the book of Samuel (chap. 6), the two milch-kine that drew the 
cart on which it was placed, taking ' ' the straight way to the way of Beth- 



126 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

shemesh ;" that is, the modern Ain Shems, in the border region between 
the mountains and the plain, full ten miles to the southeast. 

Gaih, another of the five cities of Philistia, has utterly perished, so that 
even its site is a matter of doubt. Porter would identify it with Tell-es- 
Sdfieh, a conspicuous hill at the foot of the Judean mountains, ten miles 
east of Ashdod and about the same distance south by east of Ekron. See 
in his Syria and Palestine, p. 253 ; and in Smith's Bible Diet. , Art. Gath. 
Gath was the home of the Philistine champion Goliath and his brethren 
of the race of giants (1 Sam., chap. 17; 2 Sam. 21:18-22) ; and here 
David found refuge from Saul's persecution with Achish its king, 1 Sam., 
chap. 27. That Gath was a strong military position is evident from the 
scriptural notices concerning it, 2 Kings 12:17; 2 Chron. 11:8; 26 : 6. 
The words of Amos (chap. 6: 2) imply that in his day the city was in ruins. 

Ashdod, the Azoius of the New Testament (Acts 8 : 40) and the Esdud of 
the modern Arabs, lies on the coast road three miles from the Mediterra- 
nean sea, and nearly midway between Joppa and Gaza. It stood on the 
summit of a hill overlooking the plain, and the natural advantages of the 
position were improved by fortifications of great strength. It lay, more- 
over, on the high road between Egypt and Palestine. Hence its posses- 
sion was a matter of great importance in a military point of view, 2 Chron. 
26:6 ; Isa. 20:1. Herodotus informs us (2. 157) that the Egyptian king 
Psammetichus took this place after a siege of twenty-nine years. At Ash- 
dod was a temple of the Philistine god Dagon, and to this the ark of God 
was brought from Ebenezer when captured by the Philistines. From 
Ashdod it was carried to Gath and thence to Ekron, whence it was sent up 
to Beth-Shemesh, 1 Sam., chaps. 5, 6. The modern Esdud is only an 
insignificant village. 

Ashkelon or (in Judges and Samuel after the Greek form of the Septua- 
gint) Askelon is the modern AsJculan. The ancient city stood immediately 
on the seashore west of the great coast road from EgyjDt northward, 
twelve geographical miles north of Gaza, and ten south by west of Ash- 
dod. It occupied a strong situation, the walls flanked with towers being 
built on the top of a ridge of rock encircling the town and reaching at 
each end to the sea. Its strong position caused it to be the seat of many 
sanguinary struggles, especially in the wars between Egypt and Syria. It 
played also an important part in the Crusades. It is now a deserted ruin. 
"Of the proud city of Askelon," says the Rev. EH Smith (Missionary 
Herald for 1827, pp. 341, 342), "little now remains except its walls. They 
are in the form of a semicircle, having, on the opposite side, the sea. I 
climbed to the top of them, and looked over among the scattered fragments 
of granite pillars which were lying in every direction." "What a com- 



PALESTINE. 127 

mentary on the words of prophecy (Zech. 9 :5) : "The king shall perish 
from Gaza and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited !" For an interesting 
account of the excavations of Lady Hester Stanhope amid the ruins of 
Ashkelon, and the splendid reUcs of antiquity thus brought to light, the 
reader may consult Eitter's Geog. of Palestine, vol. 3, pp. 214-216. 

Gaza (the Greek form of the name, sometimes called in our version 
Azzah that is, strong, Deut. 2 : 23 ; 1 Kings 4 : 24 ; Jer. 25 : 20, which is a 
nearer representation of the Hebre\y word), on the southwest frontier of 
Palestine towards Egypt, was the stronghold of Philistia, and to the Egyp- 
tians the key of Palestine and Syria, lying as it did on the great highway to 
those regions. "No conqueror," says Robinson (Bib. Res., 2, p. 40), 
"could well pass by, until this city had submitted to his power." Its 
commercial importance is obvious. The caravans passing from Gaza 
across the desert to Egypt here took in of necessity a supply of provisions 
for the way, and those coming from Egypt rei^lenished here their ex- 
hausted stores. (Robinson as above.) The military and commercial 
importance of the city caused it to be strongly fortified. It withstood for 
five months all the efforts of Alexander the Great ; but he finally took it 
by storm and slaughtered its brave defenders. It was several times after- 
wards destroyed and rebuilt. 

Gaza was the scene of Samson's greatest exploits. It was here that he 
"arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the 
two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his 
shoulders and carried them up to the top of the hill " (so the Hebrew reads 
with the article) "which is before Hebron," Judg. 16:3. ^^ The hill 
which is before Hebron " is not necessarily a hill in the vicinity of Hebron. 
It may be, as Porter suggests (in Alexander's Kitto), the hill east of Gaza 
which fronts towards Hebron, and commands a wide view of the whole 
plain and the distant mountains that encircle Hebron ; that is to say, the 
words, "which is before Hebron " may have been added simply to distin- 
guish this hill from the other hills around Gaza. Samson's strength was 
supernatural, and therefore adequate to carry the gates of Gaza any dis- 
tance. But the more natural idea suggested by the narrative is that he 
carried them to the top of a hill in view of Gaza, and left them there as a 
trophy of his victory over those who sought his life. Gaza was also the 
place of Samson's dishonor. Here the Philistines, having put out his eyes 
and bound him with fetters of brass, made him grind in the prison-house ; 
and here, after his hair was grown, he pulled down the temple of Dagon 
upon himself and the assembled multitude. Judg. chaj). 16. Gaza ap- 
pears once in the New Testament in the angel's direction to Philip : "Arise 
and go towards the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem 
to Gaza, which is desert. " Acts 8 : 26. Respecting the true interpreta- 
tion of these words there has been much discussion. But the words 



128 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

*'wliicli is desert" (literally, "this is desert") are most naturally refeired 
to the road, not the dty. Philip is directed to take the desert road to 
Gaza, viz., "the southern road leading from Eieutheropolis to Gaza 
through the ' desert, ' or region without villages, as is the case at the pres- 
ent day." Robinson, Bib. Res., 2, p. 41. 

The modern Arabic name of Gaza is Ghuzzeh, a place without walls, of 
about fifteen thousand inhabitants. It resembles a group of villages, of 
which the principal one stands on the southern slope of a low round 
hill elevated not more than fifty or sixty feet above the adjacent plain, 
and which seems to be composed in great measure of the ruins of suc- 
cessive cities. But the greater part of the city lies on the plain below. 
The hill is crowned by the great mosque, and its houses are mostly of stone, 
while those on the plain are mean mud hovels with narrow and filthy lanes 
between them. Gaza is surrounded on the south, east, and north by lux- 
uriant gardens hedged with prickly pear. Beyond the gardens toward the 
north lie extensive olive-groves. The distance of Gaza from the sea is 
three miles, the whole occupied by the belt of drifting sand hills already 
noticed. Some have thought that the primitive city lay nearer to the sea; 
but of this there is no certain proof. 

The five principal cities of the Philistines have been considered togeth- 
er in their geographical order. It remains that we notice some other places. 

(1.) Jabneel (Josh. 15:11), or Jabneh (2 Chron. 26:6), which stands 
on a slight eminence just south of Nalir Rubin, two miles from the sea 
and three or four from Ekron. It is the Jairvtieia or Jamnia of Josephus 
and the Maccabees. During the wars of the Maccabees it was an impor- 
tant place. 1 Mac. 4 : 15 ; 5 : 58 ; 10 : 69 ; 2 Mac. 12 :8, 9. At the time 
when Jerusalem was destroyed it was a populous place, and contained a 
celebrated Jewish school, which survived the overthrow of the metropolis 
and became the seat of the great Sanhedrim. According to Jewish tradi- 
tion the celebrated Rabbi Gamaliel taught and was buried here. The 
name Jahneh is perpetuated in the modern village Yehna, which probably 
occupies the site of the ancient city. It should be distinguished from the 
Jabneel of Josh. 19 : 33, which was in the tribe of Naphtali. 

(2.) Eglon (Josh., 10:5), one of the five cities that made war upon 
Gibeon and was destroyed by Joshua. The name survives in the modern 
Ajlan, about fourteen miles northeast of Gaza, which is described by Por- 
ter as completely desolate. " The ruins are mere shapeless heaps of rub' 
bish strown over a low white mound." 

Porter (in Alexander's Kitto) would identify the ruins called Um Lakis^ 
a short distance west of Eglon, with the ancient Lachish ; but Robinson 
(Bib. Res., 2, p. 47) dissents. 



PALESTINE. 129 

14. The prophets denounce upon the PhiHstine cities, in 
common with all the countries adjacent to Palestine, a destinc- 
tion that shall be simultaneous and of terrible magnitude. It 
shall come from the north, "and shall be an overflowing flood, 
and shall overflow the land and all that is therein." Isa. 14 : 31 ; 
Jer., chap. 47; 25:20; Ezek. 25:15-17; Joel 3:4; Amos 
1 : 6-8 ; Zeph. 2 : 4-7. The first instalment, so to speak, of this 
threatened desolation, and that to which the prophets had im- 
mediate reference, came by the Chaldean armies under Nebu- 
chadnezzar when he was on his way to Egypt. Ezek. 25 : 15- 
17 compared with chap. 26. But other judgments awaited 
these ancient and inveterate enemies of the covenant people 
after the close of the Babylonish captivity. Zech. 9:5, 6. The 
issue of the whole has been a desolation such as the prophet 
Zephaniah described with wonderful vividness more than twen- 
ty-four centuries ago — a picture to which the modern Ghuzzeh, 
standing on the ruins of the ancient city, forms no real excep- 
tion : " Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation : they 
shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be 
rooted up. Woe unto the inhabitants of the seacoasts, the 
nation of the Cherethites! the w^ord of the Lord is against 
you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy 
thee, that there shall be no inhabitant. And the seacoast shaU 
be dwellings, and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks 
And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah ; 
they shall feed thereupon : in the houses of Ashkelon shall they 
lie down at evening: for the Lord their God shall visit them, 
and turn away their captivity." Zeph. 2:4-8. An earnest of 
the promise to God's people contained in the latter part of this 
prophecy was received after the captivity, and who can tell what 
a consummation of it remains for the time when " all Israel 
shall be saved !" 

15. Among the hills near the eastern border of the Philis- 
tine plain, and a Httle south of the latitude of Ashkelon, is the 
modern village of Beit Jihrin; the site of the geographer Ptole- 
my's Betogabra^ and of the Eleidheropolis of the Pioman age, 

G* 



130 SACRED GEOGEAPHY. 

where, says Robinson, there are ruins, '' apparently of different 
ages, and more extensive and massive than any we saw in Pal- 
estine, except the substructions of the ancient temple at Jerusa- 
lem and the Haram at Hebron." The most important of them 
are described by him and Porter as consisting of a large irreg- 
ular enclosure surrounded by the ruins of a very ancient and 
strong wall measuring on its northern side six hundred feet. 
Within towards the west and northwest, is a row of ancient 
massive vaults with &ve round arches, apparently of the same 
age as the wall itself. In the midst of the area stands the cas- 
tle, the lower part of which Eobinson judges to be as ancient 
as the exterior w^all, but the upper part of which belongs to the 
age of the Crusaders. Twenty minutes south-southeast from 
the village are the ruins of an ancient church, aud near by those 
of an ordinary village. The limestone ridges which enclose 
the valley south of Beit Jibrin abound on both sides in artifi- 
cial excavations, occurring in large groups, like subterranean 
villages, of which Robinson has given an elaborate description. 
Similar excavations are found near Deir Dubban north of Beit 
Jibrin. Their general form — mostly that of bell-shaped domes 
lighted from above — and especially their intercommunication, 
shows that they were subterranean dwelhngs. According to 
the statement of Jerome (Commentary on Obadiah) : *' All the 
southern region of the Idumaeans from Eleutheiopolis as far 
as Petra and Aila (this is the territory of Esau) has cave-dwell- 
ings ; and on account of the excessive heat of the sun, because 
it is a southern province, uses subterranean abodes." The 
Horim, whom the Edomites dispossessed (Gen. 14 : 6 ; Deut. 
2:12, 22), were cave-dwellers, as the word Horim signifies; 
and from them the Idumseans seem to have adopted the cus- 
tom. 

Dr. Eobinson has the high merit of having identified Beit 
Jibrin with the Eleutheropolis of the Romans, a most impor- 
tant fact for sacred geography, since Eusebius and Jerome as- 
sumed it as the central point in southern Palestine, from which 
to fix the position of rnany other places. For the evidence ad- 



PALESTINE. 131 

duced by him, as weU as for a description of the place and its 
vicinity, see Bib. Ees., 2, pp. 24-31, 51-66. 

16. The belt of lower hills intermediate between the Philis- 
tine plain and the mountains of Judea was the border region 
between the Israehtish people and the Philistines, and was, 
therefore, naturally the scene of many bloody struggles. Here 
is Wady-es-Sumpt, the ancient valley of Elah in which the 
famous encounter between David and Goliath took place 
(1 Sam., chap. 17) ; and on its left bank are the ruins of Shochoh 
now^ called Shinceilceh. " Azekah,'' says Porter, " appears to have 
stood on a conical hill some two miles distant on the same 
bank. The valley itself runs in a northwesterly direction 
through the low hills at the base of the mountains into the 
Philistine plain, which it enters some six miles north of Beit 
Jibrin." 

The Philistines occupied the southern bank of the valley, and the 
Israelites the northern. "The distance between the armies was about a 
mile ; and the vale beneath is fiat and rich. Through the centre winds a 
torrent bed, the banks fringed with shrubbery of acacia, and the bottom 
covered with rounded * smootii stones. ' The ridges on each side rise to 
the height of about five hundred feet, and have a steep uniform slope, so 
that the armies ranged along them could see the combat in the valley. The 
Philistines, when defeated, fled down the valley towards Gath and Ekron." 
(Porter in Alexander's Kitto.) The valley of Elah signifies the valley of 
Terehinths, and one of the largest terebinths in Palestine now stands in a 
branch of this valley only a few miles from the scene of conflict. Robinson 
Bib. Res., 2, p. 21 ; Handbook for Syria and Palestine, p. 280. The mod- 
ern name, Wady-es-Sumpt, means vale of acacias, so called from the aca- 
cias scattered in it. 

17. Other places in this intermediate belt of hills, beginning 
from the south, are the following : 

Mareshah, memorable for the great battle between Asa and Zerali the 
Ethijpian, in which the latter was defeated and fled south towards Gerar 
(2 Chron. 14 : 9-15), is placed by Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon) "in 
the second mile from Eleutheropolis." Robinson would identify its site 
^\'itll the ruins still visible on a hill about a Roman mile and a half south 
of Beit Jibrin, the Eleutheroplis of the Romans, Bib. Res., 2, pp. G7, 08. 



132 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

Moresheth-gaih (Micah 1 :14), the birthplace of ''Micah the Morasthite," 
was also, according to Jerome, in the vicinity of Eleutheropolis, but its 
site is not clearly determined. 

Jarmuth, one of the royal cities of the Canaanites (Josh. 10 : 3 ; 12 : 11), 
and reinhabited after the captivity (Neh. 11 : 29), has been identified with 
the modern village of Ya^-muk. It lies about eight miles northeast of 
Eleutheropolis, on the crest of a rugged hill. The name Jarmuih signifies 
height, and it answers well to its site. 

The site of Adullam, which lay in this vicinity, and was one of the royal 
cities of the Canaanites, has not been ascertained. 

Beili-sliemesli, that is, home of the sun, has been satisfactorily identified 
with the modern Ain Shems, fountain of the sun. It lies on the eastern 
side of the Shephelah, close to the foot of the Judean mountains, and 
about ten miles north-northeast from Eleutheropolis. The ruins of the 
ancient jDlace are beautifully situated on the rounded point of a low ridge 
between the Wady Surar on the north and a smaller ravine on the south. 
The two unite below on the west, and then the Surar runs off in a north- 
westerly direction as a broad fertile valley into the plain of the Philistines. 
Beth-shemesh is celebrated as the place to which the Philistines brought 
the ark from Ekron, a little north of the valley. 1 Sam., chap. 6. *'Ekron," 
says Porter (in Alexander's Kitto), ''is ten miles distant in the same direc- 
tion [as the vale of Surar] , but is hid by an intervening swell. Standing 
on the site of Beth-shemesh, one can trace the line of the old road to 
Ekron for miles through the valley. Along that road the ark was brought. " 

About two miles west of Ain Shems, near where the Surar issues upon 
the plain, is a deserted site called Tibneh, in which, says Robinson (Bib. 
Res., 2, p. 17), "we may recognize the Timnah or Timnath of Dan, the 
city of Samson's wife, to which he ' went down ' from Zorah. It lies south 
of west from Zorah, and not more than an hour distant from it." It was 
here that he caught three hundred foxes (or jackals, the same Hebrew 
word being used for both classes of animals), "and took firebrands, and 
turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails," 
and sent them into the standing corn of the Philistines. Judg, 15 : 3-5. 
The havoc thus made in the sea of cornfields which then, as now, covered 
the plain "in the time of wheat-harvest," must have been immense. 

North of Beth-shemesh, on a spur of the mountains running into the 
plain, stood Zorah, the birthplace of Samson. It still retains its ancient 
name but slightly changed, being called Surah by the modern Arabs. 

About two miles east of Surah is Yeshua, which Porter is disposed to 
regard as the site of the ancient Eshtaol; and a little south is Zdnua, the 
Hebrew Zanoah. The connection in which the four places, Beth-shemesh 



PALESTINE. 133 

(called also Ir-shemesh, city of the sun), Zorali, Zanoali, and Eslitaol, are 
mentioned (Josh. 15 : 33, 34 ; 19:41; Judg. 13:25; 16; 31), shows that 
they were near to each other. 

On the road from Jerusalem to Lydda, twenty-two Eoman miles from 
the former place and ten from the latter, is the modern village Amwcis. 
This doubtless represents that Emmaus of Josephus which is also called 
Nicopolis. Whether it is the Emmaus of Luke (chap. 24 : 13) is a question 
that has been warmly debated. Both Eusebius and Jerome explicitly 
identify the two places. But then the text of Luke ought to read " a hun- 
dred and sixty furlongs. " This is the reading of the Sinai Codex and three 
other uncial manuscripts (I, K, and N); while the great body of manu- 
scripts read " s/.z;^j//Mrfo??^s, " that is, seven and a half Roman miles; and 
this is the reading of Jerome's own Latin version. That the Emmaus of 
Luke was different from the Emmaus now under consideration ajjpears 
j^robable from the following considerations : (1) the weight of manuscript 
testimony is in favor of the reading "sixty furlongs ;" (2) there was an Em- 
maus nearer Jerusalem, as appears from Josephus, Jewish War, 7. 6. 6, 
where he speaks of Ammaus as distant from Jerusalem, according to some 
copies thirty, according to others sixty stadia. This, then, should be the 
Emmaus of Luke ; (3) the distance of twenty-two Roman miles is too great 
for the transaction as recorded by Luke. See on the one side, for the 
identity of the two places, Robinson, Bib. Res. , 2, p. 255 and note ; 3, 
pp. 147-150 ; on the other, against their identity. Porter in Alexander's 
Kitto and Smith's Bible Diet., art. Emmaus. 

Yalo, the ancient Ajalon, on the southern side of the fine valley called 
Merj Ibn Omeir, has already been noticed. See above, chap. 2, No. 47. 

18. From about the latitude of Gaza southward, the Philis- 
tine plain gradually passes into the southern desert, the desert 
of Paran. This transition region is the " south country " where 
Abraham and after him Isaac sojourned. Here, apparently at 
no great distance from Gaza and Beersheba, was the valley of 
Gerar, the residence of the Philistine king Abimelech. Will- 
iams (Holy City, 1, app. 464) thinks he has discovered the 
ruins of Gerar about three hours south -southeast of Gaza. 

In journeying from Akabah to Beer-sheba, Robinson and Smith came 
to a place called Ruhcdbeh, between eight and nine hours with camels 
south of Beer-sheba. Here are the ruins of an extensive city. The name 
unswers to Reliohotli, where Isaac's servants digged a well. Gen. 2G : 22. 
Robinson thinks that Ruhaibeh is too far south to be the Relioboth of 
Isaac ; but Porter is inclined to identify the two places. 



134 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTEE lY. 

The Valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea. 
I. GENERAL REMARKS. 

1. The most remarkable feature of Palestine and Syria is 
tlie enormous longitudinal chasm or valley that extends from the 
Eed sea on the south to Antioch on the north. The sea of 
Akabah — the eastern arm of the Dead sea — occupies the south- 
ern end of this valley. Thence it stretches in a straight line 
almost due north to the base of Hermon, the Anti-Libanus 
(Anti-Lebanon) of the ancients. Crowded westward by that 
mighty range, it passes around its southwestern extremity, and 
then runs along its northwestern base in a northeasterly direc- 
tion in the form of a long narrow vale — the Wady-et-Teim — 
w^hich finally opens into the great valley of Coele-Syria, that sep- 
arates the two ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon. 

2. The Dead sea occupies the lowest part of this chasm, its 
surface being more than one thousand three hundred feet below 
the level of the Mediterranean. Into this sea the Jordan flows 
from the north, and all the winter torrents from the south for 
that part of the valley which lies north of the water-shed 
between the sea of Akabah and the Dead sea. The great 
valley of Coele-Syria sends its waters into the Mediterra- 
nean, for the northern part northward by the Orontes, for 
the southern part southward by the Leontes; both streams 
bending abruptly to the west in the lower part of their course, 
the latter through a narrow chasm of frightful depth. The 
water-shed of Wady-et-Teim is near Ain Faluj, about north lat- 
itude thirty-three degrees thirty-six minutes, according to Rob- 
inson's map. Thence its waters flow north into the Orontes 
and south into the Jordan. North of the chasm of the Leontes 



I 



PALESTINE. 135 

all the waters of Lebanon flow of course into the Mediterra- 
nean. But the eastern brow of the high land south of the Leon- 
tes, which may be regarded as the continuation of the Lebanon 
range, sends off its waters eastward into the Jordan valley. 
The streams from the southeastern side of Anti-Lebanon flow off 
eastward towards Damascus, as will be evident from an inspec- 
tion of the map. 

3. It is certain that the Jordan never flowed into the Red 
sea, at least in historic ages. On the contrary, were the 
chasm under consideration deepened for only a moderate dis- 
tance north of the sea of Akabah, this sea would stretch north- 
ward beyond the sea of Galilee, covering the Dead sea to the 
depth of one thousand three hundred feet or more, and the sea 
of Galilee to the depth of several hundred feet, the exact amount 
of depression of this httle lake being yet uncertain. 

II. THE UPPEE JORDAN AND LAKE HULEH. 

4. The range of Hermon terminates abruptly at Banias, the 
Paneas of the Greeks and Romans ; and here, under its south- 
western extremity, are the cMef sources of the Jordan, which will 
be described in the order of their magnitude. 

(1.) On the novtliern border of a rich but marshy plain, about a mile 
and a half from the southwest corner of Hermon, and about midAvay of the 
plain from east to west, is a low cup-shaped hill thickly covered with 
shrubs. This is the modern Tell-el-Kady, Hill of the Judge. From its west- 
ern side bursts an immense stream of the most limpid water. "This," 
says Kobinson (Bib. Res., 3, pp. 390, 391), "is one of the largest fountains 
in the world; the stream that issues from it being not less than four times 
as large as the Hasbany " (see below), "even after all the accessions which 
the latter receives." "Not all the Avater, however, from the interior of 
tlie tell, escapes in this way. In the surface of the tell directly above is a 
cavity of some extent, into which the water also rises and runs off, as a 
considerable stream, through a break in the edge of the tell, tumbling 
down its southwestern side. This stream drives two mills, and furnishes 
water power enough for any number. It then goes to join the other river. 
This of itself Avould be regarded as a very large fountain.". The stream 
then flows off south into the marshes of the Huleh, under the name of Led- 
dcLii, which Rev. Eh Smith regards as an abbreviation of El-ed-Dan, the 
Arabic article being repeated. Robinson, Bib. Res., p. 392, note. 



136 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

At this fountain, on the northern border of the Israelitish territory, 
was situated the ancient Dan, so famihar to all in the formula, "from Dan 
even to Beer-sheba." The testimony of Eusebius and Jerome on this 
point is explicit. They describe Dan as four Roman miles distant from 
Paneas (see below), on the way to Tyre ; which is the present position of 
Tell-el-Kady. Equally explicit is the testimony of Josephus, though he 
incorrectly styles this stream the lesser Jordan. See the references in 
Robinson, 3, p. 392. The story of the occupation of this place, originally 
called Laisli, by the Danites, is familiar to all. See Judg. , chap. 18. The 
description given by their spies — "We have seen the land, and behold it 
is very good ;" "a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the 
earth " (ver. 9, 10) — applies to the region around Tell-el-Kady. It was at 
Dan that Jeroboam placed the second of his two golden calves. 1 Kings 
12 : 29, 30. A short distance below Tell-el-Kady is "a low mound of rub- 
bish with cut stones, evidently the remains of a former town." Robinson 
as above, p. 393. It bears the modern name Difneli, and probably marks 
the site of the Daphne of Josephus, respecting which he speaks as ' ' hav- 
ing fountains which send forth the lesser Jordan, so called, under the tem- 
ple of the golden calf, to join the greater." Jewish War, 4. 1. 1. 

(2.) At Banias, the Caesarea Pliilippi of Roman times, about an hour 
or an hour and a quarter east of Tell-el-Kady, is the second source of the 
Jordan, so far as size is concerned, but which the ancients made the prin- 
cijDal source. The place and fountain are thus described by Porter (in 
Alexander's Kitto) : ' ' Baneas occupies one of the most picturesque sites in 
Syria. A broad terrace on the mountain-side looks -out over the rich plain 
of Huleh westward to the castellated heights of Hunin. Behind it rises, 
in bold, rugged pea,ks, the southern ridge of Hermon, wooded to the sum- 
mit. Two sublime ravines descend from the ridge, having between them 
a conical hill more than a thousand feet in height, and crowned by the 
ruins of the castle of Subeibeh. On the terrace, at the base of this cone, 
lie the ruins of Osesarea Philippi. The terrace is covered with groves of 
evergreen-oak and olive-trees, with intervening glades of the richest green 
turf, and clumps of hawthorn and myrtle here and there. A cliff of ruddy 
limestone, nearly one hundred feet high, rises on the north side of the 
ruins. At its base is a cave, whose mouth is now almost choked up with 
the debris of ancient buildings and fragments of the overhanging cliff. 
From the midst of these ruins, and from numerous chinks in the sur- 
rounding rocks, the waters of the great fountain gush forth. They collect 
a short distance below, and form a rapid torrent, which leaps in sheets of 
foam down a rocky bed." This is the cave described by Josephus (Antiq., 
15. 10. 3) under the name of Panium. "It is," says he, "a very beautiful 
cave in the mountain, and under it a chasm of the earth and a steep abyss 
of enormous depth, full of standing water. Above impends a huge moun 



PALESTINE. 137 

tain, and below the cave spring forth the fountains of the river Jordan. 
This, as being a place eminently distinguished, he [Herod] also adorned 
with the temple which he consecrated to Cajsar." "At a later period," 
says Robinson (3, p. 410), "the place was made part of the territory of 
Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis ; was enlarged and embellished by him, 
and named Caesarea Philippi, in distinction from the Cassarea of the sea- 
coast. See in Robinson the references to Josephus. A visit of our Lord 
to this vicinity is recorded. Matt. 16: 13 ; Mark 8: 27. Robinson is inclined 
to identify this place with "Baal-Gad, in the valley of Lebanon, under 
Mount Hermon." Josh. 11 ; 17 ; 12 : 7. 

The stream from Banias unites with that from Tell-el-Kady about an 
hour and a half below the latter place. 

(3. ) The J^ahi' Hashdny, river Hdshdny, flows south from the w^ater-shed 
of the Wady-et-Teim, a short distance south of Ain Faluj. But it exists as 
a permanent stream only from a great fountain near Hasbeiya, twelve miles 
north of Tell-el-Kady. Robinson, Bib. Res., 3, p. 378. It joins the uni- 
ted streams from Tell-el-Kady and Banias about a mile below their junc- 
tion. In the Hasbany we find the most remote source of the Jordan, though 
it is the smallest of the three. Robinson estimates their relative size as 
follows: "That from Banias is twice as large as the Hasbany; while the 
Leddan, including its branch the Bureij, is twice, if not three times the 
size of that from Banias " (3, p. 395). Above the junction these streams all 
run swiftly in channels fifteen or twenty feet below the level of the j^lain. 
The river below the junction flows southward through the flat, marshy 
plain to the lake Huleli, a distance of five or six miles. 

(4.) The above three perennial streams, having their origin in three 
immense fountains, constitute the proper sources of the Jordan. Besides 
these, there are other minor streams which, however, can hardly be reck- 
oned as perennial. Such is that which comes down to Banias from the east 
through a wild narrow chasm, and the Derdarah from Merj Ayun, a roman- 
tic little valley west of et-Teim. Other springs and rivulets burst forth 
along the base of Hermon; and large fountains also at the base of the 
mountains of Naphtali send their Avaters to the Huleh. 

5. La,ke FMala (Greek plnale, a howl) is celebrated for the 
story related of it by Joseplms (Jewish War, 3. 10. 7), that Phihp, 
tetrarch of Trachonitis, caused chaff to be cast into it, which 
reappeared at the fountain Panium, already described ; whence 
it was ascertained that there existed a subterranean passage 
from Phiala to Panium. He describes Phiala as a circular pool 
one hundred and twenty stadia from Caesarea on the way to 
Trachonitis, a short distance from the road on the right hand 



138 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

Its waters, he tells us, stand always at the same level, neither 
sinking nor overflowing. Robinson describes a pool called Bir- 
het-er-Ram, which answers in form and position to this account 
of Josephus. The lake lies at the bottom of a deep bowl, appa- 
rently an ancient crater, a hundred and fifty or two hundred 
feet below the level of the surrounding tract, has the form of 
an irregular circle, and is perhaps a mile in diameter. The 
water of the lake is stagnant and impure, " the very paradise 
of frogs," and " supplies the whole country with leeches." Eob- 
inson thinks it evident that there is at present no communica- 
tion between Banias and Phiala. "The bright, limpid, spark- 
ling waters of the former can have no connection with the dark, 
stagnant, slimy masses which fill the latter." 

6. The upper part of the Jordan valley is occupied by the 
hasin or plain of the Huleli, of which the length is some sixteen 
miles, with a width of about five miles. The lake itself is of a 
triangular form, with its apex at the exit of the Jordan on the 
south. It is subject to periodical variations from the fall of 
rain in the rainy season and the melting of the snow on the 
mountains in the spring ; but its average length from north to 
south may be stated at four and a half miles, with a breadth of 
about three and a half. " Hound the lake is a broad margin of 
marshy ground, which extends several miles to the northward 
along the banks of the streams, and is covered with dense jun- 
gles of canes, the home of wild swine and buffaloes." Porter 
in Alexander's Kitto. " A large triangular sheet of water," says 
Tristram (Land of Israel, p. 589), " at the lower end of the vast 
swampy plain, it has neither the bold outlines nor the deep col- 
oring of the holy lake. The base of the triangle is at the north 
end, where the impenetrable mass of reed and papyrus suddenly 
breaks into a lake." The same writer speaks of seeing "herds 
of ill-looking buffaloes wallowing in the mud or standing with 
only their noses out of water." The lake appears to be shal- 
low, and is covered for acres with yellow water-lilies, with some 
patches of the white lily (nymphcea) growing behind papyrus 
tufts ; for the true Egyptian papyrus is abundant here. North 



PALESTINE. 139 

of the marshes "succeeds a fertile meadow-Hke tract," in which 
is the junction of the streams of the Jordan. See Robinson, 
Phys. Geog., p. 199. 

The name Huleh is very ancient, for it occurs in Josephus 
(Antiq., 15. 10. 3) under the form UlatJia, where he speaks of 
"the region of Ulatha, Paneas, and the surrounding country," 
"lying between Trachon [Trachonitis] and Galilee." But the 
name by which he calls this lake is Semechonitis : " The Jordan 
beginning as a visible stream from this cave [that of Panium 
described above] cuts through the marshes and fens of the lake 
Semechonitis." Jewish War, 3. 10. 7. See also 4. 1. 1; Antiq., 
5. 5. 1. This lake is generally regarded as identical with " the 
waters of Merom" (Josh. 11:5, 7), where the confederate kings 
of Canaan assembled their forces, and were defeated by Joshua. 
See Robinson, Bib. Res., 2, p. 440; Porter in Alexander's Kitto; 
and, on the other side, the difficulties suggested by Grove in 
Smith's Bible Dictionary. 

7. On issuing from the Huleh, the Jordan flows for a short 
distance along a narrow cultivated plain ; its current being 
swift, but without rapids, and its breadth from thirty to forty 
yards. A mile below the lake is the bridge called Jisr Benat 
YaJtbh, Bridge of Jacob's datigJders. It has four pointed arches, 
is sixty paces long, and is built of the black volcanic stones of 
the region. About two miles below the lake begins a series of 
rapids, over which the water rushes through a deep and some- 
what winding ravine, dashing and foaming along its rocky bed, 
till it reaches the level of the lower plain two miles north of the 
sea of Galilee. The direct distance from the upper to the lower 
lake is about twelve miles; and in this short space the river 
falls several hundred feet. See farther in Robinson's Phys. 
Geog. (pp. 154-156), from which the above particulars are 
drawn. 

Van de Velde gives the elevation of the surface of Lake Huleh above the 
Mediten-anean at one hundred and twenty feet, and that of the sea of Gal- 
ilee (after Lynch) at six hundred and fifty-three feet below; making a differ- 
ence of seven hundred and seventy-three feet. The difference according to 



140 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

Berteau is seven hundred and thirty-five feet. But according to the trig- 
onometrical survey of Lieutenant Simonds in 1841 (which, however, Van 
de Vekle discredits), the depression of the sea of GaHlee is only three hun- 
dred and twenty-eight feet. Even this would give a great descent for 
the distance of twelve miles. 

The present structure of the bridge Jisr Ben at Yacob is referred by 
Robinson to the fifteenth century ; but from the importance of the pas- 
sage, lying as it does on one of the great roads leading from Egypt and 
Palestine to Damascus, we must suppose that the present structure is only 
the renewal of one more ancient. 

III. THE SEA OF GALILEE AND THE JORDAN BELOW. 

8. To the Christian the hohest associations cluster around the 
Sea of Galilee. In Capernaum, on the border of this sea, was 
the later residence of our Lord (Matt. 4 : 13) : in the cities and 
villages around it he performed most of his mighty works 
(Matt. 11:20-24; Luke 10:13-15): walking on its shore, he 
called Peter and Andrew his brother, James the son of Zebedee 
and John his brother (Matt. 4 : 18-22) : from a boat on the mar- 
gin of this sea he taught the assembled multitudes and inaugu- 
rated that wonderful series of parables recorded by the evan- 
gelists (Matt. 13 : 1, 2 ; Mark 4:1): over its clear waters he often 
sailed: on them he walked (Matt. 14:25; Mark 6:48; John 
6 : 19), and hushed the tempest to a great calm (Matt. 8 : 23-27 ; 
Mark 4 : 37-41 ; Luke 8 : 23-25) : in a desert place on its shore 
he twice fed the assembled multitudes with a few loaves and 
fishes (Matt. 14 : 15-21 ; 15 : 32-39) : it was when he came out of 
the ship on the other side, in the country of the Gadarenes, 
that he met two furious lunatics possessed of devils coming out 
of the tombs, and healed them by his word, while the swine 
were driven by the demons down a steep place into the sea and 
perished (Mark 5 :1-13) ; and it was immediately upon his return, 
when " he was nigh unto the sea," that he was summoned to 
raise from the dead Jairus' daughter, and healed on his way 
to the house the woman with a bloody issue (Mark 5 : 22-43). 
But why enumerate farther, in a region filled throughout with 
the Saviour's mighty works ? Honored above all other waters 




THE DEAD SEA ; AND THE CONVENT OF SANTA SABA, ON THE BKOOK KIDKON. 




SEA OF GALILEE, FKOM THE NORTHWEST COAST ; "WITH MAGDALA AND TIBERIAS. 



PALESTINE. 141 

were these waters of Gennesaret, for tliey often bore on their 
pure bosom the Lord of glory. 

9. This sheet of water is called the Sea of Galilee from the 
region in which it is situated ; the Sea of Tiberias (John 6:1; 
21 :1), from the principal city on its border (see below, No. 11) ; 
while the name Gennesaret or Gennesareth, the Gennesar of Jo- 
sephus, seems to be a modification of the Hebrew name Chinne- 
retli or Cinyieroth, and is, like it, applied to the sea itself and an 
adjacent tract. Numb. 34 : 11 ; Deut. 3:17; Josh. 11:2; 1 Kings 
15:20; Matt. 14:34; Mark 6:53; Luke 5:L The sea is ^'a 
beautiful sheet of limpid water lying in a deep depressed basin, 
and shut in by rounded hills which rise steeply from its margin. 
Most travellers are agreed in describing the scenery of this lake 
as tame and monotonous, having neither the romantic boldness 
of that around the Dead sea nor the softer beauties of our west- 
ern lakes. On the east the banks are nearly 2,000 feet high, 
destitute of verdure and of foliage, deeply furrowed by ravines, 
but quite flat along the summit ; forming, in fact, the supporting 
wall of the table-land of Bashan." Porter in Alexander's Kitto. 
The length is given by Robinson at " nearest thirteen miles, by 
a breadth of about six miles across the middle." Its depression 
below the surface of the Mediterranean is, according to Lynch, 
about six hundred and fifty feet. Symonds, in 1841, made its 
depression only three hundred and twenty-eight feet, which 
Van de Yelde thinks must be an error. The lake abounds now, 
as in ancient times, in fish, some species the same as those found 
in the Nile ; but a bad government has caused the fishery, like 
the surrounding soil, to be neglected. The last accounts repre- 
sent " one little crazy boat" as "the sole representative of the 
fleets that covered the lake in New Testament times." 

10. On the western shore of the lake lies the ;plain of Gen- 
nesaret^ called in the New Testament the land of Gennesaret 
(Matt. 14:34; Mark 6:53), the marvellous fertility of which 
Josephus describes in such glowing terms. Jewish War, 3. 10. 
8. It is a crescent-shaped plain, extending along the shore a 
distance of about three geographical miles, its greatest breadth 



142 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

being nearly two. It has the sea in front, and is shut in by a 
semicircle of steep and rugged hills. Its great depression gives 
it an almost Egyptian climate. Its extraordinary fertility re- 
mains, and its melons and cucumbers are still the best and ear- 
liest in Palestine. But the same causes that have brought des- 
olation to the fisheries of the sea have made this plain for the 
most part a neglected waste, overgrown with tangled thickets 
of lote-trees, oleanders, dwarf-palms, and gigantic thistles and 
brambles. 

Josephus' description of this little plain is interesting, as showing in a 
representative way what Palestine once was, and might now be under a 
stable and righteous government: "A region of the same name borders 
the lake Gennesar, admirable for its character and beauty: for the soil 
itself, on account of its richness, refuses nourishment to no plant, and all 
varieties are accordingly cultivated here by the inhabitants, the happy 
temperature of the air suiting those of different kinds ; for nut-bearing 
trees, which flourish" in the coldest climate, thrive here in endless profu- 
sion ;^then again palms, which are nurtured by heat, and figs and olives, 

which belong to a softer temperature, grow by their side It not 

only produces, contrary to what one might think, crops of opposite kinds, 
but it preserves them also. Grapes and figs, the most noble of fruits, it 
furnishes ten months, without interruption, and the other fruits ripening 
by their side all the year round. For, in addition to the genial character 
of the air, it is watered also by a most fertilizing fountain which the natives 
call Capharnaum. Some have regarded this as a vein of the Nile, since it 
produces a fish similar to the coracinus of the Alexandrine lake." 

11. We add a notice of the towns on the border of the lake, 
or in its near vicinity. 

Tiberias, the Tubariyeh of the Arabs, "lies," says Robinson (Bib. Res., 
2, pp. 380, 381), " directly upon the shore, at a point where the heights 
retire a little, leaving a narrow strip, not exactly of plain, but of undula- 
ting land, nearly two miles in length along the lake. Back of this the 
mountain ridge rises steeply. The town is situated near the northern end 
of this tract, in the form of a narrow parallelogram, about half a mile long, 
surrounded towards the land by a thick wall, once not far from twenty feet 
high, with towers at regular intervals. The city suffered terribly by the 
earthquake of Jan. 1, 1837. The walls were thrown down, the castle much 
damaged, and very many of the houses destroyed. About 700 persons out 
of a population of 2,500 are said to have perished. The Jews, who occup;y 



PALESTINE. 143 

a quarter in the middle of the town nearest to the lake, were the gi-eatest 
sufferers. 

According to Josephus (Antiq., 18. 2. 3 ; Jewish War, 2. 9. 1), Tiberias 
w-as founded by Herod Antipas, and so named in honor of the emperor 
Tiberius. After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Komans, it became 
the chief seat of the Jews. The national council, which was at first trans- 
ferred to Jamnia, was removed hither, and here was for several centuries 
a celebrated Rabbinical school ; one of the Gamaras, that is, commenta- 
ries to the Talmud, having been composed here in the third century, 
which, with the Mishnah, or text, is called the Jerusalem Talmud, in dis- 
tinction from the Babylonian. 

At the southern end of the strip of land on which Tiberias is built are 
the celebrated warm baths, of which Robinson has given an elaborate 
descrij^tion. "The taste of the water is excessively salt and bitter, like 
heated sea- water," the thermometer indicating 144 degi-ees of Fahrenheit. 
See in Bib. Res., 2, pp. 383-385. 

Magdala, or, as the best manuscripts read, Magadan, was certainly on 
the west side of the lake, not on the east, as Eusebius and Jerome place it. 
For the Saviour came thither by ship from the desert on the east where he 
had fed the multitudes, and after an encounter with the Pharisees, "he 
left them, and entering into the ship again, departed to the other side." 
Matt. 15 : 32—16 : 4 ; Mark 8 : 1-13. Travellers recognize this Magdala or 
Magadan in the modern Mejdel, called by Robinson "a miserable little 
Muslim village." It lies about three miles above Tiberias, on the edge of 
the water, at the southeast corner of the plain of Gennesaret. See Rob- 
inson, Bib. Res,, 2, note 397 ; Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 375, 376. 

Dalmanuiha was evidently near to Magdala ; for ' ' the coasts of Mag- 
dala (Matt. 15 :39) are equivalent to "the parts of Dalmanutha " (Mark 
8 : 10). The site of this place is only conjectured. Porter would place it 
about a mile south of Magdala, in a narrow glen, at the mouth of which 
"are some cultivated fields and gardens, amid which, just by the beach, 
are several copious fountains, surrounded by heavy ancient walls and the 
ruins of a village. " 

Respecting the site of Capernaum there is much controversy. (1.) Rob- 
inson places it at KJian Minyeh, at the northern extremity of the plain of 
Gennesaret, near which is a fountain called Ain-et-Tin ; and he defends 
this view at length. Bib. Res., 3, pp. 348-359. Dr. Robinson's view is 
adopted by Porter (in Alexander's Kitto, art. Capernaum) ; and Stanley 
(Sinai and Palestine, pp. 376, 377). (2.) Wilson (Lands of the Bible, 
2, pp. 142-149),. Van de Velde (Syria and Palestine, 2, pp. 394-396), 
Thomson (The Land and the Book, 2, pp. 8, 9), and others contend for 



U4 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

Tell Hum, three miles north of Khan Minyeh, where are extensive ruins 
of walls and foundations standing on a point of the shore which projects 
into the lake. (3. ) Three miles south of Ain-et-Tin there is another large 
and beautiful fountain called Ain-el-Mudauwarah, that is, ^^ Round Foun- 
tain.^^ It rises immediately at the foot of the western line of hills, a mile 
and a half back of the lake, to which it sends a considerable stream, inter- 
secting the plain of Gennesaret about the middle. Of this Grove says cor- 
rectly (in Smith's Bible Diet.), that it answers better to Josephus' account 
than a spring so close to the shore and so near one end of the district as 
is Ain-et-Tin. The objection raised against this fountain by Robinson 
(Bib. Res., 3, p. 351), on the ground that the fountain of Cai^ernaum 
described by Josephus "was held to be a vein of the Nile, because it pro- 
duces a fish like the co7^acinus of that river," while this fountain, as he 
affirms, " could neither itself have in it fish fit for use, nor could fish of any 
size j)ass between it and the lake," is turned into a strong argument in its 
favor by Tristram's discovery that this very fish "does abound to a 
remarkable degree in the Round Fountain to this day. As I mentioned 
above, we obtained specimens a yard long, and some of them are deposited 
in the British Museum." Land of Israel, p. 442. So far as our present 
information extends, the Round Fountain has the strongest claims to be 
considered the Fountain of Capharnaum mentioned by Josephus. 

In denouncing w^oe upon Capernaum, our Saviour named also Ghm^azin 
and Bethsaida. Matt. 11 : 20-24 ; Luke 10 : 13-15. The situation of these 
places is unknown further than that they were in the near neighborhood 
of Capernaum, and that the latter (the western Bethsaida ; for there was 
another east of the Jordan) was in the plain of Gennesaret. Mark 6 : 45, 
compared with 53. Robinson places this Bethsaida at Ain-et-TdbigJiah, a 
short distance north of Khan Minyeh. Bib. Res., 3, p. 359. Chorazin 
he would place at Tell Hum. The woes denounced by the Saviour on Cho- 
razin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum have been so terribly fulfilled that, as 
Grove remarks (in Smith's Bible Diet., art. Capernaum), it is impossible 
to say which of these ruins represents Capernaum, which Chorazin, or 
which Bethsaida. 

The name Bethsaida signifies place offish. We need not be surprised, 
therefore, to find that there was another Bethsaida east of the Jordan, in 
lower Gaulonitis, called also Julias. See Josephus, Jewish War, 2. 9. 1 ; 
3. 10. 7. It is this Bethsaida to which reference is made Luke 9 : 10, where 
it is said that the Saviour took the disciples "aside privately into a desert 
place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. " It was here in the desert 
region east of the Jordan and on the north side of the lake that the Sav- 
iour miraculously fed the multitudes, as all the incidents of the narrative 
show. The ruins of this eastern Bethsaida lie on a tell or hill a short dis- 
tance north of the sea of Galilee, on the borders of the Batihah, as the 



PALESTINE. 145 

plain is called which borders the Jordan at its entrance into the sea of 
Galilee. See Kobinson, Bib. Ees., 2, pp. 410, 411. 

A remarkable incident connected with the sea of Galilee is the healing 
of the demoniacs, and in connection with this, the destruction of the herd 
of swine. Matt. 8 : 28-34 ; Mark 5 : 1-17 ; Luke 8 : 26-37. The event 
occurred on the eastern shore of the lake, but the name of the place con- 
nected with it is uncertain, the manuscripts varying, as is well known, 
between Gadarenes and Gerasenes, while in Matthew some copies have 
Gergesenes. If Gadarenes be the true reading, there is no difficulty in 
respect to the place. Gadara, the modern Um Keis, was a strong city of 
Peraea, standing, according to Porter, ' ' on the northern end of the moun- 
tains of Gilead, five miles east of the river Jordan, and about six from the 
sea of Galilee," in a southeasterly direction, and it may well have given its 
name to the country adjacent to the lake. If, with the majority of mod- 
ern textual critics, we adopt the reading Gerasenes, the reference cannot 
well be to the famous city Gerasa, on the eastern boundary of Pera^a, 
some thirty-five miles southeast of the sea of Galilee. More probable is 
the hypothesis of another Gerasa, on the eastern border of the lake. Thom- 
son (The Land and the Book, 2, i^p, 34, 35) thinks he has discovered the 
remains of the Gergesa noticed by Origen at a ruin called by the Arabs 
Kersa or Gersa, east of the lake, only a few rods from the shore, with an 
immense mountain rising above it. in which are ancient tombs. 

Before leaving the sea of Galilee, we pause a few moments to notice a 
wild and romantic glen with perpendicular walls, abounding in calcareous 
caverns, which runs down from the west to the plain of Mejdel on the 
shore of the lake. The valley bears the name of Wady-el-Hamam, that is. 
Pigeon-glen, from the immense flocks of pigeons that nestle among its 
clefts, furnishing a beautiful illustration of the bridegroom's words (Cant. 
2 : 14): " O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding-places of the 
cliff." The caverns, according to Burckhardt, have been enlarged, and 
united by artificial passages cut in the rock, and protected against assault 
by walls built across the natural openings. The whole might afford refuge 
to about six hundred men. Robinson has satisfactorily identified this 
place with the Arhela of Josephus, a famous resort of robbers. Situated 
in the midst of perpendicular cliffs, these caverns seemed impregnable ; 
but Herod the Great caused parties of soldiers to be let down in large 
boxes suspended by chains from above, and provided with long hooks, by 
means of which they dragged out the robbers and dashed them down the 
precipice. This Arbela, as Robinson suggests, may well be regarded as 
the Beth-arbel of Hosea (chap. 10 :14), in reference to which the prophet 
Bays: "All thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Slialman spoiled Beth-arbel 

Sac. Geog. Y 



146 - SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

in the day of battle : the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children. '* 
See in Robinson's Bib. Res., 2, pp. 398, 399. 

' 12. According to Eobinson (in Phys. Geog., pp. 73, 74) tlie 
whole valley of the Jordan and Dead sea, from the southern 
base of Hermon to the Scorpion cliffs (Akrabbim), some eight 
miles south of the Dead sea, is called el- Ghor, the valley ; the 
term Ghor being applied by the Arabs to " a long valley or low 
plain between mountains." Farther south this valley, which, as 
already remarked, extends to the Red sea, retains its ancient 
Hebrew name ArahaJi, ivaste, or desei^t tract. The Greeks and 
Romans called the Ghor by the similar name Anion. The He- 
brew name of this great valley in its whole extent is Arahah, 
always with the article. In the Old Testament, tlie Arahah is a 
definite geographical term, but it is unfortunately confounded in 
our version with other terms, being customarily rendered by 
the indefinite words the plain. 

Besides the general term Arahah, other names are applied to 
particular parts of this valley. Of these, the only one that 
needs mention in the present connection is JcikJcar, circuit, and 
with the addition of the river, the circuit of Jordan, applied to 
the low tract or plain along the river, and which, Robinson 
remarks (Phys. Geog., p. 80), "would seem to be as compre- 
hensive perhaps as the Ghor itself." If, as is commonly assumed, 
the cities of the plain occupied the site of the southern bay of 
the Dead sea, this remark is correct. See below, No. 35. 

The word TciTchar with the article occurs in the following passages, 
in all of which it is rendered in our version the plain, viz.: Gen. 13:10, 
11, 12 ; 19:17, 25, 28, 29 ; Dent. 34:3 ; 2 Sam. 18:23 ; Neh. 3:22 ; 1 Kings 
7 : 46 ; 2 Chron. 4 : 17. In the last two of the above passages the term is 
applied to the region midway between the sea of Galilee and the Dead 
sea, for here Succoth was situated. See below, No. 22. 

13. The length of the Ghor or general valley of the Jordan, 
from the sea of Galilee to the Dead sea, is, according to Robin- 
son (Phys. Geog., p. 80), about sixty-five English miles. The 
difference of level between the two lakes is given by Lynch at 



PALESTINE. 147 

r)63.4 feet, making a descent of over ten feet for every English 
mile. The width of the Ghor varies from about six miles at its 
northern end to ten or twelve in the latitude of Jericho, where 
the mountains retire, especially on the western side. Its aver- 
age width is about eight miles. It is shut in on both sides by 
steep and rugged ridges, which send out into it here and there 
rocky spurs terminating in bluffs. According to Eobinson, on 
" the western wall is a series of irregular and precipitous cliffs, 
ranging from eight hundred to twelve hundred feet in height, 
everywhere naked and desolate." The mountains on the east- 
ern side are still higher. About one-third of the way from the 
Dead sea to the sea of Galilee the frowning ridge called Kurn 
Surtabeh stretches in a southeasterly direction far into the Ghor, 
dividing it into two parts, the upper and the lower Ghor. There 
seems to be here a sudden depression of the bed of the Jordan — 
the "break-down" noticed by Lynch (Official Eeport, p. 2'd), 
and corresponding apparently to the similar break-down at the 
Scorpion cliffs, south of the Dead sea, which constitutes the 
dividing-line between the Glibr and the higher level of the 
Arabah. See below. No. 25. Above this break-down the Ghor 
is for the most part well watered and fertile ; below it becomes 
a parched desert. 

From the lake of Tiberias to Sakut, regarded by him as the ancient 
Succoth, "the long low plain of the Ghor," says Eobinson (Phys. Geog., 
pp. 78, 79), "besides the Jordan meandering through it, is full of foun- 
tains and rivulets, and bears in a high degree the character of a well-wa- 
tered and most fertile region." Below Sakut to the promontory el-Makh- 
rud the valley is more or less contracted. Then follows, at the opening of 
wady Faria, a luxuriant and fertile tract extending to the base of Kurn 
Surtabeh. Of the same region Porter says (in Alexander's Kitto) : "Small 
portions are cultivated around fountains and along the banks of streamlets, 
where irrigation is easy ; but all the rest is a wilderness, in spring covered 
with rank grass and thistles, but in summer parched and bare. " The two 
accounts are not contradictory, but supplementary to each other ; the one 
describing the natural capabilities of the soil, the other its actual condition 
of neglect. Below Kurn Surtabeh the southern section known as the j^lain 
of Jericho is covered with a white nitrous crust, and is, except at the oasis 
of Jericho and along the margin of the river, entirely desolate. 



148 SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

14. "Witliin the general valley of the Ghor lies the inner and 
lower valley, through which the Jordan pursues its winding 
course. The general valley is in fact the upper terrace, and 
this inner valley the lower. The breadth of this lower valley 
varies, according to Eobinson, " from a quarter of a mile or 
perhaps less in some parts, to half a mile in others." The 
ascent from the inner to the outer valley varies from forty feet 
to a hundred and fifty or more. The inner valley, like the outer, 
pursues a direct course from north to south. But within it the 
Jordan pursues an exceedingly tortuous course. xAlthough the 
distance from the sea of Galilee to the Dead sea is only about 
sixty-five English miles, in a straight line. Lynch estimates the 
length of the river, if one follow its windings in this part of its 
course, at not less than two hundred miles. Owing to its rapid 
descent, it is broken by a series of falls and rapids which make 
its navigation practically impossible. A good idea of this won- 
derful river will be gained by the perusal of Lynch's account 
of his perilous voyage from the upper to the lower sea " down 
seven threatening rapids, besides a great many of lesser mag- 
nitude." 

A line of trees, shrubs, and green herbage borders the Jor- 
dan on each bank, the breadth of which is regulated by the 
extent to which the water penetrates the soil. In some places 
it becomes a dense jungle of tamarisks, willows, and other trees, 
intermingled with cane-brakes. 

15. The annual rise of the Jordan is Qwing to the melting of 
the snows on Hermon, in consequence of which " Jordan over- 
floweth all his banks all the time of harvest" (Josh. 3:15), or, 
as we may render the Hebrew, "Jordan is full upon all its 
banks;" that is, fills them to the brim. At the present day the 
river does not overflow even the inner valley after the manner 
of the Nile ; but it fills up its banks completely, so as to over- 
flow them in depressed places, but not so as to inundate its 
proper valley. In the judgment of Eobinson, the lakes Huleh 
and Gennesaret operate as regulators to prevent sudden and 
violent inundations. 



PALESTINE. 149 

*'Tlie swelling of Jordan," spoken of in our version (Jer. 12:5 ; 49:19; 
50:44), may be better rendered the pride of Jordan, as in Zecli. 11:3, where 
the Hebrew w^ords are the same. The pride of Jordan or the glory of 
Jordan is its luxuriant thickets and cane-brakes, in olden times the chosen 
lair of the lion, whence he came up (Jer. 49:19; 50:44) in search of prey, 
and over the desolation of which he roared (Zech. 11:3). These also fur- 
nish an image of imminent danger (Jer. 12:5): " What wilt thou do in the 
pride of Jordan ?" that is, entangled in its mazes among beasts of prey. 

16. About six miles below the lake is a Saracenic bridge 
built of volcanic rocks called Jisr el-3Iejdm{a. It lies on an old 
caravan route from Damascus to Egypt. About half a mile 
below the lake are the ruins of an old Eoman bridge. No other 
bridge exists between the sea of Galilee and the Dead sea, nor 
any boat for transportation. During summer, when the river 
is low, it is fordable in many places ; but in high water the fords 
are few, and known only to the natives. 

There is a ford by the ruins of the Roman bridge, a short distan*ce 
below the sea of Galilee. The river is here some twenty five or thirty 
yards wide, with a swift current and many rapids. Opposite to Beisan, 
the ancient Beth-shean or Beth-shan, are three fording-jDlaces near each 
other. The river here spreads itself to the width of about forty-five yards. 
Robinson says that in May, 1852, the water came up to the horses' sides. 
Lower down, not far north of Sakut, is another important ford. If this 
be the ancient Succoth, it is the place where Jacob, on his return from 
Padan-aram, tarried awdiile, and where he crossed the river with his flocks 
and herds, on his way to Shechem. Gen. 33:17, 18. Over against the 
mouth of Wady Faria is another ford, and just above it are the remains of 
another Roman bridge over a channel now dry. Below Kurn Surtabeli 
are three or four fords ; but at these, when the river is full, the Arabs are 
compelled to swim -their horses. The so-called f jrd el-Helu, three miles 
above the Dead sea, is never passed without swimming. Robinson describes 
the stream here, at the time of high water in May, as strong and SAvift, 
about forty yards wide, with a probable depth of ten or twelve feet. The 
water was of a clayey color, but sweet and pleasant to the taste. Opposite 
to Jericho, near the ruined convent of St. John, is the place where the 
Latin pilgrims bathe. The bathing-i^lace of the Greek pilgrims is two or 
three miles below. Each party believes that its place is that where our 
Lord was baptized. See further in Robinson, Phys. Geog., pp. 156-161. 

17. The Jordan receives its largest and most important trib- 
utaries from the east. Of these the largest is the Hieromax, the 



150 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

modern Yarmuk, whicli enters the Jordan about five miles 
beloYv^ the sea of Galilee. In its lower part it flows through a 
wild glen, the sides of which are rugged cliffs of basalt, in some 
places more than a hundred feet in height. The next perma- 
nent stream is the JabhoJc of Scripture, the modern NaJir ez- 
Zerha, that is, the river Zerka. It enters the Jordan about mid- 
way between the upper and the lower lakes. It was over the 
ford of this river that Jacob passed with his family on his return 
from Padan-aram, and here he wrestled till morning dawn with 
the Angel of the covenant. Gen. 32 : 22-32. The only peren- 
nial stream on the west is the Nahr el-Jdlud, which flows down 
the valley of Jezreel from the great fountain described above 
(Chap. 2, No. 5). The ravines on both sides send down copious 
torrents during the rainy season. 

18. Owing to its deep depression, the Ghor has an Egyptian 
climate, excessively hot, and in the summer months unhealthy, 
especially for strangers. In the vicinity of Jericho wiliter is 
unknown. The wheat harvest here is completed about the mid- 
dle of May, while the wheat-fields in the mountainous region 
are still green. Here also flourished in ancient times the palm, 
the balsam-tree, the sugar-cane, and other trees and plants 
peculiar to tropical regions. Wherever there is water, the soil 
produces the most abundant harvests. 

On the thirteentli of May Robinson and Smith found the thermometer 
in their tent standing at two o'clock at one hundred and two degrees; 
while another, hanging in the shade of a fig-tree, stood at ninety-one 
degrees. In the southern part of the Ghor and on the shores of the Dead 
sea grows the osher of the Arabs, a species of milkweed, found in abun- 
dance in Upper Egypt, Nubia, Arabia Felix, and other tropical countries. 
"The fruit," says Robinson (Bib. Res., 1, p. 523), "greatly resembles 
externally a large smooth apple or orange, hanging in clusters of three or 
four together, and when ripe, of a yellow color. It was now fair and deli- 
cious to the eye, and soft to the touch ; but on being pressed or struck, it 
explodes with a puff, like a bladder or puff-ball, leaving in the hand only 
the shreds of the thin rind and a few fibres. ' It is indeed filled chiefly 
with air, like a bladder, which gives it its round form ; while in the centre 
a small slender pod runs through it from the stem, and is connected by 
thin filaments with the rind. The pod contains a small quantity of silk 



PALESTINE. 151 

with seeds, precisely like the pod of the silk- weed, though very much 
smaller, being indeed scarcely the tenth part as large. The Arabs collect 
the silk, and twist it into matches for their guns, preferring it to the com- 
mon match, because it requires no sulphur to render it combustible." 
Bobinson and others recognize in this fruit the celebrated apples of Sodmn, 
which Josephus (Jewish War, 4. 8. 4) describes as producing ashes within ; 
fruits "which have a color like that of edible fruits, but when plucked with 
the hands are dissolved into smoke and ashes." Another plant growing 
abundantly in the neighborhood of Jericho is the Leimun Lui, that is, Lot's 
lemon, a species of solanum, which attains a height of from three to five 
feet, and bears berries an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, respect- 
ing which, says Bitter (Geog. Pal., 3. 21), there is a tradition that they 
were once the finest of lemons, but were changed by the curse pronounced 
ujDon them, by Lot to this bitter fruit. 

19. The Jordan, like the covenant people through whose 
territory it flows, is alone in its character among all the rivers 
of the world. Bursting at once out of the base of Lebanon, it 
pursues its impetuous course through the lakes of Huleh and 
Tiberias, down the sunken vallej of the Ghor far below the level 
of the ocean, shut in on each side by ranges of rugged cliffs, till 
its sweet waters are swallowed up in the deep caldron of the 
Dead sea, where no living thing was ever founH. Throughout 
its entire course, its banks are enlivened by the presence of no 
city. In solitude it pursues its winding path, foaming, roaring, 
and dashing over the rapids that lie in its way, only to lose itself 
in the awful desolation of the Dead sea. 

Unique in its character, it is unique in its history also. With 
its waters are connected some of the most stupendous events in 
sacred history. "What ailed thee," asks the psalmist, "thou 
Jordan, that thou wast driven back?" At the time of wheat 
harvest, when this impetuous stream filled up all its banks to 
the brim, its waters, arrested by the invisible hand of Jehovah, 
" rose up upon a heap very far from the city of Adam that is 
beside Zaretan; and those that came down toward the sea of 
the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off; and the 
people passed over right against Jericho." Josh. 3 : 16. The 
same river was twice miraculously divided at a later day to 
make a passage for the prophets Elijah and Elisha. 2 Kings 



152 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

2 : 8, 14. In the same Jordan Naaman tlie Syrian was sent to 
bathe, that he might be healed of his leprosy ; and it was while 
the sons of the prophets were taking every man a beam from 
the trees that Hned its banks that Elisha caused the iron to 
swim in its waters. 2 Kings 6 : 5-7. John the Baptist, who 
came in the spirit and power of Elijah, baptized in the same river ; 
here the Saviour himself was baptized, and announced by a 
voice from heaven as God's beloved Son (Matt. 3 : 13-17; Mark 
1 : 9-11 ; Luke 3 : 21, 22) ; and in the adjacent wilderness lay the 
scene of his temptation. 

20. Of the few cities belonging to the Ghor, the most cele- 
brated was Jericlio. It lay on the western border of the Ghor, 
six miles from the Jordan, under the brow of the rugged moun- 
tain called Quarantana, where the monkish legends place the 
scene of the Savi'our's temptation. Its modern representative 
is the miserable and filthy village called Riha, consisting of a 
collection of hovels, which "are merely four walls of stones taken 
from ancient ruins, and loosely thrown together, with flat roofs 
of cornstalks or brushwood spread over with gravel. Robinson, 
Bib. Res., 1, p.' 552. It lies on the northern bank of Wady 
Kelt (conjectured to be the hrook Gherith of the Old Testament, 
1 Kings 17 : 5, 7). The Jericho of Joshua's day is supposed to 
have lain about a mile and a half northwest of Riha, near the 
fountain called Ain-es- Sultan, Fountain of the Sultan, and also 
Elisha s Fountain, as being without doubt the fountain whose 
waters were healed by him. 2 Kings 2 : 19-22. The Jericho 
of our Saviour's time, which had been beautified and adorned 
with palaces by Herod the Great (Josephus, Antiq., 16. 5. 2 ; 
Jewish War, 1. 21. 4), seems to have lain about the same dis- 
tance from the modern Riha, but farther south, where the great 
Wady Kelt breaks through the mountains into the plain, conse- 
quently on the road from this part of the plain up to Jerusalem, 
which runs, and must always have run, up the gorge of Wady 
Kelt, that it may reach the high ground above. See Robinson, 
Bib. Res., 1, pp. 544-569; Porter in Alexander's Kitto, art. 
Jericho. 



PALESTINE. 153 

After the destruction of Jericho in Joshua's day, the city 
lay desolate for more than five centuries, when the curse pro- 
nounced by Joshua was fulfilled on Hiel its builder. Josh. 
6 : 26 compared with 1 Kings 16 : 34. This Jericho was hon- 
ored by the presence of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, and 
here was a school of the prophets. 2 Kings 2:4, 5, 18-22 ; 
6 : 1-7. Jericho appears again in the New Testament, in con- 
nection with the healing of the two blind men and the call of 
Zaccheus. Matt. 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35— 
19 : 10. The distance from Jerusalem to Jericho is given by 
Josephus at one hundred and fifty stadia, that is, eighteen and 
three quarters Eoman miles, or about seventeen English miles. 
Within this short distance there is the immense descent of more 
than three thousand feet. The road, moreover, which leads 
through a succession of naked chalky hills, is infested now, as it 
was in ancient days, by bands of robbers. Here therefore the 
Saviour places, very appropriately, the scene of the parable of 
the good Samaritan. Luke 10 : 30-37. 

21. The oasis of Jericho is produced by the abundant foun- 
tains in its vicinity. Of these, Ain-es-Sidtdn lies about two miles 
northwest of the modern Eiha ; and, as remarked above, very 
near the site of the primitive Jericho. It is a large and beauti- 
ful fountain of sweet and pleasant water, bursting forth at the 
eastern foot of a high double mound at the southeastern end of 
Mount Quarantana. "It is," says Eobinson (Bib. Ees., 1, p. 
554), "the only one near Jericho, and there is every reason to 
regard it as the scene of Elisha's miracle." Following up the 
base of Quarantana about an hour in a north-northwesterly 
direction, we come to the still larger fountain of Duk. The 
water of these fountains was formerly distributed over the plain 
by means of aqueducts, the ruins of which are still visible. The 
tropical heat of the climate and the exuberant fertility of the 
soil wherever water is supplied made this tract very celebrated 
in ancient days. Josephus is lavish in the praise which he 
bestows on this oasis, which he calls "a divine region." After 
describing the miracle of Elisha in healing the fountain, he says 

7* 



154 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

(Jewish War, 4. 8. 3) tliat it waters a space of seventy stadia in 
length and twenty in breadth (in English measurement, about 
eight miles by two miles and one-third) abounding in very pleas- 
ant gardens and many kinds of palms differing in their names 
and flavor. Of these the richest kinds, he tells us, yield, when 
their fruit is pressed, an abundant supply of honey, not much 
inferior to that of bees, which latter also abounds in the region. 
Here, moreover, he proceeds to say, are produced the opobal- 
samum, cypros, and myrobalanum. Of these the opobalsamum 
is the true halm of Gilead, a resinous exudation from a small 
tree celebrated for its healing qualities; the cypros is the el- 
Henna of the Arabs and the " camphire" of our version (Cant. 
1 : 14; 4 : 13), a shrub or low tree with fragrant whitish flowers 
growing in clusters like grapes; and the myrobalanum is the 
zukkum of the natives, a thorny tree with large olive-like fruit, 
from which the false balm of Gilead, a sort of oil, is extracted, 
and sold to the pilgrims as the genuine article. Tristram, Land 
of Israel, pp. 202, 203; Eobinson, Bib. Ees., 1, p. 560. Such 
was this region in the days of Josephus. From the abundance 
of palms in its vicinity, Jericho was called " the city of palm- 
trees." Deut. 34: 3; Judg. 1 : 16; 3 : 13; 2 Chron. 28:15. Jose- 
phus describes its palms as many and beautiful, and speaks of 
palm-plantations on the banks of the Jordan also, which he 
describes as more flourishing and fruitful than those at a dis- 
tance from the river. Jewish War, 4. 8. 2. 

But the double curse of a bad government and an indolent, 
sickly population has turned this fruitful tract in great measure 
into a waste. The fountains remain, and with them the exu- 
berant fertility of the soil. "Maize is here," says Eobinson, 
" a biennial plant, yielding a crop for two successive years from 
the same roots." The soil yields luxuriant crops of grain ; but 
the inhabitants are too indolent to cultivate it themselves, leav- 
ing this work to the mountaineers, who sow and reap upon 
shares. The groves of palm have disappeared, one solitary 
tree alone lingering in all the plain ; the true balm of Gilead is 
no more found here ; the el-Henna also, and even the sycamore- 



PALESTINE. 155 

trees, have retired from Jericho ; and honey, if found at all, is 
now comparatively rare. See Eobinson as above, p. 559. 

Respecting the culture of the sugar-cane and the remnants of sugar- 
mills in this region, see Robinson, 2, pp. 561, 562. 

22. We add a brief notice of some other places in the Jor- 
dan valley. 

Gilgal, the place where the Israelites first encamped after crossing the 
Jordan (Josh. chap. 5), is described by Josephus as fifty stadia from the 
Jordan and ten from Jericho, which latter city he places, as we have seen, 
sixty stadia from the Jordan. Antiq., 5. 1, 4. With Josephus Jerome's 
description (Onomasticon, art. Galgala) agrees. It must then have been 
at or near the modern village of Riha. This Gilgal must be carefully dis- 
tinguished from the Gilgal in the mountains whence Elijah and Elisha 
went down to Beth-el. See above, Chap. 2, No. 21. In the latter days of 
the Israelitish kingdom idolatrous rites were celebrated here, as at the 
other holy places of Canaan, for which the desolating judgments of God 
were denounced upon the place. Ilosea 4:15 ; Amos 4:4 ; 5:5. 

In the ruins called Fusail, where the wady Fiisail breaks through the 
western mountains into the Ghor, some ten or eleven miles north of Jeri- 
cho, we recognize the site of Phasaells, a city built by Herod the Great 
(Josephus, Antiq., 16. 5. 2), where are foundations of houses, and of walls 
perhaps for gardens, with remains of conduits. See Robinson, 3, p. 293, 
Here Van de Velde (2, p. 310) places the hrook Clieriih. But Porter (in Alex- 
ander's Kitto) adopts Robinson's suggestion, that the brook Cherith is the 
modern ^Vady Kelt, which opens from the mountains directly west of Jeri- 
cho. "No spot," he says, *'in Palestine is better fitted to afi'ord a secure 
asylum to the persecuted than Wady el-Kelt." ''The Kelt is one of the 
wildest ravines in this wild region. In some places it is not less than five 
hundred feet deep, and just wide enough at the bottom to give passage to 
a streamlet (1 Kings 17:6) like a silver thread, and to afford space for its 
narrow fringe of oleanders. The banks are almost sheer precipices of 
naked limestone, and here and there pierced with the dark openings of 
caves and grottoes, in some one of which probably Elijah lay hid." "To 
any one passing down from Jerusalem or Samaria towards Jericho " (the 
road leading through this pass), "the appropriateness of the words in 
1 Kings 17:3 would be at once apparent — *the brook Cherith, that is 
before Jordan.' " The same wild and desolate wady is regarded by Porter 
p-s "unquestionably the valley of Aclior, in which the Israelites stoned 
Achan (Josh. 7:26), and which served to mark the northern border of 



156 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

Judali." Josh. 15; 7. Indeed the whole geography of the region points 
to Wady Kelt as the scene of this solemn transaction. 

Beisdn, the modern representative of the ancient Betk-shean or Beih- 
shan (that is, hoitse of quiet), is magnificently situated in a strong position 
at the mouth of the valley of Jezreel, where it breaks down by an abrupt 
descent of some three hundred feet to the valley of the Jordan. It is 
about four miles from the Jordan, and eighteen south of the southern end 
of the sea of Galilee. The ruins of Beth-shean cover a space of about 
three miles in circuit. The site is well watered, no less than four streams 
flowing through it. For the origin of the Greek name ScythopoUs, city of 
the Scythians, which the place received after the exile, see Robinson's Bib. 
Res., 3, p. 330. Scythopolis abounded in temples built of black basaltic 
stone, except the columns. It was, according to Josephus (Jewish 
War, 3. 9. 7), the largest city of the Decapolis, and the only city of that 
district lying west of the Jordan. In the time of Eusebius and Jerome it 
was still an important city of Palestine ; but it is now reduced to a misera- 
ble village of about five hundred souls. See farther in Robinson, 3, pp. 
326-332. 

A sad interest attaches to the history of Beth-shean. It was in the 
adjacent mountains of Gilboa that Saul's army was defeated by the Philis- 
tines, and he and his three sons perished. The Philistines, finding the next 
day his body and those of his sons, cut off their heads, and fastened them to 
the wall of Beth-shan. The men of Jabesh-Gilead; a city on the other 
side of the Jordan, a few miles farther down, crossing at one of the ford- 
ing-places leading to Beisan (Robinson, 3, p. 325), came by night, and 
removing the bodies from the wall "came to Jabesh, and burned them 
there. And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree in 
Jabesh, and fasted seven days." 1 Sam. 31:8-13. 

The site of Succoth is uncertain. Burckhardt (Travels in Syria, p. 345) 
mentions the ruins of a place called Suklwt, six miles or more below Beisan, 
but without stating clearly on which bank of the river they lay. Robinson 
discovered another ruin called Sdkut on the west side of Jordan, about ten 
miles below Beisan, which he would identify with the Succoth of the Old 
Testament. But that place, notwithstanding Robinson's arguments to 
the contrary (Bib. Res., 3, pp. 310-312), certainly lay east of the Jordan. 
It was allotted to the tribe of Gad, whose possessions were on that side of 
the river (Josh. 13:27); and it was after Gideon had passed over the Jor- 
dan, in pursuing the Midianites, that he asked the men of Succoth for 
bread. Judg. 8:4, 5. The same position is assigned to it by Jerome, 
according to the fair interpretation of his words (Quest, on Gen. 33:16): 
"There is at this day a city of this name beyond Jordan, in the region of 
Scythopolis. " ' ' But it is just possible, " says Porter (in Alexander's Kitto), 



PALESTINE. 157 

"that the name may have been transferred from the ancient town on the 
east side to a more modern village on the west." Ritter is inclined to 
assume two places of this name, one on the east side of the Jordan, the 
other on the west. His argument for a western Succoth, from the. fact 
that Solomon had his foundery "in the clay-ground between Succoth and 
Zarthan" (1 Kings 7:46), deserves consideration. It is in the highest 
degree improbable that the brazen sea, the brazen oxen, and the other 
heavy articles mentioned in the context should have been cast on the other 
side of the Jordan. As to the position in latitude, there is no difficulty in 
respect to either the Sukkot of Burckhardt or the Sakut of Robinson. 
Jacob had declined Esau's offer to accompany him, preferring to proceed 
at his leisure. * ' So Esau returned that day " — from the ford of the Jabbok — 
"on his way unto Seir, and Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a 
house, and made booths for his cattle : therefore the name of the place is 
called Succoth," that is, hootlis. Gen. 33: 16, 17. The fact, therefore, that 
the places in question lie north of the direct road from the Jabbok to 
Shechem, the next place to which Jacob removed, .constitutes no difficulty. 

The ford of Beih-harali, that is, place of crossing (Judg. 7:24 compared 
with 8:4), was undoubtedly in this vicinity. The '^ Bethabara beyond 
Jordan, Avhere John was baptizing, according to the received text of John 
1:28, would naturally be the same place. But if we adopt the more 
approved reading Bethania, the site is unknown. 

Where '^^non near to Salim'' (John 3:23) lay can be only conjectured. 
It is not certain that it "was in the Jordan valley, ^non is an Aramaic 
plural signifying springs. The places claimed for it are, (1) some ancient 
ruins with a copious fountain in the plain of the Jordan eight miles south 
of ScythopoUs. This seems to be the Salim of Eusebius and Jerome 
(Onomasticon, art. ^non); (2) the Salim in the plain of Mukhna east of 
Nabulus, where are also fountains ; (3) a large fountain in "Wady Suleim, 
about six miles northeast of Jerusalem. So Barclay (City of the Great 
King, pp. 558, seq.), according to whose description it is indeed a place of 
" much water." 

The precise place of our Lord's baptism is unknown. The two places 
claimed by the Greek and Latin pilgrims respectively have been already 
noticed. See above. No. 16. 

IV. THE DEAD SEA AND ITS VICINITY. 

23. The p?ace of the Dead sea, in the long deep chasm 
extending from the E-ed sea to the base of Hermon, and con- 
tinued thence to Antioch (No. 1 above), is determined by its 



168 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

greatest depression. It lies in the lowest part of this valley, its 
surface being at the astonishing depth of one thousand three 
hundred feet below the level of the Mediterranean. Its greatest 
depth, according to the soundings of Lieutenant Lynch, is one 
thousand three hundred and eight feet; the eastern brow of 
the overhanging mountain on the western side Robinson gives 
at one thousand three hundred feet, or almost precisely the level 
of the Mediterranean, while Jerusalem is two thousand six 
hundred feet higher, i. e., two thousand six hundred feet, above 
the Mediterranean. Phys. Geog., p. 35. Hence we have the 
following remarkable gradation : 

Descent from Jerusalem to the brow of the overhanging 

mountain on the west side 2,600 feet. 

Descent from the brow to the surface of the sea 1,300 " 
Greatest depth of the sea 1,300 " 

Total descent to the bottom of the sea . . . 5,200 " 
No open chasm of like depression is known to exist elsewhere 
on the globe. The small lake Assal, on the eastern coast of 
Africa, nearly southwest of the straits of Babelmandel, which is 
of an oval form, and about thirty-two miles in circumference, is 
said to be seven hundred feet below the level of the sea. 
According to the survey of the Russian government, the surface 
of the Caspian sea is but eighty-four feet below the level of the 
ocean. 

Lyn ell's soundings give tlie depth of the sea at the time of his survey. 
It is well known that this varies to the extent of ten or fifteen feet. See 
below. The survey in 1865 made the depression of the surface at that 
time one thousand two hundred and ninety-two feet, which is twenty-five 
feet less than that given by Lynch, and twenty feet less than the same 
depression according to Symo.nds. The greatest depth of sea in the lake 
is that opposite to the eastern mountains between the wadys Zurka Main 
and Mojib. Lynch's soundings slio\V that the slope of the bottom of the 
west side is comparatively moderate, while on the east it is very steep. 
See in his Expedition to the Dead Sea and the Jordan the chart opposite 
to p. 268. The axis of greatest depth lies in a line drawn from the north 
end to near the southern peninsula somewhat east of the middle ; and this 
constitutes a real, though not perfectly straight continuation of the inner 



PALESTINE. 159 

valley of the Glior, tlirongh which the Jordan flows. South of the penin- 
sula the depth nowhere much exceeds two fathoms. 

24. The extent of the Dead sea, as to both surface and depth, 
is determined, on the one hand, by the quantity of water con- 
veyed to it b^^ the Jordan, and on the other by the amount 
of evaporation from its surface, these two opposite factors always 
balancing each other in the long run. But since both vary with 
the different seasons of the year, and the quantity of water with 
different years also, it follows that the amount of water in the 
sea must vary also ; its depth some ten or fifteen feet, and its 
length on the flats at its southern end two or three miles. Its 
length, as determined by Lynch and his party, is forty geo- 
graphical miles, and its breadth from nine to nine and three- 
fourths geographical miles. 

About two hundred and thirty feet above the present level of the sea 
there are, according to Tristram (Land of Israel, p. 256 and elsewhere), 
traces of an ancient shore-line, showing that the water once stood at that 
level. This, however, seems to have been long before the historic period. 
Tristram also speaks (p. 278) of "no less than eight low gravel terraces, 
the ledges of comparatively recent beaches distinctly marked above the 
present high-water mark. The highest of these was forty-four feet above 
the present level of the sea." As to the terraces of which he speaks in the 
old secondaiy limestone, about the present level of the Mediterranean 
(p. 247), these belong to a remote geological era, and need not be here 
discussed. 

25. In the vast cZeep chasm above described lies the Dead 
sea, "shut in," says Eobinson (Phys. Geog., p. 211), "on both 
sides by ranges of precipitous mountains, their bases sometimes 
jutting out into the water, and again retreating so as to leave 
a narrow strip of shore below." The same author estimates the 
general height of the overhanging brow on the western side at 
one thousand three hundred feet, with cHffs rising still higher. 
The brow on the eastern side is higher and steeper, the ridges 
and precipices which slope down from the mountainous crest 
on the east "in wild confusion to the shore of the Dead sea, 
some five thousand feet below," terminating "in a series of per- 



160 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

pendicular cliffs from twelve hundred to two thousand feet above 
the water." Phys. Geog., p. 61. These mighty walls are cleft, 
sometimes to their bases, by the deep valleys and gorges that 
issue from the mountains, and, except in the vicinity of the few 
fountains or streams of fresh water, present a scene of utter 
sterility and deathlike solitude. "All is irregular and wild," 
says Eobinson (ubi supra), " presenting scenes of savage grand- 
eur." The mountains on the western side are mainly lime- 
stone, passing at the southern end into naked chalk-hills and 
indurated marl. On the east appears with the limestone a 
' sandstone undercliff," as Anderson calls it (Official Report of 
Lynch's Expedition, p. 190), particularly around Wady Mojib 
(the Arnon of the Old Testament), and along the shore farther 
north. On the northeast coast of the lake igneous rocks also 
make their appearance. 

The low belt of shore noticed above is of varying width, 
from a mere strip to a mile and more. It extends around the 
southern end of the lake and along the western side, inter- 
rupted, however, by the two cliffs called Eas Mersed and Eas 
el-Feshkhah (see the map), which project their bases into the 
water, and entirely cut off the road along the shore. For this 
reason the marauding parties which come from the east around 
the south end of the lake ascend now, as in ancient days, by 
the pass of En-gedi. See Eobinson, Bib. Ees., 1, pp. 508, 509, 
530. The contour of this strip of shore is not regular, but has 
indentations and shoal-like points running out into the lake, 
especially in the southern part. 

A striking feature of the Dead sea is, the peninsula in the 
southern part, which sets out on the eastern side opposite to 
Kerak. The Arabs call it Lisa)'>, the tongue. It bears a general 
resemblance to the human foot, the toe projecting north and 
the ankle forming the connection with the main land. Its 
length from heel to toe is about nine miles. The main body is 
composed of layers of marl, gypsum, and sandy conglomerate. 
The top is a table-land broad towards the south, but narrowing 
to a serried edge at the northern extremity. It is connected 



PALESTINE. 161 

with the main land by a strip of low bare sand measuring five 
miles across. See farther, Porter in Alexander's Kitto ; Robin- 
son, Bib. Ees., 1, pp. 518, 519. 

On the south of the sea is "a naked miry plain called 
Sabkhah, ten miles long from north to south by about six wide. 
It is in summer coated with a saline crust, but is so low that 
when the water is high a large section of it is flooded. Numer- 
ous torrent-beds from the salt range on the west" (see below, 
No. 27), "and from the higher ground of the Arabah on the 
south, run across it, converting large portions into impassable 
swamps. On its southern border the old diluvium terrace rises 
like a white wall to the height of more than two hundred feet." 
Porter as above. This chalky wall constitutes the cliffs of 
Akrabbim already noticed. To the Arabs it is the line of divis- 
ion between that part of this long valley on the north called the 
Ghor and that on the south called the Arahah. At the northern 
end of the lake, where the Jordan enters it and farther west, is 
a plain of less extent, covered with a nitrous crust, through 
which the feet of men and horses sink, as in ashes, up to the 
ankles. Eobinson, Bib. Ees., 1, p. 535. Just west of the 
Jordan it projects into the lake a mile or more, and is partly 
covered at high water. To these miry salt flats and sw^amps, 
particularly those at the southern end of the sea, the prophet 
Ezekiel refers, when speaking of the river which he saw in 
vision flowing out of the sanctuary, and which gave life wher- 
ever it went (chap. 47:1-10). "But the miry places thereof" 
(he adds, ver. 11) " and the marshes thereof shall not be healed : 
they shall be given to salt." They are not healed, because the 
water of the river does not reach them; and they represent, 
symbolically, those nations that do not receive the life-giving 
waters of salvation which flow out to the world from God as 
their source through Christ and the ordinances of his church. 

26. The extraordinary depression of the Dead sea, sunk as 
it is in its deep caldron between enormous walls of naked rock, 
and exposed for seven or eight months in the year to the bla- 
zing beams of the sun poured down from an unclouded sky, fur- 



162 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

nishes a sufficient explanation of its excessive heat and tlie trop- 
ical plants that appear on its borders wherever there is fresh 
water. In April Lieutenant Lynch found the thermometer 
ranging between seventy and ninety degrees. Under the influ- 
ence of a sirocco it rose, April 26, at eight o'clock P. M., to 
one hundred and six degrees. The next day it stood with a 
west wind at ninety-six degrees. The heat of summer is unen- 
durable to all except the native Arabs. Aside from the intense 
heat, it does not appear that the air of the Dead sea is more 
noxious than in the northern part of the Ghor. 

Tacitus (Hist., 5. 7) relates the story respecting the production of 
ashes in the fruits that grow on the border of this sea : " All things that 
grow spontaneously or are sown by man, whether slender herbs or flow- 
ers, as soon as they have attained to their customary form, become black 
and empty, and vanish into the appearance of ashes." And he gives cre- 
dence to the report of pestilential vapors arising from its waters, which 
corrupt the circumambient air and cause the fruits and crops to perish. 
Robinson adds (Bib. Res., 1, p. 511) the legends reported by Brocardus 
and Quaresmius, that this sea ''continually sends up a smoke and cloud 
like an infernal furnace. Wherever the vapor arising from that sea is 
driven, there the products of the earth perish, as if touched by frost; and 
that it is "a most fetid pool of infernal blackness, having a horrible odor." 
Dense vapors do indeed arise from the lake, but they are neither offensive 
nor pestilential. The offensive odors perceived at certain points are due 
to hot sulphureous springs, several of which are described by Tristram, on 
the western shore, having a strong smell of sulphur and rotten eggs (Land 
of Israel, pp. 279, 301) ; but these phenomena are local, and not peculiar 
to the shores of the Dead sea. As to the legend of pestilential vapors, it 
is sufficient to say that wherever fresh water is found there is a profusion 
of vegetable and animal life — ^jungles of tall canes, with acacias, oleanders, 
tamarisks, fig-trees, and other tropical plants, and multitudes of birds 
which fly with impunity over the surface of the waters. 

27. The most remarkable feature of the southern shore is 
the line of hills called by the Arabs Kliaslim Usdum, Bidge of 
Sodom, first described in modern times by Seetzen, and after- 
wards more fully explored by Robinson and other travellers. 
It is a ridge running from northwest to southeast along the 
southwestern part of the southern bay for the distance of seven 



PALESTINE. 163 

miles with an average elevation, according to Porter, of three 
hundred feet, and composed of solid rock-salt, the top and sides 
being overlaid with "a loose crust of gravel, rolled flints, and 
gypsum, but chiefly with a chalky marl." Tristram, p. 322. 
"The declivities of the range are steep and rugged, pierced 
with huge caverns, and the summit shows a serried line of shai-p 
peaks. The salt is of a greenish white color, with lines of cleav- 
age as if stratified, and its base reaches far beneath the present 
surface." Porter in Alexander's Kitto. "In several places," 
says Tristram (p. 322), " we found the ground hollow, and ech- 
oing under our feet as we walked along the shore ; and in some 
the crust has given way, and a laden camel has suddenly disap- 
peared from the file of a caravan, and been salted to death 
below. The layers of rock-salt are frequently contorted con- 
formably with the overlying marl and gypsum." Journeying 
along the shore between this salt ridge and the sea, Robinson 
passed over a naked tract full of salt-drains, sluggish and dead. 
Lumps of nitre were scattered along the base, of which his com- 
pany picked up one as large as the fist. Farther south they 
passed two purling rills, beautifully limpid, coming down from 
near the base of the mountain, " as salt as the saltest brine." 
Bib. Res., 2, p. 115. In this salt mountain we have an abun- 
dant explanation of the intense saltness of the water of the Dead 
sea. Without any outlet, it has been for scores of centuries 
drinking in the briny streams from Khashm Usdum. There are 
also hidden deposits of salt, apparently subterranean branches 
of this mountain ; for Tristram speaks of " a marsh fed by innu- 
merable salt springs oozing out through the mud," at the mouth 
of Wady Zuweirah, some two miles north of the ridge (p. 319). 

In some valley (Heb. Ge) adjacent to this salt mountain we 
must, in all probability, place the valley of salt (2 Sam. 8 : 13 ; 
1 Chron. 18 : 12 ; Psa. 60, title) ; also the city of salt, Josh. 15 : 62. 

28. Although the traces of volcanic action in the form of 
craters and recently ejected lava are not very marked around 
the Dead sea, yet the volcanic character of the region must be 
admitted. This appears especially from the hot springs around 



1G4 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

the border of the lake, and from the fact that the valley in which 
it Hes belongs to a district subject to earthquakes. 

Lyell's definition of volcanic action is, "the influence exerted by the 
heated interior of the earth on its external covering." Principles of Geol- 
ogy, chap. 22. Of such influence the region around the Dead sea presents 
distinct traces. Tristram describes a sulphur hot spring north of Ras 
Mersed on the western shore, ther. ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit; another 
south of En-gedi, ther. eighty-eight degrees. Land of Israel, pp. 279, 
301. Then there are on the eastern side the celebrated hot springs of 
Callirrhoe, in the Wady Zurka Main, near its mouth, which send down a 
copious stream of hot sulphureous water to the sea amid thickets of canes, 
palms, and tamarisks. Lynch found the temperature of the stream one 
mile up the chasm ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit (Expedition, p. 370); 
and the springs themselves are much hotter. See below, No. 32. Accord- 
ing to Seetzen, another large brook of hot water enters the Dead sea a lit- 
tle farther south, coming from another cluster of hot springs. De Saulcy 
also found a copious" hot spring at the northeastern corner of the sea ; 
and there is another at its southeastern angle. 

The presence of sulphur around the Dead sea has also been adduced in 
proof of the volcanic character of the region ; but Lartet thinks it is formed 
by the reduction of the gypsum beds, according to a well-known action 
often observed elsewhere. We add, however, an interesting extract from 
Tristram (pp. 354, 355), in which he describes a formation in Wady 
Mahauwat, just north of the salt mountain. Here are "large masses of 
bitumen mingled with gravel. These overlie a thin stratum of sulphur, 
which again overlies a thicker stratum of sand, so strongly impregnated 
with sulphur that it yields powerful fumes on being sprinkled over hot 
coals. Many great blocks of bitumen have been washed down the gorge, 
and lie scattered over the plain below, along with large boulders, and other 
traces of tremendous floods." Respecting this appearance, Tristram sug- 
gests the following explanation, which we give without comment : "The 
whole appearance points to a shower of hot sulphur and an irruption of 
bitumen upon it, which would naturally be calcined arid impregnated by 
its fumes, and this at a geological period quite subsequent to all the dilu- 
vial and alluvial action of which we have such abundant evidence." 

As to earthquakes, Lyell remarks that "the violent shock which devas- 
tated Syria in 1837 was felt on a line five hundred miles in length by ninety 
in breadth; more than six thousand joersons perished; deep rents were 
caused in solid rocks, and new hot springs burst out at Tabereah." Prin- 
ciples of Geology, chap. 27. The same author notices the periodical alter- 
nation of earthquakes in Syria and Southern Italy, and says, * ' W6 may 
suppose Southern Italy and Syria to be connected, at a much greater depth, 



PALESTINE. 165 

"with a lower part of the very same system of fissures; in which case, any 
obstruction occun-ing in one duct may have the effect of causing ahnost all 
the vapor and melted matter to be forced up the other ; and if they can- 
not get vent, they may be the cause of violent eartlft[uakes " (chap. 22). 

As to the existence of ancient coulees — lava-streams — terminating in the 
lake on the eastern side, see Lartet in Bitter's Geog. of Palestine, 3, pp. 
367, 368. 



29. That bitumen exists in vast masses, at the bottom of the 
southern bay at least, is manifest from the fact of its being 
thrown up after earthquakes. Josephus says (Jewish War, 4. 
8. 4) that it " throws up in many places masses of black asphal- 
tum, which float upon the surface in form and size resembling 
headless oxen." Diodorus Siculus, as quoted by Robinson, rep- 
resents the masses as covering sometimes two or three jMhra 
(the Greek plethron was about a quarter of an acre), and having 
the appearance of islands. After the earthquake of January, 
1837, a large mass of bitumen, described by the Arabs as an 
island or as a house, was thrown up and driven aground on the 
w^est side, not far from Usdum. Robinson, Bib. Res., 1, p. 518. 
That the bitumen is not confined to the bottom of the sea 
appears from the statements of Tristram quoted above. Tris- 
tram also speaks of a large vein of the bituminous stone called 
" stink-stone " at the northwestern part of the lake, mixed with 
flints and pebbles, and forming the matrix of a very hard con- 
glomerate of gravel and flints. " When thrown into the fire, it 
burnt with a sulphureous smell, but would not ignite at the 
flame of a lamp" (p. 254). 

30. The ivater of the Dead sea " has a slightly greenish hue, 
and is not entirely transparent; but objects seen through it 
appear as if seen through oil. It is most intensely and intoler- 
ably salt, and leaves behind a nauseous bitter taste, like Glau- 
ber's salts." Robinson, 1, p. 50?. The statements of the an- 
cients as to its buoyancy are fully confirmed by modern obser- 
vation. "Although," says Robinson, "I could never swim 
before, either in fresh or salt water, yet here I could sit, stand, 
lie, or swim in the water without difficulty." Wherever the 



166 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

skin is broken its waters have an irritating effect. The shore is 
lined with drift-wood brought down from the Jordan and the val- 
leys that open into it from the mountains. 

We add a single analysis of its waters made by Prof. Booth of Phila- 
delphia with water from the depth of 1,110 feet, by which it appears that 
more than a quarter consists of various salts held in solution. Specific 
gravity at sixty degrees, 1.22742. 

Chloride of magnesium 145.8971 

'' calcium 31.0746 

" sodium (common salt) 78.5537 

" potassium , . . . 6.5860 

Bromide of potassium 1.3741 

Sulphate of lime , . . . . 0.7012 

264.1867 
Water 735.8133 

1000.0000 
In water of such a character it is obvious that no living thing can exist. 
The fishes brought down into it from the Jordan inevitably perish. 

31. In the above description, the various names applied to 
this extraordinary lake find a ready explanation. 

The salt sea. Gen. 14 : 3 ; Numb. 34 : 3, 12 ; Deut. 3:17; Josh. 
3:16; 15:2,5; 18:19. 

The sea of the Arahali; in our version, sea of the plain. Deut. 
3:17; 4:49*; 2 Kings 14:25. 

The east sea, in distinction from the Mediterranean, which is 
called the ivestern sea. Ezek. 47 : 18 ; Joel 2 : 20. 

The above are the only scriptural names applied to it. Jose- 
phus calls it the asphaltic lake, from the asphaltum or bitumen 
above described ; and in the Talmud it is called the sea of Sodom. 
The modern Arabic name, Bahr Lut, sea of Lot, is suggested by 
the history of Lot. The name Dead sea is most appropriate to 
a lake in which no living thing is found, and on whose shores, 
moreover, desolation reigns, broken only by a few small oases. 

32. The geographer finds no cities or villages to be described 
on the shores of the Dead sea. There are, however, some points 
of interest on or near its shores which may detain us a few mo- 
ments. 



•PALESTINE. 167 

The pass of En-gedi has akeady been alluded to. It lies on the western 
shore, about midway between the northern and the southern end. Here, 
at the elevation of more than four hundred feet above the level of the sea, 
the beautiful fountain of Ain Jidy — the Arabic equivalent of En-gedi — 
bursts forth upon a sort of narrow terrace or shelf of the mountain. The 
fountain is limpid and sparkling, with a copious stream of sweet water of 
the temperature of eighty-one degrees, which rushes down the steep 
descent, its course being hidden by a luxuriant thicket of canebrake, with 
trees and shrubs belonging to a more southern clime. Among the latter 
Robinson notices the Seyal, which produces gum-arabic, the lote-tree of 
Egypt, the Osher or apple of Sodom described above, the el-Henna or 
*'camphire," the egg-plant nightshade, or mad-apple. At the fountain 
are the remains of several buildings apparently ancient, though the main 
site of the ancient town seems to have been farther below. The right dis- 
tribution of water, with skilful culture, would make it now, as anciently, a 
delightsome place. Josephus says (Antiq., 9. 1. 2) that here were pro- 
duced the choicest palms and opobalsam. No wonder that Solomon, who 
delighted in every thing rare, had here his pleasure-grounds (Cant. 1:14), 
for in this tropical clime flourished plants unknown to the mountains and 
even the Mediterranean plain. 

Robinson describes the pass of En-gedi as frightful, the path descending 
by zigzags along ledges or shelves on the perpendicular face of the cliff. 
Yet, as already remarked, the great Arab road ascends this pass, and it 
was by this pass that the Moabites and Ammonites came up against King 
Jehoshaphat. 2 Chron. 20:1, 2. The more ancient name Hazezoii-tamar 
(Gen. 14: 7 ; 2 Chron. 20: 2) means, according to Ge&enin?,, pruning of palms; 
acccording to Fiirst, row of palm-trees. The Ascent of Ziz (2 Chron. 20: 16) 
seems to have been this very pass. Josephus defines the word Zlz to mean 
2-)rominence. Antiq., 9. 1. 2. *'The wilderness of En-gedi" (1 Sam. 24:1) 
was the wilderness behind this pass. Now, as anciently, it has innumera- 
ble caverns, in any one of which David and his men could find refuge. 
1 Sam. 24:3. 

No perennial stream breaks through the mountains on the western side. 
On the eastern side is the Zurka Main, entering the sea through a deep 
chasm of red and yellow sandstone. The stream at the mouth is a copious 
brook, descending with great velocity. Above in the valley are the hot 
springs called by the ancients Callirrhoe, the water of which is quite hot, 
but not boiling. The hand cannot be held in it for half a minute. See 
the authorities in Robinson, Pliys. Geog., p. 179. Seetzen relates that 
half an hour south another large brook of hot water enters the sea. 

Farther south is the Arnon of the Old Testament, now called Wady 
Mojih, flowing at the bottom of a deep chasm formed by perpendicular 
cliffs of red, brown, and yellow sandstone, looking as if ** formed by some 



168 SACKED GEOGEAI^HY. 

tremendous convulsion of the earth." Robinson, Phys. Geog., p. 181. 
Its stream flows over a rocky bed ; and when Lynch saw it, May 3, 1848, 
it was eighty-two feet wide and four feet deep. In summer it is nearly ov 
quite dry, but very large and powerful during the rainy season. Still far- 
ther south, opposite to the peninsula, is the Wadi/ Kerak, in many places 
a wild chasm of great depth. In winter it sends down a powerful stream, 
which flows, however, only in the rainy season. Lynch's Expedition, pp. 
352-354. 

Two or three permanent streams enter the southern bay on the eastern 
side. Here, at the mouth of Wady-es-Safieh, is a well-watered oasis like 
that about Jericho, only with a more tropical climate. Farther north, 
where Wady Kerak opens, is another. The plain at the northeastern end, 
also, is in general well watered, and covered with a luxuriant vegetation. 

On the western side of the sea, towards the south, just beyond Wady 
Seyal, and opposite to the peninsula, is seen the ruin called by the Arabs 
Sebbeh, and which has been satisfactorily identified as the renowned for- 
tress of Masada, the last refuge of the Jewish zealots after the destruction 
of Jerusalem. * ' Here occurred the last horrible act of the great Jewish 
tragedy. The whole garrison, at the persuasion of their leader, Eleazer, 
devoted themselves to «elf-destruction, and chose out ten men to massacre 
all the rest. This was done, and nine hundred and sixty persons, including 
women and children, perished. Two females and five boys alone escaped. " 
Robinson, from Josephus (Bib. Res., 1, p. 526). The ruins are of great ex- 
tent, occupying the truncated summit of a lofty isolated rock, described by 
Robinson as "apparently inaccessible ;" but which has been since his visit 
to the Dead sea repeatedly climbed and described. Tristram, who, in Janu- 
ary, 1864, climbed to the summit, has given a description of the stupen- 
dous fortifications of Masada with various drawings. Land of Israel, pp. 
303-313. 

We may notice here, as often visited in connection with the Jordan and 
Dead sea, the ancient convent of Mar Saba, founded in the sixth century, 
and once an institution of great eminence. It lies about three hours from 
the sea, on the border of the Wady Nar, a continuation of the Kidron, in 
a wild and romantic situation, and in the heart of a frightful wilderness. 
Of this convent, with its history and appointments, the reader may find 
an account in Ritter's Geog. of Palestine, 3, pp. 86-91. See also Tristram's 
Land of Israel, pp. 259-270. 

V. DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND THE NEIGHBORING 

CITIES. 

33. The belief once prevalent that the Dead sea was formed 

in its ivJiole extent at the time when Sodom and the neighboring 



PALESTINE. 169 

cities were destroyed is found to be untenable, and is abandoned 
by common consent. The Jordan can never have flowed into 
the Ked sea within the historic period ; consequently there must 
always have been a lake in the lowest part of this long valley. 
Nor is this inconsistent with the scriptural narrative, which 
requires only that "the vale of Siddim" be now covered with 
its waters. Gen. 14 : 3. 

According to Bertou, the summit of the water-shed in the Arabah south 
of the Dead sea is about the latitude of Petra, and is five hundred and 
twenty-five feet above the ocean ; but M. Vignes gives from his baromet- 
rical observations a much greater elevation — 787.44 feet. See Eitter's 
Geog. of Palestine, 3, p. 360. 

34. The question respecting the mode in which the enormous 
chasm of the Dead sea and the valley north and south of it was 
formed belongs to geology. We simply remark that, upon any 
theory, there must have been an enormous subsidence, occupy- 
ing perhaps a vast period of time ; for the whole valley from 
the sea of Galilee to a point considerably south of the Dead sea 
lies below the level of the ocean — the surface of the sea about- 
one thousand three hundred feet and its bottom two thousand 
six hundred feet. The simplest hypothesis would seem to be 
that proposed by Dr. Edward Hitchcock in 1850, and advocated 
at length by Lartet in the Appendix to the third volume of Eit- 
ter's Geography of Palestine. This hypothesis assumes a vast 
hue of fracture in the direction of north and south, with a down- 
ward movement along the line of dislocation on the western 
side, producing the depressed trench which separates Palestine 
proper from the high lands on the eastern side. 

35. It has been generally assumed, in accordance with the 
statements of Josephus (Jewish War, 4. 8. 2, 4), that Zoai\ and 
consequently the cities of the plain, lay at the southern end of 
the Dead sea. Mr. Grove (in Smith's Bible Diet.) maintains 
that they were at the northern end. His chief argument is drawn 
from the fact that (Sodom and the neighboring cities lay in the 
circuit (Jcikkar) of the Jordan, a name naturally belonging to the 
valley through w^hich the Jordan flows. 

8 



170 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

Beyond contradiction, the region surveyed by Lot from his position 
"between Beth-el and Hai " (Gen. 13 : 3), when "he lifted up his eyes, and 
beheld the whole circuit of the Jordan " (ver 10), lay at the north end of 
the sea. We need not press the words, "the whole circuit of the Jordan," 
as if Lot actually surveyed it in its entire extent. The circuit extended 
north as far as Succoth (1 Kings 7:46), consequently far beyond the scope 
of Lot's vision. What he saw represented the general character of the 
circuit. It is, however, somewhat difficult to suppose that the term circuit 
{kikkar) of the Jordan was extended to the then fertile plain south of the 
Dead Sea, as it must have been if Sodom lay there. The other arguments 
adduced by Mr. Grove are of subordinate value. 

Against the hypothesis of Mr. Grove, and in favor of the common belief, 
may be alleged, (1) the situation of Zoar, which Josephus, Eusebius, and 
Jerome place at the southern end of the Dead sea. Their statements Mr. 
Grove admits, but suggests that the Zoar of the Pentateuch was a different 
place. This assumption of two places named Zoar should not be admitted 
without stronger proof than exists at present ; (2) the scriptural state- 
ments respecting the vale of Siddim, which we naturally seek to find in the 
vicinity of the cities of the plain. It was "full of slime-pits," and was, 
moreover, w hen the book of Genesis was written, a part of the Salt sea. 
Gen. 14:3, 10. Both these statements are satisfied by the assumption that 
this vale is now covered by the shallow southern bay of the Dead sea. 
That the bottom of this bay contains deposits of bitumen is evident from 
the masses that are thrown up after earthquakes (see abov^e. No. 29); and 
that a slight subsidence of this part of the valley may have taken place in 
connection with the catastrojphe of Sodom or soon afterwards is surely not 
incredible in a valley like this, formed apparently by a series of enormous 
subsidences. We do not attach any weight to the argument from the name 
Usdum applied to the salt ridge above described, as indicating the exact 
site of Sodom. The Zoar of Josephus lay on the other side of the Arabah, 
too far removed from Usdum to allow of Lot's flight thither. The reader 
will find the question of the site of Sodom discussed at length by Dr. Sam- 
uel Wolcott in the Bibliotheca Sacra for 1868, p. 112, seq, 

36. All that is known respecting the manner in which the 
cities of the plain were destroyed can be stated in few words. 
It is not said that the bituminous soil on which they stood was 
set on fire and consumed by lightnings from heaven, though 
this may be true ; nor that the sea rushing into the void thus 
created converted the plain into a part of itself, though this 
also may have happened. The scriptural statement is, that 
" the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone 



PALESTINE. 171 

and fire from the Lord out of heaven." It was then by a shower 
of "brimstone and fire" from heaven that Sodom and Gomor- 
rah were destroyed. There is no reason for departing from the 
literal meaning of the narrative. The words "brimstone and 
fire" naturally mean either burning brimstone, or masses of 
brimstone not ignited (perhaps a mixture of sulphur and bitu- 
men), mingled with burning lumps of the same. Such a shower 
would be sufficient to overthrow " those cities, and all the cir- 
cuit ilcikhar), and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which 
grew upon the ground," and to cause the smoke of the land to 
go up as the smoke of a furnace. It is not necessary to sup- 
pose that the brimstone and fire were created in heaven. It is 
more in accordance with the general method of God's providen- 
tial dealings, even where he brings in the element of the mirac- 
ulous, to suppose that he made use of stores ready at hand ; 
that the brimstone and fire were ejected from a fissure opened 
in the plain, and then fell in a burning shower upon the devo- 
ted cities. The submersion of the vale of Siddim, at the time 
of this catastrophe or afterwards, we infer from the words of the 
inspired narrative : " The vale of Siddim, which is the Salt sea." 
Gen. 14 : 3. Whether the site of the cities was also submerged 
is a question which we may well leave undecided. Nor need 
we feel bound to determine the manner of the submergence. 
It is, however, a fair inference from the scriptural account (Gen. 
13 : 10) that the desolation produced by this catastrophe was of 
wide extent and permanent in character. 

How great were the changes produced in the Arabah by this catastro- 
phe we have no means of knowing, nor what were its relations to the ridge 
of salt described above. An eruption of brimstone and fire might well be 
connected with a disturbance of the previously existing fountains of the 
plain, perhaps jvith a considerable subsidence — the sinking down, it may 
be, of the vale of Siddim into a cavity previously existing or produced at 
the time. Some have assumed an elevation of the bottom of the sea, by 
which means the vale was overflowed. On this point we need make no ajQfir- 
mation, since the credibility of the inspired narrative docs not depend on 
our ability to determine the manner in which the vale of Siddim became 
the Salt sea. 



172 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

An authentic account of some remarkable elevations and depressions of 
the earth's surface, several of them of vast extent, may be found in Lyell's 
Principles of Geology, chaps. 27-29. These changes were, it is true, con- 
nected with earthquakes, but they give evidence of the existence in some 
regions of subterranean cavities of vast dimensions. Such cavities, we 
know, are especially common in limestone regions. 



PALESTINE. 173 



CHAPTEK V. 

The Region East of the Jordan Valley. 

1. The eastern region occupied by the Israelites is described 
by Joshua as the land " on the other side of Jordan, towards the 
rising of the sun, from the river Arnon unto Mount Hermon, 
and all the Arabah eastward." Josh. 12 : 1. " The Arabah 
eastward," that is, the eastern side of the Jordan valley, has 
already been sufficiently described. The high land from Arnon 
to the base of Hermon the sacred writers comprehend under 
the two divisions of Baslian and Gilead. "We follow this division. 

I. BASHAN. 

2. Under the name Baslian the sacred writers comprehend 
the region extending from the base of Hermon southward to 
the Hieromax, the modern Yarmuk; and on the southeast to 
Salcah, the Sulkhad of the Arabs. Deut. 3:10; Josh. 12:2 
4, 5. This country, with the exception apparently of " the 
Hagarites, with Jetur jind Nephish and Nodab" (in all proba- 
bihty the Ituroea of the Komans, a small province on the north- 
west under the roots of Hermon, subsequently added by con- 
quest to the Hebrew territory, 1 Chron. 5 : 18-23), constituted, 
along with the northern part of Gilead, the dominion of " Og 
the king of Bashan." After his destruction, the territory of Og 
was all given to the half tribe of Manasseh. Deut. 3 : 13. The 
Bashan of the Old Testament comprised, accordingly, the region 
afterwards constituting the four Bom an provinces, Gaulonitis, 
Auranitis, Bataiicea, and TracJionitis ; to which, as we have seen, 
the region afterwards constituting the Boman Iturcea was added 
by later conquest. Of these four provinces Gaulonitis, the mod- 
ern JaiddUj lay on the western flank of Bashan, and Batansea on 



174 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

its extreme eastern border. Between these provinces, in the 
middle belt of Baslian, lay, on the northern border, Trachonitis, 
the Lejali of the modern Arabs, and south of this Auranitis, the 
Hauran of Scripture (Ezek. 47 : 16, 18), a name which the Arabs 
have retained without change to the present day. Ituraea lay 
northeast of Gaulonitis towards the territory of Damascus. 

3. Hermon throws off from its southeastern base a range of 
low, round-topped, picturesque hills called Jebel Heisli. These 
extend south for nearly twenty miles, covered in part with for- 
ests of oak and terebinths. As the ridge runs south, it declines 
in height, until it is lost in the table-land of Gaulonitis east of 
the sea of Galilee. Seen from the west, this region appears as 
a continuous range of purple-tinted mountains rising up ab- 
ruptly from the chasm of the Jordan (Porter, Handbook of 
Syria and Damascus, p. 278), and intersected by deep ravines ; 
but seen from the east, it is found to be an elevated plateau 
upwards of two thousand ^yq hundred feet in height. The 
greater part of Gaulonitis and Auranitis is a level plain, dotted, 
however, here and there with conical hills, on the tops of which 
are seen the remains of ancient fortresses and villages. The 
soil is very rich and well watered, clothed with luxuriant herb- 
age, and adorned with groups of oak-trees and clumps of shrub- 
bery. Batansea, on the contrary, is a mountainous region of 
the most picturesque character. The Druze mountain {Jebel- 
ed-Deruz), running from north-northeast to south-southwest 
some- forty or fifty miles, occupies a large part of this division. 
It is mostly volcanic in character, and has several lofty peaks, 
having an elevation of between five and six thousand feet. The 
scenery of- this mountain is described as most picturesque, and 
its soil is extremely rich, abounding with forests of evergreen 
oak. 

Batanaea is only the Greek form for Bashan, and it is retained in the 
modern Batlianyeh, a name applied to the region and to a small town on 
the northern declivity of the mountain. Hence it has been conjectured, 
not without reason, that Batansea was the original Bashan, the name hav- 
ing been afterwards extended to the whole country north of the Hieromax, 



PALESTINE. 175 

as far as the territory of Damascus. In like manner the term Hauran is 
applied in a wider sense to a large district of plain and mountain bounded 
on the west by the Haj road (the pilgrim caravan road), on the north by 
the territory of Damascus, and on the east by the desert ; and in a stricter 
sense, to the plain south of the Lejali, and east and southeast of Batantea. 
It is in accordance with the wider sense of the term that the mountainous 
ridge of Batanaea is often called by the Franks Jebel Hauran, mountain of 
Hauran. 

The question has been raised whether this mountain is named in the 
Old Testament. In Psa. 68 : 15, 16 we read, according to the most ap- 
proved rendering, " a mount of God is the mount of Bashan ; a mount of 
peaks is the mount of Bashan. Why do ye envy, ye mounts, ye peaks, 
the mountain God hath desired for his habitation ?" Robinson thinks 
that the force of the antithesis between Mount Zion and the mount of 
Bashan requires that the latter be the loftiest of the mountains of Pales- 
tine, and therefore Hermon, "which may be said to cast its shadow over 
the whole land of Bashan." Phys. Geog., p. 57. This reasoning is not 
conclusive. If the sacred writer had Hermon in mind, no reason can be 
assigned why he should not have called it Hermon. The description of 
the mount of Bashan as a mount of peaks applies preeminently, according 
to Robinson's own description, to this ridge with its "many isolated higher 
hills or tells." But the question seems to be settled by a following verse: 
•' The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan ; I will bring my people 
again from the depths of the sea." The poet is evidently at home in the 
scenery of Bashan ; and here he contrasts the fastnesses and hiding-places 
of Mount Bashan on the eastern border of Palestine with the depths of the 
sea on the western border. 

4. North of the plain of Hauran Hes the singularly wild 
region called by the Ai'abs el-LeJah, the Asylum^ as furnishing a 
safe retreat to persecuted persons and outlaws. This is the 
TracJionitis, rough country, of the Greeks and Eomans; and 
[ Porter has shown by satisfactory arguments that it is the Argoh, 
stony region, of the Old Testament, at least the nucleus of that 
region. Five Years in Damascus, 2, pp. 268-272. The Lejah 
is of an oval shape, about twenty-two miles long by fourteen 
wide. The general surface is elevated from twenty to thirty feet 
above the surrounding plain. It is wholly composed of black 
basalt rock, which appears to have issued in past ages from 
innumerable pores in the earth in a liquid state, and to have 
flowed out on every side until the plain was almost covered. It 



176 SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

was afterwards rent aud shattered by internal convulsions. It 
lias a wayy surface, broken by deep fissures and yawning gulfs 
with, jagged edges. The rock is filled with little pits and pro- 
tuberances, like air-bubbles, is as hard as flint, and emits when 
struck a sharp metallic sound. The border is almost every- 
where as clearly defined as the line of a rocky coast, which 
indeed it very much resembles, with its inlets, bays, and prom- 
ontories. Its borders are studded with ancient towns, some of 
them in a wonderful state of preservation. The interior con- 
tains towns also ; one of them, named Dama, having, according 
to Burckhardt, about three hundred houses, most of them still 
in good preservation. Travels in Syria, p. 110. 

In the days of Roman rule Trachonitis was, as it is now, the retreat of 
desperate men who lived by robbery, and plundered the neighboring- 
regions. Josephus describes with minuteness their abodes in caves and 
houses with a single narrow entrance, but within of incredible magnitude. 
Their houses, he tells us, were all built of stone, with low stone roofs ; and 
the access to their retreats was by winding paths, which only a guide could 
know. Antiq., 15. 10. 1. 

5. The few travellers who have enjoyed the privilege of ex- 
amining the region of Bashan are profuse in its praises. Por- 
ter says of its wooded hills and grassy plains, that no part of 
Palestine can be compared with them in fertility. It has a 
deep, black, loamy soil of wonderful productiveness, as is attested 
by the luxuriance of its grass and its teeming crops of grain. 
Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 60. Beautiful undulations of the 
richest herbage, varied with long belts of dense oak forests, 
shrubberies of hawthorn and ilex, and a profusion of bright 
wild flowers, offer themselves to the traveller's gaze. With these 
descriptions accord the scriptural notices of Bashan. The 
"oaks of Bashan," the "bulls of Bashan," and the "rams of 
the breed of Bashan" are familiar to all readers of the Old Tes- 
tament. When the prophets would describe the desolation of 
the promised land they say, " Lebanon is ashamed; it languish- 
eth; Sharon is like the wilderness (Arahah); and Bashan and 
Carmel cast their leaves" (Isa., 33:9); "Bashan languisheth, 



PALESTINE. 177 

and Carmel; and the bloom of Lebanon languislieth." Nalmm 
1 : 4. When they speak of the restoration of Israel in the latter 
day, they say : " I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and 
he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan : and his soul shall be sat- 
isfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead" (Jer. 50 : 19) ; " Feed thy 
people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, dwelling solita- 
rily in the wood in the midst of Carmel : let them feed on Bashan 
and Gilead, as in the days of old." Micah 7 : 14. Thus Bashan 
comes in as one among the noble parts of Palestine. 

6. This region is capable of sustaining, and it did once sus- 
tain, an immense population, as is evident from the remains of 
ancient cities and villages scattered over it ; some of them in ruins, 
but many of them in a remarkable state of preservation. All 
that is needed to restore the ancient prosperity of the region is 
a strong and just government, which should protect the inhab- 
itant from the incursions of the Arab tribes that swarm in the 
eastern desert, and secure to each inhabitant the fruits of his 
industry. But the feeble sway of the Turk fulfils neither of 
these conditions. The merciless exactions of the rulers and the 
ravages of the Bedouins, who come from the east "like grass- 
hoppers for multitude, and their camels without number, as the 
sand by the seaside for multitude" (Judg. 7 : 12), have converted 
the greater part of this fertile region into a desolate wilderness. 
Porter, who was taken captive by a band of Arabs, says : " Par 
as the eye could see, the plain was covered with countless droves 
of camels and flocks of sheep and horsemen and dromedaries 
laden with tents, and all manner of furniiure and utensils." 

Speaking of the conquest of Og the king of Bashan, Moses says : "We 
took all his cities at that time, there was not a city that we took not from 
them, three-score cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in 
Bashan, All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars ; 
besides unwalled towns a great many" (Deut. 3:4, 5); and again (ver. 14), 
*' Jair the son of Manasseh took all the line of Argob unto the boundary of 
the Jeshurite and the Maachathite ; and called them after his own name, 
Bashan-havoth- Jair " (that is, Bashan, the villages of Jair) "unto this day," 
The discoveries of modern travellers show that the foregoing statement 
of three-score cities "fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; besides 

8* 



178 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

unwalled towns a great many," is no exaggeration. Van de Velde's map 
gives the names of more than thirty deserted towns lying around the bor- 
der of the Lejah alone, and there are others in its interior. Such towns 
appear also on the conical hills that are scattered over the plain, as well as 
in the mountains of Batansea. The styles of architecture which they 
exhibit belong to different and distant ages. The massive structures of ■ 
the primitive inhabitants, distinguished for simplicity and strength, and 
many of them remaining perfect to the present day; the magnificent ruins 
of Greek and Roman architecture ; the "miserable little shops and quaint 
irregular houses " of the Saracens — all these offer themselves to the travel- 
ler's notice. 

By far the most interesting are the simple, massive stone houses, with 
stone doors and low stone roofs, which are believed by Porter to be the 
remains of the Rephaim [giants of our version), a gigantic race inhabiting 
this region at the time of the conquest by Israel. "Many of the houses 
in the ancient cities of Basljan," says Porter, speaking of these aboriginal 
dwellings (Giant Cities of Bashan, pp. 19, 20), "are perfect, as if only fin- 
ished yesterday. The walls are sound, the roofs unbroken, the doors, and 
even the window-shutters in their place." "The houses of Bashan are 
not ordinary houses. Their walls are from five to eight feet thick, built of 
large squared blocks of basalt; the roofs are formed of slabs of the same 
material, hewn like planks, and reaching from wall to wall ; the very doors 
and window-shutters are of stone, hung upon pivots projecting above and 
below. Some of these ancient cities have from two to five hundred houses 
still perfect, but not a man to dwell in them. On one occasion, from the 
battlements of the castle of Salcah, I counted some thirty towns and villa- 
ges, dotting the surface of the vast plain, many of them almost as perfect 
as when they were built, and yet for more than five centuries there has 
not been a single inhabitant in one of tJiem." In describing one of these 
houses in which he passed the night, the same author says : ' ' The walls 
were perfect, nearly five feet thick, built of large blocks of hewn stones, 
without lime or cement of any kind. The roof was formed of large slabs 
of the same black basalt, lying as regularly and jointed as closely as if the 
workmen had only just completed them. They measured twelve feet in 
length, eighteen inches in breadth, and six inches in thickness. The ends 
rested on a plain stone cornice, projecting about a foot from each side- 
wall. The chamber was twenty feet long, twelve wide, and ten high. 
The outer door was a slab of stone four and a half feet high, four wide, 
and eight inches thick. It hung upon pivots formed of projecting parts 
of the slab, working in sockets in the lintel and threshold; and though so 
massive, I was able to open and shut it with ease. At one end of the room 
was a small window with a stone shutter." An inner door of stone led to 
another chamber of the same size and appearance. From it a much larger 



PALESTINE. 179 

door led to a third chamber, to which there was a descent by a flight of 
stone steps. This last chamber was a spacious hall twenty-four feet by 
twenty-five, and twenty feet high. From it a camel's gate opened to the 
street. lb. , p. 26. While these simple massive structures, which have all 
the marks of high antiquitj^ remain many of them uninjured, the magnifi- 
cent temples and theatres of the Roman age have fallen into ruin. 

7. Of the ancient towns of Bashan we have room to give 
only a cursory notice of the following : 

Bozrali, that is, fortress, stronghold, stands in the midst of a rich plain 
on the southern boundary of Hauran. It is the Bostra of the Greeks and 
Romans, and the Busrali of the modern Arabs. It was a strong city in the 
time of the Maccabees across the Jordan, "three days' journey in the wil- 
derness" (1 Mac. 5:24, seq.), and became the capital city of the region 
under Roman sway. "It was," says Porter, " one of the largest and most 
splendid cities east of the Jordan. Its walls are four miles in circuit, and 
they do not include the suburbs." On the southern side is the celebrated 
citadel, of great size and strength, and still nearly perfect. Some parts of 
the city walls are still standing, a massive rampart of solid masonry, fifteen 
feet thick, and nearly thirty high, with great square towers at intervals. 
The streets are blocked up with fallen buildings and heaps of rubbish — 
the ruins of theatres, temples, churches, palaces, baths, fountains, aque- 
ducts, triiimphal arches, and other structures, mingled with Saracenic 
remains. "Bozrah," says Porter, "had once a poj^ulation of a hundred 
thousand souls or more ; when I was there its whole inhabitants comprised 
just twenty families. These live huddled together in the lower stories of 
§ome very ancient houses near the castle." 

This Bozrah must be carefully distinguished from the Bozrah of Edom, 
southeast of the Dead sea. The question has been raised whether it is 
mentioned in the Old Testament. Porter thinks that it is once named as 
a city of Moab, in connection with Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, Beth-Meon, 
and Kerioth ( Jer. 48 : 23, 24) ; of which places Beth-gamul certainly be- 
longs to the plain of Hauran. This was at a time when the Moabites had 
repossessed themselves of this whole region. See below, No. 13. For a 
full account of Bozrah, see Porter's Five Years in Damascus, 2, pp. 142- 
169 ; Giant Cities of Bashan, pp. 64-73. 

ScdcaJi, the modern SulkTiad, in the southeastern extremity of Bashan, 
has been long deserted ; yet Porter says (Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 75) 
that "five hundred of its houses are still standing, and from three to four 
hundred families might settle in it at any moment without laying a stone 
or expending an hour's labor on repairs. The circumference of the town 
and castle together is about three miles." 



180 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

In Um el-gemal, mother of camels, some eight or ten miles southwest of 
Bozrah, we may recognize the Beth-gamid, place of camels, of Jeremiah 
cited above. It is another of the deserted cities of Hauran, surrounded 
by high walls, with massive houses of black basalt, ' * in as perfect preserva- 
tion as if the city had been inhabited until within the last few years." 
Porter as above, p. 69. 

Og the king of Bashan is represented as dwelling at Ashtaroth, and twice 
at AslitarotJi and Edrei, at which latter place he was overthrown by the Isra- 
elites. Numb. 21 : 33-35 ; Deut. 1 : 4; Josh. 9 : 10 ; 12 :4; 13 : 12, 31. Edrei 
is probably the modern Edhra, in a very strong position at the southwestern 
angle of the Lejah ; not Dera, some fourteen miles south of Edhra, in the 
open plain. Its ruins are among the most extensive in Hauran. See far- 
ther Porter in Alexander's Kitto ; Five Years in Damascus, 2, pp. 219-228. 
The site of Ashtaroth is unknown. It was probably identical with Ashta- 
roth Karnaim ( Two-horned Astaries, probably so named from the numerous 
images there found of Astai^te, with crescent-like horns, one of which is 
described by Porter, Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 41 and elsewhere), a city 
mentioned in Gen. 14 : 5 ; and also with the Karnain of 1 Maccabees 5 : 43. 
Eusebius places it six Roman miles from Edrei. 

Kunawat, the Kanatha or Kanoiha of the Greeks, is undoubtedly the 
Kenath of the Old Testament. Numb. 32 : 42 ; 1 Chron. 2 : 23. It stands 
in the mountainous region of Batansea, in a beautiful and romantic posi- 
tion. Its magnificent ruins cover a space of one mile long by half a mile 
wide. 

For fuller notices of the deserted cities scattered over this most inter- 
esting region the reader must be referred to the three works of Porter so 
often referred to above, and from which most of our notices have been 
drawn. 

II. GILEAD. 
8. The whole region east of the Jordan, from the Arnon, 
which bounded the kingdom of Sihon on the south (Numb. 
21 : 26), to Bashan, is variously described — as " the land of 
Jazer and the land of Gilead " (Numb. 32 : 1) ; as " all the cities 
of the plain (Heb. Mishor) and all Gilead " (Deut. 3 : 10) ; as 
" all the plain of Medeba unto Dibon, and all the cities of Sihon 
king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, unto the border 
of the children of Ammon, and Gilead." Josh. 13 : 9-11. Com- 
pare also ver. 25 ; 20 : 8 ; Deut. 2 : 36. Gilead, again, is repre- 
sented as divided by the Jabbok, which separated the kingdom 



PALESTINE. 181 

of Sihon from that of Og, into two parts, each called " half Gil- 
ead." Josh. 12 : 2, 5. It would seem, then, that originally Gil- 
ead consisted of two divisions lying north and south of the Jab- 
bok; while farther south lay the region variously designated 
"the land of Jazer," " Jazer and the villages thereof" (Numb. 
21 : 32), " the plain of Medeba," " the land of the plain." Deut. 
4 : 43. But the term Gilead came to be used in a wider sense 
of the whole tract between the Arnon and Bashan, and so we 
employ it here. 

The northern boundary of Gilead is nowhere expressly given. The 
mountain range of Gilead, however, terminates with the Hieromax, which 
enters the Jordan a little south of the sea of Galilee, while north of this 
river the plain of Bashan is spread out. Here, then, is the natural division 
between Bashan and Gilead. By a looseness of expression the term Gil- 
ead seems to have been sometimes applied to the whole region beyond the 
Jordan. Deut. 34 : 1 ; Josh. 22 : 9 ; Judg. 20 : 1. 

The term Mlshor, plain, table-land, is applied, as a geographical term, 
to the highlands of southern Gilead (Deut. 3 : 10 ; 4 : 43 ; Josh. 13 : 9, 16, 
17, 21 ; 20 : 8 ; Jer. 48 : 21), and should not be confounded, as is done in 
our version, with the Shephelah, or lowland of the Mediterranean coast ; nor 
with the ArabaJi, waste, and kikkar, circuit, of the Jordan valley. 

9. South of the Hieromax the mountains that had disap- 
peared rise again, rather suddenly, along the valley of the Jor- 
dan, constituting the northern part of Gilead between the Hie- 
romax and the Jabbok. The western side of these mountains 
presents steep slopes or steps, with intervening terraces and 
fertile tracts. The summit, in the northern parts, forms a broad 
ridge of uneven table-land. Bobinson, Phys. Geog., p. 58. 
This region called Jehel AjJun, Ajlun mountain , is populous and 
well cultivated. The Be v. Eli Smith, who travelled through it 
in 1834, says : " Jebel Ajlun presents the most charming rural 
scenery that I have seen in Syria. A continued forest of noble 
trees, chiefly the evergreen oak {S Indian), covers a large part of 
it, while the ground beneath is clothed with luxuriant grass, 
which we found a foot or more in height, and decked with a 
rich variety of wild flowers. As we went from el-Husn to Ajlun, 
our path lay along the very summit of the mountain, and we 



182 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

often overlooked a large part of Palestine on one side, and the 
whole of Hauran on the other." Second Appendix to Eobin- 
son's Bib. Ees., 3, p. 162, edit. 1841. 

10. " South of the Jabbok, and extending from it to the 
deep chasm of the Arnon, is the range of mountains forming 
the southern part of Gilead." " From the Jabbok and from the 
Jordan valley the mountain rises steeply to a high uneven 
tract, on which, after an interval of two hours, lies the still 
higher ridge of Jebel Jeldd (Gilead), so called from a ruined 
town upon it." Eobinson, Phys. Geog., p. 59. The elevation 
of this mountain is given at three thousand six hundred and 
fifty feet above the Mediterranean. From its summit there is a 
very wide and splendid prospect. The slopes are clothed with 
forests of oak and other trees. Es-Salt, the ancient Ramotli 
Gilead, that is, HeigJits of Gilead, Hes near the southern foot of 
Jebel Jelad. " For six or eight miles south of es-Salt the coun- 
try continues hilly, richly wooded, and picturesque. Farther 
south it spreads out into a high and wide plain, apparently on 
a level with the eastern desert, and bordered towards it by a 
chain of hills." Robinson, Phys. Geog., p. 60. This is the 
3Iislior, plain or table-land, described above, which Eobinson 
thinks to be not less than three thousand feet above the Medi- 
terranean, or four thousand three hundred above the Dead sea. 
lb., p. 61. 

The whole of Gilead south of the Jabbok constitutes the 
modern district el-Belka, tJie Belka. The ridge of the Belka 
rises more gradually from the Jordan valley, but along the 
eastern shore of the Dead sea, all becomes wild and pre- 
cipitous — a bare gray ridge, deeply furrowed by mountain- 
torrents, which cut through it from the high plateau above. 
After ascending some three thousand feet, we come upon an 
irregular table-land, diversified with undulating downs, low 
ridges, and stony tells. It is partially covered with grass such 
as is rarely met with in "Western Palestine, except among the 
hills of Galilee and on the ridge of Carmel. These are the pas- 
ture-lands of Eeuben and Gad. The whole district is well 



PALESTINE. 183 

described as "a land for cattle" (Numb. 32 : 1, 4); and Stanley 
(Sinai and Palestine, pp. 318, 319) well remarks on the impor- 
tant results which followed from the fact that it was on the 
western, not on the eastern side of the Jordan valley, that the 
great body of the Israelites settled. Thus they were made an 
agricultural instead of a nomadic people, and brought into con- 
nection with the western world in the way of both giving and 
receiving. 

It was from one of tliG mountains of the Belka that Moses surveyed the 
promised land : '* Get thee up into this mountain of Abarim, Mount Nebo, 
which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho " (Dent. 32 : 49) ; 
"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto Mount Nebo, the top 
of Pisgali, which is over against Jericho." Deut. 34 :1. "The plains of 
Moab " and "the land of Moab " are so called from the fact that this whole 
region had belonged to the territory of Moab, and had been but recently 
wrested from the Moabites by Sihon king of the Amorites. Numb. 21 ; 26. 
Aharim signifies regions beyond, that is, east of the Jordan valley. "This 
mountain of Abarim " is simply the mountain range on the eastern side, 
opposite to Jericho. The scriptural notices of Pisgali [division] indicate 
that it was a ridge divided into summits, of which the field of Zopliim (Numb. 
23 : 14), Peor (Numb. 23:28), and Neho (Deut. 32 : 49 ; 34 : 1) were parts. 
" Under the springs of Pisgah " (Deut. 3 : 17 ; 4 : 49 ; Josh. 12 : 3) might be 
better rendered, under tlie ravines of Pisgali ; that is, under its western 
brow, which is cut up with ravines ; but either way, the expression is more 
appropriate to a ridge than to a particular summit. * ' The mountain of 
Nebo, the top of Pisgali" (as we may literally render the words), is then 
the summit called Nebo on the ridge of Pisgah. As this ridge lies "over 
against Jericho," we can have no difficulty in identifying it with the high 
mountain brow overlooking the mouth of the Jordan. But which partic- 
ular summit Moses ascended we cannot determine. Tristram (Land of 
Israel, pp. 535-538) describes the "glorious panorama" from these heights, 
extending south "to Mount Hor and Seir, and the rosy granite peaks of 
1 Arabia ;" southwest and west to the ridge of Hebron as far as Bethlehem 
land Jerusalem; northwest to Gerizim, the j^lain of Esdraelon, and "the 
[Utmost sea" beyond ; north to Tabor and Hermon ; northeast to the vast 
iHauran and the tall range of Jebel Hauran, behind Bozrah ; eastward and 
southeastward over the "boundless plain, stretching far into Arabia, till 
lost in tlie horizon — one waving ocean of corn and grass." 

It was from the same heights that Balaam, with Baiak and the i")riuces 
of Moab, surveyed the Israelitish camp lying below on "the plains of 
^loab. " They are called ' ' the high places of Baal " (Numb. 22 : 41) because 



184 SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

Baal was worshipped there, apparently on the top of Peor, whence his 
name Baal-peor. Numb. 25 : 3, 5. From " the field of Zophim on the top 
of Pisgah (Numb. 23 :14) Balaam could see only "the utmost part of the 
people "(ver. 13); but from "the top of Peor that looketh toward Jeshi- 
nion" (the wilderness) "he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to 
their tribes," and exclaimed: "How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and 
thy tabernacles, O Israel ! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gar- 
dens by the river's side, as the trees of lign-aloes which the Lord hath 
planted,' and as cedar-trees beside the waters." Numb. 24 :2, 5, 6. 

Tristram estimates the height of this brow at not less than four thou- 
sand five hundred feet. It is greatly to be regretted that, with such rare 
opportunities for surveying this region, he had neither compass nor 
barometer. 

11. The three principal rivers of Gilead are the Yarmukj the 
JabhoJc, and the Arnon, 

The Yarmuk is the Hieromax of the ancients. It flows along the 
northern border of Gilead, having its remote fountains in the ravines on 
the western slope of Jebel Hauran, and receiving also some tributaries 
from Jebel Heish and Gaulonitis. It exists as a permanent stream only in 
the lower part of its course. Here it flows through a deep and wild ravine, 
the sides of which are rugged cliffs of basalt. North of Um Keis are the 
hot springs of Amatha, rising up in the bottom of the chasm. The water 
is beautifully clear, but has a strong smell of sulphur, and deposits a yel- 
low sulphureous crust upon the stones. They are much resorted to for 
medicinal purposes. 

The Jabhok, now the Nahr ez-Zerka [river Zerka), enters- the Jordan 
nearly opposite Nabulus, and about halfway between the sea of Galilee 
and the Dead sea. It has its remotest sources in the plateau east of the 
mountains, through which it breaks down by a deep chasm to the Jordan. 
In summer the upper branches become dry, and it dwindles to a small 
stream ; but in winter the river is often swollen and impassable. Travel- 
lers describe its banks as fringed throughout nearly its whole course with 
thickets of cane and oleander. It separates, as stated above, the province 
of Jebel Ajlun from the Belka. 

The Zurka Main and the Arno7i, now the Wady el-Mojib, which flows 
into the Dead sea, have been already noticed (Chap. 4, No. 32). The 
Arnon forms the southern boundary of Gilead, separating it from the 
proper territory of Moab. • 

12. This region, now in great part desolate through the 
exactions of the Turkish officials and the ravages of the fierce 



PALESTINE. 185 

Arab tribes, is capable of supporting a numerous population, 
and it contains the ruins of many ancient cities. 

Gadara, the Um Keis of the Arabs, stood on a partially isolated hill at 
the northwestern extremity of the mountains of Gilead, three miles south 
of the Hieromax. Its site is five miles east of the Jordan, and about six 
southeast of the sea of Galilee. It was a large and sjDlendid city, and at 
one time the capital of Peraea. Its ruins occupy a sj^ace of about two 
miles in circuit, and there are traces of the ancient wall all round. At the 
base of the mountain, by the Hieromax, as already remarked, are the cele- 
brated warm springs called Amatlia by the ancients. From Gadara the 
adjacent district is called "the country of the Gadarenes." Mark 5:1; 
Luke 8 : 26. The northeastern declivity is full of tombs excavated in 
the limestone rock, and consisting of chambers of various sizes, some 
above twenty feet square, with deep recesses in the sides for bodies. In 
such tombs the demoniacs whom our Lord healed had their abode. Matt. 
8 : 28 ; Mark 5 : 2, 3, 5 ; Luke 8 : 27. For fuller notices of this place, see 
Porter's Handbook, pp. 319, 320, and his articles in Smith's Bib. Diet, 
and Alexander's Kitto. 

Getrtsa, the modern Jerd^h, lay on the eastern border of Per^ea, some 
twenty miles east of the Jordan, and more than that distance southeast of 
Gadara. Porter says that its ruins are by far the most beautiful and exten- 
sive east of the Jordan. The form of the city was an irregular square, 
each side measuring a mile. It was surrounded by a strong wall, with 
tQwers at intervals, much of which is still in a good state of preservation. 
Three gateways are still perfect ; and within the city upwards of two hun- 
dred and thirty columns remain on their pedestals. See Porter's Handbook, 
pp. 311-316 ; also Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, and Tristram's Land of 
Israel, pp. 560, 561. 

A few miles below Beth-shean, on the opposite side of the valley, there 
comes down from the mountains of Gilead a wady called Yabis, the exact 
Arabic representative of the Hebrew Jahesli. On the south side of the 
wady are the ruins called Maklab, with no hewn stones distinguishable ; 
and farther down on the same side the more extensive ruins known as ed- 
Deir, which Dr. Robinson conjectures to be the site of the ancient Jabesh- 
Gilead. To this Tristram, who visited both ruins in 1864, gives his assent. 
The position answers well to the scriptural notices of Jabesh-Gilead, and 
is, moreover, six miles from Pella, the distance specified by Eusebius and 
Jerome in their Onomasticon, art. Jabis-Galaad. 

Jabesh-Gilead first appears in the Old Testament in connection with 
the terrible vengeance visited upon it by the Israelitish tribes because its 



186 SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

inhabitants had neglected to aid them in punishing the Benjamites (Judg. 
21 :8-12); then again as besieged by the Ammonites and dehvered by Saul 
(1 Sam., chap. 11), an act which they afterwards remembered and requited 
when they secretly removed the headless bodies of Saul and his sons from 
the wall of Beth-shean, burned them, and interred their ashes ''under a 
tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days. " 1 Sam. 31 : 11-13. 

Pella is not named in the Bible, but has become celebrated throughout 
Christendom as the place to which the Christians of Jerusalem withdrew 
for safety before the siege and overthrow of the city by Titus. Eusebius 
(Hist, Eccl. , 3. 5) says that they did this in accordance with a revelation 
made to the approved among them before the war. Eobinson has satis- 
factorily identified the site of Pella in the ruins upon a low flat tell or 
mound standing upon a narrow plain called by the Arabs Tuhakat Fahil, 
Teii^ace of Fahil. It is about six miles from Pella to Jabesh-Gilead, on 
the road across the mountain to Gerasa, as given by Eusebius and Jerome. 
See farther in Robinson's Bib. Res. , 3, jop. 321-325. 

The site of Ramotli- Gilead, that is. Heights of Gilead, has already been 
mentioned as probably that of the village es-Sali, about two miles south- 
east of the highest peak of Mount Gilead. It lay in the territory of Gad. 
Josh. 20 : 8. " The situation is strong and picturesque. The hill on which 
it stands is separated by deep ravines from the higher mountains that 
encompass it ; and its lower slopes are covered with terraced vineyards, 
while the neighboring hillsides and valleys abound with olive groves. On 
the summit stands the castle, a rectangular building with towers at the 
corners, and defended by a deep moat hewn in the rock." Porter in Alex- 
ander's Kitto. It was one of the three cities of refuge east of the Jordan. 
Deut. 4:43. 

The scriptural history of Ramoth-Gilead is well known. In the reign 
of Aliab it was held by the Syrians. This monarch, with Jehoshaphat 
king of Judah, marched against it contrary to the prophetic warning of 
Micaiah, and was mortally wounded in the assault. 1 Kings, chap. 22. 
The struggle was renewed by Joram, the grandson of Ahab (2 Kings 8 : 28, 
29), and apparently with success; for we find Jehu, one of his captains, 
at Ramoth-Gilead. There he was anointed as king in Joram's stead, and 
thence he rode in a chariot to Jezreel, and executed vengeance upon the 
house of Ahab. 2 Kings, chap. 9. 

It would be interesting to know the site of Mahanaim, where the angels 
of God met Jacob (Gen. 32 : 2), and in later times an important walled town. 
Here Abner made Ishbosheth, Saul's son, king after the death of that 
monarch (2 Sam. 2 : 8, 9) ; here David also had his headquarters when he 
fled from Absalom (2 Sam. 17 : 24, 27) ; and to the same place apparently 
tidings of Joab's victory over Absalom and Absalom's death were brought 



PALESTINE. 187 

« 

to David (2 Sam. 18 : 3 compared with verses 24, 33). The search for the 
site of this place has liitherto proved fruitless. Malianaim lay on the bor- 
der between the tribes of Gad and Mr.nasseh (Josh. 13 : 26, 30), and also 
on the western border of the highland of Gilead adjacent to the Jordan 
valley; for when Ahimaaz ran from the fieLl of battle to Malianaim he 
"ran by the way of the circuit (kikkar), and overran Cuslii" (2 Sam. 
18 : 23), who seems to have taken a more direct but rougher route over the 
highland. The coast of Gad, again, extended evidently in a northern 
direction, "from Heshbon unto Ramath-Mizpah and Betonim ;" and then, 
apiDarently in an easterly course, ''from Malianaim unto the border of 
Debir." Josh. 13 : 26. We are to look then for the site of Malianaim in 
the northwestern corner of the highland of Gilead near to the Jabbok ; 
the battle being, as we may suppose, in the heavily-wooded and rough 
region farther south (2 Sam. 18 :6-9), where oak forests abound to the 
present day. See above, No. 9. 

13. The southern part of the Belka east of the Dead sea 
contains the ruins of many ancient cities, some of which have 
preserved more or less perfectly their ancient names, by means 
of which they can be identified. At the time of the conquest of 
Canaan by the Israelites these belonged to the territory of Sihon 
king of the Amorites, " who had fought against the former king 
of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto 
Arnon." Numb. 21 : 26. But upon the decline and fall of the 
kingdom of the ten tribes, which included all the region east of 
the Jordan, the 3Ioabites repossessed themselves of this region ; and 
hence its cities are named by the prophets as belonging to 
Moab. See Isa. chaps. 15, 16; Jer. chap. 48; Ezek. 25:8-11. 
Among these cities may be named Heshbon, Elealeh, Baal- 
meon, Medeba, Kiriathaim, Dibon, and Aroer. 

Heshbon is the modern Heshdn. It stood twenty-one miles east of 
the northern end of the Dead sea. The ruins of the town cover the 
sides of an insulated hill, but not a single edifice is left entire. Hesh- 
bon was the residence of Sihon. Numb. 21 : 26 ; Deut. 4 : 46. The ruins 
of Elealeh, the modern el-dl (the height), lie a mile northeast of Hesh- 
bon, on the summit of a conical hill commanding a wide extent of 
country. In the vicinity of Heshbon was a place called Beth-haal-meon 
(Josh. 13 : 17), and in shorter forms Beth-meon (Jer. 48 :23) and Baal-meon 
(Numb. 32:38; 1 Chron. 5:8). At the distance of two miles southeast 
of Heshbon Burckhardt found ruins called Myoun (or, as Dr. Eli Smith 



188 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

corrects it, Main), wliicli are supposed to be those of the old Moabitish 
town. Medeha is the Madeha of the Arabs. The ruins lie about four 
miles southeast of Heshbon, with which they are connected by an ancient 
paved road. They occupy a low hill a mile and a half in circumference, 
but not a solitary building remains standing. Kiriathaim is supposed by 
Porter to be the modern Kureiyat which lies on the southwestern slope of 
Jebel Attarus; but Grove (in Smith's Bib. Diet.) dissents. The ruins of 
Dibon, still retaining the name in the modern Dhibdn, lie some four miles 
north of the Arnon. In Isa. 15 : 9 it is called Dimon for the sake of an 
alliteration with the following noun: "The waters of Dimon are full of 
hload (Heb. dam). Aroer stood south of Dibon on the brow of the 
precipice overhanging the Arnon. Its ruins bear the modern name Jrdi'r. 
It must not be confounded with the Aroer farther north, before Kabbah, 
which belonged to the Gadites (Josh. 13 :25). Aroer was in the southern 
extremity of the Israelitish territory east of the Jordan valley and Dead 
sea. It extended from Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, 
even unto Mount Sion, which is Hermon" (Deut. 4 : 48) ; just as on the 
western side it reached from Beersheba on the border of the southern 
wilderness to Dan at the base of Hermon. See farther in the Handbook 
of Porter and his articles in Alexander's Kitto, also Grove's articles in 
Smith's Bible Dictionary. 

14. The present condition of the land of promise, which has 
now been surveyed in its whole extent, is a solemn commentary 
on the prophecies of the Old Testament; prophecies written 
centuries before the advent of Christ, and the fulfilment of which 
depended, under God's all-comprehending providence, upon 
trains of events which no human sagacity could foresee. More 
terribly than in the Babylonish captivity are fulfilled the words 
of inspiration in answer to the prophet's inquiry how long the 
blindness of the covenant people should continue: /'Until the 
cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without 
man, and the land be made desolate with desolation; and the 
Lord have removed man far away, and the forsaking be great 
in the midst of the land. Isa. 6 : 11, 12. The land of promise 
is, indeed, not utterly without inhabitant ; for it, as well as the 
holy city, is "trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of 
the Gentiles be fulfilled." But the covenant people are, and 
have been for many dreary centuries, " wanderers among the 
nations." Only a feeble and oppressed remnant is found in the 



PALESTINE. 189 

holy land ; forbidden under penalty of death to tread upon the 
site of their ancient "holy and beautiful temple" where their 
fathers worshipped God, and permitted only to kiss the stones 
of its enclosure in a single place and bathe them with their 
tears, while they exclaim : " O God, the heathen are come into 
thine inheritance ; thy holy temple have they defiled ; they have 
laid Jerusalem on heaps." "We are become a reproach to our 
neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about 
us." Psa. 79 : 1-4. Centuries of misrule have reduced to deso- 
lation large regions of Palestine. Only enough of culture re- 
mains to show what this land once was, and what it might be 
again under a good Christian government. On the territory 
east of the Jordan valley the curse has fallen, as we have seen, 
in double measure. Here are awfully fulfilled the words of 
prophecy : " Your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. 
Then shall the land enjoy her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth des- 
olate" (Lev. 26:33, 34); "Behold the Lord maketh the earth 
empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and 
scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof;" "In the city is left 
desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction" (Isa. 
24 : 1, 12); " I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, 
and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of 
the Lord, and by his fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord 
said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a 
full end." Jer. 4:26, 27. 

The Lord will "not make a full end." With the pouring out 
of his Spirit and the repentance of his covenant people shall 
come the full restoration of the former prosperity of the land; 
yea, more than all its former prosperity. " Upon the land of 
my people," says the sure word of prophecy (Isa. 32 : 13-18), 
" shall come up thorns and briers ; yea, upon all the houses of 
joy in the joyous city : because the palaces shall be forsaken ; 
the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers 
shaU be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks ; 
until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wil- 
derness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for 



190 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and 
righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of 
righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, 
quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in 
a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet rest- 
ing places." Then, in both the natural and the spiritual world, 
" the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall 
flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with 
water" (Joel 3:18); "and they shall say. This land that was 
desolate is become like the garden of Eden ; and the waste and 
desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhab- 
ited." Ezek. 36:35. 



PALESTINE. 191 



CHAPTEE YI. 

^NCiENT Divisions of the Tsraelitish Land. 

1. The present chapter will be devoted mainly to the ancient 
civil divisions of the land of Israel. For clearness of apprehen- 
sion, however, it seems proper to prefix a recapitulation of the 
natiLral divisions of the land, as they have been considered in 
the preceding chapters. Of these divisions icest of the Jordan 
valley we have three enumerations in the book of Joshua ; one 
partial, being that of the southern part (Josh. 10 : 40, 41), and 
two of the whole region (Josh. 11: 16, 17; 12:7, 8). We begin 
with the third and final enumeration : "And these are the kings 
of the land whom Joshua and the children of Israel smote on 
the side of the Jordan westward, from Baal-gad in the valley of 
Lebanon even unto the mount Halak {Bald mountain) that 
ascendeth towards Seir: and Joshua gave it to the tribes of 
Israel for a possession, according to their divisions; in the 
mountain {liar, mountain, here taken collectively), and in the 
loidand {SJiephelah, the lotv plain of the Mediterranean coast), 
and in the desert {Arabali, the valley of the Jordan, and Dead 
sea), and in the slopes {AsJiedhotJi, see below), and in the wilder- 
ness {Midlibar, the desert part of the mountainous region 
bordering on the Jordan valley and the Dead sea), and in the 
south {Necjebh, here a geographical division of the country, see 
below), the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Canaanite, the Periz- 
zite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite." 

In the above description the Bald mountain {Halalc) is proba- 
bly, as suggested by Porter and others, the Scorpion cliffs 
(Chap. 1, No. 4) south of the Dead sea, which constitute the 
beginning of the ascent to the mountains of Edom. 

The mountain^ the loivland, to wit, of the Mediterranean 



192 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

coast, and the Arahali, tlie desert valley of the Jordan and Dead 
sea, need no further explanation. 

The word AsJtedhoth, rendered in our version springs, properly 
denotes outpourings ; and is commonly understood as denoting 
the mountain slopes, which pour out torrents of water through 
their ravines in the rainy season. We may render it torrent-slopes, 
or simply slopes. Here it naturally denotes the intervening belt 
of hills between the mountains and the Mediterranean plain, 
which constitute so striking a feature of their western side. 
Chap. 1, No. 7. 

The tuilderness belongs here to the land of Canaan. It is, 
then, the desert tract along the shores of the Dead sea, called 
also "the wilderness of Judah." Chap. 2, No. 24. 

The south is the term applied to that part of the territory of 
Judah which lay south of a line drawn from about the latitude 
of Gaza eastward to Maon, and thence southeast to the southern 
extremity of the Dead sea. It differs strikingly in its physical 
character from the rest of Palestine. Chap. 2, No. 24. 

In Josh. 10 : 40, 41, we have a partial enumeration of the 
same divisions south of Gibeon — the mountain, the south, the 
loivland, the slopes. The ivilderness and the Arahah are omitted, 
as not coming within the territory of the kings mentioned in the 
chapter. The land of Goshen, on the other hand, is added, the 
situation of which is unknown. It may have been the continua- 
tion of the slopes on the south. 

In Josh. 11 : 16, appended to an account of the conquest of 
the northern part of Palestine, we have an enumeration of the 
natural divisions of the land under two heads; first, those of 
the southern part— the mountain, and all the south, and all the 
land of Goshen, and the loivland, and the Arahah ; secondly, the 
two main divisions of the northern part, the conquest of which 
had just been described — the mountain of Israel and its low- 
land (Shephelah). In this enumeration the two divisions of 
the slopes and the tuilderness, that is, the western and eastern 
borders of the mountain, are omitted, perhaps as being included 
in it. 



PALESTINE. 193 

Tlie natural divisions of the Israelitish territory east of the 
Jordan valley and Dead sea are the following : 

(1.) The Arahah eastivard, that is, that part of the Arabah 
which lies east of the Jordan. Deut. 3:17; 4 : 49. 

(2.) All BasJian, the rocky part of which towards the east is 
called Argoh, Deut. 3 : 4-10. 

(3.) The tivo halves of Mount Gilead divided by the Jabbok, 
Deut. 3:12,13. 

(4.) The Plain (Mishor, plateau, table-land, Deut. 3 : 10 ; 4 : 43 ; 
Josh. 13:9; etc. " As a special appellative, it was given only 
to the great plateau of Moab, even as distinguished from that 
of Bashan, Deut. 3 : 10. This plateau of Moab commences at 
the summit of that range of hills, or rather lofty banks which 
bound the Jordan valley, and extends in a smooth, gently undu- 
lating surface, far out into the desert of Arabia." Porter in 
Alexander's Kitto. Using the term Gilead in its wider accepta- 
tion, we may say that the Plain is a part of it. The various 
Hebrew terms Shephelah, Arahah, Kikkar, Mishor, which are 
confounded in our version, represent, as we have seen, when- 
ever they are used in a geographical sense, each its specific 
di\dsion of the promised land. 

I. HEBKEW DIVISION BY TRIBES. 

2. The primitive division of the land of Israel was, as all 
know,?;?/ tribes. We are not able in all cases to determine the 
exact boundaries of the several tribes, owing to our ignorance 
of so many of the places by which their borders are designated. 
An approximation to the true form and extent of the territory 
allotted to each of the tribes is all that can reasonably be de- 
manded. See the map of Palestine under the judges and 
kings. 

3. The territory east of the Jordan and Dead sea, embracing 
"the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom 
of Og king of Bashan," was given by Moses to the tnbes of 
Keuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh. Numb. 32 : 33. 
Of these two kingdoms that of Sihon extended on the high land 



194 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

from tlie Arnon to the Jabbok, and along ^^ Jordan and Ms bor- 
der' to the sea of Galilee (Numb. 21 : 24; Deut. 3 : 16, 17; Josh. 
13 : 15-28) ; that of Og included the highland of Gilead north of 
the Jabbok and all Bashan with Argob (Deut. 3:13-15; Josh. 
13 : 29-31). The whole kingdom of Og was given to the half 
tribe of Manasseh, and that of Sihon was divided between the 
tribes of Gad and Eeuben ; Eeuben having the southern part, 
and Gad the northern. Since the coast of Gad extended on 
the high land " from Heshbon unto Eamath-mizpeh and Be- 
tonim" (Josh. 13 : 26), evidently in a northern direction, while 
Heshbon itself with the neighboring places belonged to Eeuben 
(ver. 17), we infer that the boundary of Eeuben extended 
on the north just far enough to include Heshbon and the 
adjacent towns ; that is, in all probability, as suggested by Por- 
ter in Alexander's Kitto, to the Wady Hesban that enters the 
Jordan just north of the Dead sea. This would give to Eeuben 
the slopes of Pisgah, Betli-peor, and Beth-jeshimoth (ver. 20), 
with a small part of " the Jordan and the border thereof" 
(ver. 23). 

The territories, then, of the two tribes and a half beyond 
the Jordan were as follows : 

That of Reuben, the region extending from the Arnon north- 
ward to the Wady Hesban and eastward to the Arabian desert, 
and probably in part also to the territory of Ammon. Josh. 
13:10. 

That of Gad, the region extending from the border of Eeuben 
northward on the highland to the Jabbok, and along the Jordan 
valley to the sea of Galilee ; the eastern border being the coun- 
try of Ammon. From a comparison of Deut. 2 : 19, where the 
Israelites are forbidden to appropriate to themselves any part 
of the land of Ammon, with Josh. 13 :25, where "half the land 
of the children of Ammon" is allotted to the tribe of Gad, we 
infer with certainty that the Israelites found this half of the 
Ammonitish territory in the possession of Sihon, who had 
wrested it from the Ammonites, as he had from the Moabites 
their territory north of the Arnon. This fact explains perfectly 



PALESTINE. 195 

the charge brought three hundred years afterwards against the 
Israelites by the king of Ammon, that they had taken away his 
land, and Jephthah's answer. Jud. 11 : 12-28. Upon the de- 
cline and fall of the Israelitish kingdom, the Ammonites repos- 
sessed themselves of the territory of Gad. Jer. 49 : 1. 

That of the half tribe of llcmasseh, the half of Gilead which 
lay north of the Jabbok, and all Baslian with Argob. Its 
boundaries were on the west the valley of the upper Jordan and 
the sea of Galilee ; on the north. Mount Hermon and the terri- 
tory of Damascus (Itursea having been added by subsequent 
conquest. 1 Chron. 5 : 18-22) ; and on the east the Arabian 
desert. " The country occupied by the Manassites east of the 
Jordan," says Porter (in Alexander's Kitto), "was the richest in 
all Palestine. It is to this day the granary of a great part of 
Syria." 

4. The above named tribes had, on their eastern frontier the 
warlike and predatory Arabs of the desert. A notable expedi- 
tion made against these by their combined forces in the days of 
Saul is described in 1 Chron. 5 : 18-22. On this occasion they 
took from the Hagarites and their allies " of their camels fifty 
thousand, and of sheep two Imndred and fifty thousand, and of 
asses two thousand, and of men a hundred thousand ;" thus 
preparing the way for the extension of the Israelitish territory 
under Solomon to the Euphrates (1 Kings 4 : 24), according to 
the original grant made to Abraham (Gen. 15 : 18). It would 
seem, also, that the territory of Gad at one time overlapped that 
of Manasseh ; for we read (1 Chron. 5 : 11, 16) that the children 
of Gad dwelt " in the land of Bashan unto Salcah." 

The warlike valor of the Gadites is commended by Jacob and Moses, 
(Gen. 49: 19 ; Deut. 33:20, 21), and by the author of the books of Chron- 
icles (1 Chron. 12:8-15). It was signally manifested in the expedition 
against the Hagarites and their allies noticed above. Then Was fulfilled 
the prediction of Jacob: " Gad'' (meaning in Hebrew ^?'oop), " a troop shall 
assail him, but he shall assail it at the end :" or, "he shall assail its heel," 
that is, its rear when routed ; and also the prediction of Moses: ''Blessed 
be he that enlarge th Gad: he dweileth as a lion, and teareth the arm and 
also the crown of the head." 



196 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

5. "When the work of distributing the land ivest of the Jordan 
and the Dead sea to the several tribes had been commenced, 
and had advanced so far that the tribes of Judah and Ephraim, 
and the half tribe of Manasseh had received their inheritance, 
it was for some reason interrupted, and not resumed again till 
the tabernacle and camp of the Israelites had been transferred 
to Shiloh. Josh, chaps. 15-17 and chap. 18 : 1-9. Eespecting 
the first attempt at distribution, it is worthy of notice that it was 
begun on too liberal a scale, the tribe of Judah receiving about 
one-third of this whole tract, or double its due proportion ac- 
cording to the census of the tribes recorded in the twenty-sixth 
chapter of the book of Numbers. The expectation at that time 
seems to have been that not only Philistia but the whole of 
Lebanon with its valleys as far as "the entrance of Hamath" 
would come into "the possession of the tribes, according to the 
boundaries marked out in the thirty-fourth chapter of Numbers. 
But this expectation was never realized, except in a certain 
measure during the reigns of David and Solomon. The perma- 
nent northern boundary was Dan at the base of Mount Hermon, 
and on the southwest the Philistines retained possession of the 
Mediterranean plain. Thus the western border of the tribe of 
Judah was greatly abridged ; and its territory was still further 
reduced, as we shall see, by the allotment of its southwestern 
section to the tribe of Simeon. Some of its cities in the north- 
west were also given to the tribe of Dan. 

6. The territory originally assigned to Judah was in the 
southern part of Palestine, extending across the whole breadth 
of the land. It is sufiicient, therefore, to give its northern 
boundary as marked out in Josh. 15 : 5-11. Here, passing 
from east to west, we have several well-known landmarks — the 
bay of the sea, at the uttermost part of Jordan (that is, the bay 
at the northwestern extremity of the Dead sea where the Jor- 
dan ends), En-rogel, the valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem, 
Kirjath-jearim, Beth-shemesh, Timnath, the side of Ekron 
northward, Jabneel, the Mediterranean. The general course, 
then, was from the northern extremity of the Dead sea west- 



PALESTINE. 197 

ward to the Mediterranean ; so that it struck the Kidron appa- 
rently a little southeast of Jerusalem, passed up that valley into 
the valley of Hinnom, and curved a little to the north between 
Hinnom and Timnath. 

7. The inheritance of Simeon fell " within the inheritance of 
the children of Judah;" "for the part of the children of Judah 
was too much for them." Josh. 19 : 1, 9. Their territory is 
described only by its cities; among which are named Beer- 
sheba, Hormah, and Ziklag. Hence we infer that it lay in the 
southwest and south of Judah. 

If Kobiiison is right in identifying HormaJi, else called Zephatli, with 
es-Sufah on the road from Petra to Hebron (Bib. Res., 2. 181), the terri- 
tory of Simeon must have trended on the south of Judah far towards the 
Arabah. The so-called blessing pronounced by Jacob upon Simeon and 
Levi began with a denunciation of their cruelty towards the Shechemites, 
and ended with the words, "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them 
in Israel." Gen. 49:5-7. How these memorable words were fulfilled 
in the case of Levi, is well understood. How they were accomplished 
in the case of Simeon is not so clear. We have, perhaps, a part of their 
fulfilment in the record of the settlement of one part of the tribe at 
" the entrance of Gedor," and another on "Mount Seir." 1 Chron. 4:39- 
43. In the blessings pronounced by Moses (Deut., chap. 33), Simeon is 
not named. The remarkable decrease of the tribe, between the first and 
second census recorded in the book of Numbers, from 59,300 to 22,200, is 
worthy of notice. In the matter of Beth-peor, the tribe of Simeon had a bad 
preeminence ; for it was "Zimri the son of Salu, prince of a father's house 
among the Simeonites," that brought the Midianitish woman into the 
camp in the presence of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel. 
Numb., chap. 25. Perhaps a double share of the plague and slaughter on 
that occasion fell upon this tril)0. But another reason for the smallness of 
this tribe is assigned (1 Chron. 4 :27), which began to operate, as it would 
seem, upon the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, at which time the 
tribe of Simeon was surpassed in number only by those of Judah and Dan. 
Shimei, a descendant from Simeon iti the fifth generation, " had," says the 
record, "sixteen sons and six daughters : but his brethren had not many 
children, neither did all their family multijily like the children of Judah." 

8. The territory of Benjamin was bounded on the south by 
that of Judah, and on the east by the Jordan. Its northern 
boundary passed up by the side of Jericho on the north to the 



198 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

highland, and so westward on the south side of Beth-el to "the 
hill which is south of the nether Beth-horon." Thence it turned 
south to Kirjath-jearim, where it met the border of Judah. Josh. 
18 : 11-15. As it included Ophrah (ver. 23), the line seems to 
have run in a northwesterly direction past Jericho, and to have 
afterwards curved towards the south. 

The boundary excludes Betli-el (ver. 13); yet this city is afterwards 
named as one of the cities of Benjamin (ver. 22). Some have assumed 
here a corruption of the text ; but, as Keil remarks (Commentary on Josh- 
ua), " It is quite possible that the town of Beth-el may have been assigned 
to the tribe of Benjamin, although the boandary of their territory ran 
along the southern side of that city." Thomson (The Land and the Book, 
2, pp. 54:6, 547) conjectures that "the sea," named in ver. 14, is "a little 
lake near el- Jib" (Gibeon), that exists there in the wet season, and that it 
is the same as " the great waters that are in Gibeon." Jer. 41 : 12. 

Jerusalem lay within the territory of Benjamin, in accordance with the 
prophetic words of Moses : " The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety 
by Him : He covereth him all the day long, and he dwelleth between His 
shoulders " (Deut. 33 : 12) — a double figure of covering with the wings as 
a bird and bearing on the shoulders as a father. 

9. The district assigned to the tribe of Ban, as may be gath- 
ered from the enumeration of the border cities belonging to it 
(Josh. 19 : 40-46), lay west of Benjamin and partly of Judah, 
extending northwesterly so as to include the Mediterranean 
coast from Japho, that is, Joppa, as far south as the latitude of 
Ekron. Thus it included a part of the Philistine plain; of 
which, however, the Danites were not able to gain possession. 
Judg. 1:34, 35. 

The lot of the children of Dan came out last ; and the territory left for 
them was very small in consideration of their number, which was inferior 
only to that of the tribe of Judah. Josh. 19 : 47. Their country was fur- 
ther limited by their inability to drive out the Amorites of the plain. 
This evil they remedied by taking forcible possession of a very fertile 
region at the base of Hermon, as is described in the eighteenth chapter of 
the book of Judges, thus fulfilling the declaration of Moses (Deut. 33:22), 
"Dan is a lion's whelp : he shall leap from Bashan ;" that is, as a lion from 
Bash an leaj^s upon his prey. 



PALESTINE. 199 

10. The account of the boundaries of Epliraim and 3Ianas- 
sell (Josh., chaps. 16, 17) is very obscure, owing to our ignor- 
ance of most of the landmarks named. It is plain, however, 
that the territory of Ephraim stretched across the whole land 
from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, having on the south the 
tribes of Benjamin and Dan. On the Mediterranean coast it 
extended north to the torrent of Kanah {reeds), the identifica- 
tion of which is difficult. The suggestion of Porter (in Alexan- 
der's Kitto), that the Kanah of Joshua is the modern Nahr el- 
Akhdar, which enters the Mediterranean about two miles south 
of Caesarea, is worthy of favorable consideration: "Its banks 
are low, marshy, and covered with jungles of reeds." 

The coast of the half tribe of Ilanasseh, as originally defined, 
began on the north at Asher (Josh. 17:7, 10), while that of 
Aslier reached to Carmel westward (chap. 19 : 26), with a strip 
of the seacoast extending south so as to include Dor (chap. 
17:11). The ridge of Carmel, then, was its boundary on the 
northeast, the territory of Ephraim on the south, and it touched 
upon Issachar on the east. It was thus nearly triangular in 
form. With this agrees the statement of Josh. 17:10, which 
may be literally translated : " On the south [of the torrent 
Kanah] it [the coast] belonged to Ephraim, and on the north 
to Manasseh, and the sea was its border : and they [the Manas- 
sites] touched upon Asher on the north, and upon Issachar on 
the east." They further received a liberal grant out of the ter- 
ritory of Asher and Issachar (ver. 11), so that their coast ex- 
tended on the sea to the promontory of Carmel, and included 
the towns on the northeastern slope of Carmel, with some impor- 
tant places farther east. 

"We have seen that the portion of Manasseh east of the Jordan was the 
richest part of Palestine. That of Ephraim and Manasseh west of the Jor- 
dan was worthy also of the prophetic encomiums pronounced on it by both 
Jacob and Moses. Gen. 49 : 22-26 ; Deut. 33 : 13-17. They had the first 
choice after Judah, and they selected a portion blessed of the Lord "with 
the precious things of heaven, with dew and with the deep that croucheth 
beneath ; and with the precious things of the increase of the sun, and with 



200 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

the precious things of the produce of the moon ; and with the choicest 
things of the ancient mountains, and with the precious things of the ever- 
lasting hills ; and with the precious things of the earth and her fulness ; 
and with the favor of Him who dwelleth in the bush. " 

11. The boundaries of the four remaining Galilean tribes 
cannot be given with any degree of accuracy. The following is 
a general statement of their position and relation to each other. 

Issacliars territory lay along the Jordan, having Ephraim 
on the south and Manasseh on the southwest, and it extended 
to Tabor. Josh. 19 : 17-23. In the words of Josephus (Antiq., 
5. 1. 22), it had " for its boundaries in length. Mount Carmel 
and the river [Jordan] ; and in breadth, Mount Tabor;" that is, 
it extended in breadth from Ephraim north to Mount Tabor. 
Thus it included, in great part at least, the large and fertile 
plain of Esdraelon, the battle-field of nations, through which 
lay the route from Egypt on the south to Damascus and the 
eastern empires. 

"Issachar," says Jacob's prophetic blessing, "is a strong-boned ass, 
crouching among the folds" (so the Hebrew is rightly rendered, Judg. 
5 : 16). ''And he saw rest, that it was good; and the land that it was 
pleasant ; and he bowed his back to bear, and became subject to tribute " 
(Gen. 49 : 14, 15) ; the tribute, apparently, imposed on him by the chief- 
tains who passed through and ravaged his fair inheritance, as is done by 
the marauding Arabs at the present day. Yet the men of Issachar are 
commended for their valor and alacrity in war (Judg. 5 : 15), and for their 
practical wisdom (1 Chron. 12 :32), as men "that had understanding of 
the times to know what Israel ought to do." 

12. Next above the tribe of Issachar was the territory of 
Zehulun. Josh. 19 : 10-16. It seems to have lain along the 
Jordan on the east from Issachar to the sea of Galilee. How 
far it extended westward towards the Mediterranean .is uncer- 
tain. One of its landmarks was Johieam, which has been, with 
a reasonable degree of probability, identified with the modern 
Tell Kaimon, under Carmel, near the northwestern angle of the 
plain of Esdraelon (Robinson, Bib. Ees., 3, p. 115, note), so 
that it seems to have included the northern rim of the plain of 
Esdraelon. 



PALESTINE. 201 

According to Joseplms (Antiq., 5. 1. 22), 'Hlie Zebulonites obtained 
by lot the land as far as tbe lake of Gennesareth, and extending by Carmel 
and the sea" (the Mediterranean). According to the division given in the 
book of Joshua, it could not have reached to the sea ; for Aslier reached 
to Carmel westward (chap. 19 : 26). But we may well suppose that after- 
wards it reached to the Mediterranean. Thus the prophetic words of 
Jacob had their fulfilment : "Zebulun shall dwell at the coast of the sea, 
and he [shall dwell] at the coast of ships ; and his border shall be upon 
Zidon" (Gen. 49 :13); that is, not the city of Zidon, but Phoenicia, the 
territory of Zidon. The words of Moses, "Rejoice, Zebulun, in thy going 
forth " (that is, in the activities of life), ''and Issachar in th}^ tents " (Deut. 
33 : 18), contrast the enterprise of Zebulun with the quiet of Issachar. See 
farther 1 Chron. 12 : 32-40. 

13. Finally, at the extreme northern limit of Palestine lay 
the tribes of Asher and Naphtali, side by side ; Asher on the 
west and Naphtali on the east. Josh. 19 : 24-39. The terri- 
tory of Asher included the Phoenician coast as far as " Great 
Zidon;" but the Asherites obtained possession of it only to a 
very limited extent, as we learn from Judg. 1 : 31, 32. To 
Naphtali belonged most of the western coast of the sea of Gal- 
ilee, with the warm and fertile valley of the upper Jordan, to 
the base of Lebanon. 

Of the beauty and fertility of this part of Galilee all travellers speak in 
terms of admiration. It is well worthy of the proj^hetic encomiums pro- 
nounced upon it by Jacob and Moses : *' Out of Asher his bread shall be 
fat, and he shall yield royal dainties " (Gen. 49 : 20) ; ** Let Asher be blessed 
with children ; let him be acceptable to his brethren ; and let him dip his , 
foot in oil ;" "O Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full of the blessing of 
the Lord, inherit thou the sea and the south." Deut. 33 :23, 24. The 
Hebrew word rendered "the south" is Darom, and is entirely distinct 
from the geographical term Negeb, which is used of the south country in 
Judali. Here it probably means the south with reference to Lebanon — 
the warm and fertile valley of the Jordan, lying at its base. Jacob's bless- 
ing on Naphtali (Gen. 49 : 21) refers apparently to the personal qualities 
of the tribe. But the true rendering of the original is a matter of con- 
troversy. 

14. The tribe of Levi received no separate territory, being 
maintained by the tithes paid by the other tribes. Numb. 

9* 



202 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

18:20; 26:62; Deut. 10:9; 18:1, 2; Josli. 18:7. For their 
residence forty-eight cities with their suburbs were assigned to 
them, six of them being also cities of refuge, and these cities were 
distributed among all the other tribes. Numb. 35 : 1-8 ; Josh., 
chap. 21. Thus the prophetic announcement of Jacob respect- 
ing Simeon and Levi, "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter 
them in Israel" (Gen. 49 : 7), was so fulfilled in the case of this 
tribe as to be made a blessing to the tribe itself and the whole 
nation; for the functions of the Levites were spiritual, and 
they became, in a measure at least, the instructors of the 
people. 

In respect to the Levitical cities Moses gives the following directions : 
"And the suburbs [pasture-grounds] of the cities which ye shall give to 
the Levites from the wall of the city and outward shall be a thousand cubits 
round about. And ye shall measure without the city the east side [not, on 
the east side; for the Hebrew has the accusative case] two thousand cubits, 
and the south side two thousand cubits, and the west side two thousand 
cubits, and the north side two thousand cubits ; and the city shall be in 
the midst : this shall be to them the suburbs of the city." Numb. 35 :4, 
5. The commentators have expended much labor, and proposed many 
plans, some of them very artificial, in the effort to bring these two verses 
into agreement with each other, ^ee in Alexander's Kitto, art. Levites ; 
and in Saalschlltz Mosaic Law, chap. 8, | 7. The simplest explanation of 
the fourth verse, taken in connection with the fifth, is that which assumes 
that the suburbs of the Levitical cities " from the city wall and outward*' 
extended in each direction a thousand cubits, when measured from the 
centre of the city, this being of a square form. 

15. After the secession of the ten tribes, the whole southern 
kingdom, comprising the territory of Judah and Benjamin, was 
called by the name of Judah, while that of the ten tribes went 
by the name of Israel ; or, as often in the prophets, Ephraim, 
from the leading tribe, and Joseph, from the father of the two 
great tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. Psa. 78 : 67 ; Ezek. 
37:16,19; Zech. 10:6, 7. 

We should naturally infer from the position of the tribe of Simeon that 
its territory must have fallen to the kingdom of Judah. But in 2 Chron. 
15 : 9 ; 34 : 6, it seems to be distinguished from that of Judah. 



PALESTINE. 203 

II. DIVISIONS OF PALESTINE IN THE ROMAN AGE. 

16. It is well known that in our Saviour's time all Palestine 
west of the Jordan was divided into the three provinces of 
Galilee, Samaria, and Judea; although the latter, as we shall 
see, did not include the whole of the ancient kingdom of 
Judah. 

17. Galilee, the most northern province, was bounded on the 
south by a line running along the base of Carmel by Ginsea at 
the southeastern extremity of the plain of Esdraelon to Scyth- 
opolis (the ancient Beth-shan) and the Jordan. Josephus, Jew- 
ish War, 3. 3. 1, 4; Antiq., 20. 6. 1. If the line ran from Gingea 
along the southern arm of the great plain, it struck the Jordan 
a little below Scythopolis, thus including Gilboa and the terri- 
tory adjacent to Scythopolis on the south. It did not extend 
on the west to the Mediterranean, being cut off in that quarter 
by the Phoenician territory of Ptolemais (the ancient Accho), 
Phoenicia at this time extending, according to Josephus (Antiq., 
15. 9. 6), so far south as to include Csesarea. 

The province was subdivided again into Upper and Loiver 
Galilee, the line of division running, according to Josephus 
(Jewish War, 3. 3. 1), " from Tiberias to Chabulon [Cabul], near 
to which, on the seacoast, is Ptolemais." Hence " Lower Gal- 
ilee included the great plain of Esdraelon with its offshoots, 
which run down to the Jordan and the lake of Tiberias; and 
the whole of the hiU country adjoining it on the north to the 
mountain range." Porter in Smith's Bible Dictionary. Upper 
Galilee embraced the whole mountain range lying between the 
upper Jordan and Phoenicia to the northern extremity of Pal- 
estine. 

The term Galilee signifies circuit, and is thought to have been originally 
applied to a small region of country in the northwest of the region which 
constitutes the Galilee of the New Testament. It was called "Galilee of 
the Gentiles" (Isa. 9:1; in 1 Mac. 5 : 15 Galilee of the foreigners) from the 
great number of Gentiles who inhabited the region. Compare 1 Mac. 
5 : 17-22. 



204 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

18. Samaria lay between Galilee on the nortli and Judea on 
the south. Its southern boundary corresponded substantially 
with that which separated the ancient kingdoms of Judah and 
Israel ; in other words, it ran along the northern border of the 
tribe of Benjamin. 

Josephus, speaking of the northern boundary of Judea, which separa- 
ted it from Samaria, says (Jewish War, 3. 3. 5) that "it extends from the 
river Jordan to Joppa." He also says (ib., ^ 4) that Samaria extends, 
evidently in a southern direction, "from a village in the great plain named 
Ginaea to the toparchy of the Acrabatenes. " Acrabatta, the modern Akra- 
beh (Robinson, Bib. Res., 3, p. 296) lies some eight miles southeast of 
Nabulus, and considerably north of a line drawn east from Joppa to the 
Jordan. But the toparchy of Acrabatta may have extended some miles 
south of the town. 

19. Juclma, as a Roman province, extended south of Sama- 
ria to the Mediterranean. But that part of the ancient king- 
dom of Judah lying south of the mountains of Judah, and known 
as the South (Heb. Negeh) seems to have been included in the 
province of Idumcea; for Josephus expressly states (Antiq., 5. 
1. 22) that the tribe of Simeon " received that part of Idumaea 
which bordered on Egypt and Arabia." 

The original territory of the Idumseans (Edomites) was Mount Seir, 
lying east of the Arabah, or southern continuation of the valley of the 
Jordan and Dead sea. But upon the decline of the Jewish power, and 
especially during the Babylonish captivity, the Edomites spread them- 
selves over the region of the Amalekites south of Judah, and took posses- 
sion of the southern border of Palestine. Judas Maccabaeus found them in 
possession of Hebron and Mareshah and Azotus. Antiq., 12. 8. 6. Although 
the Idumasans were conquered, they were permitted to remain in the 
region upon condition of their receiving circumcision (Josephus, Antiq., 
13. 9. 1), and thus the name of Idumaea was perpetuated. 

20. The division of ancient Bashan into the four provinces 
of Gaulonitis, Auranitis^ Batanma, and Traclionitis, to which 
Iturcea on the northeast was added, has been already consid- 
ered (Chap. 5, No. 2). Galaaditis is the ancient Gilead, with 
Ammonitis (Ammon) lying east of its southern part ; and Moah- 



PALESTINE. 205 

itis (the Moab of Scripture) on the south. Josephus uses the 
term Pervea, that is, the region beyond, as substantially equivalent 
to Gilead. He gives the length of Persea as extending north 
from Machflsrus to Pella ; and its width east and west from Phil- 
adelphia (Eabbath Ammon) to the Jordan. Jewish War, 3. 3. 
3. The site of Machserus, where, according to Josephus (Antiq., 
18. 5. 2), John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded, is 
supposed to be that of the ruined fortress Mkauer, on the north 
end of Jebel Attarus. It was certainly near the Arnon, for 
Josephus says that the southern termination of Persea was 
Moabitis. 



206 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTEE YII. 

Climate, Soil, and Natural History. 
I. CLIMATE. 

1. The Scorpion cliffs (ascent of Akrabbim, Numb. 34:4) 
at the southern extremity of Palestine are in about north lati- 
tude 31 degrees ; Tell-el-Kady (the ancient Dan) at the northern 
extremity is in north latitude 33 degrees 16 minutes. These 
two parallels of latitude run through our gulf states ; the former 
a little north of Mobile in Alabama, the latter a little north of 
Milledgeville in Georgia. The latitude of the southern half of 
these two states corresponds, therefore, with that of Palestine. 
But the gulf states have in their southern half a comparatively 
level and uniform surface ; the surface of Palestine is, as we have 
seen, wonderfully diversified : the gulf states have on the south 
and east an immense expanse of ocean, while Palestine is bor- 
dered on the south and east by the hot and dry regions of 
Africa and Arabia : the gulf states have on their western border 
the continent ; Palestine has on the same border the Mediterra- 
nean sea. These differences of surface and relation to the sur- 
rounding regions produce corresponding differences of climate 
some of which are of a very marked character. 

2. In our country, as in Europe generally, rain falls more or 
less during the whole year. But in Palestine it is confined to 
certain months. The rainy and the dry season constitute the 
two divisions of the year; the former being the ivinter or cold 
season, the latter the summer or hot season. When the rainy 
season has begun the seed-time comes, and at its close the har- 
vest. Hence the division given in the book of Genesis (chap. 
8: 22), " seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and suriimei 
and winter," is for Palestine perfectly natural. 



PALESTINE. 207 

Against tlie idea of some expositors that six different divisions of the 
year are here meant, see Delitzschon Genesis 8:22. It is the two natural 
divisions considered in three different aspects. 

3. The rains usually begin to fall in tlie last half of October 
or the beginning of November; and they continue into April, 
sometimes even till the first of May. The rainy season does 
not come suddenly, but by degrees, and it ends in like manner. 
It finds the earth hard-baked and incapable of being ploughed. 
The showers, coming at intervals, soften the soil, and give the 
husbandman an opportunity to plough his ground and sow his 
fields of winter wheat and barley. The rains are, as a rule, 
most abundant in the middle of the rainy season, but through- 
out the whole period there is an " alternation of groups of rainy 
days, followed by longer intervals of sunshine." Eobinson, 
Phys. Geog., p. 289. 

The average annual fall of rain at Jerusalem for seven years is stated 
by Barclay (City of the Great King, p. 428) to have been 56.5 inches ; 
which is about one-fourth more than the annual average for Massachusetts. 
But it all falls within the period of six months. We who live in this west- 
ern world can with dilBficulty apprehend the force and beauty of the Psalm- 
ist's w^ords (Psa. 65:9,10) where he describes the blessed influence of the 
early or former rains after a continuous drought of six months: "Thou 
visitest the earth, and waterest it abundantly: thou greatly enrichest it: 
the river of God is full of water: thou prepjirest the corn ; for so hast thou 
prepared it. Abundantly watering its furrows, setthng its ridges, thou 
makest it soft with showers: thou blessest its springing." The transfor- 
mation is wondej-ful. The fields lately so brown parched and desolate, put 
on their robes of "living green," and all nature rejoices; "the pastures 
are clothed with flocks : the valleys also robe themselves with corn : they 
shout for joy ; yea, they sing." 

4. We are not to understand the language of the Scriptures 
in reference to the early and the latter rain as if these two periods 
were separated by a considerable interval of dry weather. " There 
are no definite and distinct seasons of early and latter rain, 
separate from the rest of the rainy season. The whole period 
from October to April constitutes only one continued season in 
which rain falls; without any regularly intervening term of 



208 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

prolonged fair weather." Robinson, Pliys. Geog., p. 292. The 
terms former and latter rain have reference to the labor of the 
husbandman. " Should the early rain fail, or be too long de- 
layed, so that the rainy season should begin at once with heavy 
and constant showers, there would be no opportunity for the 
husbandman to plough his ground or sow his seed; and there 
could be no crop. Or, if the latter rain, the showers of March 
and April, do not take place, the ripening grain and springing 
verdure are arrested, and do not reach their full maturity. In 
such case the crops are diminished, or fail altogether. On the 
other hand, when the latter rain occurs in full, the husbandman 
is never disappointed in his harvest." Eobinson, ibid. 

5. The prevaiHng winds of winter are westerly; and it is 
from the Mediterranean sea lying in this direction that the rains 
come. The west wind continues to blow " from one to seven or 
eight days at a time, continuing through each group of rainy 
days. Sometimes the west wind itself clears away the clouds ; 
though fair weather more commonly follows a change of wind 
to the north or east." Robinson, ib., p. 303. Next to the west 
wind, that from the east is the most common, and this usually 
brings serene weather. Respecting the Sirocco, or wind from 
the south quarter, see below. 

When Elijah cast himself down on Carmel to pray for rain, he sent his 
servant seven times with the command: *'Go up now, look towards the 
sea." The seventh time the servant returned with the report: "Behold 
there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." Immedi- 
ately upon hearing this, the prophet sent the message to Ahab: *' Prepare 
thy chariot and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not." 1 Kings, 
18 : 41-46. Our Saviour alludes to the same phenomenon : ' ' When ye see, " 
says he (Luke 12:54), "a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say. 
There cometh a shower ; and so it is ;" on which passage Eobinson well 
remarks (ib., p. 303): "It does not follow that it always rains when the 
west wind blows ; but it is true that the west is the rainy quarter, and that 
in winter a west wind seldom fails, sooner or later, to bring rain. " 

6. The beginning of the dry season in April and May is de- 
lightful. The sky is serene, the air balmy, and the face of nature 
arrayed in verdure, with a profusion of gay flowers. AH this 



PALESTINE. 209 

is portrayed with inimitable grace and beauty in the bride- 
groom's address to his bride (Cant. 2:10-13): "My beloved 
spake, and said unto me, Eise up, my love, my fair one, and 
come away. For lo, the winter is past; the rain is over and 
gone ; the flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing 
of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land ; 
the fig-tree ripeneth her green figs, and the vines are in blos- 
som ; they give a goodly smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and 
come away." 

But as the dry season advances, this cheerful aspect of 
nature gradually disappears. The " grass upon the house-tops,' ' 
which had sprung up during the rainy season, speedily withers. 
Next the fields lose their freshness and verdure, and the land- 
scape becomes brown and parched. "The deep green of the 
broad G.g leaves and the lighter shade of the millet is dehghtful 
to the eye amid the general aridness ; while the foliage of the 
olive, with its dull grayish hue, scarcely deserves the name of 
verdure." Robinson as above, pp. 293, 294. Later in the sea- 
son "the cloudless sky and burning sun dry up all moisture. 
The grass withers, the flower fades, the bushes and shrubs take 
a hard, gray look, the soil becomes dust, and the country as- 
sumes the aspect of a parched barren desert." Porter in Alex- 
ander's Kitto. If the usual showers liave not fallen in the pre- 
ceding rainy season, or if the early rains of autumn are with- 
held, great is the distress of man and beast : " Their nobles have 
sent their little ones to the waters : they came to the pits, and 
found no water ; they returned with their vessels empty ; they 
were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.. Be- 
cause the ground is chapped, for there was no rain in the earth, 
the ploughmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, 
the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there 
was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, 
they snufi'ed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, 
because there was no grass." Jer. 14 : 3-6. 

7. The clouds that come in the rainy season from the Medi- 
terranean deposit their moistures on the western slope of the 



210 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

mountains of Judaea and Samaria: while the eastern slope of 
these mountains beyond their crest is left parched and desert. 
"Where the mountain barrier ceases, as at the plain of Esdraelon, 
the desert ceases also. The higher mountains of Gilead, again, 
intercept the residuum of moisture brought to them from the 
west. When this is exhausted, the great Arabian desert begins. 
South of the Mediterranean sea the desert extends quite across 
the southern rim of Palestine to Egypt. 

The same cause which operates in South America, where the east wind 
prevails, to make the eastern slope of the Andes a rainy and the western 
a dry region, operates in Palestine, where the western winds bring the 
rain, to produce a contrary result. 

8. The temperature of the different sections of Palestine 
varies with their elevation. The valley of the Jordan and Dead 
sea, which is the- most depressed, is the hottest region. The 
mountainous tracts on both sides of the Jordan valley are the 
coolest. Intermediate between these two extremes is the tem- 
perature of the Mediterranean plain. 

9. The climate of the mountainous regions is temperate and 
salubrious. Except when the Sirocco blows, the days are never 
oppressively warm, and the nights are cool, often with a heavy 
dew. The westerly winds which prevail much of the time in 
summer, coming as they do from the Mediterranean, temper the 
heat of the dry season, and make it at Jerusalem, according 
to Barclay (City of the Great King, p. 49), " much more endur- 
able than in any portion of the Atlantic coast of the United 
States from Maine to Texas. This is due not only to its [Jeru- 
salem's] elevated position," .... " but to a northwesterly breeze 
from the Mediterranean, which uniformly springs up as soon as 
the ground becomes somewhat heated — about eight or nine 
o'clock in the morning — and continues till ten at night." Re- 
specting the climate of the hill country east of the Jordan we 
have but few observations. But from its elevation we naturally 
infer that it resembles that of the mountainous tract west of 
the Jordan valley. It wants, however, the moderating influence 
of the fresh breezes from the Mediterranean. 



PALESTINE. 



211 



The highest elevation of the mercury recorded by Barchiy at Jerusa- 
lem, is 92 degrees Fahrenheit, and the lowest — in a single instance imme- 
diately before sunrise — 28 degrees. The mean annual average of temper- 
ature is 66.5 degrees, that of Boston being 49 degrees, d Philadelphia, 
52 degrees, of New Orleans, 62 degrees, of San Francisco, 56 degrees. 
Slight frosts are quite frequent at Jerusalem, "sufiSciently severe to black- 
en the fig-leaf prematurely in the fall. And although there may not be a 
particle of snow or ice for several consecutive years, in general, yet 
there were several snows — though of short continuance — during the winter 
of 1853-4 and 1854-5, and pellicles of ice at one time an eighth of an inch 
thick on thin sheets of water in places protected from the rays of the 
sun ; and portions of ground similarly situated were slightly frozen for 
several days." Barclay, p. 50. Bobinson states (Phys. Geog., p. 290) that 
' ' snow often falls at Jerusalem and in the hill country, mostly in January 
and February, to the depth of a foot or more ; but does not long remain." 
"During the whole winter the roads, or rather tracks, in Palestine, are 
muddy, deep, and slippery ; so that the traveller at this season is subjected 
to great inconvenience and discomfort." lb., p. 291. " Pray ye," says our 
Saviour to his disciples, in anticipation of the overthrow of Jerusalem 
(Matt. 24 : 20), " that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sab- 
bath-day." 

10. In the sunken valley of the Jordan, the lowest part of 
which is 1,300 feet below the level of the ocean, and about 3,900 
below that of Jerusalem, snow never falls and winter fs unknown, 
and the heat of the summer months is excessive. 



Lynch's table of meteorological observations (official report, p. 74), gives 
for the Dead sea the following record : 



April 


18, Noon, 


82 degT 


ees Fahr. 


April 


23, 12 p. M. 


74.5 


degs. 


Fahr. 




19, 1 p. M. 


87.5 ' 


( a 


(( 


24, 6 A. M. 


78 








" 8 " 


70.5 ' 


I 11 


(( 


" Noon, 


90 








" 12 " 


68 


I li 


(( 


" 8 p. M. 


78.5 








20, 9 A. M. 


88 


I (( 


(( 


'' 12 '' 


78 








" 12 m., 


89 


( (( 


(( 


25, 6 A. M. 


79 








" 8^ p. M. 


72 


( (( 


May 


6, 8 A. M. 


92 








21, 8 A. M. 


88 


( (( 


<< 


" Noon, 


97 








22, 8 p. M. 


75.8 ' 


( (< 


(( 


" 2 p. M. 


102 








" 10 p. M. 


74 


( (( 


(( 


" 12 p. M. 


76 








23, 7 a.m. 


85 


C li 


<( 


7, 8 A. M. 


84 








" Noon, 


86 


t ft 


<< 


*' 11 A. M. 


106 








" 1 p. M. 


90 


( t( 


(( 


*' 4 P. M. 


93 







212 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

The last two of the above days the mercury felt the influence of a Si- 
rocco. Robinson and Smith's record for May 10-14, 1838, and for May 29 
and 30, of the same year, is not materially different. Under a Sirocco, the 
thermometer rose, May 29, to 102 degrees. 

On the Mediterranean plain but few observations have been 
made. Since, however, it has but little elevation above the 
sea, and is consequently more than 2,000 feet lower than Jeru- 
salem, it must have a corresponding increase of temperature. 
Its climate, as already remarked, is intermediate between that 
of the Jordan valley and that of the mountainous tracts. 

11. Besides the direct method of observations made with 
the thermometer, there are two other means of determining the 
average relative temperature of the different sections of Pales- 
tine. The first consists in comparing the times of the barley and 
ivlieat harvest. According to Eobinson, "the barley harvest 
usually precedes the wheat harvest by a fortnight or three 
weeks." Phys. Geog., p. 301. The same author states (ib., p. 
302) that " the wheat harvest in the Ghor takes place [from May 
7th to May 14th] about four weeks earlier than at Jerusalem ; 
the two being hardly more than twenty miles apart. The har- 
vest of the western plain lies between; about ten days later 
than in the Ghor, and eighteen or twenty days earlier than on 
the mountains." The other means consists in noticing the pro- 
ductions peculiar to the different regions. Thus the valley of the 
Jordan and the Dead sea has, with an Egyptian climate, Egyp- 
tian plants also — the thorny lote-tree, the acacia, the dom-palm, 
the tamarisk, the papyrus, the apple of Sodom, the " camphire" 
or henna of the Arabs, the egg-plant, nightshade, and various 
other Egyptian trees and plants. Around Jericho date-palms 
were once abundant, and the sugar cane was cultivated there 
also. Palms also flourish with suitable culture, on the Medi- 
terranean plain. The vine and olive, on the other hand, are the 
staple productions of the mountains. 

12. The most disagreeable and oppressive wind of Palestine 
is the Sirocco, coming from any point of the southern quarter 
from southeast to southwest, and bringing hot dry blasts from 



PALESTINE. 213 

the African and Arabian deserts. These winds are marked by 
an oppressive sultriness which causes great lassitude and disin- 
clination to all labor bodily or mental. Their extreme dryness 
closes the pores of the animal body, and has a withering effect 
upon vegetation. They bring from the deserts an impalpable 
dust, which gives a lurid appearance to the atmosphere, and 
which penetrates every part of the clothing and every crevice 
and cranny of the houses. These winds commonly last but a 
single day ; but sometimes two or three days. See farther in 
Eobinson's Phys. Geog., pp. 305, 306; and Buckingham's Lec- 
tures on Egypt; Barclay, pp. 51, 52. 

According to Robinson the name Sirocco is but an Italian form of the 
Arabic Shurklyeh, east wind. It was originally applied to the sultry south- 
east winds ; then to all hot and sultry winds blowing from any quarter be- 
tween the southeast and the southwest. This is the south wind referred to 
by our Saviour : "when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, A burning 
heat ; and it cometh to pass. " Luke 12 : 55. This also was the " vehement 
east wind" that " beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, and wished 
in himself to die." Jonah 4 : 8. The Sirocco sometimes blows with great 
violence, amounting to a hurricane. See Lynch's Expedition, p. 375 ; Rob- 
inson, Phys. Geog., p. 306. The oppressive stillness and sultriness that 
accompany the Sirocco are beautifully described in the book of Job (chap. 
37 : 17): '*Dost thou know how thy garments are warm, when the earth is 
quieted from the south wind ?" 

II. SOIL. 

13. The basis of the rocks of Palestine is Jura limestone, com- 
pact, hard, and full of caverns ; above which, capping its hills in 
many places, are the remains of a more recent chcdk formation 
abounding in flints. On the west side of the Jordan valley sand- 
stone is rare ; but on the eastern shore of the Dead sea sandstone 
underlies the limestone, and from Kerak south sandstone of sin- 
gular forms and colors constitutes the mass of the mountains. 
In some parts — ^particularly from Beisan and northward on the 
west side of the Ghor, as also in the region of Baslian east of 
the Jordan valley — this general limestone formation has been 
broken up, and volcanic rocks in the form of black basalt have 



214 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

been protruded into it. The whole of the Lejah is, as we have 
seen, a sea of rough basaltic rocks, resembling an ocean of lava 
suddenly congealed. 

14. The rocks of Palestine constitute the foundation of a 
strong and fertile soil, the natural capabilities of which are uni- 
versally conceded. The cutting away of the ancient forests in 
Palestine is thought to have exerted a deteriorating influence on 
both the climate and the soil, by diminishing the amount of rain 
and exposing the naked surface of the earth for six months to 
the scorching rays of the sun. How far this cause may have 
operated it is difficult to determine. The curse of a bad gov- 
ernment, which oppresses the husbandman without protecting 
him from the incursions of the predatory Arabs, is sufficient to 
account for the desolation that now reigns over so large a part 
of the promised land. The enormous crops of grain which the 
plains of Palestine yield wherever they are cultivated, and the 
no less enormous growth of thistles and other weeds where they 
are neglected, give proof of their capacity to be now, as ancient- 
ly, the granary of the whole adjacent region. The palm-groves 
of Jericho have disappeared from the deterioration, not of the 
climate and soil, but of the people and government. Now, as of 
old, the hills of Judea are capable of being clad to their sum- 
mits with vineyards and olive-groves. If all the rains of Pales- 
tine fall now during the winter months, so did they also in the 
days of Josephus, when "neither cowardice oppressed the men 
of Galilee, nor thinness of population the region ; sinc6 it was 
fertile throughout, and abounding in rich pasture land, and 
planted with trees of all kinds; alluring by its luxuriousness 
even those who were least fond of agriculture. It was accord- 
ingly all cultivated by its inhabitants, and no part of it lay idle. 
The cities, moreover, were frequent, and there was every where 
a multitude of populous villages on account of the goodness of 
the soil, the least of which contained above fifteen thousand in- 
habitants." Jewish War, 3. 3. 2. He elsewhere says (Life, 45) 
that the number of these cities and villages amounted to two 
hundred and forty. 



PALESTINE. 215 

When Moses describes Palestine as *' a land of brooks of water, of foun- 
tains and dej^tlis that spring out of valleys and hills" (Dent. 8:7), and as 
' ' a land of hills and valleys, that drinketh water of tlie rain of heaven" 
(Deut. 11 : 11), we must remember that his standard of comparison is not 
Europe or this western world, but Egypt, where there are neither foun- 
tains nor rain. From Moses' point of view both descriptions are strictly 
accurate. During the winter months Palestine " drinketh water of the rain 
of heaven ;" and the " fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and 
hills," if not as numerous as in our highly favored country, are sufficient 
for the wants of the people, provided only their waters be rightly distrib- 
uted. Several large fountains have been noticed in the preceding pages ; 
and there are hundreds of others, many of them sufficient to turn each a 
mill-wheel, scattered through the length and breadth of the land. In the 
environs of Jerusalem, within a circuit of eight or ten miles, not less than 
thirty permanent fountains have been enumerated. See Barclay's City of 
the Great King, p. 544, seq. ; Kobinson, Phys. Geog. , pp. 238-264. 

III. NATURAL HLSTORY. 

15. It does not come within the plan of the present work to 
give an enumeration in detail of the various plants and animals 
belonging to Palestine. The reader will find such of them as 
are mentioned in the Scriptures described in the various Bible 
Dictionaries of the day, so far as they can be identified ; for un- 
fortunately in respect to the names of many plants and animals 
ifc is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty to 
what species the Hebrews applied them. All that will be here 
attempted is a general survey of the vegetable and animal king- 
doms of Palestine. 

16. Among the plants that furnish food to the human race 
wheat and barley hold the first place. What abundant crops of 
these grains the soil of Palestine yields is known to all. " The 
fat of wheat" and "the fat of kidneys of wheat" (Ps. 81:16; 
147:14; Deut. 32:14), these are the terms used by the sacred 
writers in describing the wheat of Palestine. Twenty thousand 
measures of wheat with twenty measures of pure oil were given 
by Solomon to Hiram annually in return for his services. In 
enumerating the long Hst of products embraced in the com- 
merce of Tyre, Ezekiel names for Judah and the land of Is- 



216 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

rael "wheat of Minnith and Pannag and honey, and oil, and 
balsam." Ezek. 27 : 17. To these grains are to be added the 
leguminous plants — peas, beans, and various kinds of lentiles ; 
millet, sorghum, rice in the swampy grounds bordering the lake 
Huleh ; melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, and gourds ; the whole 
store of garden vegetables — cabbages, carrots, lettuce, endives, 
etc. Many plants not known in ancient times have, been intro- 
duced from abroad ; as the potato, sweet potato, maize, banana, 
sugar-cane, etc. 

17. Of plants that furnish clothing, cotton, hemp, and flax are 
cultivated in Palestine: but the latter not very abundantly at 
the present time. Silk is once mentioned in the New Testa- 
ment as an article of commerce (Rev. 18:12); perhaps also in 
the Old Testament by Ezekiel (chap. 16 : 10, 13) under the name 
meshi. No notice of it occurs at an earUer date. 

18. Of fruit-bearing trees the vine, olive, ^g, pomegranate, 
and sycamore are often mentioned in Scripture. To these 
must be added the apple, quince, apricot, mulberry, prickly pear, 
hawthorn, orange, shaddock, lime, etc. The date-palm, once so 
common, is now found at various places along the maritime plain, 
but scarcely elsewhere. 

Palestine has always been celebrated for the excellence of its vineyards. 
It is said that no vines can vie for produce with those of Judaea. Dr. 
Hooker (in Smith's Bible Diet., art. Palestine) speaks of bunches pro- 
duced near Hebron which are sometimes so long that, "when attached to 
a stick which is supported on the shoulders of two men, the tip of the 
bunch trails on the ground." Compare Numb. 13 : 23. The terraced hills 
of Judaea were once covered in great part with vineyards, and could be 
again under suitable culture. 

Next in importance to the vine is the olive. The olive-tree, with its 
gray bark, knotted and gnarled limbs, and dull foliage, forms a very stri- 
king feature of the landscape of Palestine. Olive orchards with their 
precious crop constitute now, as from time immemorial, one of the chief 
sources of wealth to the inhabitants of the land. "Corn and wine and 
oil" — by these three staple products the holy land is often characterized. 

The fig constitutes another important crop. It is planted like the olive 
in orchards, which are carefully cultivated, and it bears two or three crops 
in the year. 




ALMOND-TREE. 



PALESTINE. 217 

The sycamore is a species of fig with a leaf resembling that of the mul- 
berry. Hence its Greek name si/camoros, that is, jig -mulberry. The tree, 
•which is of considerable size, thrives on the plains and in the vales where 
it is not exposed to severe cold. 1 Chron. 27 : 28. The fruit grows directly 
from the trunk itself on little sprigs, and in clusters like grapes. Though 
inferior to the true fig, it constitutes an important article of food. Its 
wood, though light and porous, is very durable ; and was much usetf an- 
ciently for doors and various articles of furniture ; for mummy cases also, 
it is said. 

The pomegranate is rather a bush than a tree, with a dark green foliage 
and crimson flowers. It bears a large reddish-colored fruit filled with nu- 
merous seeds, surrounded with juicy pleasant tasted pulp. The beauty of 
the fruit caused it to be selected as an ornament of the high-priest's 
robes (Ex. 28 : 33, 34 ; 39 : 24-26) ; and of the pillars to Solomon's temple 
(1 Kings 7 : 18, 20, 42) ; and in Canticles the bridegroom says to the bride 
(chap. 4:3): " Thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy 
locks." 

What kind of tree was denoted by the Hebrew tappuah, rendered in 
our version apple and apple-tree, is a matter of doubt. The corresponding 
Arabic word tuffah denotes apple ; but also lemon, peach, apricot, etc. 
Thomson (Land and Book, 2, pp. 328, 329) decides for the apple. Tris- 
tram (Land of Israel, pp. 604, 605) dissents from this view. He would 
prefer the meaning citron to that of apple, but has no hesitation in express- 
ing his opinion that the apricot alone is the apple of Scripture. The tree 
yields a pleasant shade (Cant. 2:3; 8:5), and its fragrant golden fruit 
has, he thinks, all the qualities ascribed to the apple of the Old Testament. 
Prov. 25 : 11 ; Cant. 2:5; 7:8. The i^revailing opinion is that the ciiroii 
is the ajiple of Scripture. 

Oranges are apparently of later introduction. Joppa on the Mediter- 
ranean plain is surrounded by gardens containing groves of oranges and 
date-palms, with lemons, citrons, and bananas. The hedges of these gar- 
defns are formed by the prickly pear, itself yielding a fruit extensively eat- 
en by all classes. 

19. Among nut-hearing and other forest-trees may be mention- 
ed the walnut, almond, pistachio, carob-tree, oak, plane-tree, 
wild-olive, etc. The banks of the Jordan are lined with the 
oleander, poplar, willow, tamarisk, and other trees and shrubs, 
along with dense jungles of canebrakes. The oleander, with 
its gay flowers, fringes the banks of lakes and pools, and fills 
the ravines where water runs during the whole or most of the 
year. 



218 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

The most common forest tree is the oak^ of which there are three spe- 
cies. Except some forests of pine on the seacoast, ridges of Carmel. and 
a few other high crests, the oak alone forms continuous forests. It is most 
abundant in Bashan and Gilead. The valonia oak {Qioercus cegilops) is 
jDrobably the prevaiHng oak of Bashan and Gilead. Its thick gnarled limbs 
answer well to the thick boughs of the great oak that caught Absalom's 
head as his mule rushed under them in the flight from Joab's men, 2 Sam. 
18:9. 

Of the pistacia there are three species. That which yields the pistachio 
nut [Pistacia vera) is rare ; but the two other kinds, the lentiscus and tere- 
binth, are very common. The former is a bush conspicuous for its dark 
evergreen leaves and numberless scarlet berries ; the latter becomes a largo 
tree. 

The caroh-tree [Cerat07iia siliqua) is related to the locust family. Its 
large pendulous pods filled with a sweetish pulp are extensively used as 
food for cattle, horses, mules, and swine. These are ' ' the husks \lceratiai 
carob-pods] that the swine did eat." Luke 15 : 16. 

20. Odoriferous plants abound on the hills of Palestine. Dr. 
Hooker specifies marjoram, thymes, lavenders, calaminths, 
sages, and teucriums. Fennels also, and mustard of gigantic 
size, with other umbelliferous and cruciferous plants are very 
common. 

What was the plant known to the Hebrews by the name Ezobh, which 
the translators render by the word hyssop, is a matter of uncertainty. The 
various conjectures may be seen in the modern Bible Dictionaries, which, 
however, shed but little light on the question. Thomson (Land and 
Book, 1, p. 161) speaks of having seen a variety of hyssop having the fra- 
grance of thyme, with a hot, pungent taste, and long slender stems. Such 
a plant would agree well with the qualities ascribed to the hyssop of Scrip- 
ture. 

21. We have already noticed the fact that in the deep sunk- 
en valley of the Jordan and Dead sea many Egyptian pilcints are 
found, and some that belong to the flora of India. Such are 
the thorny lote-tree, the zukkum that yields the false balsam, 
the henna, the apple of Sodom, the mad apple, etc. One of 
the most interesting plants of this region is the |9ap?/r?^s, said to 
have once grown on the banks of the lower Nile, but which is 
now found without the tropics only in one spot in the island of 



PALESTINE. 219 

Sicily, and in certain localities of modern Syria. It abounds in 
the marshes by the upper lakes of the Ghor, and is said to grow 
near Haifa at the foot of Carmel and elsewhere. -Hooker in 
Smith's Bible Diet., art. Palestine. 

The papynis is the haheer of the Arabs (h being, as usual with them, 
substituted iov p). It is a tall stout three-cornered plant, growing to the 
height of eight or ten feet, and ending above in a wide-spreading broom- 
like tuft. "It imparts," says Thomson, speaking of the marshes of the 
Huleh (1, p. 401), " a singular appearance to the whole marsh, as if ten thou- 
sand thousand brooms were waving over it." Of this plant the ancients 
manufactured paper, and hence the name — paper ivom. papyrus,. The Arabs 
make mats of it for the walls and roofs of their huts. 

22. The green compact turf of England and the United 
States is rarely found in Palestine ; but the varietij and beauty 
of the wild floicers at the close of the rainy season is wonderful. 
Particularly worthy of notice is the predominance of those 
which have a scarlet hue — scarlet anemones, wild tulips, pop- 
pies, etc. 

' • Of all the ordinary aspects of the country, this blaze of scarlet color 
is perhaps the most peculiar. " Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 137. The 
brilliancy of the vernal flora of Palestine is often noticed by Tristram : 
" The lovely scarlet anemone," writes he at Bethlehem, under date of Feb. 
11 (Land of Israel, jDp. 403, 404), "was coming into flower, and showing 
signs of spring ; pretty little annuals — a pink lychnis, saponarias, blue 
pimpernels, and red valerians — carpeted with a sheet of color the soil 
under the olive-trees." Feb. 26th, near Nazareth, he writes : "The ground 
was carpeted with brilliant jDatches of anemone and other red flowers, 
bunches of lovely cyclamen, composite flowers in endless variety, not omit- 
ting a blue iris and species of periwinkle." In view of the blaze of bright 
flowers how natural and apt is the Saviour's illustration : "Consider the 
lilies of the field how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin ; and 
yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one 
of these." Matt. 6:28, 29. 

23. As the dry season advances, this gorgeous carpeting of 
flowers withers away along with the tall thistles, the matted 
thorns, and the sprawling brambles. Then their common des- 
tiny is to feed the fires of the inhabitants ; for in this land, so 
bare of forest-trees, fuel is a very precious article. The dry 



220 SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

stalks of tlie lily and thistle are cast together into the oven. 
"If," says the Saviour (Matt. 6:30), "God so clothe the grass 
of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, 
shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" 

The dried ordure of animals is carefully gathered up and used for fuel 
along with the withered stalks of flowering plants, thistles, brambles, thorns, 
and weeds of all kinds. "You see," says Thomson (Land and Book, 1, p. 
81), " an immense quantity of this low matted thorn-bush collected around 
them. That is the fuel with which the lime is burned. And thus it was 
in the days of Isaiah. ' The people shall i)e,' says he, ' as the burnings of 
lime ; as thorns cut up sliall they be burned in the fire. ' Those people 
among the rocks yonder are cutting up thorns with their mattocks and 
pruning-hooks, and gathering them into bundles to be burned in these 
burnings of lime."- 

24. The domestic animals of Palestine — the ox, sheep, goat, 
ass, camel — are well known. Horses also were in use on the 
plain country, among the native inhabitants of Canaan, at the 
time of the conquest ; for we repeatedly read of their chariots 
of iron, by the help of which they successfully withstood the 
Israelites (Josh. 17 : 16 ; Judg. 1 : 19 ; 4:3). But among the 
Israelites themselves horses and mules did not come into com- 
mon use till a later period. In Palestine, as throughout the 
East generally, the buffalo, which is larger and stronger than 
the ox, is domesticated, and much used for ploughing and 
draught purposes. It is also found wild in the marshes about 
the upper lakes. 

Tristram saw "herds of buffaloes standing half buried in the mud" in 
the marshy ground bordering the sea of Galilee (Land of Israel, p. 429) ; 
and in the morasses of the Huleh ''herds of ill-looking buffaloes were wal- 
lowing in the mud, or standing with only their noses out of water " (ib., p. 
588). These may be, as he suggests, the true representatives of the "bulls 
of Bashan." 

The Mosaic law discouraged the multiplication of horses (Deut. 17 : 16) ; 
but Solomon introduced them in great numbers (1 Kings 10 : 26 ; 2 Chron. 
1 : 14). Mules are first mentioned in David's time (2 Sam. 13 : 29); for in 
Gen. 36 : 24 the Hebrew word rendered mules might be better translated 
warm sprmgs, as in the Vulgate. Indeed, the Levitical law (Lev. 19 : 19) 
forbade the breeding of mules. 




THE BULL OF SYKI.V 




THE FAT-TAILED SYELYN SHEEP. 



EOE AND KOEBUCK : ANTILOPA DOKCAS. 




HEAD OF THE SYRIAN GOAT. 



ix.^^^* 




■ Jvi\^-'- 



^^ 



THE LION 



PALESTINE. 221 

The broad-tailed variety of sheep is very common in Palestine. The tail 
is the part (rendered rump in our version) which was to be removed in the 
case of certain sacrifices, and burned on the altar. Lev, 3 ; 9 ;- 7 : 3 ; 8 : 25 ; 
9 : 19. Its weight is often fifteen pounds and more. 

25. Of the ivild animals mentioned in Scripture, the lion has 
disappeared from Palestine ; and the bear, once common in the 
land, is very rare at present, except in the mountains of Leba- 
non. Tristram encountered a brown Syrian bear in the Wady 
Hamdm, which enters the plain of Gennesaret at its western 
side. Other wild beasts are the leopard, wolf, hyena, jackal, fox, 
with a multitude of smaller animals. 

The leopard, wolf, and hyena are not common. The leopard inhabits 
the heights of Lebanon and Hermon, and is occasionally found in Pales- 
tine ; in the jungles of the Jordan, for example, and the canebrakes around 
the fountains on the shore of the Dead sea. Tristram, pp. 242, 274. Tris- 
tram saw wolves in the wilderness of Judah at Mar Saba and farther south 
(pp. 267, 268, 367) ; and he several times speaks of hyenas as inhabiting 
the Ghor (pp. 242, 275, 325). Jackals are extremely numerous, as is suffi- 
ciently attested by their nocturnal howlings. The Hebrew term Shual, 
rendered in our version /o-r, seems to include both foxes and jackals. The 
latter go in troops, and are easily caught. The three hundred foxes of 
Samson (Judg. 15 : 4) may have been jackals. The jackal, like the hyena 
and vulture, feeds upon carrion. To "fall by the sword" and "be a por- 
tion for foxes" (Psa. 63 :10) is to be left on the battle-field to be the prey 
of jackals, which here represent all beasts that feed on carrion. 

The jungles of the Jordan and the marshes of the upper lakes are the 
favorite haunts of wild swine. 

It is generally agreed that the Hebrew term shaphan, which our trans- 
lators have rendered cony, is the Syrian Tiyrax, which has its retreat in 
rocky clififs. Tristram describes it as "about the size of a well-grown rab- 
bit, with short ears, round head, long plantigrade foot, no tail, and nails 
instead of claws. With its weak teeth and short incisors, there seem few 
animals so entirely without the means for self-defence. ' The conies are 
but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rock.' Prov. 30 : 26. 
But the stony rocks are a refuge for the conies, and tolerably secure are 
they in such rocks as these. No animal ever gave us so much trouble to 
secure" (p. 250). The shaphan is not properly a ruminant, but is placed 
with ruminants in a popular classification (Lev. 11 : 5). "It is quite suffi- 
cient," says Tristram (p. 251), " to watch the creature working and moving 
its jaws, as it sits in a chink of the rocks, to understand how any one wri- 



222 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

ting as an ordinary observer, and not as a comparative anatomist, would 
naturally thus speak of it. " 

Besides the use of the dog to guard the shepherd's flocks (Job 30 : 1 ; 
Isa. 56 : 10), multitudes of dogs without owners wander in troops through 
the cities and villages of the East in search of food. To this fact there 
are various allusions in the Old Testament (1 Kings 14 : 11 ; 16 : 4 ; 21 : 24 ; 
2 Kings 9 : 10, 36 ; Psa. 22 : 16 ; 59 : 6, 14, 15 ; Jer. 15 : 3 ; Luke 16 : 21). 
These "greedy dogs," feeding on offal and dead bodies, were to the He- 
brews preeminently unclean (Matt. 7:6); and they represent the shame- 
lessly impure among men. Phil. 3:2; Rev. 22 : 15. In Deut. 23 : 18 the 
word dog represents a Sodomite. Compare ver. 17. 

26. Now, as anciently, Palestine abounds in numerous kinds 
of birds. Among birds of prey and such as feed on carrion maybe 
named eagles, vultures, falcons, kites, owls, ravens. Among marsb 
and water fowl are cranes, herons, bitterns, cormorants, curlews, 
pelicans, gulls, ducks, teal, etc. " The rocky hill-sides abound 
with partridges and quails ; the cliffs in the glens with pigeons ; 
the bushes with turtle-doves." Alexander's Kitto, art. Pales- 
tine. Among singing-birds is the hulhul, or Palestine nightin- 
gale, which, says Tristram (p. 201), "positively swarm" in the 
thickets which hne the Jordan, "almost every tree being inhab- 
ited by a pair, and the thickets reechoing with their music." 

The number of rock-pigeons is immense. ' ' No description, " says Tris- 
tram (p. 446), speaking of Wady Leimun, a narrow gorge opening upon 
the sea of Gahlee, v.ith limestone cliffs from five hundred to seven hundred 
feet high, perforated with innumerable caves, "can give an adequate idea 
of the myriads of rock-pigeons. In absolute clouds they dashed to and 
fro in the ravine, whirling round with a rush and a whirr that could be 
felt like a gust of wind." This passage well illustrates Solomon's descrip- 
tion of his bride : "O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding- 
place of the ledges." Cant. 2 : 14. 

27. Of reptiles we notice only those of the serpent kind. 
Besides the generic word naliasli, serpent (also tannin, dragon), 
the Hebrew uses several terms, apparently all specific, for ven- 
omous serpents. 

Achshub, in our version adder (Psa. 140 : 3) ; eplie, in our version viper 
(Job 20 : 16 ; Isa. 30 : 6 ; 59 : 5). The particular species is not known in 
either case. 




THE VULTUEE, 



THE FOX, OR JACKAL. 




THE CONEY. 



THE SCREECH-OWL. 




THE EAGLE. 



THE WILD ASS. 



PALESTINE. 223 

Petlien, rendered adder in the book of Psalms (58 : 4 ; 91 : 13) ; else- 
where asp (Dent. 32:33; Job 20:14, 16; Isa. 11:8). The prevailing 
opinion is, that this word denotes the Naja Jiaye of naturalists, which is 
nearly allied to the cobra of India. It has the body spotted with blacK 
and white, and is very venomous. 

Sliephiphon (Gen. 49 :17), rendered adder. It is thought by some to 
be the honied cerastes. 

T&eplia and tsiplioni, once rendered adder (Prov. 23 : 32) ; elsewhere 
cockatrice (Isa. 11 : 8 ; 14 : 29 ; 59 : 5 ; Jer. 8 : 17). The particular si^ecies 
is unknown. 

It remains to consider the term sar((pli, hurning or jiery^ used with or 
without the addition oinahasli, serpent (Numb. 21 : 6, 8 ; Deut. 8 : 15). In 
Isa. 14 : 29 ; 30 : 6, the eT^\i\\eiJiying is added. No serpents have wings, but 
some of them have the habit, when excited, of raising themselves w^y on 
the coil of the tail, and expanding the skin in the upper part of the body 
below the neck into a thin disk, before they make the fatal spring. This 
cannot enable them to fly, though it may perhaps help them in throwing 
themselves ujjon the victim. Such a sjDring from an upright position, with 
the skin of the neck expanded, may possibly have suggested the epithet 
flying. Some have supposed that they were called flying serpents from 
their power of darting at their prey from trees, or of swinging themselves 
from limb to limb. But we need more light concerning the habits of the 
serpent in question. 

28. Concerning the fishes and marine animals of Palestine 
and the adjacent seas our information is very scanty. *' The 
great fisli " that swallowed Jonah is not said to have been a ivliale. 
It is from the Alexandrine version that the rendering whale 
comes, apparently in the sense of any great sea-monster. That 
there exist in the Mediterranean sea fish capable of swallowing 
a man entire is a well-attested fact. The question concerning 
the particular species is unimportant; since, whatever it may 
have been, his preservation in the belly of the fish, as well as 
his deliverance thence, was miraculous. 

The tahash, rendered in our version badger, is thought by many to 
have been some species of the marine animals that anciently abounded in 
the Red sea, possibly the seal or the dugong. Others incline to the opin- 
ion that it was of the anteloj^e family ; mainly on the ground that the ante- 
lope was, according to the Mosaic law, a clean animal. 

In the Round Fountain [Ain el-Mudauwarah), whose waters flow 
through the plain of Gennesaret, Tristram discovered a large sjiecies of 



224 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

catj3.sh identical with the catfish of the ponds of Lower Egypt. Land of 
Israel, i3p. 435, 442. This goes far to identify this fountain with the foun- 
tain of Capernaum described by Josephus (Jewish War, 3. 10. 8), where 
he says : "It is watered by a most fertilizing fountain, which the inhabit- 
ants call Capharnaum. Some have thought this to be a vein of the Nile, 
since it produces a fish similar to the coracinus of the Alexandrine lake." 

29. Of the insects of Palestine we notice particularly two ; 
one for the benefits it confers, the other for the injuries it in- 
flicts. The land of Palestine is celebrated for its bees, and they 
seem to have been anciently more abundant than at present. 
They select for their hives fissures in the rocks, hollow trees, or 
any other cavity that offers itself. The narrative in 1 Sam. 
14 : 25-27, where we are told that " when the people were come 
into the wood, behold, the honey dropped" — from the combs 
namely in the trees; and Jonathan "put forth the end of the rod 
that was in his hand, and dipped it in a honey-comb, and put 
his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened" — this 
simple narrative illustrates the oft-recurring description of Pal- 
estine as " a land flowing with milk and honey." 

The Arabs apply the term honey [dibs answering to the Hebrew dehhash) 
to other sweet substances, particularly the syrup of grapes, or must, which 
is a decoction made from the newly expressed juice of grapes. This syrup 
is in common use in Palestine at the present day : and doubtless the He- 
brews used the word honey in the same wide sense. 

Locusts are a terrible scourge to Palestine and the adjacent 
regions. They fly with the wind in swarms of incredible mag- 
nitude, which cover the heavens and darken the air ; and when 
they alight they sometimes cover the surface of the ground a 
foot deep for many miles in extent. Every green thing disap- 
pears before them. "The land," says the prophet (Joel 2:3), 
" is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a des- 
olate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them." 

The insects popularly called grasshoppe)-s in the United States are prop- 
erly locusts, and they give the best idea of the migratory oriental locust. 
But the size of the latter is much greater. It is about two and a half 
inches long, of a greenish color obscurely spotted, with pale brown wing- 
covers marked with black. In all its forms, from the larva to the perfect 



'"t^v \l 




liETIATHAN. 



VIPEE. 





KHINOCEEOS. 



OSTRICH. 




HIPPOPOTAMUS, on BEHEMOTH. 



PELICAN. 



PALESTINE. 225 

insect, it is very voracious. When driven by the wind over the sea they 
often perish there ; and their dead bodies wafted to the shore sometimes 
form banks extending for miles, the stench of which taints the air to a 
great distance. 

Locusts are jised now as in ancient times for food. Lev. 11 : 21, 22. 
They are jjrepared in various ways. The legs and wings being pulled off 
they are roasted or fried in oil ; or they are dried in the sun, pounded up 
and used as flour ; at other times they are boiled or stewed in butter. In 
many Arabian towns they are sold in the shops by measure as articles of 
food. There is no reason for understanding the scriptural declaration that 
the Baptist's food was "locusts and wild honey" (Matt. 3 : 4) in any other 
than a literal sense. 

Locusts are most abundant in dry seasons, so that the two calamities of 
drought and locusts often come together. Compare Joel, chap. 1 : 17-20 ; 
2 : 23. 

30. We bring this cliapter to a close by a brief notice of three 
animals respecting which there has been no little discussion; 
namely, the unicorn, behemoth, and leviathan. 

In our version the Hebrew word rehn is rendered, in accordance with 
the Septuagint and Vulgate, by the word unicorn, that is, one-liorned. But 
no such idea is conveyed by the original. In Psa. 92 : 10, the Hebrew 
reads elliptically : My liorn shall thou exalt like a unicorn ; while in Deut. 

33 : 17 the animal is plainly represented as having two horns. " His glory," 
says Moses of Joseph, "is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns 
are the horns of a unicorn.'' The rendering of the English version: 
"Hke the horns of unicorns," is acknowledged in the margin to be not in 
accordance with the Hebrew, and was made under the idea that the word 
rehn must have in this passage a collective sense. But for this there is no 
ground, since the plural form re'emim or remim is also in use. See Isa. 

34 : 7, Psa. 29 : 6, where the original reads, like a son of imicorns ; and Psa. 
22 : 21, where the horns of tinicorns are mentioned. 

Again : when other animals are associated with the unicorn, they are 
always of the ox kind. Thus in Deut. 33 : 17, the bullock and 2micorn are 
named together ; in Psa. 29 : 6, the calf and young uniccnm : in Isa. 34 : 6, 7, 
all the clean animals in use for sacrifices are named, and with them uni- 
corns — in ver. 6, the small cattle, lambs, goats, rams ; in ver. 7, the large 
cattle, unicorns, bullocks, bulls: in the twenty-second Psalm the sufferer 
describes his enemies as bulls of Bashan, roaring lions, and dogs (vers. 12, 
13, 16) ; and he prays for deli'S'erance from them in the inverse order, aa 
dog9, lions, and unicorns (vers. 20, 21). See also the description of the 
unicorn in Job 39 : 9-12, from which passage we learn that the unicorn 
had not then been tamed. 

10* 



226 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

Once more : it is obvious that tlie unicorn is not a foreign animal known 
to the Hebrews by report only, but one which they knew from observa- 
tion. 

We come then with much certainty to the conclusion that the unicorn 
was a wild animal of (lie ox kind. It is generally thought to have b€en the 
wild buffalo. But this is not certain. It may have been some other 
species of wild ox, like the urus described by Csesar (Gallic War, 6. 28), 
which, along with the lion, has now disappeared from the region. 

The heliemoth is mentioned only in Job 40 : 15-24. It is not necessary 
to assume that he was an inhabitant of Palestine, but only that the pa- 
triarch was acquainted with him. It is agreed that the animal described 
must have been the Inppopotamus or some species of elepliani; but between 
the two it is difficult to decide. The animal "lieth under the shady trees 
(or, lotus-bushes) ; in the covert of the reeds and fens. The shady trees 
(or, lotus-bushes) cover him with their shadow ; the willows of the brook 
compass him about" (vers. 21, 22). This descri]Dtion suits either the hippo- 
potamus or the elephant. "The mountains bring him forth food ; where 
all the wild beasts of the field play" (ver. 20). These words apply perfectly 
to the elephant, but not to the hippopotamus. If w^e adopt the rendering 
of the last clause of verse 19 proposed by many Hebrew scholars, "his 
Maker hath furnished him with his sword," it may describe either the 
tusks of the elephant or the teeth of the hippopotamus. The exact sense 
of verse 23 is not clear ; but according to any proposed rendering it suits 
the hippopotamus better than the elephant. We may, perhaps, translate 
it as follows : "Lothe river is violent [swells and rushes upon him with 
violence] ; he hasteth not away ; he is confident when Jordan bursteth 
forth unto his mouth" (swells so as to fill his mouth). The last verse of 
the chapter (verse 24) is rendered by De Wette : "Does one take him be- 
fore his eyes ? in fetters does one bore through his nose ?" Thus taken 
the words express simply the difficulty of capturing him. But, if we fol- 
low the rendering of the last clause proposed in our version, "his nose 
pierceth through snares," it might well be regarded as a description of the 
elephant's trunk. 

It does not seem possible, therefore, to decide with confidence between 
the elephant and the hippopotamus. The fact that the heliemoih is asso- 
ciated in this chapter with the leviathan may, perhaps, incline us to the idea 
that a marine animal is intended ; which must then be the hippopotamus. 
As to the supposed Egyptian origin of the name^p-ehe-mout, the water 
ox — we want evidence that the Egyptians ever used it. In its Hebrew 
form it is a "plural of majesty ;" as if beasl of beasts. 

The word leviathan signifies, according to Gesenius, "an animal 
wreathed, gatheiing itself in folds;'' and this explanation is supported by 



PALESTINE. 227 

Isa. 27:1 : "In that day Jehovah, with his hard, and great, and strong 
sword, shall visit upon [inflict judgment upon] leviathan the swift ser- 
pent, and upon leviathan the crooked serpent ; and shall slay the dragon 
that is in the sea." Leviathan, the crooked serpent and dragon, is here 
obviously a symbol of some great oppressive power, apparently the Baby- 
lonish monarchy. In Psa. 74 : 13, 14, the Psalmist says, with evident al- 
lusion to the passage through the Ked sea : " Thou didst divide the sea by 
thy strength : thou didst break the heads of the dragons upon the waters. 
Thou didst crush the heads of leviathan : thou didst give him as food to 
the people, to the dwellers in the desert." In this passage, also, the drag- 
on and leviathan are best understood as representatives of the persecuting 
Egyptian monarch and his host. In Psa. 104 : 26, leviathan is described 
as an inhabitant of "the great and wide sea" over which the ships pass. 
In Job 3 : 8, magicians are apparently spoken of " who are ready to raise 
up leviathan," that is, who profess to raise up leviathan from the deep. 
There is ground for thinking (though this is denied by some) that in all 
the above passages the term leviathan is used generically, much as we em- 
ploy dragon ; and that it denotes a great sea-monster. But in the forty-first 
chapter of Job, which is the only remaining passage where leviathan is 
mentioned, a specifiG animal is j)lainly intended ; and one, too, with which 
the patriarch was acquainted. Unless now we assume without evidence 
that the reference is to some sea-monster that has become extinct since the 
time of the patriarch, we must of necessity understand the crocodile. Tlu^ 
description as a whole agrees with this animal, and with no other. The 
account of his impenetrable skin (verses 7, 15-17, 26-29) applies perfectly 
to the crocodile, but not in the least degree to the whale. A difficulty is 
created by the mention of the deep and the sea (verses 31, 32), since the 
crocodile is a fresh-water animal having his home in rivers. But in a 
highly wrought poetic descrijDtion, like the present, the deep and the sea 
may rei)resent the Nile with the lakes at its mouth ; not to say that in 
Nahum 3 : 8 the Nile is certainly called the sea. If a difficulty be found 
with that part of the description which represents fire and smoke as issu- 
ing from his nostrils (verses 19-21), this is not removed by substituting the 
whale or any other marine animal for the crocodile. No one can suppose 
that this or any other animal literally breathes flames, or that his breath 
literally kindles coals. The description must be taken as highly figura- 
tive. 



228 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTEK YIII. 

Countries on the Southwest and South of 
Palestine. 

The countries that come under consideration in the present 
chapter are Egypt and Ethiopia on the southwest of Palestine, 
and the Arabian Peninsula on the south. The scriptural referen- 
ces to the regions west of Egypt, as, for example, " the parts of 
Libya about Cyrene" (Acts 2:10), are but few and casual, and 
do not require particular notice. 

I. EGYPT AND ETHIOPIA. 

1. Ancient Egypt deserves special attention, partly on ac- 
count of its great antiquity and the high degree of civilization 
to which it attained ; but more particularly because of the close 
connection between its history and that of the covenant people. 
The Hebrew name of Egypt (retained in the modern Arabic 
Misr) is Mizraim, a noun of the dual form, referring apparently 
to the earliest division of the country into Upper and Lower 
Egypt. 

The ancient Egyptians, as we learn from the monuments, called their 
country j^em, or in the demotic form Kemee (Poole in Smith's Bible Diet.). 
The Coptic name appears in the dialects as Cliame, Ghemi, Kerne, Kemi, 
with which the poetic Hebrew designation ihe land of Ham (Psa. 105 : 23 ; 
106 : 22 ; compare Psa. 78 : 51) apparently agrees. Another poetic appel- 
lation is ihe field of Zoan, from Zoan or Tanis, a city of Lower Egypt. 

2. In regard to antiquity it is well-known what extravagant 
claims the ancient Eg^^ptians made. There has come down to us, 
through Julius Africanus, Eusebius, and Syncellus a list of thirty 
Egyptian dynasties compiled by the Egyptian historian Manetho, 
a priest of Sebennytus in Lower Egypt, who flourished in the be- 
ginning of the third century before Christ. The forms of this 



PALESTINE. 229 

list, as given by Eusebius and Syncellus, present important differ- 
ences, and the true text, as it proceeded from Manetho's pen, 
must remain a matter of uncertainty. Respecting the general 
credibihty of Manetho's list and the principles upon which it was 
constructed there has been much discussion. The study of the 
Egyptian monuments leads to the conclusion, on the one hand, 
that Manetho composed his list from authentic Egyptian 
records ; and, on the other, that these thirty dynasties cannot 
have been all successive, as he seems to present them, but that 
many of them must have been contemiooraneous. ''The series of 
dynasties," says Poole {nhi supra), "is given as if they were suc- 
cessive, in which case the commencement of the first would be 
placed full five thousand years B. c, and the reign of the king 
who built the great pyramid four thousand. The monuments 
do not warrant so extreme an antiquity, and the great majority 
of Egyptologers have therefore held that some of the dynasties 
were partly contemporary." The extreme antiquity assigned 
to Eg}^t by Bunsen and Lepsius, on the assumption that the 
thirty dynasties of Manetho were all successive, rests on con- 
jectural computations rather than on sure historic evidence. 
But, after all reasonable deductions have been made for con- 
temporaneous dynasties, it still remains true that no nation can 
claim a higher antiquity than Egypt. 

According to Mr. Poole's scheme, which is regarded with favor by 
Kawlinson (Herodotus 2, p. 340), the first seventeen dynasties were in part 
contemporary, while from the eighteenth and onward Egypt was an undi- 
vided kingdom, and the dynasties are to be regarded as successive. He 
assigns Menes, the first historic sovereign, to the year b. c. 2700. As to 
the time of the Exodus there is much diversity of opinion. Poole would 
place it under the shepherd-kings as early as b. c. 1652 ; and this is nearly 
the date adopted by Hales. Calmet places it b. c. 1487 ; Bunsen and 
others still later. The chronology of this part of Hebrew history is in- 
volved in much obscurity. See Companion to the Bible, pp. 233, 234. 

3. The religion, government, and civilizaiion of the ancient 
Egyptians constituted an organic whole. Their religion, like 
aU others of heathen origin, rested on a foundation of nature- 



230 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

worship. They deified the powers of nature, and by dividing 
these powers among different natural objects — ^beasts, birds, 
reptiles, insects, plants, the sun, moon, etc. — they multiplied the 
number of their deities without end, and worshipped them under 
hideous forms. They had gods and goddesses with the heads 
of rams, lions, jackals, cats, storks, hawks, crocodiles, frogs, etc. 
In worshipping these nature-gods, they offered to them sacrifi- 
ces of animals, oblations of fruits and vegetables, libations of 
wine, and incense. Nevertheless their religion retained some 
grand relics of the primitive revelation of God to man. Thus 
the doctrine of a future life, with rewards and punishments for 
the deeds of the present life, was taught by the priests, and 
this was one element, perhaps the chief, of their great power 
over the popular mind. 

For the refusal of the Egyptians to eat Avith the Hebrews, as foreign- 
ers, we need not seek to find a special historic reason. It had its founda- 
tion in religions scruples. The Egyptians, namely, sacrificed only male 
kine. To offer cows in sacrifice was in their view an abominable act, since 
these were sacred to Isis, a goddess having the form of a woman with the 
head and horns of a cow. Compare Exod. 8 : 26. Hence they regarded 
foreigners who violated this and other of their religious usages as unclean. 
"The Egyptians," says Herodotus (2. 41), "one and all, venerate cows 
more highly than any other animal. This is the reason why no native of 
Egypt, whether man or woman, will give a Greek a kiss, or use the knife 
of a Greek, or his spit, or his caldron, or taste the flesh of an ox, known to 
be pure, if it has been cut with a Greek knife." On the same general 
ground shepherds, that is, in the wide sense of the term, those whose occu- 
pation was the care of flocks and herds, were to the Egyptians unclean in a 
special sense. Hence the declaration of Moses (Gen. 46:34) that "every 
shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians." 

4. The government of Egypt was monarchical. It was man- 
ifestly a strong government affording efficient protection to life 
and property ; and it rested preeminently on a religious founda- 
tion. The high prerogatives of the priests, and their great in- 
fluence, appear very clearly in the scriptural account of Joseph's 
administration. When he took for Pharaoh the people's land 
in exchange for bread, the priests alone were excepted : " Only 



PALESTINE. 231 

the land of the priests bought he not ; for the priests had a 
portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion 
which Pharaoh gave them ; wherefore they sold not their lands." 
Gen. 47 : 22. 

5. The civilization of the Egyptians grew up in close connec- 
tion with their religion and government. It was thoroughly 
heathen in its character, yet it cannot be denied that it was in 
many respects of a high order; the best probably that existed 
in that age of the world. The monuments present to us a 
lively picture of Egyptian life in all its details. To their archi- 
tectural skill the stupendous remains described by so many 
travellers bear abundant testimony. Their excellence in astron- 
omy and mathematics, judging them by the standard of that 
age, cannot be denied. All the pyramids face accurately north 
and south ; and long ages before the time of the Eomans they 
had the Sothic or sidereal year consisting of three hundred and 
sixty-five and a quarter days, beginning with the heliacal rising 
of Sothis or Sirius ; that is, when Sirius rose about an hour be- 
fore the sun. In medical science they were not excelled by any 
nation; and their skill in embalming is known to all. They 
imderstood the art of glass-blowing, and their glass beads and 
richly colored bottles remain to the present day. They had 
musical instruments in use in their religious services. Their 
skill in spinning and weaving, as well as the brilliancy of their 
dyes, is known to all. In leather they were expert workmen. 
They had vases of gold and silver engraved and embossed : also 
of porcelain in rich colors. At their meals they sat upon car- 
pets and mats, or on stools and chairs around the table. The 
more wealthy Egyptians had villas with pleasure-grounds and 
flower-gardens; and houses, which did not generally exceed 
two stories, were placed round open courts after the fashion in 
Eastern countries. They were familiar with the use of iron from a 
remote period, and understood the art of manufacturing bronze. 
For writing they used leather, or paper manufactured from the 
the papyrus-plant. The monuments represent inkstands with 
rod and black ink, and scribes holding the pen behind the ear. 



232 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

Finally, the monnments exhibit the whole process of brick-ma- 
king with the taskmasters armed with rods set over the workmen. 

6. The relation of the covenant 'people to the Egyptians began 
with Abraham, who sojourned in Egypt during a time of famine. 
Gen. 12 : 10-20. Afterwards Joseph, in the providence of God, 
was sold into Egypt, which became the occasion of the settlement 
of the whole family there. Here the growing Hebrew nation 
spent, according to some chronologists, four hundred and thirty 
years, according to others two hundred and fifteen ; and then 
they left the country carrying with them much of its wealth 
(Exod. 3 : 21, 22; 12 : 35, 36), and the knowledge of all its arts 
that pertained to daily life. It was the plan of God to bring 
his covenant people at the outset into intimate and long con- 
tinued contact with the highest form of civilization which the 
world then possessed. If they took with the knowledge of 
Egyptian civilization, its superstitions also, this was an inciden- 
tal evil for which an efficient remedy was provided in the forty 
years training to which they were subjected in the wilderness 
of Arabia, shut out from the rest of the world. 

7. After the exodus, the intercourse between the Hebrews 
and the Egyptians does not seem to have been renewed till the 
time of Solomon, when it was of a friendly character. 1 Kings 
3 : 1 ; 10 : 28, 29. After Solomon's day the Egyptians and Ethiopi- 
ans appear as the oppressors and spoilers of the Hebrew people. 
1 Kings 14 : 25, 26 ; 2 Chron. 14 : 9. Again we find the kings of 
Israel and Judah, in the decline of their power, relying on the 
broken reed of Egyptian help against the Eastern monarchies 
(2 Kings 17 : 4; Ezek., chap. 17), for which sin they were sharply 
rebuked by the prophets. Isa. 30 : 1-7 ; 31 : 1-3 ; Ezek. 17 : 15 ; 
Hosea 12 : 1. After the captivity, the Jews in great numbers 
settled in Egypt. Here they had their temple, and here was 
executed the Greek version of the Old Testament called the Sep- 
tuagint, which has exerted such an important influence on the 
language of the New Testament, and was the basis of the Latin 
version used in the Western church for many centuries. See 
farther under the head of Alexandria, in No. 17 below. 



PALESTINE. 233 

8. The geographical features of Egypt are unique and simple. 
Rain never falls there in such quantities as to be of any avail for 
agricultural purposes. The Nile flows through the land from 
south to north in a narrow valley until it reaches the apex of 
the Delta twelve miles below the modern Cairo. From this 
point the river expands, its current becomes sluggish, and it 
soon begins to flow off in separate branches. Thus we have 
the most ancient natural division of Ujyjoer Egypt above the 
Delta and Lower Egijipt. The whole extent of the country 
from the Mediterranean to the island of Phila^, latitude twenty- 
four degrees one minute north, is in a direct line about five hun- 
dred and twenty miles ; but if we follow the course of the river, 
seven hundred miles. 

9. Tipper Eg^jjji extends from the island of Philse, on the 
border of Nubia, to the apex of the Delta, a distance of about 
six hundred miles, though there are monuments of the Egyptian 
sovereigns in abundance above Philae. The valley is nowhere 
much above eleven miles in breadth, and its average breadth is 
about seven or eight miles. It is shut ia on each side by a 
chain of hills rarely higher than three hundred feet, which form 
the border of the desert region. A little above Cairo these hills 
open on either hand ; those on the western side running off to 
the northwest, and those on the eastern side curving round tow- 
ards the head of the Red sea. 

In the times of the earlier Caisars this part of Egypt was divided into 
two provinceii, the Hepiammiis, or Middle Egypt, and the Thehdis, or Upper 
Egypt in the strict sense of the term ; so named from Thebes, its ancient 
capital. All the provinces were again subdivided into Names, of which 
the Heptanomis had seven. Hence the name, which signifies district of 
seven nonies. Kespecting Faihros (Isa. 11 : 11 ; Jer. 44 : 1, 15 ; Ezek. 29 : 14 ; 
30 : 14), whence the Gentile term Pathrmim, people of Pathros (Gen. 
10 ; 14), the commonly received opinion is, that it is the ancient domestic 
name for Upper Egypt, or at least a part of Upper Egypt. 

10. Lower Egypt consists of the triangular gore formed by 
the divergent branches of the Nile near its mouth, and which is 
called the Delta from its resemblance to the Greek letter of tliat 



234 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

name (a). Its length from its apex, twelve miles below Cairo, 
to the sea, is about ninety miles. Its present breadth on the 
seacoast, reckoning from the eastern branch at Damietta to the 
western at Rosetta, is eighty miles. But the ancient Delta was 
much wider. It had for its eastern border the Pelusiac branch 
of the Nile, now only a canal, which enters the Mediterranean 
some fifty miles or more to the southeast of Damietta ; while its 
western or Canopic branch had its mouth at Canopus, only 
twelve miles east of Alexandria. This was the Delta proper, 
lying within the extreme eastern and western branches of the 
Nile, and intersected by several subordinate branches and vari- 
ous canals. But the province of the Delta included anciently, as 
now, a considerable strip of territory bej^ond these branches on 
each side, which enjoyed the fertilizing influence of the Nile. 

The coast of the Delta bordering on the Mediterranean is 
low and barren, consisting of a line of sand-hills, with occasional 
barriers of rock, behind which are extensive tracts of salt lakes 
with marshy borders. To these succeeds the vast alluvial plain 
of the Delta, interseeted by the branches of the Nile and many 
canals, and having a soil of great richness, consisting of the 
black mud deposited by the Nile through a period of many ages 
to the depth, it is said, of thirty or forty feet. As in the case of 
the Mississippi and some other large rivers, the surface of the 
alluvial deposits descends from the margin of the stream on each 
side towards the hills, owing to the greater amount of deposi- 
tion on its borders. 

11. The position and boundaries of the land of Goshen are 
nowhere directly defined. But the Scriptural notices of it indi- 
cate that it lay on the eastern border of Lower Egypt. Joseph 
"went up to meet Israel his father to Goshen," when the patri- 
arch was on his way from the land of Canaan to Egypt. Gen. 
46 : 29. "When the Israelites left Egypt, they journeyed in three 
days from Goshen to the Red sea, manifestly without crossing 
the Nile. Ex. 12 : 37 ; 13 : 20 ; 14 : 2. If we define the land of 
Goshen as " the country intervening between the desert of Ara- 
bia and Palestine on the one side and the Pelusiac arm of the 



PALESTINE. 235 

Nile on tlie other, with the Mediterranean at the base" (Smith's 
Bible Diet.), it is perhaps as far as we can go with certainty. 
Goshen will thus include the modern province esh-ShurJciyeh, 
which Eobinson says (Bib. Kes., 1, p. 53) has ever been " the 
best of the land" down to the present time. Certainly it was 
to the Israelites, for their purposes as shepherds and herds- 
men, " the best of the land of Egypt;" and that is all that the 
statements of Scripture require us to assume. 

At the time of the exodus, the Israelites, though Hving as a people by 
themselves in the land of Goshen (Exod. 8 : 22 ; 9 : 26 ; 10 : 23, etc.), had 
yet intimate connections with the Egyptians, as is manifest from their bor- 
rowing of them, "every man of his neighbor, and every woman of her 
neighbor "(Exod. 11 : 2 ; 12 : 35). Perhaps a part of the people lived among 
the Egyptians west of the proper land of Goshen, 

12. It is well known that the existence of Egypt as a habit- 
able region depends on the annual overfloiv of the Nile. Tracing 
up this wonderful river from the Mediterranean towards the 
south, we find it dividing at Khartoom, in latitude fifteen degrees 
forty minutes north, into two main branches, called the White 
and Blue Nile ; of which the former comes in from the south- 
west, the latter from the southeast. The Blue Nile has its 
sources in the district of Geesh, in about latitude eleven degrees 
north, and longitude thirty-seven degrees east from Greenwich, 
at an elevation of nearly six thousand feet above the sea. The 
White Nile is the main stream. It has been explored as far 
south as latitude three degrees twenty minutes north, but above 
this its course is uncertain. According to present information, 
its probable source is the great lake Nyanza, the southern ex- 
tremity of which is in latitude three degrees twenty-one minutes 
south, with the probability of head-waters still farther south. 
Thus it has a length, if we include the Nyanza, of almost thirty- 
five degrees of latitude in a direct line, and is the longest river 
on the globe. At the distance of one hundred and sixty miles 
below Khartoom the Nile receives from the right, in latitude 
seventeen degrees forty-five minutes, the Atbara or Black river, 
so named from the black earth with which it is discolored in the 



236 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

rainy season. This is its last affluent. In the remaining one 
thousand five hundred miles of its course to the sea it does not 
receive a single branch — a phenomenon unparalleled in the his- 
tory of great rivers. Descending through Nubia, it passes in 
succession five cataracts, the last of which (called the^V^^ cata- 
ract reckoning upwards from the north) is immediately below 
the island of Philae, and thus on the southern border of Egypt. 
Of the branches which form the Delta, the western is said to 
have, at low water, a breadth of one thousand eight hundred 
feet, with a depth of five feet; the eastern, a breadth of only 
nine hundred feet, but with a depth of about eight feet. 

13. The annual rise of the Nile is due to the periodical rains 
in the tropical regions from which it flows. In Egypt the river 
begins to rise the latter part of June, and reaches its greatest 
height at the autumnal equinox or soon afterwards. About the 
middle of October it begins to fall, and by the end of November 
the fields are left dry and covered with a fresh deposit of slime, 
which acts as a powerful fertilizer. The crops are now sown, 
and owing to the warmth of the climate, mature rapidly, so that 
there is time in most cases for a succession of them before the 
next inundation. 

Rawlinson (Trans, of Herodotus, vol. 2, p. 301) gives the rise of the 
Nile in an ordinary inundation for Asouan (the ancient Syene) at the south- 
ern extremity of Egypt, forty feet ; for Thebes in UpiDer Egypt, thirty- 
six ; for Cairo just above the head of the Delta, twenty-five ; for Kosetta 
and Damietta at the mouths of the river, four. During the inundation 
the Delta has the appearance of an immense marsh, interspersed with 
numerous islands, on which are seen towns, villages, and plantations of 
trees just above the water. Should the rise at Cairo reach thirty feet, it 
sweeps away the mud-built cottages of the inhabitants, and does immense 
damage. Should it, on the other hand, fall short of eighteen feet, a fam- 
ine is the consequence. The extent of territory fertilized by the overflow 
of the Nile was greatly increased anciently by means of canals, many of 
which have fallen into decay in modern times. Where the water cannot 
be directly carried, irrigation becomes a more laborious and expensive 
process. 

In Pharaoh's dream the fat and the lean kine came up out of the river. 
This represents the fact that in Egypt both plenty and famine come from 



PALESTINE. 237 

the Nile as tlieir source. The seven years of famine were doubtless seven 
successive years in which the inundation failed to reach such a height as to 
make agriculture practicable. • " 

14. The fertility of Egypt, wherever the waters of the Nile 
have access, is inexhaustible. With no other fertilizing sub- 
stance except the annual deposits of slime, and under the rudest 
system of husbandry, the soil yields from age to age the most 
abundant crops. Herodotus tells us (2. 14) that the husband- 
man had no need of the plough or the hoe ; that " he waits till 
the river has, of its own accord, spread itself over the fields and 
withdrawn again to its bed, and then sows his plot of ground, 
and after sowing turns his swine into it. The swine tread in 
the corn. After which he has only to await the harvest." This 
cannot, however, be understood as the universal rule. At the 
present da}^, where the level of the land is the lowest, they sow 
the seed on the mud, and then drag it in with bushes ; or they 
drive in a number of sheep, goats, or pigs, to tread it in. But 
in other places the plough is indispensable, and the monuments 
of ancient Egypt represent ploughs of rude construction drawn 
by oxen, as is the custom at the present day. For raising water 
from the Nile the sliaduf is, and always was, in common use — 
an apparatus agreeing substantially with the old fashioned ivell- 
siveep of New England. In Deut. 11 : 10, Moses contrasts the 
land of Palestine with Egypt : " The land whither thou goest 
in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye 
came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with 
thy foot, as a garden of herbs." In this passage Moses is gen- 
erally supposed to refer to the Mix, a sort of treadwheel de- 
scribed at length by Philo, and a figure of which, as now in use, 
is given by Niebuhr. It is possible, however, that he refers to 
the common method of conducting the rills of water in a garden 
from furrow to furrow by pushing the soil with the foot to open 
or close the passage. See Thomson's Land and Book, 2, pp. 
276-280, where is an interesting account of the different modes 
of artificial irrigation. 

15. Egypt produces in abundance the plants that furnish 



238 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

food and clothing to the human family. Wheat is raised for 
exportation. The soil is particularly adapted to maize and 
millet. These grains, with rice, lentils, and other kinds of pulse, 
constitute the principal food of the inhabitants. Melons and 
cucumbers are raised in abundance and of excellent quality. 
Grapes and other fruits — dates, figs, pomegranates, apricots, 
peaches, oranges, lemons, bananas, mulberries, olives — are plen- 
tiful ; and of garden vegetables there is a rich variety. Other 
products are cotton, flax, coffee, tobacco, sugar-cane, indigo, 
and madder. The lakes of Egypt furnish a variety of fish. The 
nature of the country determines the Egyptians to be an agri- 
cultural rather than a pastoral people. Sheep and goats are 
common, and asses, mules, and camels are in use as beasts of 
burden. 

The articles of food for which the Israelites pined in the wilderness 
are liiglily characteristic of Egypt — fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, 
garlics. Numb. 11 : 5. The lotus, a species of water-lily, which Herodo- 
tus represents the ancient Egyptians as using for food (2. 92) grows in the 
ponds and small channels of the Delta diiring the inundations. The ne- 
lumhium, another species described by him, is no longer found in Egypt. 
The celebrated papyrus, of which the Egyptians manufactured paper, 
mats, sails, baskets, sandals, and also small light boats, is no longer a 
native of Egypt. The liippopolamus, formerly common in Egypt, is, ac- 
cording to Rawlinson, now rarely seen as low as the second cataract. Notes 
to Herodotus, 2, p. 118. According to the same author, the crocodile does 
not now descend below Beni Hassan in latitude 28 degrees north. 2, p. 
114, note. 

16. The climate of Egypt is dry and equable, and with the 
exception of some spots in the vicinity of the salt marshes, it is 
considered healthy. The prevailing diseases are affections of 
the liver and skin, ophthalmia, and dysentery. The northerly 
winds blow ten months of the year, and during their prevalence 
the heat is never oppressive. "When these fail, about the be- 
ginning of May, and the hhamsin sets in — a hot wind from the 
southern desert also called simoom — which lasts about fifty 
days, the sultriness and heat of the atmosphere become oppres- 
sive. 



PALESTINE. 239 

The warm and equable character of the cHmate reUeves the inhabitant? 
from the necessity of great outlays on their dwellings or wearing apparel, 
while in ordinary years all the necessities of life are abundant and cheap. 
Hence Egypt anciently supported, for the amoant of its tillable land, a 
very great population. Under the Romans Egypt was the granary of the 
empire, nor has its natural fertility decreased. Under a good government 
its inexhaustible natural resources might be again developed. Famines, 
however, consequent on the failure of the usual rise of the Nile, are 
common now, as in ancient days. See Genesis, chap 41, seq. History 
records one since the time of Joseph of seven years' duration (a. d. 
1064-1071), which seems to have been as severe as that recorded in the 
book of Genesis. See in Smith's Bible Diet., art. Famine. "Fcimines in 
Egypt and Palestine," says the writer of that article, '*seem to be eflfected 
by drought extending from northern Syria through the meridian of Egypt, 
as far as the highlands of Abyssinia." 

17. We add a notice of some ancient places mentioned in 
Scripture. 

Alexandria is situated on the Mediterranean twelve miles west of the 
Canopic mouth of the Nile, and near the northwestern angle of the Delta, 
having in front the long narrow island of Pharos, and in the rear the lake 
Mareotis. It was founded b. c. 332 by Alexander the Great, who per- 
ceiving its pleasant and salubrious site and its great advantages for com- 
merce, marked out the plan of the new city, and connected it by a mole 
with the island of Pharos, thus making a spacious and safe harbor. But 
as it was difficult of access, he erected the celebrated lighthouse of Pharos 
at the eastern extremity of the island, a square structure of white marble 
on the top of which fires were kej)t constantly burning for the direction of 
mariners. Owing to its great commercial advantages — as theemxoorium of 
commerce between the east and the west through the Mediterranean, the 
Nile, and the Red sea, with a short overland carriage from Coptos on the 
Nile to Myos Hormos on the Red sea — Alexandria speedily rose to be the 
metropolis of the commercial world, with a population estimated at 600,000 
souls. After various fortunes it feU in a. d. 640 into the hands of the 
Saracens, who burnt its magnificent library of 700,000 volumes. The city 
continued, however, to be an important jDort till the discovery in 1497 of 
the passage to the east by the Cape of Good Hope, when it sunk into decay. 
But with the restoration in modern times of the overland route to the east 
by means of steamers and the railroad from Alexandria through Cairo to 
Suez, the city is fast rising again into importance. The population of i\\e 
modern town is said to be about 40,000. 

Allusion has already been made (No. 8 above) to the important religious 



240 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

influences that emanated from Egypt before and after our Lord's advent. 
Of these Alexandria was ever the centre. From the first the city was 
inhabited by a large Jewish population. Here Jewish literature flourished 
in intimate contact Avith the Grecian mind, and received from it import- 
ant modifications, as the writings of Philo show : here was executed the 
Greek version of the seventy, the first translation of the Hebrew Scriptures 
into a foreign tongue, and one that exerted a great influence on the Ian 
guage of the New Testament : here, also, after the establishment of Chris- 
tianity, was the celebrated catechetical school presided over by Pantaenus, 
Clement, Origen, and other illustrious teachers, the influence of whose 
exegetical principles endures to the present day. 

Zoan, the Tanis of the Greeks and the Sa7i of the modern Arabs, was 
an important city of Lower Egypt. It stood on the eastern side of the 
Tanitic branch of the Nile, not very far from its mouth. Nothing of its 
ancient splendor remains except fragments of walls, columns, and fallen 
obelisks. The modern village consists of mere huts in a desolate and un- 
healthy region. See "Wilkinson's Modern Egypt, 1, pp. 449-452. 

Sin, a strongly fortified place, called "the strength of Egypt" (Ezek. 
30 : 15), is identified by Jerome with Pelusium; and in this judgment bibli- 
cal scholars generally acquiesce. Both words signify mire or miry place, 
a name which the city well deserved ; for it lay among the marshes on the 
most northeasterly branch of the Nile. The site is now approachable only by 
boats, except when the water of the Nile is low. The remains consist only 
of a few mounds and fallen columns in the midst of pestilential marshes. 
Thus is fulfilled the prediction of Ezekiel : "I will pour out my fury upon 
Sin, the strength of Egypt." 

About midway between the modern San and Pelusium is a mound sup- 
posed by Wilkinson (Modern Egypt, 1, p. 447) to be the site of the scrip- 
tural TaJipanhes or Tehaplmehes. Jer. 2 : 16 ; 43 : 7-9 ; 44 : 1 ; 46 : 14 ; Ezek. 
30 : 18. It was thus the Daphne of Herodotus (2. 30, 107), a fortified 
place on the Pelusiac or eastern branch of the Nile. 

Hanes (Isa. 30 : 4) is identified by some with the Anysis of Herodotus 
(2. 137) and the Heracleopolis of the Greeks in Middle Egypt above Memphis. 
But the Targum reads Tdlipanlies, evidently regarding Hanes as a con- 
tracted form of the same. With this assumption the context well agrees, 
which would seem to indicate that Zoan and Hanes were neighboring 
places. 

Migdbl (Exod. 14 : 2 ; Jer. 44 : 1 ; 46 ; 14 ; also in the true marginal read- 
ing of Ezek. 29 : 10 ; 30 : 6— from Migdol to Syene) would seem to have been 
the last town on the Egyptian frontier towards the Bed sea. 

Pi-beseih (Ezek. 30 : 17) is the Bubastis of Herodotus (2. 137, 138) on the 



PALESTINE. 24i 

Pelusiac branch of the Nile, near the place where the ancient canal led off 
from the Nile to Arsinoe at the head of the Red sea. Here was.a celebra- 
ted temple to the goddess Bubastis, which Herodotus regards as the most 
beautiful in EgyjDt. The site, now called Tell Basta, Hill of Basta is occu- 
pied by mounds consisting of the ruins of brick houses and heaps of 
broken pottery. 

Pitliom and Raineses or Raamses were treasure-cities in the land of Go- 
shen, built by the Israelites for their oppressors. Exod. 1 : 11. Of these 
the former is believed with good reason to be identical with the Patamos 
of Herodotus (2. 158), which was near Bubastis on the east side of the Pe- 
lusiac arm of the Nile, and not far from the canal leading to the Red sea. 
Rameses, from which place the Israelites took their departure (Exod. 
12 :37), according to Robinson (Bib. Res., 1, pj). 54, 55), *'lay probably on 
the valley of the canal in the middle part, not far from the western ex- 
tremity of the basin of the Bitter Lakes." 

In Gen. 41 : 45 we read that Pharaoh gave Joseph to wife Asenath the 
daughter of Potipherah priest of On. The same city is mentioned by 
Ezekiel (chai?. 30 : 17) under the form Aven (only a different vocalization 
of the same Hebrew letters) ; and is called by Jeremiah (chap. 43 : 13) 
Beth-skemesh, house of the sun. On signifies, as Egyptian scholars tell us, 
Hghi and the sun; a name given to the city as the chief seat of the worship 
of the sun, where there was a splendid temple dedicated to that luminary, 
and an annual festival in its honor. The Greek name is Heliopolis, city of 
the sun. "The Arabs," says Sir Gardner Wilkinson (in Rawlinson's He- 
rodotus, 2. 8), "called it Ain Shems, fountain of the sun, from the spring 
there, which the credulous Christians believed to have been salt until the 
Virgin's visit to Egypt." The site of On is still marked by the remains of 
the massive walls that surrounded it. It stood on the east side of the Pe- 
lusiac branch of the Nile about twenty miles northeast of Memphis, and 
six miles northeast of the modern city of Cairo. In sacerdotal dignity its 
priests seem to have held the first rank. Its priesthood constituted a 
numerous body distinguished before other Egyptians for their learning. 
Hence the city was a place of resort for foreign scholars. Under this col- 
lege of priests, Solon, Thales, Eudoxus, and Plato all studied, and through 
them the wisdorL of Egypt was transfused into Grecian philosophy. Po- 
tipherah or Potiphar ( Septuagint Petephres) is said to signify helonging to the 
sun, and there can be no doubt that Joseph's father-in-law was a pnest of 
the highest rank. Of the celebrated temple of the sun, which was ap- 
proached between two rows of colossal sphinxes with two obelisks in front, 
only one obelisk of red granite, remains standing. Thus signally are ful- 
filled the words of Jeremiah : "He shall break also the images of Beth- 
fihemesh, that is in the land of Egypt." 
tjuc.G^e. 11 



242 * SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

Following up the west bank of the Nile we come, at the distance of ten 
miles above the modern city of Cairo, to the site of the celebrated Mem- 
phis, of which the Hebrew name is Noph (Isa. 19 : 13 ; Jer. 2:16; 46 : 14, 
19 ; Ezek. 30 : 13, 16), and once Moph (Hosea 9:6), for which our version 
puts the Greek form Memphis. According to Diodorus Siculus the city, 
was seventeen miles in circuit. Its position was such that it commanded 
the whole inland trade of Egypt between the upper and the lower Nile. 
Of its magnificent temples our limits do not permit us to speak. It con- 
tinued to be the chief city of Egypt until the founding of Alexandria, after 
which it declined till it fell into such utter decay that its very site, buried 
as it is by drifting sands, became for a time a matter of dispute among an- 
tiquarians. The disclosure in modern times of an immense number of 
ruins of temples, palaces, and statues, with thousands of inscriptions, has at 
once identified the site of this famous city, and furnished a solemn com- 
mentary on the prophetic words of inspiration : ' ' Noph shall be waste and 
desolate without an inhabitant." In the hieroglyphics on the monuments 
Memphis is called the city of the pyramids, and with good reason, for the 
great field of the pyramids which was also the necropolis of Memphis, lies 
on the western side of the Nile, extending past Mempliis north and south. 
See below No. 20. 

Thehes, the renowned capital of Upper Egypt, was built on both sides 
of the Nile in latitude twenty-five degrees forty three minutes north. Ac- 
cording to Herodotus (2. 9), Thebes was nine days' sail up the river from 
Heliopolis, the distance being eighty-one schoeni, or four thousand eight 
hundred and sixty furlongs. This reduced to English measure would give 
about five hundred and fifty-two miles. But Wilkinson (in Eawlinson's 
Herodotus, 2, p. 12), says that the distance, following up the river, is only 
about four hundred and twenty-one miles ; and that the distance of Thebes 
from the sea, which Herodotus reckons at six thousand one hundred and 
twenty furlongs or about seven hundred miles, is by modern measurement 
only five hundred and sixty-six miles. The Hebrew name of this city is 
No-amon (Nahum 3 : 8, as it is rightly given in the margin of our version), or 
simply No (Ezek. 30 : 14, 15). The derivation and signification of the 
word No is obscure. According to Gesenius it signifies the place of Amon, 
thus corresponding to the Egyptian name Ha-amen or Pa-amen, abode of 
Amen. In Jer. 46 : 25 (marginal rendering) we read : "Behold I will pun- 
ish Amon of No,'' where the reference is to the deity Amon (the Ammon 
of the Greeks and Romans) worshipped in No. In Ezek 30 : 15, "I will 
cut off the multitude of No [hamon No), there is apparently a play upon 
the similarly sounding words hamcm, multitude, and Amon. 

Thebes excelled all the other cities of Egypt in extent and the magnifi- 
cence of its temples. According to Strabo it covered j^n area of five miles in 



PALESTINE. 243 

length by three in breadth, a statement fully justified, according to Sir Gard- 
ner Wilkinson, by the ruins that mark its former greatness. Thebes was 
one of the most ancient cities of Egypt. It was known by fame to Homer, 
who speaks of it as having a hundred gates and sending forth through 
each two hundred war-chariots. Its antiquity is attested by the fact that 
the bases of all its monuments are buried to the depth of ten feet by the 
annual depositions of the Nile. The stupendous ruins of the city, which 
are among the most magnificent in the world, have been the admiration of 
all travellers. They are at the modern villages of Karnak and Luxor on 
the eastern bank of the Nile, and Kurneli and Medinet Abu on the west- 
ern. To give a description of them in detail would far exceed our limits. 
The great temple of Karnak was approached by an avenue of ram-headed 
sphinxes. Then came a magnificent gateway flanked by broad wings ex- 
tending along the whole front of the temple, with gigantic statues and an 
obelisk on either side. After this was a series of spacious courts with 
magnificent columns in avenues leading to the temple proper. The first 
court behind the gateway is three hundred and twenty-nine feet wide 
and two hundred and seventy-five feet long. Immediately behind this 
court is the great hall of the same width, but one hundred and seventy 
feet long. It was supported by one hundred and thirty-four columns, the 
loftiest of which, forming the central avenue are sixty-six feet in height 
and twelve feet in diameter. No existing ruins are more grandly pictur- 
esque than those of this temple ; and there are many others of less gigan- 
tic proportions, but still filling the mind with amazement by their number 
and extent. The walls of these temples, here as elsewhere in Egypt, are 
covered with hieroglyphics, representing chiefly the exploits of the Egyp- 
tian monarchs. Behind the temples on the western side, the desert 
tract bordering the hills is filled with countless mummy pits, tombs, and 
sepulchral grottoes; for here was the grand burial-place of Thebes, no 
sepulchres existing on the eastern side. 

Thebes was more than once captured by the Assyrians, and to one of 
these events the prophet Nalium refers : "Art thou better than No-Amon, 
that was situate upon the streams [branches of the Nile], that had the 
waters round about her, whose rampart was the sea [the name given by 
the Arabs of the present day to the Nile], and her wall was of the sea ? 
Ethiopia was her strength, and Egypt with endless multitudes ; Put and 
the Lubim were among thy helpers. Yet she also went into exile in cap- 
tivity ; her children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets ; 
and upon her nobles they cast lots, and all her great men were bound 
in chains." Chap. 3 :8-10. 

Syene (whence the name syenite for a well-known species of rock 
abounding in that vicinity) was the last town of Egypt on the southern 
frontier towards Ethiopia. Hence the prophet Ezekiel describes the com- 



244 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

ing desolation of the whole land thus : *'I will make the land of Egypt 
utterly waste and desolate from Migdol to Syene [according to the true 
marginal rendering], even unto the border of Ethiopia." Chap. 29 :10 ; 
30 : 6. Syene is represented by the Arabic village Asouan in latitude 
twenty-four degrees five minutes north, and just below the first cataract of 
the Nile. 

18. The Egyptians, according to Herodotus (2. 123), were 
"the first to broach the opinion that the soul of man is immor- 
tal, and that, when the body dies, it enters into the form of an 
animal which is born at the moment, thence passing on from 
one animal into another, until it has circled through the forms 
of all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the 
air, after which it enters again into a human frame, and is born 
anew. The whole period of the transmigration is (they say) 
three thousand years." Wilkinson, in a note to the above pas- 
sages, says that their belief in this great doctrine is everywhere 
proclaimed in the paintings of the tombs. But he thinks that 
the disgrace of entering the bodies of animals was restricted to 
the souls of wicked men alone, "when, * weighed in the balance' 
before the tribunal of Osiris, they were pronounced umvorthy 
to enter the abode of the blessed." The same doctrine of the 
transmigration of souls — metempsychosis is the Greek term — is 
held, under various modifications, by the Brahmins and Bood- 
hists of India and China, and may have been derived from a 
common source with the Egyptian doctrine. But the Greek 
doctrine of metempsychosis, as held by Pythagoras, Plato, and 
others, was borrowed from the Egyptians, and modified to suit 
the Grecian mind. 

19. The extraordinary care bestowed by the Egyptians on 
the preservation of the bodies of the deceased was connected, 
as some think, with this doctrine of metempsychosis, the idea 
being to preserve the body from decay till the soul should again 
reanimate it. But this view has never been conclusively estab- 
lished. It is cel*tain, however, that the custom of embalming 
the bodies of the dead, from whatever idea it may have pro- 
ceeded, was universal; and there was a class of men in Egypt. 



PALESTINE. 245 

who made it their profession. Herodotus (2. 86-88) and Dio- 
dorus Siculus (1. 91) describe three modes of embalming more 
or less perfect and costly, and the monuments show that there 
were other varieties. According to the most perfect mode, the 
brain and contents of the abdomen were removed, and the 
cavities of the body filled with myrrh, cassia, and other costly 
spicery, after which the body was placed in natron — subcarbo- 
nate of soda — and covered entirely over for seventy days. We 
omit the description of the cheaper methods, simply remarking 
that the placing the body in natron for seventy days was com- 
mon to all three. When the process of embalming was com- 
pleted, the body was washed, swathed from head to foot in 
bandages of fine linen, smeared over with gum, and given back 
to the relatives, who enclosed it in a wooden case shaped in the 
figure of a man. Thus we have the Egyptian mummy and 
mummy-case. 

20. The Egyptian tomhs were more or less elaborate in struc- 
ture, according to the rank and wealth of their builders. It is 
now generally thought that the famous jjyramids of Egypt wei'e 
sepulchral monuments built over the tombs of kings. The num- 
ber and size of these fill the beholder's mind with amazement. 
Near the western margin of the valley of the Nile, beginning a 
few miles above Cairo and scattered in groups at short inter- 
vals for some sixty or seventy miles up the river, are seen as 
many as sixty-nine of these structures with the ruins of many 
more. Their form is familiar to all. They have a square base, 
its four sides facing the four cardinal points, and sloping up- 
wards so as to draw towards a point over the centre. The walls 
had originally a smooth finish, but where the outer casing has 
been torn off the corners of stones appear in the form of steps 
which can be ascended without great difficulty. The great 
pyi-amid of Cheops had originally a base of seven hundred and 
sixty-four feet and a height of four hundred and eighty feet with 
a slope of fifty-one degrees fifty-one minutes. But by the re- 
moval of the outer portions to furnish stone for the city of Cairo 
these dimensions have been reduced to seven hundred and forty- 



246 SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

six feet by four hundred and fifty. These structures are soHd 
throughout, except the chambers designed for the sarcophagi — 
stone coffins — with the narrow passage leading to them. 

Around the pyramids were the tombs of the subjects, built 
upon the rock or excavated in.it. In the tombs deep pits were 
sunk, and the mummies deposited in chambers at the bottom. 
In Lower Egypt these structures were, from the necessity of the 
case, built of brick. 

But this superabundant toil bestowed on the bodies of the 
deceased has only exposed them the more to desecration. While 
the remains of those who have been unostentatiously committed 
to the ground out of which they were taken, are, as a general 
rule, left undisturbed, the coffins of even the Egyptian kings 
have been broken open and despoiled of their contents ; and 
the Arabs of the present day cut up and burn for fuel the mum- 
mies on which ages ago so much labor and wealth were lavish- 
ed. God will honor, in his own divine way, the bodies of the 
righteous at the final resurrection ; but his providence pours 
contempt upon the crude devices of man to evade the dread 
sentence: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." 

21. Ancient Ethiopia (the Cnsh of the Old Testament) is the 
country which stretches south from Egypt probably beyond the 
confluence of the White and Blue Nile, comprising the modern 
Nubia, Senaar, and the northern part of Abyssinia. We do not 
propose to consider the geographical features of Ethiopia, but 
only its relations to Egypt so far as these help to elucidate cer- 
tain passages in the history of the Hebrew people. In 2 Chron. 
14 : 9 we read that Zerah the Ethiopian, with a host of a thou- 
sand thousand, and three hundred chariots, invaded the land of 
Judah from the south ; and in 2 Kings 19 : 9, that Tirhakah 
king of Ethiopia came out to fight against the king of Assyria 
in Palestine. The question immediately arises: How could 
an Ethiopian army invade Palestine, since to do this *it must 
march through the whole length of Egypt? In regard to Zerah 
it might be held that he was but an Ethiopian general with 
Ethiopian and Libyan troops (2 Chron. 16 : 8) in the service of 



k 



PALESTINE. 247 

the king of Egypt. But this explanation is improbable, and 
does not apply to the case of Tirhakah, who is expressly called 
king of Ethiopia. The more natural explanation is that the 
Ethiopians were then the stronger people, and that they either 
ruled Egypt as a tributary kingdom, or had the Egyptians for 
their allies. AVe know that the twenty-fifth dynasty consisted 
of Ethiopian kings who, according to Herodotus (2. 137) held 
the dominion of Egypt for fifty years. TaraJcos, the Tehrak of 
the monuments, was the third king of this dynasty, and he is 
with good reason regarded as the TirhaJcaJi of Scripture. 

22. We read in the New Testament (Acts 8 : 27), of " Can- 
dace queen of the Ethiopians." We learn from several notices 
of the ancients (Pliny, 6. 29; Strabo, 17. 820 ; Dio Cassius, 54. 5) 
that Candace, like Pharaoh, was not the name of an individual 
sovereign, but an official title borne by the successive queens of 
the region, and that the Ethiopia here spoken of was that part 
of the country called Meroe lying between the Nile and its local 
branch, the Atbara. According to Josephus (Antiq. 2 . 10. 2) 
Meroe was the Egyptian Seba (Isa. 43 : 3; 45 : 14), the inhabit- 
ants of which were distinguished for their tallness ; and Hero- 
dotus 3. 20, speaks of the Ethiopians as "the tallest and hand- 
somest men in the whole world." 

The Gush of Gen. 2 : 13 cannot, by any possibility, be the African Cush. 
It must be understood of some province of Asia. 

II. THE AEABIAN PENINSULA. 

23. In sacred geography that part of Arabia which comes 
especially into view is the comparatively small division lying 
between the two arms of the Red sea, having Egy^^t on 
the northwest, the Mediterranean and Palestine on the north, 
and the mountains of ancient Edom on the northeast. It is 
commonly called the SinaitiQ Peninsula, and corresponds nearly 
with the Arabia Petroia of Ptolemy. 

24. At the headland called Ras Muhammed the Red sea 
divides into two narrow branches. Of these the tvesfern is the 
longest and widest. The ancients called it the Herodpolitan 



248 SACRED GEOGEAPHY. 

Gulf, from Heroopolis near its head. Its modern name is the 
Gulf of Suez. Its length is said to be one hundred and sixty- 
seven miles, with an average breadth of about twenty miles. 
Its general direction is from northwest to southeast. A ship 
canal across the isthmus of Suez, connecting the gulf with the 
Mediterranean, has recently been opened under the auspices of 
the French government. The eastern arm, called by the ancients 
the j^lanitic Gulf from ^lana at its head, and by the moderns 
the Gulf of AkahaJ), is not over one hundred miles long, with a 
breadth of from twelve to fifteen miles. It occupies the southern 
extremity of the great valley of the Arahah extending from the 
Eed sea to Antioch (Chap. 4, No. 1), which has here a general 
direction towards the north-northeast. This gulf has at present 
no commercial importance, but it was once a great channel of 
trade, having at its head " Ezion-geher which is beside Eloth" 
(elsewhere called Elatli, Deut. 2:8; 2 Kings 14:22; 16:6), 
whence Solomon's fleet sailed to Ophir. 1 Kings 9 : 28 ; 2 Cliron. 
8:17,18. 

The site . of Opliir has been for ages a famous geographical puzzle. 
Three regions alone can, with any degree of probability, lay claim to the 
honor of containing the Ophir of Scripture, namely, the southern part of 
Arabia, India, and the eastern coast of Africa ; and between these it is dif- 
ficult to decide. The preponderance of evidence is, perhaps, in favor of 
Arabia. The ''ships of Tarshish" which Jehoshaphat made to go to Opliir, 
and which were broken at Ezion-geber, are generally admitted to have 
been so called simply from their size and form — ships built after the model 
of those used in the trade with Tarshish in the southwest of Spain. See 
farther in Chap. 10, No. 30. 

25. The Sinai peninsula constituted that "great and terrible 
wilderness" in which the Israelites, after their departure from 
Egypt, sojourned for forty years. Its general geographical 
outlines may be thus given. Along the western coast of the sea 
of Akabah, at the distance of a mile or more, runs a range of 
mountains described by Robinson (Bib. Bes., 1, p. 155) as con- 
sisting mostly of precipitous cliffs of granite from eight hun- 
dred to two thousand feet in height. On the northeast side of 



PALESTINE. 249 

the gulf of Suez reckoning from its head, runs a long parallel 
ridge of mountains of a wall-like form at the distance of some 
twelve or fifteen miles from it, which bears the name of er-Bahah 
as far as the mountain called Eas "Wady Ghurundel. Here it 
bends off towards the southeast and east, and extends, under 
the name of et-Tih, that is, the wandering, quite across the penin- 
sula to the gulf of Akabah. About the middle of the peninsula 
it sends off two arms, one north into the desert, the other north- 
east to the sea of Akabah. Eobinson describes et-Tih as "a 
regular wall composed of strata of sandstone, with layers ap- 
parently of limestone or clay towards the top ;" and says that 
at its eastern extremity it " comes tumbling down towards the 
sea in immense masses apparently of yellow sandstone, but 
is intercepted by a range of granite cliffs between it and the 
shore" — the cliffs of the granite range described above. 

North of this mountain-wall lies the desert et-Tih, with a 
general slope toicards the norihtvest, except on its eastern border 
which sends its water northward to the Dead sea. It is a deso- 
late region of naked hills and gravelly plains, with only here and 
there a fountain and a few stinted shrubs. 

South of et-Tih is the great sandy plain called by the Arabs 
Dehhet er-Ramleh having on its southern border the rugged 
mountains of Horeb which constitute, so to speak, the nucleus 
of the peninsula. Finally, southwest of Horeb is the naked 
gravelly plain called el-Ka'a, skirting the whole shore of the 
gulf of Suez. What remains to be said of this peninsula will 
be given in connection with the journey ings of the Israelites. 

26. Upon leaving Egypt the Israelites, after a journey of 
three days, reached the western arm of the Red sea, which was 
miraculously divided to give them a passage into the wilderness 
of Arabia. At what particular point they crossed it is a ques- 
tion that has been much debated, and cannot be regarded as 
settled. 

Upon the assumption that the head of the gulf of Suez remains sub- 
stantially the same as at the Exodus, one cannot well resist the conviction 
that it must have been south of the ridge Atakah, and not north of it as 

11* 



250 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

Robinson contends. With this frowning ridge which runs quite down to 
the sea, on their left, the desert on their right, Pharaoh's host behind 
them, and the sea, here about ten miles wide, before them, they would be 
hopelessly shut in from all human means of escape. Poole maintains (in 
Smith's Bible Diet. , art. Red sea) that the head of the gulf of Suez has 
been essentially shortened ' ' for a distance of at least fifty miles from its 
ancient head." If so, the attempt to ascertain the site of the miraclo 
would seem to be utterly vain. 

27. After crossing the Eed sea the Israelites " went out into 
the wilderness of Shur.'' Ex. 15 : 22. SJmr signifies ivall. The 
wilderness which bore its name lay on the way between Pales- 
tine and Egypt (Gen. 16:7), and was before Egypt on the way 
to Assyria having Havilah on the east. Gen. 25 : 18 ; 1 Sam. 
15:7; 27:8. It is possible that the wall-like ridge er-Eahah 
described above is the Shur of Scripture, and that the wilder- 
ness of Shur is the adjoining desert. See in tlie Imperial Bible 
Diet., art., Shur. 

The Havilah mentioned in 1 Sam. 15 : 7, cannot be identical with the 
Havilah of Gen. 2 : 11 ; for this latter place lay north of the Persian Gulf, 
and it i|^ inconceivable that Saul should have smitten the Amalakites over 
such a space. 

Upon entering the wilderness of Shur the Israelites turned 
southeast in the general direction of the shore of the Red sea, 
and came in four days' journey to JEJUm (Numb. 33 ; 8, 9), sup- 
posed to be the modern Wady Ghurundel, which is compara- 
tively well supplied with water and shrubs. After another 
day's march they encamped by the Red sea. Numb. 33 : 10. 
Thence they entered "the wilderness of Sin which is between 
Elim and Sinai" (Ex. 16 : 1), and must be distinguished from the 
wilderness of Zin at Kadesh (Numb. 33:36, and elsewhere). 
Four days more of journeying brought them to the central 
mountains of the peninsula in " the wilderness of Sinai," where 
they abode more than eleven months (Ex. 19 : 1 ; Numb. 10 : 11), 
receiving from God the law and all the ordinances of the the- 
ocracy. 




PLAIN EH-EAHAH, AlSiD CONVENT OF ST. CATHAl.INE : SINAI, 



M:-M^- 





VIEW OF PART OF THE MAIN VALLEY OF PETHA. 



PALESTINE. 251 

It has been with biblical scholars a question what was the distinction 
between Horeh and Sinai. Robinson (Bib. Res., 1, pp. 120, 591) is in- 
clined to adopt Hengstenberg's view, that Horeb is the general name of 
the group, and Sinai the designation of a particular peak, although the 
opposite view is held by Gesenius and others. The annexed plan of these 
mountains will make the accompanying description intelligible to the 
reader, and he will see at once that here the conditions for the promulga- 
tion of the ten commandments in the audience of all the people are fully 
met. 

28. Modern investigation leads with a reasonable degree of 
certainty to the conclusion that the law was given from either 
the northern or the southern peak of the central ridge lying be- 
tween Wady el-Leja on the west, and the narrow Wady Sliueib 
on the east. Of these the lower northern summit is called es- 
Su/sa/eh, and Eobinson is quite positive that no other peak of 
the group can possibly fulfil the scriptural conditions. It is 
agreed on all hands that the plain er-RahaJi lying directly be- 
fore it, with the adjacent area of Wady esh-Slieihh, furnishes 
ample room for a large encampment. Eobinson estimates the 
whole plain at two geographical miles in length, with a breadth 
of from one- third to two-thirds of a mile; while this space is 
nearly doubled by a recess on the west and the broad level area 
of "Wady esh-Sheikh on the east. Bib. Ees., 1, pp. 95, 96. 
Before this spacious plain lies " the bold and awful front of 
Horeb, rising perpendicularly in frowning majesty, from twelve 
to fifteen hundred feet in height." lb., p. 89. The southern 
peak is much higher. It is the Sinai of tradition, and bears 
accordingly the name Jebel Musa, Mountain of Bloses. Robinson 
rejects the tradition with his usual decision on the ground that 
there is not "any spot to be seen around it where the people 
could have been assembled." " The only point in which it is not 
immediately surrounded by high mountains, is towards the 
southeast, where it sinks down precipitately to a tract of naked 
gravelly hills." lb., p. 105. This is a question simply of testi- 
mony. Bobinson unfortunately did not visit this " tract of 
naked gravelly hills," as he and his companion did the northern 
plain with measuring-line in hand. Another traveller, who tells 



252 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

us that he paced every yard of both valleys, finds in Wady 
Sebayeh on the southeast of Jebel Musa ample space for the Is- 
raelitish congregation, one T^■here " every e^^e would look on one 
object, and Jebel Mousa, covered with cloud and fire, would 
impress the whole concourse." Rev. William Arthur in the 
Imperial Bible Diet., art. Sinai. But Stanley, who visited both 
summits and also Wady Sebayeh, with a strong prepossession in 
favor of Jebel Musa, confirms Bobinson's judgment. " I came," 
he says (p. 76), " to the conclusion that it [Wady Sebayeh south- 
east of Jebel Musa] could only be taken for the place if none 
other existed. It is rough, uneven, narrow. The only advan- 
tage which it has is that the peak, from a few points of view, 
rises in a more commanding form than the Bas Sasafeh [the 
northern peak]. No. If we are to have a mountain without a 
wide amphitheatre at its base, let us have Serbal [a magnificent 
mountain northwest of Sinai]; but, if otherwise, I am sure that 
if the monks of Justinian had fixed the traditional scene on 
the Bas Sasafeh, no one would for an instant have doubted 
that this only could be the spot." In this judgment Porter also 
acquiesces. See Handbook for Syria and Palestine, p. 32. 

29. The ivilderness of Sinai, where the Israelites received the 
law, is of course the wilderness adjacent to Sinai, and may be 
reasonably regarded as embracing the sandy waste referred to 
above (No. 25) between the mountains of Horeb and the wall of 
et-Tih on the north. After leaving this wilderness the Israelites 
came at the third encampment to Hazeroth. Numb. 10:33; 
11 : 3, 34, 35. This place seems to be identical with the modern 
Ain-el-HudJierah, fountain of Iludherah lying in a frightful desert 
eighteen hours northeast from Sinai. Porter, Handbook, 1, p. 
37. Here they seem to have turned north (Porter thinks by 
the sublime Wady Wetir) across the Tih, which brought them 
into the ivildernes$ of Paran ; for of the substantial identity of 
this wilderness with the modern desert et- Tih north of the ridge 
et-Tih (No. 25 above) there can be no reasonable doubt. All 
the scriptural notices of Paran (Gen. 21:21; Numb. 10 : 12 ; 
12:16; 13:3,26; Dent. 1:1; 33:2; 1 Kings 11:18; Hab. 3:3) 



PALESTINE. 253 

agree with this assumption, the wilderness of Sliur bordering 
it on the northwest, and that of Zin (Numbers 13: 21 ; 20": 1 ; 
27:14 ; 33:36; 34:3,4; Deut. 32:51; Josh. 15:1,3) on the 
northeast. 

30. Respecting the site of Kadesli there has been much con- 
troversy. Stanley places it at Petra in the mountains of Edom 
east of the Arabah, Robinson and others at the fountain Ain el- 
Weibeh on the western border of the Arabah some twenty-five 
geographical miles south of the Dead sea, Rowlands and Will- 
iams much farther west at a remarkable fountain in the desert 
of Tih about forty-five miles south of Beer-sheba ; while others 
are disposed to assume two places of this name, an eastern and 
a western Kadesh. 

In favor of the assumption of an eastern and a western Kadesh it might 
be urged that in the passages clearly referring to the first encampment of 
the Israelites at Kadesh — for they were twice at Kadesh, once in the be- 
ginning of their wandering, once near its close — it is placed in the wil- 
derness of Pai^an, and is several times called Kadesh-harnea (Numbers 
12 : 16 : 13, 3, 26 ; 32 : 8 ; Deut, 1 : 2, 19, 46 ; 2 : 14 ; 9 : 23 ; Joshual4 : 6) ; 
while in the passages that certainly refer to the second encampment, 
Kadesh is uniformly placed in the wilderness of Zin and never called Ka- 
desh-barnea. Numb. 20 : 1, 13, 14, 22 ; 27 : 14 ; 33 : 36 ; Deut. 32 ; 51 ; 
Jud. 11 : 17. But if these considerations be deemed insufficient to estab- 
lish the assumption of a double Kadesh, the middle of the three sites above 
named, that of Ain el-Weibeh, has, according to present evidence, de- 
cidedly the best claim. The western site is too far removed from ' ' Mount 
Hor in the edge of the land of Edom," to fulfil the scripturat condition 
(Numb. 33 : 37) of a day's journey between that mountain and Kadesh. 
The eastern site advocated by Stanley is west of Mount Hor in the heart 
of Mount Seir, the very region from which the Edomites sternly excluded 
the Israelites, and which they were compelled to compass by the way of the 
eastern arm of the Red sea that they might reach the promised land. We 
come, then, to the conclusion that if there were two places named Kadesh, 
Ain el-Weibeh was the eastern ;■ if but one, Ain el-Weibeh was that i^lace. 

31. On all the routes leading from the west to Sinai numer- 
ous inscriptions are found on the rocks extending to the very 
base of that mountain, but not on the proper mountains of the 
group or east of them. They are more particularly abundant 



254 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

in the Wady called el-Mulcatteh, that is, the written. Respecting 
the age and character of these inscriptions there has been much 
speculation. The common belief has been that they were * 
made by Christian pilgrims. But Prof. Tuch of Leipzig main- 
tains that they are Arabic; and that the authors of the in- 
scriptions were an ancient race of Arabs inhabiting the pen-^ 
insula. According to Tuch the epoch of some of these inscrip- 
tions reaches back beyond the time of Diodorus Siculus, an 
historian of the age of Julius Caesar and Augustus, who men- 
tions them as already ancient, and is probably to be extended 
down to the third or fourth century after Christ. See farther 
in Robinson's Bib. Res., 1, pp. 593-597 ; Porter's Handbook of 
Sinai and Palestine, p. 16, seq. ; Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, 
p. 59, seq. 

It is well-known that the Rev. Charles Forster professes to have inter- 
preted these inscriptions, and to have found in them the work of the chil- 
dren of Israel during their sojourn in the wilderness. In the Imperial 
Bible Dictionary, art. Paran, the Rev. John Rowlands maintains very 
earnestly the validity of Mr. Forster's interpretations, and gives several 
specimens of them ; but oriental scholars generally dissent from this 
view. One of the longest of the inscriptions records, according to Mr. 
Forster, the plague of fiery serpents and the miraculous preservation of 
the people by a serpent of brass ; yet, according to the scriptural narrative, 
this event took place in the last year of the wandering, when the people, 
after Aaron's death, "journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red 
sea to compass the land of Edom," and were now within three stations of the 
border of Moab (Numb. 21:4-11 ; 33:41-44), consequently on the east 
side of Mount Seir. That an Israelite should be represented as having 
then recorded the plague of fiery serpents in a valley west of Sinai looks 
like a gross anachronism. 

32. The general adaptation of the rugged scenery of the 
peninsula to the grand transactions between God and his 
covenant people recorded by the pen of Moses is finely illus- 
trated by Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, pp. 20, 21) : "They were 
brought into contact with a desolation which was forcibly con- 
trasted with the green valley of the Nile. They were enclosed 
within a sanctuary of temples and pyramids not made with 



I 



PALESTINE. 255 

hands — the more awful from its total dissimilarity to any thing 
which they or their fathers could have remembered in Egypt or 
in Palestine. They were wrapt in a silence which gave full effect 
to the morning and the evening shout with which the encamp- 
ment rose and pitched, and still more to the Hhunders and the 
voice exceeding loud ' on the top of Horeb. The prophet and 
his people were thus secluded from all former thoughts and as- 
sociations that 

" 'Separate from the world, his breast 
Might duly take and strongly keep 
The print of God, to be expressed 
Ere long on Zion's steep.' " , 

33. The same writer, in common with Eobinson, Bitter and 
all" thoughtful travellers, raises the question : *' How could a 
tribe so numerous and powerful as on any hypothesis the 
Israelites must have been, be maintained in this inhospitable 
desert?" They were fed by manna, and sometimes had mirac- 
ulous supplies of flesh and water. But where did their flocks 
and herds find sustenance ? There are in this wdlderness at the 
present time some oases, as at the convent of Sinai, in Wady 
Feiran northwest of Sinai on the route from Egypt, and at Tur 
on the gulf of Suez where Wady Hibran comes in from Horeb 
(Burckhardt, Arabia, 2. 362); but these would be wholly inade- 
quate to the wants of such a multitude as came out of Egypt. 
Stanley comes to the conclusion maintained also by Bitter 
(Erdkunde, 14, p. 927), that there has been in the Sinaitic penin- 
sula a decrease of water and vegetation. No such acacia-trees 
(shittim-wood) are now found in the region as were employed 
in the construction of the tabernacle, furnishing planks a cubit 
and a half in width. These belonged manifestly to the primi- 
tive forests of the peninsula. It has been supposed that the 
removal of them was followed by a decrease in the amount of 
rain. But however this may be, we have abundant evidence 
that this part of Arabia was once, for some reason, more fertile 
and populous. In the northeastern part are extensive ruins of 
former habitations and enclosed fields ; so also south of Beer- 



256 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

slieba, where Eobinson found ruins of former cities. Of Elusa 
lie says : " Once, as we judged on the spot, this must have been 
a city of not less than twelve or fifteen thousand inhabitants. 
Now it is a perfect field of ruins, a scene of imutterable desola- 
tion ; across which the passing stranger can with difficulty find 
his way." Yol. 1, p. 197. Of Eboda farther south: "The large 
church marks a numerous Christian population." "But the 
desert has resumed its rights; the race that dwelt here have 
perished ; and their works now look abroad in loneliness and 
silence over the mighty waste." lb., p. 194. It would not be 
safe, therefore, to infer from the present condition of the penin- 
sula its capacity to support the flocks and herds of the Israel- 
ites more than three thousand years ago. Then, again, it is 
entirely reasonable to suppose that the same divine power which 
fed the people in the wilderness with manna for the space of 
forty years, may have graciously increased the amount of rain 
during the same period, and ihus the amount of sustenance for 
the cattle of the Israelites. Such an additional supply of rain 
would be sufficient ; for, according to the testimony of the Arabs, 
in those years when there is plenty of rain grass springs up all 
over the face of the desert. See'in Robinson, 1, p. 184. 

For an accouDt of the manna now produced in the Sinai peninsula, as it 
was also in the time of Josephus (Antiq., 3. 1. 6), see Ritter's Geography 
of Palestine 1, pp. 271-292. It exudes through the punctures made by a 
certain insect, from the bark of a species of tamarisk ( Tamarix gallica) in 
drops which collect in small globules on the twigs or fall on the sand. It 
has the appearance of gum, is of a sweetish taste, and melts when expos- 
ed to the sun. It falls only on certain years in June and July, and mainly 
in the wadys Sheikh, Feiran, and Ghurundel, all of them in the vicinity of 
Sinai. The entire quantity gathered is said not to exceed five or six hun- 
dred pounds a year. The question what was the relation, if any, of the 
manna on which the Israelites fed to any species of modern manna (for 
there are several species), is rather curious than practical ; since upon any 
assumption, the quantity furnished daily through all the twelve months of 
the year was clearly miraculous, as were also several of the attending cir- 
cumstances. 

34. The Amalehites, descended from Amalek the grandson 
of Esau (Gen. 36 : 12), and mentioned by way of anticipation in 



PALESTINE. 257 

the history of Abraham (Gen. 14 : 7), were a nomadic people 
having their seat from Havilah to Shur. 1 Sam. 15 : 7. The 
site of the Havilah here referred to is unknown, but it should 
not probably be placed far east of the gulf of Akabah ; while 
Shur bordered on the northeastern extremity of Egypt. The 
Sinaitic peninsula, then, was the proper range of the Amale- 
kites, and with this agree all the scriptural notices of them. 
When Israel came out of Egypt they attacked the rear of the 
people in Bephidim near Sinai (Exod. 17 : 8-16) ; again they 
were encountered in " the land of the south," near to Kadesh 
(Numb. 13 : 29 ; 14 : 45) ; in alliance with the Midianites and 
other eastern tribes they wasted the land of Israel, " till thou 
come unto Gaza " (Judg. 6:4), and entered it by the way of the 
valley of Jezreel in vast multitudes (Judg. 6 : 33) ; and finally 
David encountered them in the southwest of Palestine. 1 Sam. 
30 : 1. 

In Numb. 24 :20 Amalek is called "the first of the nations." The ref- 
erence is to priority, not in time but in dignity, a sense in which the Hebrew 
word is often used. Amos 6:6; Dan. 11 : 41, and elsewhere ; and there 
is, moreover, an antithesis between his dignity as Jlrsi of the nation, and 
his last end which is destruction. There are several indications in the Old 
Testament that the Amalekites were once a i^owerful peoj^le. At the time 
of the exodus we find them apparently sj)read across the whole j)eninsula 
from east to west (Exod. 17 : 8 ; Numb. 13 :29 ; 14 :43, 45) ; and in alli- 
ance with the Moabites, Ammonites, and Midianites they ravaged the land 
of Israel, entering it in countless multitudes as far north as the valley of 
Jezreel. It would seem also that they once had, probably at an earlier 
date, a settlement in the very heart of Palestine ; for we read (Jud. 12 : 15) 
of " the mount of the Amalekites in the land of Ephraim." Compare also 
Jud. 5 : 14, where the true rendering is : ''From Ephraim [came they] 
whose root" (that is, seal, fixed abode) "is in Amalek." See Prof. Rob- 
bins in Bibliotheca Sacra, for 1855, p. 623. The marginal gloss, therefore 
of our English version to Numb. 24:20, "the first of the nations that 
warred against Israel," is unnecessary. 

35. The Kenites were the tribe to which Hobab Moses' father- 
in-law belonged, and were thus a branch of the Midianitish 
people. Numb. 10 : 29. A part of them accompanied the tribe 
of Judah into the land of Canaan, and settled among the rocky 



258 SACEED GEOGKAPHY. 

fastnesses of the southern wilderness of Judah. Jud. 1:16; 
Numb. 24:21. Thus they were neighbors to the Amalekites 
and became intermingled with them. When Saul destroyed 
the Amalekites he spared them in consideration of their good 
offices bestowed on the Israelites in the wilderness through 
Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and probably in other ways 
also. 1 Sam. 15 : 6. From Jud. 4 : 11 we learn that the family 
of Heber the Kenite, a descendant of Hobab, had separated 
itself from the rest of the tribe and settled in Kadesh of Naph- 
tali; still maintaining, however, its distinct nationality and 
being on terms of friendship with Jabin the oppressor of Israel. 

We leave the vexed question of the identity of Jethro and Hobab 
to the commentators, to whom it properly belongs. 



PALESTINE. 259 



CHAPTEE IX, 



Countries on the Southeast and East. 

Under this head belong Edom, Moab, Ammon, and the 
nomadic or semi-nomadic Midianites, with some other Arabian 
tribes. 

I. THE LAND OF EDOM. 

1. The Edom of Bloses day is repeatedly called Mount Seir^ 
or simply Seir, a range of mountains selected by Esau himself 
as his residence (Gen. 36: 8, 9; Deut. 2 : 4, 5, 8, 12, 22, etc.), and 
extending along the eastern border of the Arabah from the Dead 
sea to the eastern arm of the Eed sea. Accordingly we read 
that when the Israelites were refused a passage through the 
territory of Edom they passed by the way of the plain (Arabah), 
Elath, and Ezion-geber around Edom into the wilderness of 
Moab (Deut. 2:8); and that they journeyed from Mount Hor 
on the border of Mount Seir by the way of the Bed sea to com- 
pass the land of Edom. Numb. 21 : 4. The Arabah, which 
skirts the western base of Mount Seir and in which Kadesh- 
barnea lies, was not properly reckoned to the Edom of Moses' 
times ; yet it was commanded by the mountains of Edom, and 
it is possible that the Edomitcs advanced at times somewhat 
into the desert west of it (Deut. 1 : 44) ; but the permanent occu- 
pation of the south country of Judcea by the Edomites seems to 
have taken place during the Babylonish exile. Judas Macca- 
baeus, and his successors, found them after the captivity in pos- 
session of Hebron, Adora, Mareshah, and Ashdod. John Hyr- 
canus conquered them, and compelled them to receive circum- 
cision, but did not dispossess them (Josephus, Antiq., 12. 8. 6 ; 
13. 9. 1) ; and hence the whole south of Judsoa Avas reckoned to 
Iduma3a. But this later extension of the term must not be 
transferred to the earlier ages. 



•260 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

2. Robinson estimates the breadth of the range of llounf 
8eir at not more than fifteen or twenty geographical miles. Its 
length is said to be about one hundred miles. 

"Along the base of the mountain range on the side of the Arabah are 
low calcareous hills. To these succeed lofty masses of igneous rock, chiefly 
porphyry ; over which lies red and variegated sandstone in irregular ridges 
and abrupt cliffs, with deep ravines between." " The average elevation of 
the range is about two thousand feet. On the east is a long unbroken 
limestone ridge, higher than the other, and declining gently to the Ara- 
bian desert." Handbook for Syria and Palestine, p. 42. These mountains 
seem to enjoy a sufficiency of rain, and are not sterile like those on the 
west of the Arabah. " The Wadys are full of trees and shrubs and flow- 
ers ; while the eastern and higher parts are extensively cultivated and yield 
good crops." "It is indeed the region of which Isaac said to his son : 
* Behold thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of 
heaven from above.'" Robinson, 2, p. 154. 

3. The Arabali which skirts the mountains of Edom on the 
west is a part of the great chasm already described which ex- 
tends from the Red sea to Antioch. Chap. 4, No. 1. It slopes 
from a watershed not yet accurately determined northward to 
the Dead sea and southward to the sea of Akabah. Its gene- 
ral width is the same as that of the Jordan valley, but at Aka- 
bah it is contracted to half that distance. It is furrowed in its 
northern part by the deep Wady el-Jeib which sends down to 
the Dead sea torrents of water only during the rainy season. 
Otherwise it is almost uninterruptedly a frightful desert. Rob- 
inson, 2, p. 184. 

4. Our limits do not allow us to describe at length the vari- 
ous objects of interest in and around Mount Seir. We notice 
briefly only a few of the more remarkable. 

The central object of interest is the ruins of Petra, the ancient me- 
tropolis of the region, lying in the heart of Mount Seir, in a sort of irregu- 
lar basin, through the centre of which a stream winds its way from east to 
west. It is shut in east and west by precipitous cliffs of sandstone, while 
north and south of the stream the surface rises, at first gradually, after- 
wards more steeply, but not precipitously. Deep and rugged ravines 
branch off into the mountains. The whole area of the basin available for 



i 



PALESTINE. 261 

building purposes is estimated by Bobinson to be about half a mile square. 
These ruins are the admiration of all travellers, not so much on account of 
their size and magnificence, as of their unique character. They present 
such a collection of novelties as can be seen nowhere else on this globe. 
In the first place there is the romantic approach to Petra from the east 
through ilie chasm (es-Slk) called Wadi/ Musa, that is, Wady of Moses, 
which anciently formed the only avenue to the city on this side. Of this 
Stanley says it is the most magnificent gorge, beyond all doubt, that he 
has ever beheld ; and Robinson, that the character of this wonderful spot, 
and the impression which it makes, are indescribable, and that he knows 
of nothing which can present even a faint idea of them. You enter be- 
neath a noble arch thrown across high up from one precipice to the other, 
and immediately find yourself in a narrow chasm, here only twelve feet 
wide, and nowhere more than three, or, at the most, four times this width. 
The Sik is a full mile in length, winding this way and that like a river, 
with a limpid brook flowing along its w^iole course, and watering a thicket 
of oleanders so abundant as almost to block uj) the passage, and present- 
ing, when in full bloom, a most gorgeous appearance. The height of the 
perpendicular walls is at first eighty or one hundred feet, and increases as 
you descend to some two hundred and fifty feet. Above is seen a narrow 
winding streak of blue sky, while green caper plants and wild ivy hang in 
festoons over the traveller's head. The Sik opens at its western extremity 
at right angles with a broader Wady or chasm, coming down from the 
south and passing off northwest. And now, all at once, the beautiful 
Kluizneli — a temple, apparently, cut out of the living sandstone rock, and 
standing on the opposite side of this chasm directly before the opening of 
the Sik — bursts like a fairy vision upon tlie traveller's view, as he enters 
the proper area of Petra. 

To describe all the objects of interest in this wonderful place would far 
exceed our limits. This work has been well done by Burckhardt and many 
travellers since his day. See, among other accounts, those of Robinson 
(Res. 2, pp. 130-145) ; Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, pp. 88-92) ; Porter 
(Handbook for Syria and Palestine, pp. 43-53). ' 

We can only notice very briefly some general features of the place. The 
architecture of Petra is florid and overladen with ornament. According to 
Robinson the predominant styles are Egyptian and Roman-Greek — and the 
monuments of the place belong to the beginning of the Christian era and 
the subsequent centuries. They are not, in themselves considered, very 
high specimens of art ; but two circumstances unite to give them an inde- 
scribable charm. One is their singularly wild and romantic position ; the 
other is the endless variety of hues disi^hiyed by the living rock in which 
they are hewn. " They present," says Robinson, "not a dead mass of 
dull monotonous red ; but an endless variety of bright and living hues, 



262 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

from the deepest crimson to the softest pink, verging also sometimes to 
orange and yellow." Stanley calls them " dw// crimson, indigo, yellow, 
and purple;" "a gorgeous though dull crimson, streaked and suf-. 
fused with purple." While the proper site of Petra is covered with the 
foundations and ruins of an ancient city, the surrounding cliffs and ravines 
constitute a vast necropolis, being filled with innumerable tombs which 
present a great variety of architectural style and ornament. 

It is a question of interest whether Petra is referred to in the Old Tes- 
tament. The name Petra signifies rock, and this answers to the Hebrew 
Sela mentioned in 2 Kings 14 : 7, and Isa. 16 : 1. That Sela and Peira are 
identical may be assumed with a reasonable degree of certainty. The 
situation of Petra is graphically described by the prophets Obadiah and 
Jeremiah. "The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, thou that 
dwellest in the cliffs of the rock, whose habitation is high, that saith in 
his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground ?" Obad. 3 ; Jer. 
49 : 16. 

A few miles southwest of Petra rises the castellated summit of Neby 
Jffdrun, the prophet Aaron. That this is the Mount Hor, where Aaron died 
and was buried (Numb. 20 : 23-29), admits not of any reasonable doubt. 
Its situation answers to that of the Mosaic Hor ; it is the most conspicuous 
object in the region ; and the tradition connecting it with Aaron's death 
goes back beyond the time of Josephus, who does not indeed name it, but 
describes it as a high mountain encircling Petra. Antiq., 4. 4. 7. Its 
summit is said to be five thousand three hundred feet above the Mediter- 
ranean. It consists of two peaks, on the higher and western of which is 
a work, erected over the vault or grotto supposed to be the burial place of 
the first Levitical high priest. See farther in Robinson, 2, pp. 519-521. 

In connection with Edom the Scriptures constantly make mention of 
Bozrah. There is a Bozrah, as we have seen (Chap. 5, No. 7) far off in 
the Hauran, at the distance of eighty or one hundred miles from the prop- 
er territory of Edom. But this cannot be reasonably identified with the 
Bozrah so often mentioned in the Old Testament as the capital of Idumsea. 
Robinson regards el-Busaireh southeast of the Dead sea as representing 
the site of the Bozrah of Edom ; and in his judgment biblical scholars have 
very generally acquiesced. Two hours and three quarters north of Bozrah 
is Tufileh, in which Robinson recognises the Tophel of Deut. 1 : 1. 

Dedan and Teman are mentioned by the prophets in connection with 
Edom. Jer. 49 : 7, 8, 20 ; Ezek. 25 : 13 ; Amos 1 : 12 ; Obad. 9. Con- 
cerning these nothing can be determined more definitely than that Teman 
was a district in the south of Edom with perhaps a town of the same name 
(Eusebius and Jerome, Onomasticon), while Dedan was apparently at the 



PALESTINE. 263 

other extremity. Hence we may explain the words of Ezek. (chap. 
25 : 13) : "I will also stretch out my hand upon Edom, and will cut olBt* 
man and beast from it ; and I will make it desolate from Teman ; and they 
shall fall by the sword unto Dedan " (marginal rendering) ; that is, I will 
make the land desolate through its whole extent from Teman to Dedan. 

5. The rivalry between Edom and Israel began with Esau 
and Jacob, the ancestral founders of the two nations. Esau re- 
tired from the face of his brother Jacob to Mount Seir; "for 
their riches w^ere more than that they might dwell together ; 
and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them, 
because of their cattle." Gen. 36 : 6-8. The prophets accuse 
the Edomites of cherishing towards their brethren the Israel- 
ites a perpetual hatred, and of rejoicing in their calamity, and 
taking advantage of it to aggrandize themselves (Ezek. 25 : 12 ; 
35 : 5, 11, 15 ; Joel 3 : 19 ; Amos 1 : 11 ; Obad. 10-14) ; an accu- 
sation fully sustained by the record of their conduct. When 
the Israelites were passing from the Arabian desert into Pales- 
tine the Edomites refused them a passage through their terri- 
tory, and thus compelled them to pass around by the way of 
Elath and Ezion-geber at the head of the gulf of Akabali. 
Numb. 20 : 14-21 ; 21 : 4. Upon the establishment of the He- 
brew monarchy, the conflict between Israel and Edom began 
under Saul (1 Sam. 14 : 47), and was renewed in the reign of 
David, who defeated them with terrible slaughter and reduced 
them to the condition of tributaries. 2 Sam. 8 : 13, 14 ; 1 King 
11 : 15, 16 ; 1 Chron. 18 : 12, 13 ; Psa. 60, title. From this time 
to the reign of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat the Edomites 
had no king in their own right, but were ruled by a prefect 
bearing the title of king appointed by the king of Judah ; or, as 
the sacred writer expresses it (1 Kings 22 : 47) : "There was then 
no king in Edom : a deputy was king." In this tributary con- 
dition of Edom we have an explanation of the fact that when 
Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined with Jehoram king of Israel 
in an expedition against Moab, the king of Edom went with 
them. 2 Kings 3 : 9. He went, namely, as the deputy of Judah. 
But under Jehoram, Jehoshaphat's son, the Edomites revolted 



264 SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

and appointed a king in their own riglit, in accordance with 
the prophetic words of Isaac (Gen. 27 : 40), and though twice 
defeated by the Jewish armies, they succeeded in maintaming 
their independence. 2 Kings 8:20-22; 2 Chron. 21:8-10; 
2 Kings 14 : 7 ; 2 Chron. 25 : 11, 12. As the power of Judah 
waned, theirs increased, and we find them present at the de- 
struction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans and exclaiming with 
malicious exultation : " Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation 
thereof." Psa. 137 : 7. 

During the Babylonish exile they took possession, as we 
have seen, of the south country of Judaea ; but were themselves, 
in turn, dispossessed of the southern part of their own territory 
by the Nabathieans. See Eobinson, 2, pp. 158, 159, and the 
authorities to which he refers. When the Idumseans had been 
conquered by the Maccabees and compelled by them to receive 
circumcision, they were reckoned as Jews : and from them came 
Herod the Great, and the Herods his successors, who figure so 
largely in the later Jewish history. 

In the present desolate condition of the ancient cities of 
Edom we have a most impressive commentary on the words of 
Isaiah, as recorded in the thirty-fourth chapter of his proph- 
ecy: "From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none 
shall pass through it for ever and ever." 

II. THE COUNTEY OF THE MOABITES. 

6. We have seen (Chap. 5, No. 13), that, before the arrival 
of the Hebrew people, Silion king of the Amorites had taken 
from the king of Moab all his land north of the Arnon, and 
that, upon the destruction of Sihon and his people by the Isra- 
elites, this territory was allotted to the two tribes of Reuben 
and Gad. We have further seen that, upon the decline and 
fall of the kingdom of the ten tribes, the Moabites reestablished 
themselves in this same territory. As a part of the inheritance 
of Israel its geography has already been considered. What we 
have now to' say relates to the proper Moabitish country lying 
south of the Arnon, which the Israelites were expressly forbid- 



PALESTINE. 265 

den to enter. Dent. 2 : 9. This was bounded on the north by 
the deep chasm of the Arnon, on the east by the Arabian des- 
ert, and on the south by Edom. On the west it was bordered 
by the Dead sea, and seems to have extended somewhat south 
of it. Of the character and face of the country we have but 
httle knowledge, as the traveller in these parts is constantly 
exposed to robbery and murder at the hand of the predatory 
Arabs. It is said to be an elevated plateau hke the region 
north of the Arnon, and where the desert has not encroached 
upon it, to be naturally fertile. That it was once a populous 
region is attested by the multitude of ruins sprinkled over its 
area. "The whole of the plains are covered with the sites of 
towns on every eminence or spot convenient for the construc- 
tion of one ; and as the land is capable of rich cultivation, there 
can be no doubt that the country, now so deserted, once pre- 
sented a continued picture of plenty and fertility." Irby and 
Mangles as quoted in Alexander's Kitto. 

7. The shores of the Dead sea have the same bold and 
precipitous character as farther north. The plateau which is 
three thousand feet above the water of the lake, breaks down in 
rugged desolate cliffs of sandstone and limestone. Through 
these the Wady Kerak descends to the sea by a tremendous 
chasm lined with "beetling crags, blackened by the tempests of 
ages, in shape exactly resembling the waves of a mighty ocean, 
which, at the moment of overleaping some lofty barrier, were 
suddenly changed to stone, retaining, even in transformation, 
their dark and angry hue." L^^nch, Expedition, p. 352. 

8. The two most noted places of this region in scriptural 
times were the following. 

(1.) Ar Moah or Ir Moab, that is, City of Moah (Numb. 21 :28 ; 
22:36; Isa. 15:1), called also simply Ar (Numb. 21:15; Deut. 2:9). 
Its ruins are situated on a low hill upon the plateau a few miles back 
from the Dead sea, and about midway between wadys Arnon and Kerak. 
In later times this place was called Babbah, capital or metropolis, which 
mime it still retains. But the scriptural Rabbah is always Kabbah of the 
Ammonites. 

S«c. Qeo;. 12 



266 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

(2). Kir 3Ioab, fortress of Moab (Isa. 15 : 1), called also Kir-heres and 
Kir-hareseiJi, hrick fortress (Jer. 48 : 31, 36 ; Isa^lG : 7, 11 ; 2 Kings B : 25), 
is the modern Kerak, standing on the crown of a high hill between the 
two forks of the Wady Kerak both of which it overlooks, at the elevation 
of three thousand feet above the Dead sea. Before it is the sublime chasm 
of the Kerak running down in a northwesterly direction to the Dead sea, 
which is some ten miles distant. The position is one of great natural 
strength, and the place was once strongly fortified. When Lynch visited 
it, in 1848, he was informed that the Christian population, comprising 
three-fourths of the inhabitants, amounted to nine hundred or one thou- 
sand. They are kept in subjection by the Moslem Arabs, who live mostly 
in tents without the town. 

9. The Moabites, like the Edomites, were the kinsmen of 
the Israelites (Gen. 19 : 30-38), yet they appear through most 
of their history in the character of determined foes. The king 
of Moab hired Balaam to curse Israel, in the hope of thus pre- 
vailing, against him. Numb., chaps. 22-24. The second servi- 
tude of the Israelites was that under Egion king of Moab, as- 
sisted by the children of Ammon and Amalek. From this they 
were delivered by Ehud, who "slew of Moab at that time ten 
thousand men, all lusty, and all men of valor." Judg. 3 : 12-30. 
The Moabites are mentioned among the nations against whom 
Saul fought. 1 Sam. 14 : 47. David was descended from Euth 
the Moabitess (Ruth 4 : 13-22), and this was, perhaps, the rea- 
son why, during the persecution which he suffered from Saul, 
lie committed his father and mother to the care of the king of 
Moab. 1 Sam. 22 : 3, 4. But some eighteen or twenty j^ears 
afterwards we read that he defeated them with great slaughter, 
and reduced them to the condition of tributaries. 2 Sam. 8 : 2. 
Upon the death of Ahab, to whose dominion Moab seems to 
liave fallen upon the division of the kingdom, the Moabites re- 
volted (2 Kings 1:1; 3 : 4, 5), for which act they were visited 
with terrible vengeance by the combined armies of Judali, Israel, 
and Edom. 2 Kings 3 : 21-27. Upon the decline of the Isra- 
elitish power we find the Moabites again invading the land 
(2 Kings 13 : 20) ; and the prophets upbraid them with their 
pride and enmity to the covenant people, and denounce upon 



PALESTINE. 267 

them desolating judgments (Isa. chaps. 15, 16; Jer., chap. 48; 
Ezek. 25 : 8-11 ; Amos 2:1-3; Zeph. 2 : 8-11). The first instal- 
ment of these judgments, so to speak, came by the hand of 
Nebuchadn-'zzar. Since his day they have often been repeated, 
and have reduced the land i to its present desolate condition. 
Yet there stands on record for Moab, as also for Ammon, the 
promise that God will bring again her captivity in the latter day. 
Jer. 48 : 47 ; 49 : 6. 

In the narrative, 2 Kings 3 : 6-27, we read that water came without 
wind or rain "by the way of Edom ;" that is, descending from the moun- 
tains of Edom in the south, the result apparently of heavy rains there ; 
and that when the sun shone upon the water "the Moabites saw the water 
on the other side as red as blood." This appearance may have been pro- 
duced by the redness of the sun's rays shining in the early morning through 
a hazy atmosphere, by the reflection of his beams from the circumjacent 
red rocks, or by the color which the water itself had received from the red 
soil along its path ; or we may assume a combination of all these causes. 

III. THE COUNTRY OF THE AMMONITES. 

10. The territory of the Ammonites lay between Arnon and 
Jabbok, having the country of Moab on the south and south- 
west, and the tribes of Eeuben and Gad on the west. Numb. 
21 : 24; 32 : 33-42 ; Josh. 13 : 15-28 ; Judg. 11 : 22. When the 
Israelites approached the land of Canaan, they were forbidden 
to appropriate to Ih em selves any part of the country at that 
time held by the Ammonites (Deut. 2 : 19) ; but the tribe of Gad 
received " half the land of the children of Ammon, unto Aroer 
that is before Eabbah" (Josh. 13 : 25), of which they had been 
dispossessed by Sihon Jiing of the Amorites (Judg. 11 : 12-2J). 
The Ammonites, thus crowded eastward upon the Arabian des- 
ert, seem to have become, as suggested by Grove (in Smith's 
Bible Diet.), partly a nomadic people. Thus much may be rea- 
sonably inferred from the relative fewness of their towns as com- 
pared with those of the Moabites. Eabbah was the only place 
of note among them. Jephthah is said, indeed, to have smitten 
twenty cities of Ammon, but no one of them is named except 
Minnith. Judg. 11 : 33. 



268 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

11. Babhah, that is, great city (Josh. 13 : 25 ; 2 Sam. 11 : 1 ; 
12 : 27, 29 ; 1 Chron. 20 : 1 ; Jer. 49 : 3 ; Ezek. 25 : 5 ; Amos 1 : 14), 
or, more fully, Rahhah of ike children of Ammon (Deut. 3 : 11 ; 
2 Sam. 12 : 26 ; 17 : 27 ; Jer. 49 : 2 ; Ezek. 21 : 28), the metropohs 
of the Ammonites, is situated about nineteen miles southeast by 
east from es-Salt (the ancient Ramoth-Gileacl), in a broad valley 
on a head-stream of the Jabbok, which is perennial, and here 
flows towards the northeast. 

Rabbali Avas a place of great military strength. The citadel lay on a hill 
on the northeastern side of the valley, between two ravines coming in from 
the north, and was thus almost isolated. When Joab had taken " the city 
of w^aters " — so named from the perennial stream flowing through it, called 
also " the city of the kingdom," probably as containing the royal palace — 
it was apparently this citadel that remained to be captured to complete 
the conquest of the place. 2 Sam. 12 : 26-29. 

Ptolemy Philadelphus, in the third century before Christ, rebuilt the 
city, and named it Philadelpliia (Jerome on Ezek. 25 : 1) ; but it retains in 
modern Arabic the name Amman. It is the Greek and Roman ruins of 
this place that present such a scene of magnificent desolation. Tristram, 
who describes them at considerable length, says : "In number, in beauty 
of situation, and in isolation, they were by far the most striking and inter- 
esting I had yet seen in Syria. Yet it was not old Rabbah, but Philadel- 
phia, the Roman city, among whose prostrate marbles we groped our way. 
All is Roman or Greek, and all, probably, except the citadel, subsequent 
to the Christian era." Land of Israel, p. 545. Here, among other ruins, 
are the remains of a large Christian church and a theatre capable of seating 
six thousand spectators. "The citadel," says Porter (Handbook, p. 289), 
" is a rectangular oblong building of great extent. The exterior walls are 
nearly perfect, and are constructed of massive stones closely jointed, with- 
out cement, bearing the marks of high antiquity." 

12. The history of the Ammonites, in their relation to the 
children of Israel, is substantially that of their neighbors the 
Moabites, with whom they seem to have been in league in hiring 
Balaam to curse Israel (Deut. 23 : 4). They joined with Moab 
and Amalek in opposing the Israelites (Judg. 3 : 12, 13) ; made 
war upon them in the days of Jephthah (Judg. 11 : 4) ; and after- 
wards in the days of Saul (1 Sam. 11 : 1-11 ; 14 : 47). Nahash 
king of the Ammonites was on friendly terms with David, but 
his son Hanun maltreated David's ambassadors, which brought 



PALESTINE. 2G9 

upon him and his kingdom the terrible vengeance of that mon- 
arch (2 Sam., chap. 10) ; and afterwards, upon the conquest of 
E-abbah, David treated the Ammonites with great severity. 
2 Sam. 12 : 26-31. Among the wives of Solomon were " women 
of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hit- 
tites ;" and they "turned away his heart after other gods" 
(1 Kings 11 : 1-8), thus accomplishing in peace what the armies 
of the Gentiles had failed to accomplish in war, even the dis- 
memberment of the Israelitish kingdom. 1 Kings 11 : 13. The 
prophets denounce upon Ammon, as upon Moab, the desolating 
judgments of God. The solemn threatening, " I will make Eab- 
bah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching-place 
for flocks" (Ezek. 25 : 5), is now literally fulfilled. 

IV. THE MIDIANITES AND OTHER ARABIAN TRIBES. 

13. The Midianites were a nomadic or semi-nomadic peo- 
ple, descended from Abraham by Keturah. Gen. 25 : 2. The 
boundaries of their territory cannot be definitely given. We 
have seen (Chap. 8, No. 35) that the Kenites, to whom Hobab, 
Moses' father-in-law, belonged, were a branch of the Midianites. 
Their range of pasturage in Moses' time seems to have been the 
peninsula of Sinai, perhaps the western border of the gulf of 
Akabah, whence Moses led the flock of Jethro " to the back 
side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to 
Horeb." Exod. 3 : 1. But a comparison of the various passa- 
ges of the Old Testament referring to the Midianites leads to the 
conclusion that their main seat was east of Edom, Moab, and 
Ammon, in the bordering desert of Arabia ; whence their course, 
whether for trade or for plunder, was first northward and then 
westward across the Jordan valley. 

The Midianites and Islimaelites to whom Joseph was sold seem to have 
entered Palestine from Gilead by the valley of Jezreel (Gen. 37 : 25, 28, 
36). The five kings of the Midianites who, in alliance with the Moabites, 
seduced to idolatry the Israelites when encamped in the plains of Moab 
east of the Jordan, were dukes of Sihon king of the Amorites ; that is, 
vjissals or tributary kings (Numb. 31 : 8, compared with Josh. 13 : 21); and 
consequently neighbors to both Sihon and Moab. From the same region 



'270 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

obviously came the Midianites who, accompanied b}^ the Amalekites, crossed 
the Jordan in Gideon's time, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel (Judg., 
chaps. 6-8). In 1 Kings 11 : 18 we find Hadad fleeing from the land of 
Midian to Egypt by the way of Paran, "he and certain Edomites of his 
father's servants with him," because Joab was desolating the land of Edom. 
lladad fled manifestly from that part of Midian that bordered on Edom, 
but whether from its eastern border or from its western, where a branch 
of the Midianites seem to have dwelt (see above), is uncertain. The 
wealth of the Midianites appears from the abundance of the spoils which 
the Israelites took of them under Phinehas (Numb. 31 : 25-47), and after- 
wards under Gideon (Judg. 8 : 24-27). 

14. The relation of the Midianites to the children of Israel 
began with the origin of the two nations, for they were both 
descendants of Abraham. Among the Kenite branch of this 
people Moses found a home in his exile from Egypt, and the 
relations of the Kenites to the Israelites continued to be friendly, 
as we have seen above, Chap. 8, No. 35. But the Midianites as 
a nation early appear among the enemies and corrupters of the 
Hebrew people. They were the chief offenders in the matter 
of Baal-peor (Numb., chap. 25), and it was upon them that the 
divine vengeance fell so heavily (Numb., chap. 31). Yet we find 
them again very numerous and powerful in the time of Gid- 
eon, some two centuries later. Then, with their allies the Ama- 
lekites, " they came up with their cattle and their tents, and 
they came as grasshoppers for multitude; for both they and 
their camels were without number ; and they entered into the 
land to destroy it." Judg. 6 : 5. Their strength seems to have 
been permanently broken by the signal overthrow which they 
experienced at that time, and which is several times referred to 
in the later Hebrew history. Psa. 83 : 9; Isa. 9:4; 10 : 26. 

15. Various Arabian tribes to the east and southeast of Pal- 
estine are mentioned in Scripture. Our limits do not allow us 
to discuss at any length the difficult geographical questions 
connected with their boundaries and relative positions. We 
notice only the following : 

In Isa. 60 : 6, 7, a group of Arabian tribes is mentioned as ministering 
to Zion in her future enlargement and glory — the dromedaries of Midian 



PALESTINE. 271 

and Ephah, all tliey from Sheba with gold and frankincense, the flocks of 
Kedar, the rams of Nehaioth. 

Epliah was the son of Midian (Gen. 25 :4), and it is natural to think 
of the tribe of Ephah as lying beyond the Midianites, and perhaps farther 
south. 

Three persons bearing the name of Sheba are mentioned in the gene- 
alogical tables of Genesis — a grandson of Gush the son of Ham (chap. 
10 : 7) ; a son of Joktan the grandson of Eber, descended through Arphaxad 
from Shem (chap. 10 : 28) ; a son of Jokshan Abraham's son by Keturah, 
consequently a descendant from Eber also (chap. 25 : 3). The relation 
which the descendants of these three men held to each other is not known. 
But it is generally agreed that the Sheba celebrated for its gold, frankin- 
cense, spicery, and jjrecious stones, whose queen "came from the utter- 
most parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon" (Matt. 12 :42), 
was the country of the Arabian Sabseans situated in the southern part of 
Arabia Felix, between the Red sea and the Persian gulf. The Ethiopians 
of Seba are also called Sabeans in our version (Isa. 45 : 14), but these should 
be carefully distinguished from the Arabian Sabeans (Job 1 : 15 ; Joel 
3:8). In Ezek. 23:42, the true text should be translated, not SabeanSy 
but drimhards. 

Kedar was the second son of Ishmael. Gen. 25 : 13. The tribe of Ke- 
dar is often mentioned in the Old Testament as wealthy and powerful, and 
inhabiting villages in a rocky region (Isa. 21 : 16, 17 ; 42 : 11 ; Jer. 2 : 10 ; 
49 : 28 ; Ezek. 27 : 21, etc.). Forster (Geog. of Arabia 1, p. 238, seq.) pla- 
ces their site in the modern province of Hedjaz on the Red sea around 
Mecca and Medina. The Nabalhceans, descended from Nebaioth Ishmael's 
firstborn (Gen. 25 : 13), are placed by the same writer north of Kedar and 
bordering on the Idumreans, upon whose territory they afterwards en- 
croached as we have seen, No. 5 above. 

The Hagarites or Hagarenes (1 Chr. 5 : 10, 19, 20 ; Psa. 83 : 6), so-called 
from Hagar the mother of Ishmael, are, in a general sense, the Ishmaeli- 
tisli tribes inhabiting the northern part of Arabia. But the particuLir 
Hagarites upon whom the Israelitish tribes east of the Jordan made war, 
dwelt to the east of the land of Gilead. 1 Chron. 5 : 10. 

Tema was the ninth son of Ishmael. Gen. 25 : 15. His descendants 
inhabited a tract in the northern part of Arabia still called Teima by the 
Arabs. 

Dumali was the sixth son of Ishmael. That his i)osterity settled in the 
vicinity of Edom is plain from the words of Isaiah (chap. 21 : 11) : "The 
burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of tli3 
night ?" The name is perpetuated to the present day in an Arabian town 
about two hundred and forty geographical miles due cast of Petra (Por- 
ter, in Alexander's Kitto), which seems to have been the centre of the tribe. 



272 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

The land of Uz, according to Forster (Geog. of Arabia, 2, p. 59, seq.) lay 
on the banks of the Euphrates adjoining Chaldsea. But Porter (in Alex- 
ander's Kitto) thinks that it was "in Arabia, bordering on Edom westward, 
on Trachonitis northw^ard, and extending perhaps indefinitely across the 
pasture lands of Arabia towards the Euphrates." 

The reader who wishes to investigate at length the difficult subject of 
Arabian geography can consult the two volumes of Forster above referred 
to, and the authorities there quoted. 



NORTHEAST AND NORTH. 273 



CHAPTER X. 

Countries on the Northeast and North. 

Here belong Mesopotamia, Syria proper in its several divis- 
ions, and Phoenicia. 

I. MESOPOTAMIA. 

1. The Hebrew word Aram is commonly rendered Syria in 
the Greek version of the Seventy. It signifies Jdghland, and 
seems to have been originally applied to the mountainous 
region of Syria proper, and afterwards extended to the lower 
regions on the east. 

Abraham was in the hne of Arpliaxad (Gen., chap. 11). He is called 
the Hebrew (Gen. 14 : 13) ; according to some, as being one of "the chil- 
dren of Eber " (Gen. 10 : 21 ; 11 : 15-26) ; according to others, as having 
come from the other side of the Euphrates — Ibri, Hebrew, from eber, be- 
yond. But Bethuel and Laban are called Syrians (Gen. 25 : 20 ; 28 : 5 ; 
31 : 20, 24), from their residence in Mesopotamian Syria ; and once Jacob is 
called a Syrian (Deut. 26 : 5) for the same reason. 

2. Aram-naharayim, Aram of the two rivers, is the Hebrew 
name given to the vast region lying in a general northwest and 
southeast direction between the Euphrates and Tigris. The 
corresponding Greek names in the Septuagint are Mesopotamia. 
that is, country between the rivers (Gen. 24 : 10 ; Deut. 23 : 4) ; 
Mesopotamia of Syria (Psa. 60, title) ; Syria of Mesopotamia 
(1 Chron. 19 : 6) ; Syria of the rivers (Judg. 3 : 8). The Arabian 
term, the Island, is not inappropriate, since the source of the 
Tigris is only a few miles distant from the Euphrates at Telek. 
The term Padan-aram, plain of Aram, or simply Padan (Gen. 
48:7), called also ihe field of Aram (Hosea 12:12), is apphed 
to the northern part of this region. The Septiiagint generally 

12* 



274 SACRED GEOGEAPHY. 

renders Padan-aram and Padan by the term Mesopotamia of 
Syria {Gen 25:20; 28:6,7; 33:18; 35: 9, 26 ;'46 : 15 ; 48:7); 
but sometimes simply Mesopotamia (Gen. 28 : 2, 5 ; 31 : 18). 

When the Septuagiiit adds to Mesopotamia the term Syria, the design 
apparently is simply to represent the Hebrew Aram; not to indicate a 
Syrian Mesopotamia lying between the Abana and Pharpar, as distinct 
from the Babylonian between the Euphrates and Tigris, according to the 
theory of Dr. Beke. There is no valid ground for assuming a second Mes- 
opotamia. See Porter, in Alexander's Kitto, art., Aram. 

3. Mesopotamia in its widest sense embraces a tract nearly 
seven hundred miles long with a varying breadth of from twen- 
ty to two hundred and fifty miles. It extends from Telek on 
the Euphrates, in latitude thirty-eight degrees twenty-three min- 
utes north, to Kui^nah at the junction of the Tigris with the 
Euphrates, in latitude thirty-one degrees north. The loicer 
part of this region, which is an alluvial plain scarcely raised 
above the level of the river, will be considered hereafter, under 
the head of Chaldea and Babylonia. To upper Mesopotamia 
or Padan-aram, belong the scriptural incidents connected with 
Haran, and this was also the seat of Cushan-rishathaim's king- 
dom. This region is described as being in general a vast plain, 
but it has some ranges of hills, "and in its northern portion is 
even mountainous, the upper Tigris valley being separated 
from the Mesopotamian plain by an important range, the Mons 
Masius of Strabo." Smith's Bible Diet., art., Mesopotamia. 
The most important tributary stream is the Ghahoras now 
called Khalur, probably identical with the Chehar, the scene 
of Ezekiel's visions (chap. 1:1, 3), which rising in upper 
Mesopotamia flows for a while parallel to the Euphrates, and 
then turning westward enters it at Gircesium, the Carchemish of 
Scripture. 

4. Haran, where Terali stopped on his way from Ur of the 
Chaldees to the land of Canaan (Gen. 11 : 31), is thought with 
good reason to be identical with the GharrJioi of the Greeks and 
Bomans and the Han an of the modern Arabs. It stands with- 
in the great bend of the Euphrates on the banks of a smaP 



NOETHEAST AND NOKTH. 275 

river called Belik which flows south into the Euphrates. Hith- 
er Abraham sent his servant to obtain a wife for his son Isaac, 
and here Jacob found his wives. Abraham calls it his country 
and his kindred (Gen. 24 : 4), and this is the place referred to, 
" as on the other side of the flood " (Hebrew river), where 
Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor dwelt. 
Josh. 24 : 2. It has been a popular theory, having in its favor 
a very ancient Jewish tradition, that Ur of the Chcddees, whence 
Terah went forth with Abraham and Lot to go into the land of 
Canaan (Gen. 11 : 31), was identical with the modern Oorfa, the 
Adessa of the classic authors, situated about twenty miles north- 
west by north from Haran. But there is an increasing incli- 
nation among oriental scholars of the present day to identify 
the site of Ur of the Chaldees with the extensive ruins at Mu- 
gheir or Uingheir, on the right-hand side of the Euphrates about 
halfway between the ruins of Babylon and the Persian gulf. 
The inscriptions disinterred at Mugheir are said to prove that 
the ancient name of this place was Ur, or rather Hm\ But 
inscriptions discovered at other places make it probable that 
Ur'or Hur was also a territory extending across the Euphrates; 
and it may be that "Ur of the Chaldees," indicates not a par- 
ticular city, but a region of lower Mesopotamia. See Rawlin- 
son's Ancient Monarchies, 1, p. 19, seq. 

The distance between Mugheir and Haran is not a valid objection ; for 
the narrative implies that Terah, in going to Haran, le/i Chaldaea the land 
of his nativity, which cannot be shown to have included in Abraham's and 
Moses' time upper Mesopotamia. The natural route from lower Mesopo- 
tamia to Canaan would be first 7iorlh and then west around the Arabian 
desert, so tiiat Haran might well be taken on the way. If we identify Ur 
not with a territory but with Muglieir some six or eight miles west of the 
present channel of the Euphrates, it would still belong virtually to lower 
Mesopotamia ; so that Stephen, who did not stand on geographical nice- 
ties, would still be substantially correct in placing it, as he does (Acts 
7 :2), in Mesopotamia. 

*' Habor the river of Gozan " (2 Kings 17 : 6 ; 18 : 11) is without doubt 
identical with the modern Kliabur (see above) ; and on the upper waters 
of this stream we must look for Halah and the district of Gozan, to which 



276 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

places the king of Assyria transported a part of the Israelites. Hara, which 
is added, 1 Chron. 5 : 26, is perhaps identical with Haran. If not, its site 
is unknown. 

It does not come within the province of this work to describe the im- 
portant modern towns in upper Mesopotamia. Among these Bim^heTcr, 
Jezireh, and Mosul are on the Tigris ; the first near its head waters, the 
third two hundred and twenty miles below in a southeasterly direction, 
and the second some seventy-five or eighty miles above Mosul. Mardbi 
and Ooifa are in the interior, the former fifty-seven miles southeast of 
Diarbekr on the edge of Mount Masius, the latter about one hundred miles 
southwest and towards the Euphrates. 

5. The first servitude of the Israelites was under Cuslian- 
risliathaim king of Mesopotamia. Judg. 3 : 8-10. We find 
the Mesopotamians again furnishing the Ammonites with horses 
and chariots against David (1 Chron. 19 : 6), but after that the 
name appears no more in Scripture. 

II. SYRIA PHOPER. 

6. Syria proper, excluding Palestine and including Phoenicia, 
is bounded on the south by Palestine, on the west by the Medi- 
terranean, on the north by Mount Amanus and Mount Taurus, 
and on the east by the Euphrates and desert of Palmyra. Por- 
ter (in Alexander's Kitto) gives its length from the Litany on 
the south to the bay of Iskanderun (gulf of Issus) on the north, 
at two hundred and fifty miles, with an average breadth of one 
hundred and thirty miles. 

7. The grand feature of Syria, which determines alike its 
physical and political divisions, is the tivo mighty parallel chains 
of Lebanon and Anti- Lebanon, with their lowxr continuations 
towards the north ; that of Lebanon quite to the northern ex- 
tremity of the region with two remarkable breaks, that of Anti- 
Lebanon to a point near the bend of the Orontes, with an inter- 
ruption over against the southern break in the western chain. 
The valley lying between these chains is, as already remarked 
(Chap. 4, No. 1), a continuation of the great chasm extending 
from the Red sea to Antioch. 



NOETHEAST AND NOBTH. 277 

8. In describing tlie cliain of Lebanon we begin witli tlie deep 
gorge of the Leontes, its lower southern continuation having 
been akeady considered in the geography of Palestine. It runs 
parallel with the coast in a northeasterly direction about ninety 
miles to the great valley of the Nahr el-Kebir (the Eleutherus 
of the ancients) which connects the plain of Hamath with the 
Mediterranean, and is thought wdtli good reason to be " the en- 
tering in of Hamath." See Kobinson's Bib. lies., 3, pp. 568, 569. 
The base of Lebanon is said to be about twenty miles in width. 
Its loftiest summits are towards the north. Of the^e the highest 
is Dahar el-Kudib about twenty-five miles from the northern ex- 
tremity, with an elevation, according to Yan de Yelde, of ten 
thousand and fifty-one feet. South of this, at the distance of 
twenty-three miles, is the rounded summit of Jebel Sunnin, eight 
thousand and five hundred feet high. From this point the range 
decreases in height towards the south. The mountain is com- 
posed of Jura limestone. Its eastern declivity is steep, with few 
streams, and mostly without inhabitants or tillage. Eobinson, 
Phys. Geog., p. 339. The western declivity, on the contrary, is 
more gradual, furrowed every w^here by deep and rugged ravines, 
between which appear lofty cliffs of white rock. It teems with 
villages, and is cultivated more or less to the top, the tillage 
being carried on by a succession of terraces rising one above 
another. 

The word Lebanon signifies White Mountain. Robinson thinks that 
the name is derived not from its snows, but from the whitish appearance 
of the mountain as the fight is reflected from its rocky surface. In sum- 
mer snow is found only in the ravines, where it presents the appearance of 
radiant stripes. The views of the mountain from below and above are ex- 
ceedingly dijBferent. "When one looks upward from below the vegetation of 
the terraces is not seen, "so that the whole mountain side api^ears as if 
composed only of immense rugged masses of naked whitish rock, severed 
by deep wide ravines running down precipitously to the jilain. No one 
would suspect, among these rocks, the existence of a vast multitude of 
thrifty villages, and a numerous population of mountaineers, hardy, indus- 
trious, and brave." Robinson, Bib. Res., 2, p. 493. But the view fr'ini 
nr&ore is rich and picturesque. "The tops of the little stair- like terraces 
are seen, all green with corn, or straggling vines, or the dark foliage of 



278 SACEEB GEOGRAPHY. 

the mulberry. The steeper banks and ridges have their forests of pine and 
oak ; while far away down in the bottom of the glens, and round the vil- 
lages and castellated convents, are large groves of gray olives. " Porter, in 
Alexander's Kitto. The northern extremity of Lebanon is sharply defined, 
the chain terminating abruptly at the valley of the Kebir. A lower side 
ridge runs along the eastern base of the main chain from the town of 
Zahleh (about latitude thirty-three degrees, fifty-one minutes north) to its 
northern extremity. 

According to Robinson "the oak, walnut, plane, silver poplar, acacia, 
and various other trees are not infrequent. The olive and the mulberry 
are widely cultivated ; the one for its oil, the other as food for silkworms. 
The wine of Lebanon was celebrated of old. At present extensive vine- 
yards surround many of the villages, the vines being left to run upon the 
ground. The fruit is mostly eaten, or is converted into raisins and dibs 
(syrup) ; a small part only is made into wine, which is still accounted of 
superior excellence." Phys. Geog., p. 343. The glory of Lebanon in an- 
cient days was its magnificent forests of cedar. These, though immensely 
diminished, have not yet disai3peared. The principal grove is at the head 
of Wady Kadisha in a vast recess in the central ridge of Lebanon two 
hours and three quarters from Ehden. Above it rise the loftiest summits 
of Jjebanon streaked with perpetual snow. The grove is now scarcely 
half a mile in circumference, and contains about four hundred trees of all 
sizes — perhaps a dozen very ancient and venerable. One or two of the 
oldest are more than forty feet in girth with short and irregular branches. 
There are other cedar groves on the higher slopes of Lebanon north of the 
Kadisha and elsewhere. See in Porter's Handbook, pp. 549-551. The 
cedar has been for ages too rare to be employed in building. In the 
Scriptures it is, as all know, the standing image of strength, majesty, and 
beauty. 

9. Parallel with Lebanon runs the chain of Anti-Lebanon, 
beginning at Banias and terminating over against the northern 
end of Lebanon some fifteen miles south of Hums (Emesa). It 
is described by Robinson as " made up of two parts, lying north 
and south of the parallel of Damascus; or rather as divided at 
a point somewhat north of that parallel." Phys. Geog., p. 345. 
The northern part, running parallel with Lebanon, is called 
Jehel esh-SJcurky, that is, Uast mountain. It is less lofty than 
Lebanon, " and in contrast with that mountain," says Pobinson, 
" having its steepest declivity on the west towards the Buka'a 
(valley of Coele-Syria) almost without streams or villages," while 




CEDARS OF LEBANON, 







KUINS OF BAALBEC. 



NOKTHEAST AND NORTH. 279 

"the eastern declivity- is quite gradual; or rather this eastern 
side is characterized by successive lower ridges with intervening 
open tracts, or terraces, running parallel with its course, and 
presenting towards the east steep declivities and sometimes 
perpendicular precipices." Porter says (in Alexander's Kitto) 
that " with the exception of the little upland plains, and a few 
of the deeper valleys, this ridge is incapable of cultivation." 
" Vegetation is abundant among the rocks, and though the in- 
habitants are few and far between, immense flocks of sheep and 
goats are pastured upon the mountains, and wild beasts — bears, 
boars, wolves, jackals, hysenas, foxes — are far more abundant 
than in any other part of Syria or Palestine." 

The southern part of Anti-Lebanon, which trends a little 
more to the southwest, is called Jebel esh- Sheikh, Chief mountain, 
and is the Hermon of the Old Testament. It has, according to 
Porter (Handbook, p. 430), three summits, or rather its general 
summit has three peaks, the loftiest of which is, according to 
Yan de Yelde, nine thousand three hundred and seventy-six feet 
in height. Its lower slopes are thinly clothed with oak forests. 
The central cone of gray limestone is naked, and glittering with 
snow through the winter months. In summer the snow remains 
only in the ravines. 

Porter describes Hermon as the centre and culminating point of Anti- 
Lebanon, whence a number of ridges radiate hke the ribs of a half-open 
fan. The first and loftiest of these ridges is Jebel esh-Shurky already 
described ; the last and lowest, reckoning from west to east, runs nearly 
east (elsewhere he says more accurately northeast by east), skirting the 
magnificent plain of Damascus on its northern border, and continued on- 
ward to Palmyra. These ridges are of bare whitish limestone, and present 
a series of terraces on plateaus with clififs from one hundred to one thou- 
sand feet. The scenery on these steppes is dreary and desolate. The 
gravelly soil, in many places strown with flints, is as bare as the cliffs that 
bound them. Yet they are inte;^sected by several rich and beautiful glens, 
so deep, however, that their verdure and foliage cannot be seen from a dis- 
tance. 

There is ground for thinking that some one of th(3 southern peaks of 
Hermon was the scene of the transfiguration ; for it took place in the neigh- 
borhood of Csesarea Philippi. Stanley; Sinai and Palestine, pp. 391, 392 ; 
Porter's Damascus, 1, p. 306. 



280 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

10. Between these two mighty ramparts hes the noble valley 
called by the modern Arabs el-Bukaa, that is, deft, deep plain. 
This was appropriately named by the ancients Coele- Syria, 
Holloio Syria, or the Syrian Hollow. It is from three to seven miles 
wide and seventy miles long, running in a direction from south 
to northeast. Its surface is said to be quite flat, and its soil 
rich, and abundantly watered by streams from the mountain 
sides. Its watershed is a few miles north of Baalbec, with an 
elevation above the level of the ocean of some three thousand 
feet. Thence its waters flow north into th-e Orontes, and south 
into the Litany. A low spur running out from the northern 
extremity of Jebel esh-Sheikh towards the southwest passes 
obliquely across th6 Buka'a towards the southern end of Leb- 
anon, thus gradually narrowing the main valley to a point ; 
while on the eastern side of this spur, as it diverges from Jebel 
esh-Sheikh is formed a higher and narrower valley known as 
Wady et-Teim, which enters the plain of Banias at the north- 
west "corner. In this valley, as has already been shown (Chap. 
4, No. 4), is the remotest perennial source of the Jordan near 
Hasbeiya. Wady et-Teim has an open connection at its north- 
ern extremity into the Buka'a by a low watershed. Bobinson, 
Phys, Geog., p. 348. 

The term Coele-Syria was sometimes used by tlie ancients in a more 
extended sense, as including the wliole valley of the Jordan as well as that 
between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and also the bordering habitable 
region on the east. Thus Josephus places in CcBle-Syria the Ammonites 
and Moabites (Antiq., 1. 11. 5), and Ptolemy Damascus and Gerasa, and 
even Scythoi3olis on the west of the Jordan, perhaps because this latter 
city was reckoned as belonging not to Samaria but to the Decapolis east 
of the Jordan. But Strabo (16. 2. 16) accurately defines Coele-Syria 
proper as lying between the two parallel mountains Lebanon and Anti- 
Lebanon. So Pliny, Hist. Nat., 5. 17. 

11. The southern half of the Buka'a is drained by the Lita- 
ny (the Leontes of the ancients) the watershed lying a little north 
of Baalbec ; but the remotest perennial fountain is a few miles 
south of that place, below which it is fed by numerous rivulets 
from the springs at the base of the two mountains. The valley 



NORTHEAST AND NORTH. 281 

contracts towards the south in the manner above described 
(No. 10), till the channel becomes a deep rocky gorge down 
which the river rushes, tumbling, foaming and roaring along its 
impetuous course. Then turning westward in about latitude 
thirty-three degrees twenty minutes north it breaks its way to 
the Mediterranean, which it enters a few miles north of Tyre 
under the name of Nalir el-Kasimhjeh. 

The stupendous chasm of the Litany has been the admiration of all 
travellers. The rocks near Burghuz rise not less than nine hundred feet 
above the stream, and the high joerpendicular cliffs approach so near 
together in some spots that the branches of trees from opposite sides are 
said to meet and interlock. "At the bottom, like a silvery ribbon, the 
current rushes from rapid to rapid, foaming among the rocks, and decked 
with the gay blossoms of the oleander along its margin." At one spot 
there is a natural bridge formed by the falling of masses of rock from 
above, leaving a channel for the stream a hundred feet below them. See. 
farther in Robinson, Bib. Res. , 3, pp. 385-387. 

At the great bend of the Litany, where it turns westward towards the 
Mediterranean, perched on the summit of a naked ridge, which rises almost 
perpendicularly from the right bank of the river to a height of more than 
fifteen hundred feet, stands the celebrated fortress esli-Shuklf (the Belfort 
of the crusaders), overtopping the neighboring hills, and commanding an 
extensive view of the surrounding country. See in Porter's Handbook, 
pp. '538, 539 ; Robinson, 3, pp. 49-53. 

12. Between the northern termination of Lebanon and the 
range Jehel en-Nusairiyeh (the Bargylus of the ancients), which 
may be regarded as the continuation of Lebanon, lies a valley 
of some extent, constituting the natural entrance from the sea- 
coast to Hamatli (see below. No. 15), and which is justly regard- 
ed by Kobinson (3, pp. 568, 569), Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, 
p. 399), Porter (Syria and Damascus, 2, pp. 354-359), and oth- 
ers as the Scriptural " entering in of HamathJ' The range Jebel 
en-Nusairiyeh, beginning north of this entrance, extends north 
along the valley of the Orontes to the point where this river 
bends to the southwest to enter the Mediterranean. From its 
northern extremity it throws off a coast-range towards Laodicea, 
the highest peak of which is the Mount Casius of the ancients, 
having an elevation of more than five thousand feet. 



282 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

On the eastern side of tlie Orontes there is, north of Anti- 
Lebanon, a wide interruption, constituting the rich plain of Hums 
(Emesa), not less than thirty miles in width, and stretching off 
towards the east in a boundless tract of level country, which 
gradually loses itself in the eastern desert. North of this plain 
begins an irregular range of mountains running parallel to the 
western range en-Nusairiyeh, quite to the bend of the Oron- 
tes, the two enclosing a magnificent valley called el-Ghab. Its 
width is given by Kobinson at about five miles in the southern 
part, but less towards the north; and its length from Antioch 
to the plain north of Lebanon at about eighty-five miles. 

13. There is a singular correspondence between the course of 
the Leontes already described and that of the Orontes (the mod- 
ern NaJiT el-Asy), which drains the northern part of the Buka'a 
and its continuation northward in the Ghab. Like the Leontes, 
as it approaches the end of its course it suddenly turns west- 
ward and then southwestward, and passing through a narrow 
gorge below Antioch, "roars over a succession of rapids and 
shallows, which render it unnavigable even for steam-vessels" 
(Robinson, Phys. Geog., p. 353), till it reaches the plain towards 
the -sea. 

14. North of the Orontes the single range of Amanus con- 
stitutes a true continuation of Lebanon and Bargylus. East of 
it is a hilly elevated tract extending quite to the Euphrates. 

The plain along the shore between Amanus and the sea is quite narrow, 
and here is a celebrated pass called the Gates of Syria-Cilicia. It was in 
the narrow plain of Issus, at the head of the gulf of Issus, that Alexander 
the Great gained his celebrated victory over Darius, b. c. 333. 

15. Looking now at the great Syrian valley from the south- 
ern extremity of Lebanon to Antioch as a whole, we notice the 
places of chief interest along its course. 

Beih-Rehoh overlooked a valley near to Laish (Judg. 18 : 28, 29), and 
was apparently the capital of a Syrian territory (2 Sam. 10 :6). Eobinson 
(Bib. Ees,, 3, pp. 371, 372) and Porter (Handbook, p. 421) suggest that the 
site of this place is to be found in the ruins of a strong fortress at Bunln, 



NORTHEAST AND NORTH. 283 

on the western border of the plain of Huleh. The same authors would 
identify Abel (2 Sam. 20 : 14, 15, 18), called also Abel-beih-Maachah (1 Kings 
15 : 20 ; 2 Kings 15 : 29) and Abel-maim (2 Chron. 16 : 4), with the modern 
Abil, a little northeast of Hunin. The name Abel-beth-maachali, tliat is 
Abel of Beth-maachah, would designate it as a town of the region of Beth- 
maachali, or Syria of Maachah (1 Chron. 19 : 6), which Porter supposes to 
have extended on the northern border of Palestine from the fountains of 
the Jordan northeast to the plain of Damascus. See in Alexander's Kitto, 
art. , Maachah. The above-named authors w^ould further identify the site 
of the scriptural Ijon (1 Kings 15 : 20 ; 2 Chron. 16 : 4) with Tell Dibbln, 
on the margin of a romantic little plain called Merj AyHn, which lies be- 
tween Wady et-Teim and the fortress esh-Shukif. Robinson is inclined 
to identify " Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon" 
(Josh. 11 : 17 ; 12 : 7) with Banias. Bib. Res., 3, pp. 409, 410. 

Passing up Wady et-Teim, we come, at the distance of six hours from 
Banias, to the modern town of Hasbeiya, situated on both sides of a deep 
glen which falls down from a side-ridge of Hermon westward into Wady 
et-Teim, well known as a Protestant missionary station, and as the scene 
of a terrible massacre in 1860, when about one thousand unarmed victims 
were murdered in cold blood. The population of the place before this 
massacre was estimated at five thousand, four thousand of whom were 
Christians. Proceeding still farther up the wady, and turning eastward, 
we come to the smaller village of Rdslieiya, lying high up on a ridge of 
Hermon. 

The most remarkable ruins in the valley of Coele-Syria are those of 
Baalbec, in about latitude thirty-four degrees north, a few miles south of 
the water-shed which separates the head-streams of the Leontes and the 
Orontes. Here are the magnificent remiiins of two temples, one of them 
of colossal proportions. The diameter of its columns is at base seven feet 
six inches ; their height, inckidingbase and capital, seventy-five feet, with an 
entablature above of fourteen feet. Of the stones in the western wall, one is 
sixty-four feet long, another sixty- three feet eight inches, and a third sixty- 
three feet. These stupendous ruins have been described at length by 
various travellers. For a concise account of them the reader may consult 
Porter's Handbook, pp. 526-534 ; Robinson, 3, pp. 506-518. The histor- 
ical notices appended by Robinson (pp. 518-527) are particularly valuable. 
The Greek name of Baalbec is Heliopolis, that is, city of the sun; and it 
implies that the place, like its namesake in Egypt, was consecrated to the 
sun as its chief divinity. 

Relics of many other heathen temples are found in this valley ; as at 
Mejdel and Zekweh a little south of the fountains of Anjar, at Deir el- 



284 SACRED GEOGEAPHY. 

Gliuzal, north of Anjar, etc. Robinson suggests (3, p. 519) tliat the prophet 
Amos alhides to this valley with its heathen, temples under the name of the 
valley of Avert (English version, plain of Aven), that is, valley of vanity. 
Compare Amos 5:5: "Beth-el" (that is, the lioime of God) " shall become 
vanity" (Heb. Aven). 

Passing on north beyond Baalbec, we begin to descend along the course 
of the Orontes. At about latitude thirty-four degrees thirty-one minutes 
north we come to Ribleh, the Rihlah of the Old Testament, lying on the 
right bank of the river. At present it is a poor mud village of some forty 
or fifty houses. The biblical student must regard this place with sad inter- 
est ; for here Pharaoh-necho put Jehoahaz in bands, "that he might not 
reign in Jerusalem" (2 Kings 23 :33), and here afterwards Nebuchadnez 
zar gave judgment upon Zedekiah, slew his sons before his eyes, put out 
his eyes, bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon 
(2 Kings 25 : 6, 7). ■ 

Passing on northward across the great and fertile plain at the north of 
Anti-Lebanon (No. 12 above), we come to Hums (the ancient Emesa), lying 
in the centre of the plain. It is a clean and compact town of about twenty 
thousand inhabitants. The houses are built of basalt-stone, and most of 
the streets are paved with the same materials. The Orontes flows past the 
city at the distance of about a mile to the west. No notice of it occurs in 
the Bible. 

Proceeding still down the valley of the Orontes, after a ride of between 
seven and eight hours we reach Hamah, the Hamatli of Scripture, and the 
Epipliania of the Greeks. It is built on both sides of the river, and con- 
tains about thirty thousand inhabitants. Four bridges span the stream, 
and a number of huge wheels turned by the current — one of them seventy 
feet in diameter — raise the water into aqueducts, whence it is distributed 
through the city. *' They have," says Porter (Handbook, p. 588), " an odd 
look and an odder sound, turning lazily, emptying their shallow buckets, 
and groaning all the while as if in agony." Hamatli and "the entering in 
of Hamatli " were the well-known northern limits assigned to the Israelitish 
territory (Numb. 34:8; Josh. 13:5; Judg. 3:3), although the actual 
northern boundary feU far short of them (Chap. 1, Nos. 3-5). 

Antioch, once a renowned and wealthy city, holding the third place in 
the Roman empire, lies in the plain on the left bank of the Orontes, after 
it has made its great bend to the southwest. It has now dwindled down 
to an Arab town of some six thousand inhabitants. "We learn from the 
Acts of the Apostles that Antioch was the centre of Gentile Christianity. 
For this it was admirably adapted by its situation, having ready access 
down the narrow valley of the Orontes to the Mediterranean, up the valley 



NORTHEAST AND NORTH. 285 

of the same river to Soiitliern Syria and Palestine, across the plain east- 
ward to the Euphrates, and through the passes of the Amanus to Asia 
Minor. At Antioch the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11 : 26); 
to this place Barnabas brought Saul (Acts 11 : 25, 26) and thence the great 
apostle of the Gentiles departed on each of his missionary tours (Acts 13 : 1, 
2 ; 15 : 35, 36 ; 18 : 22, 23). Next to Jerusalem, therefore, Antioch was the 
most important centre of primitive Christianity. " The name Christian, 
invented here eighteen centuries ago, is still borne by a few hundreds of its 
people, though the spirit of apostolical Christianity has long since deserted 
it. Nothing in fact seems to remain of the Antioch of olden times but 
that wanton licentiousness for which it was celebrated ; and the name, in 
its Arabic form, Antakieh." Porter, Handbook, pp. 568, 569. 

Seleuda, the port from which Paul and Barnabas sailed on the apostle's 
first tour (Acts- 13 :4), stood on the seacoast about one hour north of the 
mouth of the Orontes. Its ruins cover an area about four miles in circuit, 
the path to them winding through shrubberies of myrtle and oleander. 
See in Porter's Handbook, jop. 565, 566. 

16. Passing to the eastern side of Anti-Lebanon, we have at 
its base the celebrated plain and city of Damascus. We have 
abeady seen (No. 9 above) how from Hermon as a central point 
a number of ridges radiate like the ribs of a half-open fan. 
The last and lov/est of these, reckoning around from west to 
east, is of chalky limestone, almost pure white, and entirely 
naked. It runs in the direction of east-northeast onward to 
Palmyra, forming the northwestern boundary of the plain of 
Da^mascus, above which it rises some seven hundred feet. On 
the south side of the plain are two low ridges of hills between 
Avliich flows the Aivaj, supposed to be the Phaiyar of Scripture. 
" Far away to the east may be seen a little group of conical 
hills, called the Tellul. If a line be drawn through these north 
and south, till it meets the other sides, forming with them a 
triangle, the plain ofDamascus will be circumscribed. That por- 
tion of it, however, which alone is inhabited and in part culti- 
vated, is bounded on the east by the three lakes into which the 
rivers of Damascus empty themselves. In form it is a rectan- 
gular triangle, its base on the south side being about twenty- 
eight miles long ; its perpendicular on the east seventeen ; and 
its hypothenuse, along the. foot of Anti-Lebanon, thirty-three. 



286 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

Its area is thus about two hundred and thirty-six square geo- 
graphical miles." Porter, Five Years in Damascus, 1, pp. 26, 27. 

17. The fertility of this magnificent plain, depends wholly 
upon the two rivers which come down from the eastern slope of 
Anti-Lebanon. The largest and most northerly of these is the 
Barada, the ChrysorrJioas of the ancients. It rises high up on 
the mountain where its two ridges, Jebel esh-Sheikh and Jebel 
esh-Shurky meet (No. 9 above), rushes down its side in a south- 
easterly course, and, after breaking by a wild ravine through the 
lowest ridge described above, enters the plain and flows due 
east across it at the distance of eight miles from its southern 
boundary. The city lies on its southern bank, and its waters 
are distributed by numerous canals through it and the plain 
lying around it. ''Without the Barada," says Porter (Five 
Years in Damascus, 1, p. 27), " the city could not exist, and the 
plain would be a parched desert, but now aqueducts intersect 
every quarter, and fountains sparkle in almost every dwelling, 
while innumerable canals extend their ramifications over the vast 
plain, clothing it with verdure and beauty." What remains of 
the waters of the Barada passes on and is lost in the middle and 
northernmost of the three lakes east of Damascus. 

The second and most southerly stream is the Aioaj. It is 
formed by the junction of several small streams that rise in the 
ravines of Jebel esh-Sheikh, and flowing eastward in a serpen- 
tine course it winds through a deep glen filled with thickets of 
poplars and willows, and bordered by green meadows and corn- 
fields. The stream is deep and rapid, and about one-third the 
size of the Barada. It contributes by the canals taken from it 
to the irrigation of the region, and what remains of it finds its 
way to the southern lake east of the city. Porter's Handbook, 
p. 505. It is said that in dry seasons its waters do not reach 
the lake. 

There can be no reasonable doubt that these two streams are the Aha- 
na and Pharpar of Scripture (2 Kings 5:12); for they are, as Robinson 
remarks (Bib. Res., 3, p. 447), the only independent streams of any size 
within the territory of Damascus. The Ahana (or, as the Hebrew text 
reads the Amana) as being "the largest and most important stream would 



NORTHEAST AND NORTH. 287 

naturally be named first (Robinson, uhi supra), and would thus answer to. 
the modern Barada, the Pharpar being the Aioaj. This latter stream 
flows, it is true, some seven miles south of the city ; but it contributes its 
share to the irrigation of the plain, and may well be called a river of Da- 
mascus. Naaman's scornful comparison : ' ' Are not Abana and Pharpar, 
rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ?" was perhaps 
simply an expression of national pride. Yet, looking at these rivers, as 
he did, only on the human side, he might well prefer them to the Jordan; 
for they cover a vast plain with verdure and fruitf ulness, while the Jordan 
pursues its solitary course down a desert valley only to lose itself in the 
Dead sea, the image of desolation and death. 

18. As one approaches Damascus from the west, the road 
winds through the defiles of Anti-Lebanon, and then passes over 
a series of broad terraces supported by long continuous walls of 
whitish limestone, bare, barren, and stony, presenting a scene 
of frightful desolation. On passing the crest of the last ridge, 
the whole plain and city of Damascus burst at once on the 
traveller's view presenting a scene of surpassing beauty and 
grandeur, the impression of which is deepened by contrast with 
the desolation left behind. On the south bank of the Barada, 
about two miles distant and five hundred feet below, appears 
the city in the bosom of a luxuriant plain filled with immense 
groves of every species of fruit-trees. " The glory of Damascus 
are its gardens and forests of fruit-trees, which surround the 
city for miles, and almost hide it from view. Vegetables of all 
kinds are abundant and cheap. The profusion of water is favor- 
able to their cultivation ; and also especially to the growth of 
fruit-trees. Almost every species of fruit is produced around 
Damascus, either in the plain or in the valley of the Barada. 
Besides the olive, we either saw or heard expressly named the 
following, viz., oranges, lemons, citrons (in the courts of the 
houses), apples, pears, quinces, peaches, apricots, almonds, 
plums, prunes, grapes, figs, pomegranates, mulberries, walnuts, 
hazel-nuts, pistachios, etc." Eobinson, Bib. Ees., 3, p. 452. 
The same author describes at length the arrangements for the 
artificial irrigation of the plain. 

" The buildings of Damascus' are almost all of snowy white- 



288 SACEED GEOGKAPHY. 

ness, and this contrasts well with the surrounding foliage. The 
gardens and orchards, which have been so long and so justly 
celebrated, encompass the city, and extend on both sides of the 
Barada some miles eastward. They cover an area of at least 
twenty-five miles in circuit, and make the environs an earthly 
paradise." " But the moment the traveller leaves the environs 
and enters the gate of Damascus the illusion is gone." To an 
American or European " this city must appear filthy, irregular, 
and even half ruinous. The streets are narrow and tortuous; 
the houses on each side like piles of mud, stone, and timber, 
liea'ped together loitliout orders The bazars are among the curi- 
osities of Damascus. They are thronged with a medley of per- 
sons representing every eastern nation, in every variety of cos- 
tume, " talking, bargaining, disputing, and sometimes swearing 
at the top of their lungs." Porter's Five Years in Damascus, 1, 
p. 28, seq. ; Eobinson's Bib. Ees., 3, p. 453, seq. To the pages 
of these writers, and of other travellers who have visited this 
ancient city, the reader must be referred for a more detailed 
account of this city. 

The present population is estimated as high as one hundred 
and fifty thousand souls. By far the largest part of the inhab- 
itants are of the Mohammedan faith. Damascus is, indeed, one 
of the great centres of Mohammedan bigotry, as was painfully 
manifested by the bloody massacre of July, 1860, when between 
two and three thousand of the resident Christians perished. 
See in Porter's Giant Cities of Bashan, Appendix. 

19. The plain of Damascus slopes gently towards the east- 
southeast for about twenty miles. Here in its deepest depression 
is a broad basin containing the three lakes which receive what 
remains of the waters of the Barada and Awaj. They lie, witli 
relation to each other, in the direction of north-northeast and 
south-southwest. The northernmost, which is also the most 
easterly and is called East lake, is estimated by Porter to be 
eight and a half miles long, with an extreme breadth of four 
miles; the middle lake, six and a half miles long, with a breadth of 
five and a half miles ; the southern lake, upwards of five miles long, 



NOKTHEAST AND NORTH. 289 

by about four and a half in breadth. They are all of a marshy 
character, their surface being covered partly by tracts of clear 
water, and partly by thickets of tall reeds twenty feet in height, 
which make it difficult to determine their outlines with precis- 
ion. In dry seasons the water of the southern lake entirely 
fails. The marshes of these lakes are the favorite haunts of 
Avild swine and water-fowl. " The numbers of wild fowl," says 
Porter, " were beyond conception. They rose up in clouds be- 
fore me as I advanced, and sweeping round for a few minutes, 
settled down again at a little distance. Geese, ducks, storks, 
herons, and water-fowl of endless variety, appeared on every 
side." See a full description of these lakes in his Five Years in 
Damascus, vol. 1, chap. 9. 

20. Of all existing cities Damascus is first mentioned in 
Scripture. It is named in Abraham's day (Gen. 14: 15; 15 : 2), 
and seems to have reached the zenith of its power as an inde- 
pendent state in the time of the Israelitish kings. At a later 
period it fell, like all the surrounding kingdoms, under the power 
of the Assyrians; and, subsequently, of the Babylonian, Per- 
sian, Grecian, and Poman empires. In A. D. 635 Damascus 
came into the hands of the Mohammedans, in whose power, 
though with many changes of masters, it has remained to the 
present day. 

The Syrians of Damascus are named among those who made war upon 
David and were defeated by him with great slaughter (2 Sam. 8:5, 6 ; 
IChron. 18:5, 6); and they subsequently appear, now in league with 
Judah against Israel (1 Kings 15: 18-20; 2 Chron. 16 :2-4), now at war 
with Israel alone (1 Kings, chap. 20 ; 2 Kings, chains. 6 and 7 ; 10 : 32, 33; 
13:24, 25; 14:27, 28), now withstanding the combined armies of Judali 
and Israel (1 Kings, chap. 22 ; 2 Kings 8 : 28, 29) ; and finally in league 
with Israel against Judah (2 Kings 15 : 37 ; 16 : 5, 6 ; Isa. 7 : 1-9). It was 
upon the occasion of this last alliance that Aliaz called to his aid the Assy- 
rian monarch (2 Kings, 16 : 7-9 ; 2 Chron. 28 : 16-21), a fatal step which 
involved him and his successors in calamity, as foretold by the prophet 
Isaiah (chap. 8 : 7, 8) ; for ' ' Tiglath-pilneser king of Assyria came unto him 
and distressed him, but strengthened him not." The Assyrians became 
more formidable oppressors of Judah than the Syrians against whom their 
help was invoked. 

Sac. Oeog. 13 



290 SACEED GEOGEAPHY. 

In New Testament times Damascus became celebrated as the scene of 
the apostle Paul's conversion and baptism. It was as " he came near Da- 
mascus " that the Saviour appeared to him in glory ; into that city he was 
led by the hand, there he was baptized, there he began his woj>li as an 
apostle of Christ ; and from its walls he was let down in a basket. Acts, 
chap. 9. A street still runs in a straight direction through the city from 
west to east, and concerning its identity with "the street which is called 
Straight," there cannot be a reasonable doubt. 

21. We learn from Ezeldel (chap. 27:18) that Damascus 
traded with Tyre "in the wine of Helbon and white wool." It 
has been customary to identify Helbon with Haleb, that is, Aleppo, 
in the northeastern .part of Syria. But, as Robinson remarks, 
(Bib. Bes.,3, p. 472), "Aleppo produces no wine of any reputa- 
tion, nor is Damascus the natural channel of commerce between 
Aleppo and Tyre." There is a Helbon near Damascus, de- 
scribed at some length by Porter (Five Tears in Damascus, 1, 
pp. 323-336), which fulfils the conditions of the scriptural Hel- 
bon. It lies on the eastern slope of Anti-Lebanon about ten 
miles north of Damascus, in a deep and wild glen, the sides of 
which are covered with vineyards ; and the vintners of Damas- 
cus regard the grapes of Helbon as the best in this part of 
Syria. We may reasonably regard this, and not Aleppo, as the 
Helbon of Ezekiel. 

22. Among the different divisions of Aram mentioned in the 
Old Testament is one called Aram-Zohah (Psa. 60, title), but 
elsewhere simply Zohah. It was on the way to the Euphrates 
(2 Sam. 8:3; 1 Chron. 18 : 3) ; in the vicinity of Damascus 
(1 Kings 11 : 23, 24; 2 Sam. 8 : 5 ; 1 Chron. 18: 5) ; and near to 
Hamath (2^ Sam. 8 : 10; 1 Chron. 18 : 10). It must, then, have 
been north of Damascus and east of Hamath, extending from 
the latter place northeast and east towards, if not quite to, the 
Euphrates. "It would thus have included the eastern flank of 
the mountain-chain which shuts in Coele-Syria on that side, the 
high land about Aleppo, and the more northern portion of the 
Syrian desert." Bawlinson, in Smith's Bible Dictionary. 

23. Abilene (Luke 3 : 1) was a district so called from Abila 
(the Abila of Lysanias) eighteen Roman miles northwest of 



NORTHEAST AND NORTH. 291 

Damascus towards Baalbec, where the river Barada issues from 
a wild chasm. The district lay accordingly on the eastern slope 
of Anti-Lebanon, extending apparently as far south as Itursea. 
See farther in Bobinson's Greek Lexicon. 

24. The sacred record informs us (1 Kings 9 : 18 ; 2 Chron. 
8 : 4) that among other cities built by Solomon was " Tadmor in 
the wilderness." This is the place known to the Greeks and 
Romans as Palmyra, both names signifying city of palms. Its 
magnificent ruins are in the Syrian desert about one hundred 
and twenty miles northeast of Damascus, in a fruitful and well 
watered oasis. Its situation about midway between the Euphra- 
tes and the Orontes gave it great importance as a commercial 
depot and resting-place for the carrying trade between the coast 
and the interior of Asia. 

The ruins of Palmyra produce a very striking effect when seen at a dis- 
tance across the sandy plain. Thousands of Corinthian columns of white 
roarble, some erect and others fallen, cover an extent of about a mile and 
a half, and present the appearance of a forest. "It is," says Porter (Hand- 
book, p. 512), "a strange scene. Syria has nothing to compare with it. 
Ruins so extensive, so desolate, so bare, exist nowhere else. Long lines of 
columns, iiTegular clumps, and single pillars, rising up out of huge piles 
of white stones ; fragments of gateways, and arches, and walls, and porti- 
cos ; aud the vast pile of the Temple of the Sun away beyond them all. " 
No traces of the city built by Solomon can be detected ; for the splendid 
ruins that now strew the plain, bear the impress of the later Roman age. 
For a detailed account of these ruins, with an accompanying plan and 
historical sketch, see Porter's Five Years in Damascus, 1, pp. 149-248. 

III. PHCENICIA. 
25. The boundaries of Phoenicia east and west are definitely 
fixed by nature. It is a narrow strip of territory lying between 
the western base of Lebanon and the Mediterranean. It is 
necessary to distinguish between Phoenicia Proper and Phoe- 
nicia in the wider sense of the term. Phoenicia Proper was, ac- 
cording to Eobinson (Bib. Kes., 2, p. 473), a narrow undulating 
plain extending from Eas el-Abyad, the most northern point of 
Palestine three hours south of Tyre, to the Nahr el-Auwaly, the 
Bostrenus of the ancients, an hour north of SidoQ. The plain 



292 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

thus defined is about twenty-eiglit miles in length, with an aver- 
age breadth of about a mile ; except that near Sidon the breadth 
is two miles, and about Tyre the mountains retire to the dis- 
tance of five miles. 

26. Writers of the Eoman age use the term Phoenicia in a 
ivider sense. They place its northern limit at or near the river 
Eleutherus about latitude thirty-four degrees forty-one minutes 
north ; and extend its southern limit so as to include the town 
of Dor south of Carmel, and Strabo even the whole coast to 
Pelusium in Egypt. The whole of Phoenicia Proper is well 
watered and has a fertile, though poorly cultivated soil. The 
region north of the Bostrenus is said to be bleak and barren. 

27. From the necessity of their position the Phoenicians 
were a commercial rather than an agricultural people. On the 
one hand the narrow strip of arable land between Lebanon and 
the sea was utterly insufficient to furnish grain for the teeming 
myriads of their population, so that they were dependent on 
Palestine for this indispensable article. Ezek. 27 : 17. On the 
other, the Mediterranean opened to them a boundless field of 
commerce along the coasts of Western Asia, of Europe, of North 
Africa, and through the straits of Gibraltar of AVestern Africa 
also. In Solomon's day Tyrian sailors went in company with 
his servants in the fleet which he built at Eloth on the Eed sea 
(1 Kings 9 : 26-28), and thus the riches of Arabia, India, and 
Eastern Africa were opened to them. Whether the Phoenicians 
had made use of this or any other part of the Eed sea at an 
earlier date we have no means of knowing. The Phoenicians 
became thus the navigators and merchants, and Tyre the empo- 
rium of commerce, for all the neighboring countries. Caravans 
came from all quarters bringing the products of the different 
regions, and receiving in exchange the wares that Tyre had 
gathered from many distant lands. 

According to Herodotus (4. 42) it was Phoenician sailors in. a fleet fitted 
out by the Egyptian king Necos, who first circumnavigated Africa. Ne- 
cos, he tells us, sent Phoenician sailors with vessels, commanding them to 
sail down behind Libya, to enter the northern sea by the pillars of Hercu- 



NORTHEAST AND NORTH. 293 

les, i. e., the MediteiTanean by the straits of Gibraltar), and so reach Egypt.. 
This he informs ns they accomplished in the space of three years, bringing 
back the report, which Herodotus thinks incredible, that they had the sun to 
their right; that ig, on their north side. There does not seem to be any 
good reason for discrediting this account, as is done by some, who assume 
that the report of the Phoenician sailors respecting the sun's position as 
they went around Africa was a matter of shrewd inference, not of expe- 
rience. We are, perhaps, too ready to limit the power of the ancients in 
this, as in several other respects. 

28. In the arts and sciences the Phoenicians manifestly ex- 
celled the Hebrews. In all that pertained to the building and 
navigation of vessels this will be at once conceded. Their supe- 
rior skill in hewing timber and in working in brass was acknowl- 
edged by Solomon ; for he had Tyrian workmen in both these 
departments. 1 Kings 5:6; 7 : 13, 14. Tyrian purple was cel- 
ebrated throughout the ancient world ; and it was the testimony 
of the Greeks themsejves that they received the sixteen letters 
of their original alphabet from the Phoenicians through Cadmus. 
The Phoenicians, says Herodotus (5. 58), introduced into Greece, 
upon their arrival, a great variety of arts, and among the rest, 
that of writing. It does not follow from this that the Phoeni- 
cians themselves invented letters. They may have received 
them from Assyria. But a comparison of the ancient Greek 
and Phoenician alphabets shows at once their common origin, 
and makes the report of Herodotus altogether credible. A like 
comparison of the ancient Hebrew alphabet as exhibited on 
coins with the alphabet of the Phoenicians reveals also the sub- 
stantial identity of the two. At this we need not be surprised, 
when we consider that the Phoenician and Hebrew are so closely 
related to each that they may be properly considered as only 
two dialects of the same common tongue. 

The substantial identity of the Hebrew and Phoenician is shown by the 
testimony of ancient scholars, as Jerome and Augustine ; by the relics of 
Phoenician literature that have comedown to us — a passage of Carthaginian, 
for example, preserved to us in one of the comedies of Plautus ; by the 
fact that Phoenician and Carthaginian proper names may be explained 
from the Hebrew ; and, lastly, by the Phoenician inscriptions which can 
be explained from the Hebrew. 



294 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

29. In David's and Solomon's time tlie most friendly rela- 
tions existed between the Phoenicians and the Hebrew people. 
Hiram king of Tyre was ever a lover of David (2 Sam. 5: 11; 
1 Kings 5:1), and we have seen the friendly alliance between 
him and Solomon. After the division of the kingdom the Tyn- 
ans appear in an unfriendly character. Their merchants are 
accused of. selling the children of Judah and Jerusalem to the 
Grecians, and delivering them up as captives to the Edomites. 
Joel 3 : 4-6 ; Amos 1 : 9. Ezekiel names (chap. 27 : 13) among 
the articles of traffic between Tyre and Javan, Tubal, and Me- 
shech, "the persons of men;" and doubtless the Tyrian mer- 
chants were willing to enrich themselves by the trade in slaves 
as they had opportunity. 

30. "We add a brief notice of the Phcenician cities. 

The site of Tyre, tlie renowned emporium of Phoenicia, was originally 
a rocky island between six and seven miles north of Bas el-Abyad, lying 
parallel to the shore, and distant from it about half a mile, with a length of 
less than one mile and a breadth of half a mile. But in the famous siege 
of Alexander the Great, he carried out a causeway from the main land to 
the island, thus converting it into a peninsula. On the north side of this 
causeway, and protected by the northern end of the island, was formed 
after Alexander's day the harbor of Tyre, enclosed by a wall running from 
the north end of the island in a curve towards the main land. But the 
sands of ages drifting into it have filled it so tliat at present only boats can 
enter it, while by the same drifting sands the original narrow causeway 
has attained a breadth of about half a mile. 

The origin of Tyre is lost in hoary antiquity. It is mentioned in the 
book of Joshua (chap. 19 : 29) as a "strong city" (Heb., "city of the fort- 
ress of Tyre"), an appellation which its subsequent history shows to have 
been well deserved. The Hebrew and Phoenician name of Tyre is Sor, 
that is, reck, a name perpetuated in the modern xArabic Sur. There was a 
city on the main land, thirty stadia south of the island, called according 
to the ancients Old Tyre [Paloetyrus), which is commonly assumed to have 
been the original Tyre. But the relation of the continental to the insular 
city is very uncertain. According to Josephus (Antiq., 8. 2. 7), in Hiram's 
day Tyre was on the island. Every vestige of old Tyre was destroyed by 
Alexander, who used its materials in the construction of his causeway. 

Tyre seems to have reached the zenith of its prosperity before the Bab- 
ylonish captivity, perhaps in the time of David and Solomon, when it must 
have been greatly strengthened by the alliance of the Hebrew people. 



NORTHEAST AND NORTH. 295 

According to Josephns (Antiq., 9. 14. 2), the Assyrian king Slialmauezer 
besieged the island city five years in vain. The same author records tlie 
fact (Antiq., 10. 11. 1 ; against Apion, 1. 21) that Nebuchadnezzar besieged 
Tyre thirteen years, but without stating the issue. According to the 
prophecy of Ezekiel (chap. 26), he must have been successful, and his fail- 
ure to receive wages for this service (Ezek. 29 : 18) must be understood as 
meaning that when the city fell into his hands he found it empty of valu- 
able booty. See further, Fairbairn on Ezekiel, in loco. Alexander the 
Great captured Tyre b. c. 332, after a siege of seven months in the manner 
above described. Yet Tyre continued to be a flourishing city down to the 
time of the Crusaders, who held possession of it for more than a century 
and a half. After the disastrous battle of Hattin, in a. d. 1187, this city 
Avas almost the only place of importance that maintained itself against the 
Saracens ; but it was finally abandoned to their power a. d. 1291. Since 
that day its decline and ruin have been so complete as to satisfy in a literal 
way the terrible predictions of the Hebrew prophets : ' ' The Lord hath 
given a commandment against the merchant city to destroy the strong- 
holds thereof" (Isa. 23 : 11) ; "They shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and 
break down her towers ; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make 
her like the top of a rock ;" "Thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon ; 
thou shalt be built no more." Ezek. 26:4, 5, 14. The modern town - 
stands upon the junction of the island and isthmus. It contains from three 
to four thousand inhabitants. There is but one gate ; the houses are 
mostly hovels, with narrow, crooked, filthy streets ; and all their navy 
consists of a few crazy fishing-boats. A walk around the ruins of Tyre is 
indescribably mournful. "Ruins on the top of ruins cover the peninsula, 
and are strown among the waves round it. There was a Phoenician Tyre 
and a Roman Tyre and a mediaeval Tyre, each built on the ruins of its 
predecessor : and now there is a modern Tyre such as we have described 
it, standing over them all." "Passing around the southern point, we are 
struck with the aspect of desolation — broken columns half-buried in the 
sand, huge fragments of sea-beaten ruins, and confused heaps of rubbish, 
with a solitary fisherman spreading his net over them, or a few workmen 
digging up building-stones." Porter's Handbook, p. 371. The city lies 
only upon the eastern part of the island. Its western shore is a ledge of 
ragged rocks, strown "from one end to the other along the edge of the 
water and in the water, with columns of red and gray granite of various 
sizes, the only remaining monuments of the splendor of ancient Tyre." 
Robinson, Bib. Res., 2, p. 464. 

In the twenty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel we have a wonderfully graphic 
descripti(m of the commerce of ancient Tyre and the wealth that flowed 
into her from all quarters. Of the different countries named as furnishing 
her with their peculiar commodities, Bashan, Egypt, Aram (ver. 16, in 



296 SACRED GEOGEAPHY. 

some manuscripts, Edom), Judali, and in connection with this country 
Minnith, Damascus and Helbon, Arabia and Kedar, Sheba, Raamah, and 
Haran have been ah-eady sufficiently described ; while the isles of Chittim, 
Zidon, Arvad, Gebal, Persia, Canneh, and *the places named in verse 23 
will come up for consideration hereafter. We add a few words respecting 
the other places. 

Senir (ver. 5), called also Shenir (Deut. 3:9; Cant. 4 : 8 of our version), 
is, according to Deut. 3 : 9, the name given by the Amorites to Mount 
Hermon ; yet not the whole range of Anti-Lebanon, but rather a particular 
part of it, as appears from the fact that Senir is mentioned along with 
Hermon . in 1 Chron. 5 : 23 and Cant. 4 : 8. According to Abulf eda, as 
quoted by Gesenius, it was the part of Anti-Lebanon north of Damascus. 

The second clause of verse 6 may be rendered, ' ' They have made thy 
benches of ivory inlaid in [wood of] ashurim ;" that is, ashurim-trees, these 
being some species of pine or box. 

The isles of Elishah (ver. 7), or, as the Hebrew phrase may be trans- 
lated, the coasts of Elishah, are by some identified with Ells in the Pelopon- 
nesus, by others with uEolia on the western coast of Asa Minor, and by 
others still with Hellas generally, that is, Greece, which is the more proba- 
ble opinion. 

In verse 10, Lucl and Phut are named among the countries that furnish 
Tyre with mercenary soldiers. Phut (rendered Put Nahum 3 : 9 ; 1 Chron. 
1:8; elsewhere Libyans or Libya, Jer. 46 : 9 ; Ezek. 30 : 5 ; 38 : 5) was the 
son of Ham (Gen. 10 : 6), and his descendants may well be the Libyans or 
Mauritanians of North Africa. Lud, when coupled as here with Phut, is 
not to be understood of the Lydians in Asia Minor, but of the Ludhn, 
an African peojjle descended from Ham (Gen. 10 : 13), and neighbors to 
Phut. 

Of the Gammadlm (ver 11) nothing is known. 

Tarshish (ver 12) may be assumed with much certainty to have been the 
Tartessus of the Greeks and Romans, situated on an island at the mouth of 
the Bcetis, the modern Guadalquivir, in the southwest of Spain. The 
articles of commerce named as comiug from that place — "silver, iron, tin, 
and lead "—are in harmony with this view. Of tliose brought by the ' ' navy 
of Tarshish" in Solomon's day— " gold, silver, ivory, and apes, and pea- 
cocks" (1 Kings 10 : 22 ; 2 Chron. 9 : 21)— ail except the last could certainly 
be obtained in Spain or on the adjacent coasts of Europe and Africa ; and 
as to the Hebrew word translated peacocks, it occurs nowhere else in Scrip- 
ture, and its true meaning is very doubtful. In 1 Kings 22 : 48, the 
"ships of Tarshish" made at Ezion-geber on the Red sea to go to Ophir 
may be well enough understood to mean ships of a particular model, such 
as were used in the navigation to Tarshish. When the author of the books 
of Chronicles speaks of the same ships as made "to go to Tarshish" 



PALESTINE. 297 

(2 Cliron. 20 : 36), he seems to have assumed the identity of the voyages to 
Opliir (1 Kings 9 : 26-28 ; 10 : 11 ; 2 Chron. 8 : 17, 18 ; 9 : 10) and to Tar- 
shish. 1 Kings 10: 22 ; 2 Chron. 9 : 21. But a fleet saiUng from Ezion-gebcr 
could not take the true Tarshish of Spain on its route except by the cir- 
cumnavigation of Africa ; a feat which we cannot well suppose to have 
been accomplished regularly once in three years in Solomon's time. More- 
over, of the products brought home in the fleet that went to Ophir and in 
the navy of Tarshish, gold is the only common article. Gold was the 
peculiar product of Ophir, as silver was of Tarshish. Jer. 10 : 9. We 
seem, then, shut up to the conclusion that Tarshish was approached by 
the Mediterranean and Ophir by the Red sea. For harmonizing all the 
passages that speak of these two i)laces, we must patiently wait for more 
light than we have at j)resent. The question is discussed veiy fully by 
Keil, in his work "On the Hiram-Solomon Voyages to Ophir and Tar- 
shish." 

In verses 13 and 14, Javan, Tubal, and Meshech are named as trading 
with Tyre in " the persons of men and vessels of brass ;" and Togarmahiii 
"horses, horsemen, and mules." It is generally agreed that Javan repre- 
sents first the lonians on the western coast of Asia Minor, and then the 
Greeks geneirdly. J'z^Zja/f and i^/es^ec7^ are almost always coupled in Scrip- 
ture, as in the present passage. See Gen. 10 : 2 ; Ezek. 32 : 26 ; 38 : 2, 3. 
Herodotus in like manner couples the Moschi and Tibareni (3, 94 ; 7, 78), and 
there can be no reasonable doubt of the identity of the two couplets. The 
Moschi occupied the southeastern shores of the Black sea north of Arme- 
nia, and the Tibareni the region immediately west of them. Togarmah is 
in all probability the Hebrew name of Armenia, or a region of Armenia, a 
country abounding in horses and mules. Strabo, 11. 529. 

Dedan is mentioned (ver. 15) as bringing horns of ivory and ebony ; 
and again (ver. 20) Dedan appears as the merchant of Tyre in precious 
clothes for chariots. The character of the products indicates that in the 
first passage the Ciishite Dedan is meant (Gen. 10 : 7), whose settlements are 
thought to have been on the Persian gulf towards India ; and in the second 
the Jckshaniie Dedan (Gen. 25 :3), whose country bordered on the north 
of Edom. See Chap. 9, No. 4. 

Pannag (ver. 17) is the name not of a country, but of a product, the 
nature of which is uncertain. Among the proposed renderings that of 
sweet pastry is as probable as any other. 

The rendering of ver. 19 should probably be : "Vedan and Javan," 
etc. , both these being, as their products indicate, Arabian places not men- 
tioned elsewhere. 

The other chief city of ancient Phoenicia was Zidon or Sidon a name 
which signifies Fislnng-toion, and which is perpetuated in the modern 
Saida. Zidon is situated about twenty miles north of Tyre, on a small 



298 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 

promontory wliicli juts out obliquely into the sea in a southwesterly direc- 
tion. *"' Sidon, " says Robinson (Bib. Res. , 2, p. 480) , * ' was the most ancient 
of all the Phoenician cities ; and is mentioned in the Pentateuch, and in 
the poems of Homer, which Tyre is not." This may explain the fact that 
in ancient times the Tyrians were included under the name Zidonian, but 
not the Zidonians under the name Tyrian. From the manner in which the 
book of Judges speaks of Laish as "far from the Zidonians " (chap. 18 : 7), 
it would seem that Zidon was reckoned at that time as the capital of the 
land. But Tyre very early took the precedence of it. In its history 
Zidon underwent the same vicissitudes as Tyre, falling into the hands of 
the great powers that successively ruled the region. The present popula- 
tion of the place is estimated at about seven thousand souls. Its environs 
are very beautiful. Gardens and orchards fill the plain to the foot of Leb- 
anon, a distance of nearly two miles. 

Between Tyre aiid Sidon stood the ancient town of Zarepliath (1 Kings 
17-: 8-24), the Sarepta of the New Testament (Luke 4 :26), celebrated as 
the place where the prophet Elijah was fed by the widow woman during 
the great famine in Ahab's day. The ancient town lay on the shore, but 
Surafend, its modern representative, stands high up on the side of a pro- 
jecting hill half an hour inland. 

Two other places on the coast north of Phoenicia Proper are named by 
Ezekiel in the chapter above referred to. These are Gehal (ver. 9) and 
Arvad (ver. 8, 11). Gebal, the Byhlus of the Greeks and Romans and 
the Jebeil of the modern Arabs, was situated on the coast about eight hours 
north of Beirut. The inhabitants called Gibliies (in our version, stone- 
squarers, 1 Things 5 : 18) were celebrated for their skill in architecture and 
ship-building (1 Kings 5 : 18 ; Ezek. 27 : 9). The ruins of this place, says 
Porter (Handbook, p. 552), "far exceed in extent and grandeur the mod- 
ern buildings." A7'vad, the Aradus of the ancients, was situated on a 
rocky island now called Ruad, eleven hours north of Tripoli, and about two 
and a half miles from the shore. The ruins here indicate a place of great 
strength. See in Porter's Handbook, p. 560. 

The above sketch is restricted to places mentioned in the Bible. Beirut 
the Beryius of the ancients, beautifully situated on a promontory that runs 
out into the Mediterranean, though not the largest is the most thriving 
town in Syria, the most important in its commercial relations, and the 
centre of modern missionary operations for the region. But neither this 
place, nor Tarahulus, the Tripolis of the Greeks and Romans, about seven- 
teen hours farther north, properly comes within the scope of biblical 
geography. 



ASIA MINOR AND GREECE. 299 



CHAPTEK XI. 

Asia M.inor and Greece. 

Our notice of the regions not immediately bordering on 
Palestine must be necessarily very cursory. Their geogTaphy 
wiU be considered only so far as it is illustrative of the sacred 
record. We begin with Asia Minor and Greece. 

1. The comparatively modern term Asia Minor is applied to 
the large oblong penirisula bounded on the north -by the Black 
sea, the sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles, on the west by 
the Grecian Archipelago, the (uEgean sea of the ancients), on 
the south by the Mediterranean and Syria, and on the east by 
the courses of the Euphrates and Choruk. But in the New 
Testament the term Asia is used in a more restricted sense of 
the Roman lorovince of Asia bordering on the iEgean sea, inclul- 
ing according to the ancient geographers Caria, Lydia, Mysia, 
and Phrygia, although in New Testament usage Phrygia is 
expressly distinguished from it (Acts 2:9; 16 : 6). Asia Minor 
is a very beautiful region, presenting a wonderful diversity of 
climate, soil, and productions. It has a girdle of mountains 
running parallel to the coast on three of its sides, and including 
in the interior an elevated plateau whose waters are cut off from 
access to the sea -and lose themselves in salt lakes and marshes. 

In the Apocryphal books of Maccabees the term Asia is used in a loose 
and indefinite way. Thus in 1 Mac. 8 : 6 it denotes the kingdom of Anti- 
ochus the Great ; and in 1 Mac. 12 : 39 ; 13 : 32 ; 2 Mac. 3 : 3 that of the 
kings of Antioch who possessed only Cilicia. In no passage of the New 
Testament can it be shown to include more than the Roman province 
above named. 

2. The term Greece (Hellas) is used but once in the New 
Testament (Acts 20 : 2), w^here if excludes Macedonia ; but we 
here employ the term Greece in its widest extent as including 



300 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

the above named province. The general geography of this 
magnificent region we leave to the department of classical liter- 
ature ; simply remarking that, as Syria constitutes the connect- 
ing link between Palestine and Asia Minor, so does Asia Minor 
between Syria and Greece. Indeed, in the iEgean sea, sprin- 
kled all over with beautiful islands, the two regions of Asia 
Minor and Greece meet and are blended in one. 

Asia Minor comes into notice not at all, or only very 
obscurely, in the Old Testament, while Greece, often with the 
regions of Europe lying west of it, is loosely designated under 
the terms the isles of the Gentiles (Gen. 10 : 5), the isles of CMttim 
(Jer. 2 : 10 ; Ezek. 27 : 6), the land of Ghittim (Isa. 23 : 1), Chit- 
tim (Numb. 24:24; Isa. 23:12; Dan. ^ 11:30), Javan (Dan. 
8 : 21 ; Isa. 66:19; Ezek. 27 : 13 ; Zech. 9 : 13), the isles of Elishah 
(Ezek. 27 : 7), tlie isles of the sea (Isa. 24 : 15), or more commonly 
the simple term the isles (Psa. 72 : 10 ; 97 : 1 ; Isa. 41 : 5, etc.), 
to which are made so many glorious promises pertaining to the 
latter day. 

The Hebrew term rendered isles (lyim) signifies not only islands, but 
maritime coasts, and by a farther extent of application the regions west of 
them of which the Hebrews had but an imperfect knowledge. Javan and 
Elishah represent in the above passages the Greek people generally. See 
above, Chap. 10, No. 30. ChiUim is thought' to have originally denoted the 
Phoenician colonists of Cyprus, and then, by a wider application, the 
islands and coasts of Greece and even Italy. See in Gesenius' Hebrew 
Lexicon the article Ghittim. 

^ut while the notices of Asia Minor and Greece in the 
Old Testament are so few and indefinite, in the New Testa- 
ment these two regions appear among the chief seats of mission- 
ary activity, and as such they possess great interest for the 
biblical student. The Roman provinces into which they were 
divided may be best learned from the map accompanying this 
volume. The notices of the cities referred to in the New Tes- 
tament may be conveniently arranged tinder tlie following 
heads: The seven churches in Asia addressed in the Apoca- 
lypse, the three missionary tours of the apostle Paul and his 



ASIA MINOR AND GREECE. 301 

companions, and certain additional incidental notices gathered 
from the epistles and the Apocalypse. 

3. The seven churches in Asia first claim our attention. Their 
general position and relation to each other may be thus stated. 
For the three extreme points we take Ephesus, Laodicea, and 
Pergamos. Ephesus lay on the coast of the ^gean sea at the 
mouth of the Cayster, a trifle south of the thirty-eighth parallel 
of north latitude. Nearly east of Ephesus at the distance of 
about ninety miles (as laid down on the maps) was Laodicea on 
a small river in the valley of the Maeander. North of Ephesus, 
at a somewhat smaller distance, was Pergamos, about three 
miles north of the river Caicus and twenty miles from its mouth. 
If now we start from Ej^hesus and pass north to Pergamos we 
take Smyrna on the way, situated near the head of the gulf 
which bears its name, and furnished with one of the finest har- 
bors in the world. Passing, again, from Pergamos to Laodicea 
in a general southeasterly direction we come first to Thyafira, 
then to Sarclis, then to Philadelphia, Thus we take all the 
seven cities in the same order in which they are named in the 
Apocalypse, which is the natural order of enumeration. 

Ephesus was in the time of the apostles the metropolis of the province 
of Asia and the great emporium of trade for all the adjacent region. The 
city was renowned for the great temple of Diana, which stood in a conspic- 
uous place at the head of the harbor. The old temple was burnt in the 
night when Alexander the Gi'eat was born, and another structure was 
raised by the cooperation of all the inhabitants of Asia. The length of 
this temple was four hundred and twenty-five feet, its breadth two hun- 
dred and twenty, and its columns were one hundred and twenty-sevep in 
number. The "silver shrines" made by Demetrius and his associates 
(Acts 19 : 24) seem to have been small models of tlie temple of Diana with 
her statue. But Ephesus has a deeper interest for the Christian scholar 
as being, according to the uniform tradition of the ancients, the place 
Avhere the apostle John spent the last years of his life, and where he prob- 
ably wrote his gospel and epistles. See in Companion to the Bible, chai^. 
29, No. 33. With the exception of a small Turkish village the whole 
site presents only a mass of ruins, the vastness of which attests the for- 
mer magnificence of the place. The solemn threatening that the candle- 
stick of Ephesus should be removed out of its place (Rev. 2 : 5) was long 
ago fulfilled. 



302 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

South of Epliesus at the distance of about thirty-six miles was the sea* 
port of Miletus, whither Paul summoned the elders of the Church of Eplie- 
sus that they might receive his final charge, having "determined to sail 
byEphesus," that is, to sail^asHhe place without visiting it (Acts 20: 16, 17). 
After the conquest of this city by the Saracens it fell into decay and is now 
in ruins. 

While Ephesus has become only a mass of ruins, Smyrna, though it 
has often suffered from earthquakes and conflagrations, still remains a 
great city and the centre of commerce for the Levant. The present pop- 
ulation of the city is estimated at one hundred and fifty thousand, forty 
thousand of whom are Greeks, and live thousand Franks. 

Pergamos was the most northern of the seven churches. It is called 
''the place where Satan's seat is," and "where Satan dwelleth" (Rev. 
2 :13), on account of the preeminent hostility to Christ there manifested ; 
but whether this was connected, as some have supposed, with the worship 
of iEsculapius the tutelary god of the place, cannot be determined. Per- 
gamos was celebrated in ancient times for its library amounting to two 
hundred thousand volumes. The ancjents inform us that skins prepared 
for manuscripts' received from this place the name pejymnenai, whence our 
word parchments. Under the modern name Bergamo this city contains a 
population of some fourteen thousand souls, of whom about three thou- 
sand are Greeks. 

Passing southeast from Pergamos we come to Tliyaiira, on the con- 
fines of Lydia and Mysia, celebrated in ancient times for the art of dyeing 
(Acts 16 : 14), which still prevails there, large quantities of scarlet cloth 
being, it is said, still sent weekly to Smyrna. Thyatira lies to the left 
of the direct road from Pergamos to Sardis, but may be easily taken on the 
way. The road between Pergamos and Thyatira is said to be exceedingly 
beautiful, passing over a mountainous, but fertile and well- watered region 
abounding in oaks and acacias. (Imperial Bible Diet.) Its present pop- 
ulation is reckoned at about seventeen thousand. 

Sardis, the next place in order, lay on the banks of the Pactolus, a 
branch of the Hermus, east of Smyrna, and about twenty-seven miles 
south-southeast of Thyatira. Sardis was anciently the capital of Lydia, 
and was celebrated alike for its wealth and the debauchery of its inhabit- 
ants. The treasures of Croesus, its last king, were so immense that his 
name has become the synonym of riches. But under him the Lydian em- 
pire was overthrown by Cyrus king of Persia. Sardis is now only a mass 
of ruins, in which appear many vestiges of its former splendor. There is 
a sad harmony between its present condition and the spiritual state of the 
Sardian church eighteen centuries ago, which had a name that it lived, but 
was dead. Rev. 3 : 1. 

Philadelphia stood about twenty-five miles southeast of Sardis oxx an 



ASIA MINOK AND GREECE. dO'o 

extensive and beautiful plain, but exceedingly subject to earthquakes by 
which the place has been several times destroyed. Some have supj^osed 
that there is an allusion to the instability of every material thing in Phila- 
delphia in the promise made to that church: "Him that overcometli 
will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more 
out." Rev. 3 : 12. The modern town is ill-built and dirty, containing a 
population of about fifteen thousand, of whom three thousand are Greek 
Christians. 

The last place in order is Laodicea, of which nothing now remains but 
a desolate area covered with the relics of the former city. The Turks call 
these ruins Eskl-hissar, old castle. 

In tlie near vicinity of Laodicea stood Colosse and Hiarapolis, the former 
in an easterly, the latter in a northeasterly direction. Hence all three 
cities are grouped together by the apostle in Col. 4 : 13, and hence also he 
directs (Col. 4 : 16) that his epistles to Colosse and Laodicea be interchang- 
ed. The three cities are said to have been destroyed by an earthquake not 
long after the date of these epistles. 

4. PauVs first missionary tour. Of this we have the record 
in Acts, chaps. 13 and 14. 

He sailed with Barnabivs and John Mark from Seleucia on the Syrian 
coast (Chap. 10, No. 15) to the beautiful island of Cyprus lying near 
the northeastern angle of the Mediterranean. Snlamis on the eastern end 
of the island (chap. 13 : 5) would be the natural place of landing for a 
vessel coming from Seleucia. Thence the apostles proceeded westward 
through the whole length of the island to Paplios in its southwestern ex- 
tremity, a distance of perhaps one hundred miles. Paphos was celebrated 
for the worship of Venus, to whose honor a magnificent temple was here 
erected. Paphos was the scene of Paul's encounter with Elymas the sor- 
cerer (chap. 13 : 8-11), which resulted in the conversion of the proconsul 
Sergius Paulus. 

From Paphos Paul and Barnabas sailed northwest to Attalia in the bay 
of Pamphilia (compare chap. 14 :25), whence they proceeded north about 
seven miles to Pei^ga, the metroj3olis of the province. It was here that 
John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem, an act for which he was 
severely censured by Paul, chap. 15 : 38. Hence the course of the apostles 
was northward to Antiocli in Pisidia, as Luke designates the place (chap. 
13 : 14), though it stood on the southern border of Phrygia. Here they 
had great success, but were driven by the persecution of the Jews to Ico- 
nium about forty-five miles southeast of Antioch in the province of Lyca- 
onia, and thence to Lystra and Derhe in the southern part of Lycaonia. 
At Lystra one of those strange vicissitudes befell Paul that are not uncom- 
mon in the lives of eminent preachers. The people who worQ just now 



304 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

ready to worship him and Barnabas as gods, because of the miraculous 
heahng of a cripple (chap. 14 : 8-18) were persuaded by the Jews from 
Antioch and Iconium to allow the apostle to be stoned and dragged out of 
the city as dead, ver. 19. But he was resuscitated, apparently in a mirac- 
ulous way, and with Barnabas retraced his course through Derbe, Iconium, 
Antioch, and Perga, to Attalia (chap. 14 : 20-25) completing the mission- 
ary work which had been begun; for this backward journey was no hasty 
flight. They preached the gospel all along the path of their return, con- 
firming the souls of the disciples and ordaining elders in every city. After 
an eminently fruitful journey, they sailed from Attalia to Antioch in Syria, 
tlie place wdience they had been sent. Among the other important results 
of this missionary, tour was the assembly of the apostles and elders at Je- 
rusalem to determine the relation of the Gentile Christians to the Mosaic 
law. See Acts, chap. 15. 

5. PauVs second missionary tour {Ads 15: "36 — 18:22), in 
which he rejected Mark and chose Silas for his companion in 
travel, is invested with special interest from the isict that he now 
for the first time passed out of Asia into Greece. 

This time he entered Asia Minor by land around the gulf of Issus at 
the northeastern angle of the Mediterranean. Of course the first province 
that he entered beyond the limits of Syria was Cilicia. Thence he pro- 
ceeded to Derbe and Lystra, where he found Timothy, whom he caused 
to be circumcised and took with him (chap. 16 : 1-3). After preaching the 
gospel in Phrygia and Galatia, central provinces of Asia Minor, they pur- 
posed to turn westward into Asia proper, that is, the province of Asia, but 
were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to do so. Chap. 16 : 6. Having reach- 
ed the border of Mysia, which belonged to the province of Asia, they at- 
tempted to pass northeast into the province of Bithynia, " but the Spirit 
suffered them not" (ver. 7). "And they passing by Mysia came down to 
Troas"'(ver. 8). They passed hy 'My^io, in the sense of not stopping to 
preach in Mysia ; for they could not reach Troas, on the seacoast of Mysia 
over against the island of Tenedos, except by journeying through Mysia. 

Arrived at Troas, the mystery of their having been forbidden by the 
Holy Ghost to preach in Asia and Bithynia was explained. It was God's 
plan that they should carry the gospel into Macedonia, and thither they 
were summoned by a vision (ver. 9). So sailing from Troas they passed 
by the island of Samothrace, and thence to Neapolls, the port of Philippi 
in the province of Macedonia. The ancient name of Philippi was Crenides 
(Fountains); but PhiUp of Macedon fortified it and called it after his own 
name. It lay along the bank of a river about twelve Roman miles north- 
west of Neapolis. Philippi is called " a chief city [not ' the chief city' as in 



ASIA MINOE AND GKEECE. 305 

our version] of that part of Macedonia, and a colony." It received the 
latter name on account of the colony sent thither by Augustus. See in 
Conybeare and Howson, chap. 9. After the tumult at Philippi which led 
to the abuse and imprisonment of Paul and Silas (ver. 19-40) , they pro- 
ceeded south westward to Amphipolis, near the mouth of the river Strymon, 
and thence by Apollonia to Tliessalonica. The latter place, now called Salo- 
7iiki, lay at the head of the Thermaic gulf, now called the gulf of Saloniki, 
somewhat less than one hundred miles from Philippi. The great success of 
the apostle at Tliessalonica, and the deep sincerity of the converts there 
made, appear throughout his two epistles to the Thessalonians. But his 
old enemies the Jews, who followed him every where, raised a persecution 
against him, so that the disciples thought it prudent to send him off by 
night to Berea about forty-five miles southwest of Tliessalonica. After a 
short but fruitful ministry here, the Jews from Tliessalonica raised a tumult, 
and the brethren sent away Paul. 

We next find tlie great apostle of the Gentiles at Athens, the centre of 
ancient literature, philosophy and the fine arts. The city is described as 
full of idols (Eng. vers., wholli/ given to idolatry, chap. 17 : 16), and, as Hacket 
remarks (Commentary on Acts), "A person could hardly take his position 
at any point in ancient Athens, where the eye did not range over temples, 
altars, and statues of the gods, almost without number." Mars-Hill or 
Areopagus, whither the apostle was conducted that he might address the 
assembly, was a rocky eminence near to the Acropolis, on the top of which 
is still to be seen the seat of the juidges and parties hewn in the rock. 
See in Kobinson's Bib. Kes., 1, pp. 7, 8. It was here, with the Acropolis 
and the numberless temples and altars of the city in full view, that the 
ax)ostle delivered his celebrated address to the philosophers of Athens. 

We next find the apostle at the rich and dissolute city of Corinth, the 
capital of Acliaia proper, situated on the isthmus that connects the Pelo- 
ponnesus with the main land, and thus having the benefit of two harbors ; 
that of Cenchrea on the east, and that of Lechseum on the west. Here he 
labored a year and six months, gathering a flourishing church, distinguish- 
ed for its Christian gifts (1 Cor. 1 : 5-7), but not free from the contamina- 
tion of the vices for which Corinth was so notorious (1 Cor. chaps. 5, 6 ; 
10 : 7, 8 ; 11 : 21 ; 2 Cor. 12 : 21). At the close of his labors in this his first 
visit to Corinth the apostle sailed for Syria, making a short visit to E^jhe- 
sus on the way' (chap. 18 : 19-21), and proceeding thence to Csesarea and 
so to Antioch. 

6. PaiiVs third missionary tour. Of this we have a record in 
Acts 18 : 23 — 21 : 15. He seems to have passed, as on his second 
tour, from Antioch into CiUcia ; thence northwest into Galatia, 
and thence westward into Phrygia. Chap. 18:23. From the 



306 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

high, inland regions of Galatia and Phrygia he descended to 
Ephesus on the seacoast, and made this city the centre of his mis- 
sionary labors for the space of three years (chap. 20 : 31), teach- 
ing first in the Jewish synagogue, according to his usual custom, 
and afterwards " disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus" 
(chap. 19:9). The extraordinary success that attended his 
labors gave occasion to the great uproar of which Demetrius the 
silversmith was the leader. After this the apostle made a second 
•visit to Macedonia, and passed thence south into Greece, that 
is, Achaia, where he wrote from Corinth the epistle to the Ro- 
mans. See Companion to the Bible, Chap. 30, No. 7. It was 
his purpose to sail from Achaia to Syria; but to avoid the 
machinations of his enemies he returned into Macedonia, and 
sailed from Philippi (that is, from Neapolis its port) to Troas. 
Acts 20: 3-6. 



We have only a very general notice of this second visit to Greece. 
From a reference to it in Rom. 15 : 19, it appears that he extended his 
labors to lllyricum, a Roman province on the eastern shore of the Adriatic, 
north of Epirus, and west of Macedonia. Dalmatia, whither Titus was 
sent at a subsequent time (2 Tim. 4 : 10) constituted a part of this prov- 
ince, lying midway between the northern and soutliern extremities of the 
gulf. 

The course of the apostle from Troas to Patara, whence he sailed to 
Tyre, is minutely traced by Luke (chap. 20 : 13 — 21 : 1). After the meeting 
by night at Troas, when Eutychus fell from the third loft, but was mirac- 
ulously restored by Paul (chap. 20 :9, 10), the apostle proceeded on foot 
to Assos on the ^gean sea, a place about nine miles south of Troas, and 
separated on the south from the island of Lesbos by a narrow strait. Here 
he embarked with his company, and they proceeded to Miiylene, the capital 
of the island of Lesbos ; thence to the island of Chios off the coast oppo- 
site to Smyrna ; thence to the island of Samos southwest of Ephesus ; and 
thence, by the promontory of Trogyllium opposite to Samos, to Miletus 
(see above, No. 3), where he delivered his final charge to the elders of 
Ephesus. His course thence was by Coos or Cos, a small island off the 
coast of Caria, and Rhodes, another island near the southwestern angle of 
Asia Minor, to Patara, a city of Lycia on the southwest coast. Hence 
they sailed for Tyre on the Syrian coast, and proceeded south by Ptole- 
mais and CjBsarea to Jerusalem. 



ASIA MINOE AND GREECE. 307 

7. The remaining scriptural notices of the regions now unr 
der consideration may be conveniently given in connection with 
PauVs voyage from Ccesarea to Borne (Acts, chaps. 27, 28). 

They embarked in a ship of Adramyttium (chap. 27 : 2) a maritime town 
on the gulf of Adramyttium opposite Lesbos ; proceeded northward along 
the Syrian coast by Sidon (ver. 3) ; and then sailed "under Cyprus, '^that 
is; under the lee of the island, probably leaving it on the left hand as they, 
proceeded westward. Passing along the southern coast of Asia Minor by 
Cilicia and Pamphylia they came to Myra, a city of Lycia east of Patara, 
where Paul and his companions were transferred to a ship bf Alexandria 
bound for Italy. Passing by the promontory of Cnidos in the southwest- 
ern angle of Asia Minor between Rhodes and Cos, they proceeded in a 
southwesterly direction till they sailed under Crete, that is in the lee of 
Crete over against Salmone a promontory on its eastern extremity. "And 
hardly passing it" (more literally, sailing along it with difficulty), "we 
came," says Luke, " to a place which is called The Fair Havens, nigh 
whereunto was the city of Lasea."" Fair Havens was a roadstead on the 
southern coast of Crete. Crete is a large island of the Mediterranean lying 
south of the ^Egean sea. Its length is one hundred and sixty miles, with 
a breadth varying from six to thirty-six miles. The visit of the apostle to 
this island, when he left Titus in charge of the churches there planted 
(Titus 1:5), certainly did not take place in connection with the present 
voyage. Probably it w\as between his first and second imprisonment at 
Rome. See Companion to the Bible, chap. 30, No. 40. 

According to Smith (Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul) a northwest- 
erly wind i^revented the ship from passing directly westward north of 
Crete, and compelled her to run south to Salmone, and then along the 
southern shore of the island under its lee. She could thus proceed as far 
as Fair Havens, a short distance east of Cape Matala, where the shore 
trends suddenly to the north, and the advantage of a lee shore ceases. 
Paul advised that the ship should winter in Fair Havens, because it was 
too late for safe navigation. The fast wcs already pest. This was the 
great day of atonement on the tenth day of the month Tisri, and about 
the time of the autumnal equinox, after which time sailing was regarded 
as dangerous. But the centurion followed the advice of the master and 
owner of the ship, and attempted to reach Phenice, a harbor on the south 
of Crete farther west, but the exact site of which is a matter of dispute. 
The result is well known to the reader. Caught in a violent northeasterly 
gjxle she was carried past the island Clauda into the open sea, and after 
fourteen days wrecked on the island of Mellta, the modern Malta, a small 
island south of Sicily. The quicksands (Syrlis) lay on the coast of Africa 
southwest from Crete, towards which a northeasterly wind would drive 



308 SACEED GEOGRAPHY. 

the ship. To avoid this "they lowered the gear," as Smith translates, 
"and so were driven " (ver. 17). It does not appear that they absolutely 
took in all sail. We must rather suppose that they "lay to" under a 
very low sail, turning the bow of ihe vessel towards the direction of the 
wind, so that the waves might strike her obliquely. 

After a delay of three months the apostle and his companions sailed 
from Melita, and passing by Syracuse on the easteru'coast of Sicily, and 
Rhegium on the strait between Sicily and Italy, landed at Puteoli, a mari- 
time town of Italy on the nortliern shore of the bay of Naples. Thence 
they proceeded northwest, on the great Roman road through Appii Forum 
and the Threes Taverns to Rome. For a full and able account of this voy- 
age the reader may consult "The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, by 
James Smith, Esq., of Jordanhill." 



THE EASTERN EMPIRES. 309 



CHAPTEE XII. 

The ^astern Empires. 

The geography of each of the three great empires of Assyria, 
Chaldcea, and the Medes and Persians might well fill a volume 
by itself. As in the case of Asia Minor and Greece, we restrict 
ourselves to those geographical relations between these empires 
and Palestine which come up for consideration in the scriptural 
record. 

. I. ASSYRIA. 

1. Chaldaea was older than Assyria. But the Assyrian em- 
pire comes before the Chaldgean in its relations to the Hebrew 
people, and for this reason the first place belongs to it in the 
present brief sketch. The Hebrew name for Assyria is Asshur. 
"We must distinguish between Assyria Proper and the Assyrian 
empire. Originally Assyria seems to have been a country of 
moderate size- lying chiefly on the eastern bank of the Tigris 
below the mountains of Armenia. Its limits were gradually ex- 
tended till it embraced the whole region between the mountains 
of Armenia on the north and the country about Bagdad on the 
south — from north latitude thirty- seven and a half degrees to 
thirty-three and a half degrees. On the northeast it had the 
high range of Zagros, or the mountains of Kurdistan, and on 
the west the Mesopotamian desert, or, according to some, the 
Euphrates. On the north was Armenia ; on the east beyond 
the Zagros mountains Media, and south of Media, Elam or 
Persia, and on the south between the Euphrates and Tigris was 
Babylonia. The extent of the Assyrian empire is thus given by 
Eawlinson (in Smith's Bible Diet.) : " On the west the Mediter- 
ranean and the river Halys appear to have been the boundaries ; 
on the north a fluctuating line, never reaching the Euxine 



310 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

nor extending beyond the northern frontier of Armenia ; on the 
east, the Caspian sea and the Great Salt desert; on the south, 
the Persian gulf and the desert of Arabia." 

2. Six Assyrian monarchs are named in the Old Testament, 
Pul, Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sargon, Sennacherib, and 
Esar-haddon; after whom Assyria gives place to Chaldsea in 
the sacred record. 

Menahem king of Israel who reigned from about b. c. 772 to 762, had 
smitten Tiplisah, that is, Thapsacus on the Euphrates the eastern limit of 
Solomon's dominion (2 Kings 15 : 16), "because they opened not to him." 
This was apparently the occasion of Pul's marching against him ; when 
Menahem, finding himself unable to resist, gave to Pul a thousand talents 
of silver, thus ackno\vledging himself as tributary to the Assyrian empire. 
This is the first time that Assyria appears in the sacred record, although it is 
said that, according to the monuments, Jehu had paid tribute a century 
before. The name of Pul has not been identified on the Assyrian inscrip- 
tions. It is said to be Babylonian rather than Assyrian in form ; and some 
think that he was a Babylonian monarch holding rule for the time being 
in Assyria. Tiglath-pileser or Tiglath-pilneser next appears in sacred his- 
tory. The monuments give him no pedigree. Hence it is inferred that he 
was a usurper and the founder of a new dynasty. Under him the captiv- 
ity of the ten tribes was begun (2 Kings 15 : 29). Ahaz king of Judah 
hired the same monarch to deliver him from the Syrians, by which false 
step he brought himself ^and his kingdom into a state of vassalage to 
Assyria (2 Kings 16 : 7-9 ; 2 Chron. 28 : 20, 21) ; and this was the beginning 
of great calamities as foretold by Isaiah (chap. 7 : 17 — 8 : 8). Shalmaneser, 
the successor of Tiglath-pileser, completed the captivity of the ten tribes 
(2 Kings, chap. 17 ; 18 :9-12). The next monarch, as the monuments in- 
form us, was Sargon, the father of Sennacherib, who is mentioned only in 
Isa. 20 : 1. Then come the two invasions of Judah by Sennacherib in 
Hezekiah's day (2 Kings 18 : 13, seq.). Of the former of these the Assyrian 
monuments give a full account. See in Herzog's Encyclopsedie, 20, pp. 
224, 225. But respecting his second expedition, which ended so disas- 
trously to Sennacherib, they are silent. Of Esar-haddon his son nothing is 
recorded except that he sent colonists to Samaria (Ezra 4 : 2), and after him 
the Assyrian monarchy disappears from Scripture. From the beginning 
of Tiglath-pileser's reign, b. c. 753 to the death of Sennacherib, b. c. 696, 
is a period of fifty-seven years. 

3. "We have abundant evidence that this whole region, now 
in great part desolate, once teemed with a dense population. 



THE EASTERN EMPIRES. 311 

" Mounds of earth," says Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 636),- 
*' covering the ruins of buildings or the sites of fenced stations 
and forts, are scattered far and Avide over the plains. When 
the winter rains furrow the face of the land, inscribed stones, 
graven pottery, and masses of brickwork, the certain signs of 
former habitations, are everywhere found by the wandering 
Arab. All these settlements depended almost exclusively on 
artificial irrigation. Hence the dry beds of enormous canals 
and countless water-courses which are spread like a network 
over the face of the country. Evjen the traveller accustomed to 
the triumphs of modern science and civilization gazes with won- 
der and awe upon their gigantic works, and reflects with admi- 
ration upon the industry, the skill, and the power of those who 
made them." The Assyrians were of Shemitic origin, and are 
supposed to have come originally from Babylonia, whence their 
religion and worship were in great measure derived. In mate- 
rial civilization they had made good progress, as the remains of 
their ancient cities show. " They are found to have understood 
and applied the arch; to have made tunnels, aqueducts, and 
drains ; to have used the lever and the roller ; to have engraved 
gems ; to have understood the arts of inlaying, enamelling, and 
overlaying with metals; to have manufactured glass, and been 
acquainted with the lens; to have possessed vases, jars, bronze 
and ivory ornaments, dishes, bells, ear-rings — mostly of good 
workmanship and elegant forms — in a word, to have attained 
to a very high pitch of material comfort and prosperity." Baw- 
linson, in Smith's Bible Dictionary. Yet, as the same writer 
remarks, their government was rude, their religion coarse and 
sensual, and their conduct in war cruel, as is abundantly 
shown by the revolting scenes depicted on their monuments — 
some of them being described in the Bible. 

4. 'The ruins of the Assyrian cities exist in the form of huge 
mounds of rubbish. The excavation of these in modern times 
has made surprising disclosures of their ancient magnificence, 
for the details of which the reader must be referred to the works 
of Layard, the Eawlinsons, Oppert, etc. 



312 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

We read in Gen. 10 : 11, 12 (according to our version): "Out of that 
land [the land of Shinar] went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and 
the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah : 
the same is a great city." Another proposed rendering is : " Out of that 
land he [Nimrod] went to Asshur, and builded Nineveh," etc. Which of 
these two renderings should be preferred is a question which we cannot 
stop to discusSj our inquiry being concerning the identification of the 
places here named. About sixty miles below Mosul, on the right bank of 
the Tigris, are the ruins called Kaldli-Sherghai, or Kileh-Sherghat, on the 
bricks and pottery of which are, according to Porter (in Alexander's Kitto, 
art., Calah), the names and titles of the earliest known Assyrian kings. 
The mound is one of the largestin Assyria, measuring a quarter of a mile 
in circuit and sixty feet in height. " The ruins called Nimrud (Nimrod) are 
about twenty miles below Mosul, on the left bank of the river. Opposite 
to Mosul, on the left bank of the same river, are the two mounds of 
Koyunjik and Nehy Yunus [Prophet Jonas). Northeast of Koyunjik, at 
the distalice of about eleven miles, are the ruins called Khorsabad; and 
northeast of Nimrud, at the distance of about fifteen miles, those that 
bear the name Keramles. Thus it appears that the four mounds of Koy- 
unjik, Khorsabad, Keramles, and Nimrud constitute the four corners of a 
sort of quadrangle, or rather trapezium, enclosing a space of two hundred 
and sixteen square miles. Layard suggests that this is the quadrangle of 
ancient Nineveh described by Diodorus as one hundred and fifty stadia in 
length, ninety in breadth, and four hundred and eighty in circumference. 
If so, it was probably a later extension of the term Nineveh. The Nine- 
veh of Moses' day we may reasonably regard as having occupied the site of 
Koyunjik and Neby Yunus ; Calah that of Kalah-Sherghat, sixty miles 
beloAV ; and Resen that of Nimrud. In the book of Jonah Nineveh is 
described as "an exceeding great city of three days' journey " (chap. 3 : 3). 
If we are at liberty to understand these words of the circuit of the quadran- 
gle above described, they correspond well to its dimensions. But no deci- 
sive evidence appears that this quadrangle was ever enclosed by walls, and 
in other respects the explanation is not very satisfactory. Diodorus (2. 3) 
describes the walls' of Nineveh as one hundred feet high, and so broad that 
three chariots might be driven on them abreast. Upon the walls stood 
fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet in height. 

5. The prophets foretell the utter and perpetual desolation of 
the Assyrian empire and Nineveh: "He will stretch out his 
hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make 
Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness. And flocks 
shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: 



]^^imi ' . ^% 







I I 



Ml I 
hi 



ll'iifl ■ ! 

" nil! 1 1 




THE EASTEKN EMPIRES. 313 

both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper 
lintels of it ; their voice shall sing in the windows ; desolation 
shall be in the thresholds; for he shall uncover the cedar- work. 
This is the rejoicing city, that dwelt carelessly, that said in her 
heart, I am, and there is none beside me ! how is she become a 
desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that 
passeth by her shall hiss and wag his hand." Zeph. 2 : 13-15. 
Compare also Isa., chap. 10, and the book of Nahum through- 
out. That the desolation of Assyria had been begun in Eze- 
kiel's day we learn from the magnificent description of its fall 
in the thirty-first chapter of his prophecies. " I made the na- 
tions," says Jehovah (ver. 16), " to shake at the sound of his 
fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into 
the pit." The completeness of this desolation through many 
successive centuries is a solemn pledge to the world that all 
God's threatenings, as well as his promises, shall be fulfilled in 
their season. 

6. We notice very briefly some other places mentioned by 
the sacred writers in connection with Assyria. 

In 2 Kings 17 :6, '' Halah and Habor, the river of Gozan,'' are named 
as places to which the king of Assyria transported a part of the captive 
Israelites. In 1 Chron. 5 : 26, Hara is added. All these j^laces are proba- 
bly to be sought on the upper waters of the Chahoras in Mesopotamia. 
See above, Chap. 10, No. 5. In 2 Kings 17 : 24, we read that the king of 
Assyria brought colonists from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamatli, and Sepli- 
arvaim, and placed them in Samaria instead of the Israelites ; and in 
2 Kings 19 : 12, 13, Eabshakeh names among the places destroyed by the 
same king, Gozan, Haran, KezeiDli, the children of Eden which were in 
Thelasar, Hamatli, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah. Of Gozan and 
Harem in Mesopotamia and Hamath in Syria on the Orontes we have 
already spoken ; and Babylon, Sepharvaim, and Cuthah will come up for 
consideration hereafter. Ava and Ivah are j^robably identical, and their 
site to be souglit in Syria or Mesopotamia. Rezeph is thought to be iden- 
tical with Resepha of Ptolemy, a city in the region of Palmyra west of the 
Euphrates. Of Cuthah and the children of Eden in Thelasar we know noth- 
ing definite. From its connection in the context, the region would seem to 
have been in Upper Mesopotamia. Arpad is always mentioned in con- 
nection with Hamath. Hence we infer that it was one of the lost cities of 
Syria. Of Hena nothing definite is known, 

Kac. Oeog. 1 -J. 



314 SACKED GEOGRAPHY. 



II. OHALD^A AND BABYLONIA. 

7. As in the case of Assyria, we must here also distinguish 
carefully between the ancient countries of Chaldsea and Baby- 
lonia and the Chaldaean or Babylonian empire. Ghaldcea proper 
was, according to Strabo (16. 1. 6) and Ptolemy (5. 20) a coun- 
try at the head of the Persian gulf and bordering on Arabia. It 
was, therefore, the southern part of Babylonia (as the whole region 
was called south of Assyria and Mesopotamia), and lay between 
the Arabian desert on the west and Susiana beyond the Tigris 
and Shat-el-Arab on the east. But the term Chaldsea came 
afterwards to be used in a wider sense of the Babylonian king- 
dom generally. - The term Chaldseans (Heb. Chasdim) is also em- 
ployed in a special sense (Dan. 2 : 2, 4) for learned men, particu- 
larly astrologers, a usage which prevails among profane writers 
also, and had its origin in the fact that the Babylonians were 
especially devoted to the study of astronomy and astrology. 
See in Alexander's Kitto the article on Chaldaean Philosophy. 

The region now under consideration must be regarded with deep inter- 
est by the biblical student. There is, as has been already shown (Chap. 
10, No. 4), an increasing inclination among biblical scholars to find here 
Ur of the Chaklees. Here also, as we learn from Gen. 10 : 10, was the land 
of Shinar, embracing the level plain between the lower Tigris and the 
Euphrates, the site of Babylon, Erech^ Accad, and Calneh, where we find 
the human family not long after the deluge, occupied in building the tower 
of Babel, where the confusion of tongues took place, and whence the human 
race was scattered abroad upon the face of all the earth. Gen, , chap. 11. 

Somewhere on the Euphrates we must look also for the Garden of Eden. 
It is manifest from the narrative in Gen. 2 : 8-14 that Moses means to give 
an intelligible account of Eden and its garden, and that two of the rivers 
of Eden were the Hiddekel (that is, according to constant scriptural usage, 
the Tigris) and the Euphrates. The choice for the site of Eden lies be- 
tween the upper waters of the Euphrates and Tigris in Armenia, and the 
lower waters of the Euphrates in ancient Chaldsea below the junction of the 
Tigris, the united stream being now called Shat-el-Arah. If we reckon 
downward, namely, from the garden, we have four streams, all, proceeding 
from Eden, which must then be sought in Armenia. But if we reckon 
upward, we have the river that M^aters the garden parted thence— /o?''A:m^, 
as we say in English— into four heact-streams, and Chaldsea will then be 



THE EASTERN EMPIRES. . 315 

the site of the garden. We cannot enter upon the discussion of this diiH-. 
cult question farther than simply to remark that no valid argument can be 
drawn against the lower site from its present unhealthiness, since it is a 
fact that the human family after the deluge selected this region as their 
home, and that it was once exceedingly populous, and abounds throughout 
with the ruins of ancient cities, some of them of great extent. In the 
primitive ages and to the primitive race of man its climate was manifestly 
salubrious, and its extreme fertility is admitted by all writers. 

8. We have indications of a Babylonian kingdom in the 
days of Abraham ; for among the confederate kings who attacked 
the cities of the plain was Amraphel king of Sliinar (Gen. 14:1, 
9). The Chaldean inscriptions also determine the fact that an 
empire existed here from very early times. But the Chaldcean 
empire of the books of Kings and Chronicles first comes into 
notice in the reign of Hezekiah, to whom Merodach-baladan 
king of Babylon sent letters and a present upon the occasion 
of his recovery from sickness. 2 Kings 20 : 12. 

Babylon was not yet, however, the paramount power of the 
East, but rather only a secondary kingdom, seeking to strengthen 
itself by an alliance with the Jewish people. About a century 
later the Chaldaean monarchy suddenly appears under Nebu- 
chadnezzar as an all-powerful empire, extending its conquests 
over Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and the adjacent regions. By 
Nebuchadnezzar Jerusalem was destroyed with its temple B. c. 
588. Several deportations of the Jews to Babylon are men- 
tioned by Jeremiah, the most important of which were that of 
Jehoiachin with the princes, chief men, and artificers of Jud?ca 
(2 Kings 24 : 14) ; and that of the final destruction of the city 
(2 Kings 25 : 11). 

Resi^ecting the date from which the seventy years of the Babjdonisli 
captivity should be reckoned there are various opinions. One method is 
to reckon from the destruction of the te nple b. c. 588 to the rebuilding 
of the same, a work that was completed In the sixth year of IDarius (Ezra 
6 : 15) about b. c. 515. Another mode of reckoning is from the captivity 
of certain selected persons of whom Daniel was one, about b. c. 606, to 
the decree of Cyms for liberating the Jews b. c. 436. 

9. Of the renowned city of Bahylon, "the glory of kingdoms, 
the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency," the ancient profane 



316 SACKED GEOGKAPHY. 

writers speak in glowing terms. They describe the city as a 
vast square lying on both sides of the Euphrates, enclosed by a 
double line of high walls, the outer wall being surrounded by a 
broad and deep moat full of water. In the circuit of the wall 
were a hundred brazen gates, twenty-five on each side, with 
streets running from gate to gate and crossing each other at 
right angles. The city was divided into two parts by the 
Euphrates, and along each bank was carried a wall of burnt 
brick with quays and low gates at the cross-streets which led 
down on each side to the river. There was but a single bridge in 
the middle of the square connecting the two parts of the city. 

According to Herodotus the circuit of Babylon was four hundred and 
eighty stadia, or about fifty-six miles. Other writers state it variously at 
from three hundred and eighty-five to three hundred and sixty stadia. It 
has been suggested that possibly Herodotus gives the circuit of the outer, 
the other writers that of the inner wall. Herodotus makes the outer wall 
fifty royal cubits in width and two hundred in height, informing us at the 
same time that the royal cubit is longer by three fingers breadth than the 
common cubit. But Pliny gives two hundred feet, and Strabo fifty cubits 
for the height of the wall. Even assuming the lowest dimensions — those 
of Strabo — it is very surprising that no relics of this wall, or only those of 
a doubtful character remain. Rev. George Rawlinson (in Smith's Bible 
Diet.) accounts for its disappearance "by the constant quarrying, which 
would naturally have commenced with it (Rich, First Mem., p. 44), or by 
the subsidence of the bulwark into the moat from which it was raised." 

The manner in which Cyrus, at the head of the united armies of Media 
and Persia, took the city of Babylon is well known. During a night of 
feasting and revelry he diverted the waters of the Euphrates into an old 
canal and reservoir, and entering by the channel of the river gained access 
to the city by the river gates which had been carelessly left open. *' On 
account of the great size of the city," says Herodotus (1. 191), "after its 
extremities had been taken, the inhabitants of the central part (as the res- 
idents of Babylon declare), knew not that they were captives, but, as they 
happened to be engaged in a festival, continued in the meantime to dance 
and revel until they learned for a certainty what had taken place." Thus 
was fulfilled the striking prediction of Jeremiah (chap. 51:31): " One post 
shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show 
the king of Babylon that his city is taken at the extremity. " Belshazzar, the 
son of the reigning monarch, was then in command of the city and was 
slain by the conquerors. The actual conquest was by Cyrus, but ' ' Darius 
the Mede" became for a time the titular ruler of Babylon. 



THE EASTERN EMPIRES. 317 

10. Of other Babylonian cities a brief notice must suffice. 

In Gen. 10 : 10, " Erech, and Accad, and Calneli" are named with Baby- 
lon as cities in the land of Shinar. Erecli is regarded as identical with 
Orchoe of the Greeks, on the Euphrates eighty-two miles south and forty- 
three east from Babylon, celebrated for its immense mounds. It is noAV in 
the midst of the marshes of the lower Euphrates. Galtieli (called also Gal- 
710, Isa, 10 : 9, with which the Canneh of Ezekiel (chap. 27 : 23) is probably 
identical) is jDrobably the site of the modern Nlffer about sixty miles east- 
southeast of Babylon in the marshes on the left bank of the Euphrates. 
Of the site of Accad nothing certain is known. 

To Babylonia belonged also Sepharvaim, probably Sipphara on the e{V5t 
bank of the Euphrates above Babylon. 

III. THE MEDES AND PERSIANS. 

11. Ancient Media consisted of two provinces, Upper and 
Lower Media. Upper Media, afterwards called Atropatene, was 
a mountainous region bounded on the north by the river Cyrus 
(the modern Kur), east by the Caspian sea, west by Armenia, 
and south by Lower Media. It thus embraced the lake now 
called Orooiaiah with the fertile plain adjacent to it. Loiver 
Media was separated on the west from Assyria and Babylonia 
by the Zagros mountains. It had Susiana and Persia on the 
south, and on the east the great salt desert, beyond which to 
the northeast lay Parthia. Towards the west this region is 
mountainous, well watered, richly wooded and fertile. Towards 
the east and southeast it is arid, rocky and sandy, supporting 
with difficulty a sparse population. It thus appears that Upper 
Media corresponded nearly to the modern Persian province of 
Azerbijan ; while Lower Media contained all Irak Ajemi and 
Ardelan, with part of Kurdistan and Luristan. 

12. The result of modern investigation is thought to show 
that two cities of the name of Echatana existed in ancient times, 
one the capital of Upper, the other of Lower Media. If so, the 
explanation undoubtedly is that the word Ecbatana was origi- 
nally an appellative noun. According to Sir H. Eawlinson, as 
quoted in Kitto, it was a title "applied exclusively to cities 
having a fortress for the protection of the royal treasures." 
However this may be, there is no good ground for doubting that 



318 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 

the Achmetha of Ezra 6 : 2 in tlie province of the Medes was the 
Ecbatana of Lower Media, the site of the modern Hamadan. 

The site of Ecbatana of Upper Media is thought to have been the re- 
markable ruins called Takhi-i- Suleiman in latitude thirty-six degrees twen- 
ty-eight minutes north, longitude forty-seven degrees nine minutes east 
from Greenwich. Hamadan, the Achmetha -of Scripture, lies in a plain at 
the base of the Elwend mountains a little south of the thirty-fifth parallel 
of north latitude, and about longitude forty-eight and a half degrees east. 
The true ancient name, as appears from the cuneiform inscriptions, was 
Hagmatan, and from this the form Agbaiana, as Herodotus writes it (1. 98) 
is easily derived by a single interchange between the cognate letters m 
and b. 

13. Persia, in the more limited sense of the word, was a 
region lying on the Persian gulf between Caramania on the east 
and Susiana on the west, and of which Persepolis was the cap- 
ital in latitude thirty degrees north and longitude fifty-three 
degrees east. But the term is frequently used in a more extend- 
ed sense for the empire of the Persians, which at one time ex- 
tended from India to Ethiopia. Esther 1 : 1. Elam was the 
Cissia of Herodotus (3. 91 ; 5. 49, etc.), Susa being its capital. 
The Greek and E/oman writers call the same region Susiana, 
It lay on the Persian gulf between the Tigris and Shat-el-Arab 
on the west and Persia proper on the east, and was in Old Tes- 
tament times a part of the Persian empire. 

Susa was undoubtedly the Shushan of Dan. 8:2; Neh. 1:1; Esther 
1:2, 5. It was the winter residence of the Persian monarchs and lay upon 
the banks of the river called by Herodotus, Strabo and Curtius Choaspes, 
but by Pliny and Arrian Euloeus, which is believed with good reason to be 
the Ulai oi Dan. 8:2. The probable explanation of this confusion in 
respect to the name of the river is that the Choaspes (the modern Kerkhah) 
anciently sent off a branch to the Pasitigris {Kai^un) which flowed a little 
to the east of Susa. This branch sometimes bore the name of the original 
stream Choaspes, but was properly called Ulai. See in Smith's Bible Diet., 
art., Susa. 

The modern name of this district is Khusistan. Upon the supposition 
that the garden of Eden lay in this region the part encompassed by the 
Choaspes may be regarded as the Gusli of Gen. 2 : 13. 

14. Media and Persia appear in Scripture in close connec- 
tion with each other. So far as the empires which they founded 



THE EASTERN EMPIRES. 319 

are concerned, their mutual relation is well given in Daniel's, 
vision of the ram "which had two horns; and the two horns 
were high ; but one was higher than the other, and the higher 
came up last." Chap. 8:3. The earlier and lower horn represents 
Media: the later and higher, Per^^ia. Respecting the time when 
the petty princes of Media united their forces to form a proper 
Median monarchy there is some uncertainty. But we know 
that the Median king Cyaxares in alliance with the Babylonians 
invaded Assyria and captured Nineveh B. c. 625, while Persia 
held as yet a very subordinate place. With the elder Cyrus, 
B. c. 588, began the supremacy of the Persian power, and the 
Persian empire attained to a greatness far beyond that of the 
Median. 

The book of Esther gives a most vivid and truthful picture of the mag- 
nitude and splendor of the Persian monarchy, extending from India to 
Ethiopia over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. Every thing about 
the empire is thoroughly oriental — the magnificent display of the mon- 
arch's wealth during a feast of one hundred and eighty days : the numer- 
ous harem to fill which the whole empire was searched ; the removal of 
one queen and the elevation of another to her dignity at the royal pleas- 
ure ; the administration of the government by favorite servants, subject to 
sudden elevation and equally sudden overthrow ; the hasty issuing of edicts 
involving the lives and fortunes of many thousands ; the seclusion of the 
king's person, and the rigid etiquette to be observed by those who would 
approach him ; the seclusion also of his wives and concubines ; the most 
life-like account of Haman's vanity, insolence, and malice, and the provi- 
dence which overthrew him and advanced Mordecai to his place— all these 
strokes of the narrative give us an interior view of life at a Persian court, 
such as no other history furnishes. Such was this ram of Persia, till the 
Macedonian he-goat from the west smote him, brake his two horns, and 
trampled him in the dust. Dan. 8 : 5-7. 

Upon his accession to the throne Cyrus liberated the captive Jews 
(Ezra, chap. 1), and permitted them to return to their own land. The 
Persian monarch seem always to have cherished a friendly spirit towards 
the Jews. But in consequence of their great distance from the seat of the 
empire, they suffered much from the intrigues and misrepresentations of 
their enemies, who succeeded, by means of false statements skilfully made, 
in hindering the rebuilding the temple for the space of several years, and 
also continually annoyed Nehemiah in his work as governor of Judaea. 



320 SACRED GEOGRAPHY. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Other Remote Regions. 

1. In the apostolic age all the countries that have been de- 
scribed constituted provinces of the great Eoman empire. But 
Jtaly itself, the seat of this empire, is rarely mentioned, and then 
only in general terms. Spain is named only in a single chap- 
ter, and Gaul and Britain not at all. The few Italian towns to 
Avhich reference is made in the New Testament have been al- 
ready noticed. Rome itself, at that time the capital and mis- 
tress of the world, lay on the western side of Italy, on the Tiber, 
about fifteen miles from its mouth. It is not necessary for the 
purposes of biblical illustration to enter at large upon the 
geography of this mighty city, farther than to say that, although 
it was the seat and centre of the Latin tongue, the Greek lan- 
guage and literature had pervaded it in the days of the apos- 
tles to a wonderful extent, and had become the language not 
only of educated men but of commerce also, and was extensive- 
ly used by the masses. This may explain why, in writing to 
the church in Rome, the apostle did not hesitate to employ the 
Greek language, as he did also in his other epistles. See Com- 
panion to the Bible, chap. 24, No. 4. 

2. Passing eastward we have the ancient Armenia lying be- 
tween the range of Caucasus on the north and a branch of the 
Taurus on the south, and having Asia Minor on the west, and 
on the south Mesopotamia and Assyria. This magnificent 
region, which gives rise to the great rivers Euphrates and Tigris 
that flow southeast into the Persian gulf; the Araxes and Kur 
that run eastward into the Caspian sea; and several smaller 
streams that empty into the Black sea, is in general an elevated 
plateau with mountainous chains having a general direction 
from east to west, and connected with each other by transverse 
ridges. The word Armenia does not occur in the Hebrew. This 



OTHER REMOTE REGIONS. 321 

speaks of tlie mountaim of Ararat (Gen. 8 : 4), of tlit land of 
Ararat (Eng. ver. land of Armenia, 2 Kings 19 : 37); and of ilte 
hmgdoms of Ararat, Minnt, and Ashkenaz (Jer. 51 : 27) ; in all 
which passages Ararat is not a particular mountain, but a 
mountainous region^ undoubtedly that of Armenia or a part of 
Armenia. 

In modern usage Ararat is the name of a stupendous mountain of vol- 
canic origin that "rises immediately out of the plain of the Araxes, and 
terminates in two conical peaks, named the Great and Less Ararat, about 
seven miles distant from each other, the former of which attains an eleva- 
tion of seventeen thousand two hundred and sixty feet above the level of 
the sea, and about fourteen thousand feet above the plain of the Araxes, 
while the latter is lower by four thousand feet. The summit of the higher 
is covered with eternal snow for about three thousand feet of perpendicu- 
lar height," Smith's Bible Diet., art., Ararat. The view of the mountain 
rising majestically into the blue sky, and glittering beneath the beams of 
an unclouded sun, is described as exceedingly imposing and majestic. 
There is, however, no valid ground for supposing that the ark of Noah 
rested on one of these two peaks. *' The mountains of Armenia" describe, 
in Scripture language, the mountainous region of Armenia, not these two 
prominent peaks. With this general information we must be content. 

Togarmali, as already stated (Chap. 10, No. 30), was probably either 
Armenia or a district of that country. M'lnni and Ashkenaz, if not prov- 
inces of Armenia, must have been situated in its near vicinity. Of their 
exact position we have no ce'rtain knowledge. 

3. In Ezekiel (chap. 38 : 2) the prophet is commanded to 
prophecy " against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of 
Meshech and Tubal," as our version reads. But a better ren- 
dering is : " against Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Kosh, 
Meshech, and Tubal;" and so also in ver. 3. il/a^/or/ will then 
be the land over which Gog rules, and Rosh, Bleshech, and Tubal 
kingdoms subordinate to him. Meshech and Tubal, as already 
shown (Chap. lO, No. 30), were the Mosdd and Tihareni occupy- 
ing the southeastern shore of the Black sea. Rosh will then be, 
in all probability a more northern tribe beyond the Caucasus ; 
and may be, as has been suggested by several writers, identical 
with the Bussiaufi, whose original home seems to have been 
upon the Volga. Gomer and all his hands (ver. 6) is thouglit to 

14* 



322 SACKED GEOGEAPHY. 

be the Cimmerians living nortli of tlie Black sea. The land of 
Magog in the recesses of the north' (ver. 15) would seem to be a 
general designation for the vast northern region beyond the 
Caucasus known to the Greeks and Romans as Scythia, of which 
the boundaries were very indefinite. 

The prophecies of Ezekiel concerning the great invasion of the cove- 
nant people by Gog and his aUies relate to "the latter years" (chap. 38 : 8), 
and their fulfilment can alone furnish an adequate interpretation of them. 

4. India (Heb. Hoddu for Hondu) is mentioned only in the 
book of Esther (chaps. 1:1; 8:9), and is not to be understood 
as including the peninsula of modern India, which was certainly 
never under Persian rule. The India described by Herodotus 
(3. 98) includes apparently the Punjaub on the upper Indus, 
perhaps also Scinde in part on the lower Indus; for he tells us 
that eastward of India lies a tract that is all sand. 

On the Eastern monarchies generally the reader is referred 
to Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies. In this work the author 
treats at length of the early Chaldean, the Assyrian, the Me- 
dian, the Babylonian, and the Persian monarchies. 

5. In Isa. 49 : 12 the prophet, speaking of the flow of the 
nations to Zion in the latter day says : " Behold, these shall 
come from far; and lo, these from the north and west; and 
these from the land of Sinim," where the context implies a 
people living in the remote east or south. Many biblical schol- 
ars believe that the Sinim are the Chinese, whose country was 
anciently called by the Arabians Sin. This is, at all events, 
the most probable view ; and the providence of God seems to be 
preparing the way, in a most remarkable manner, for the ful- 
filment of the prophecy. ^ 



APPENDIX I. 



ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF ARABIC NAMES, AND THE MEANING 
OF CERTAIN COMMON ARABIC TERMS. 

1. The lo7ig vowels are indicated in the English representations of them, by 
the circumflex accent. Their powers are as follows : 

a is pronounced, according to the consonants with which it is connected, 
like the English a in hare, in father, or in call. No attempt has been made to 
indicate these distinctions. Examples are: bab, gate,' ras, head, cape; sahib, lord, 
sir. 

% represents the English ee in feel, or the French i in machine; as in btr, well. 

6 represents in English o in note; as in ghor, a long valley between mountainous 
ridges. 

u represents in English oo in fool ; as in tur, mountain. 

Of the diphthongal combinations, au is pronounced like ow in now; and ai 
nearly like long i in pine. Examples are : ghaid, a demon, evil spirit; ain, fountain. 
The combination ei represents, in imitation of the Arabic, the simple long sound 
of the English a in hate, or ei in vein. Thus belt, house, place, is sounded to 
rhyme with hate. 

The short vowels are pronounced nearly like the corresponding English 
vowels ; but o is the German o, as in Lorfer. Examples are : ramleh, sand; wely 
(rhyming with jelly^, saint's tomb; dibs, honey, syrup of grapes; burr (like u in 
but), land; khubz (like u in pull), bread. Short u has also frequently the sound 
of the French u, as in um, mother. 

2. In respect to the Arabic consonants, we need only notice the following 
particulars. 

dh represents the sound of the English th in this. 

th represents the sharp sound of ih in thick. 

kh represents a sound not existing in English. It is a breathing made rough 
by the tremulous motion of the epiglottis. 

gh represents a deep guttural, having no corresponding sound in English. 
The reader may, if he choose, pronounce kh and gh as k and hard g in go. 

No attempt has been made to represent the Arabic letter ai7i, or the diflEere^ti 
modifications which several consonants (/i, d, k, t, s) have in Arabic. 

3. The Arabic definite article is el; as el- Ghor, the Oh$r. Before certain 



324 APPENDIX I. 

letters — the so-called solar — it is assimilated : as, et-Tur, the mountain; esh-Sherif, 
the noble. 

4. The following is a list of Arabic names frequently occurring in books that 
treat of Palestine and the adjacent regions. 

Abu (in construction), father of, as Abu Zeitun, father of olives. 

Ain, fountain ; plural, Ayun. 

Bab, gate. 

JBahr, sea. 

Bedawy, plural Bedawin, the name applied to the nomadic Arabs. It prop- 
erly signifies men of the desert or camp. 

Beit, house, place. 

Beldd, district. 

Blr, well. 

Birkeh, in construction Birket, pool ; as, birket es-Sultan, pool of the Sultan. 

Burj, castle. 

Beir, convent. 

Emir, prince, chief. 

Ohor, a long valley between mountainous ridges. El-Ghor is the Jordan 
valley. 

Haram, forbidden, that is, to common use or access ; and thence* sacred. 
El-Haram is the sacred enclosure at Jerusalem and Hebron. 

Ibn, son; plural (in construction), Beni, sons of; as, Beni Sukhr, name of 
an Arabian tribe. 

Jebel, mountain; plural, Jebal 

Jisr, bridge. 

Kebir, great; el-Kebir, the river Meutherus. 

Kefr, village. 

Khan, caravansary. 

Kurn, horn ; plural, Kuritn. 

Kusr, castle. 

Merj, meadow. 

Nahr, river. 

Neby, prophet. 

Nukb, pass. 

Ras, head, cape. 

Sheikh, elder, chief. 

Sheriah, watering-place ; esh-Sheriah is ike Jordan. 

Shertf, noble. 

Tell, hill. 

Um, mother. 

Wady, torrent-bed, valley between hills. 

Wely, saint's tomb. 



APPENDIX II 



ON THE OANAANITISH TRIBES DESTROYED BY THE ISRAELITES. 

1. Of these, the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, and Hivites are 
expressly referred to Canaan the fourth son of Ham as their ancestor (Gen. 
10:15-17). The Canaanites in the restricted sense of the term, as one of the 
tribes descended from Canaan and retaining the name of their progenitor, must 
of course be included. Of the seven tribes, then, enumerated in Deut. 7:1 
and Joshua 3:10; 24:11, or the six elsewhere named with the omission of the 
Girgashites (Exod. 3:8, 17; 33:2; 34:11; Josh. 9:1; 11:3), all but the Perizzites 
are descendants of Canaan. We read (Gen. 13:7) that in Abraham's day "the 
Canaanite and the Perizzite were then dwelling in the land ;" where the term 
"Canaanite" is best taken in its general sense of the descendants of Canaan, 
and the "Perizzite" as distinguished from them. See also Judges 1:4, 5. 

2. The Canaanites are generally regarded as the aboriginal inhabitants of the 
land. But the words of Moses, "The Canaanite was then in the land" (Gen. 
12:6), and also those above quoted, "The Canaanite and the Perizzite were then 
dwelling in the land," seem to intimate the comparatively recent arrival of the 
Canaanites and Perizzites, and to furnish ground for the hypothesis that before 
them were other tribes, of whom the Rephaim and Anakim may have been rem- 
nants. We know that the Avim in the southwestern border of Palestine were 
dispossessed by the Philistines (Deut. 2:23), the Horim in Mount Seir by the 
Edomites (ver. 22), and the Emim and Zamzummin on the east of the Jordan by 
the Moabites and Ammonites (verses 12, 20). 

3. For the explanation of the term Canaan it is not necessary that we resort 
to any etymological derivation — Canaan, lowland, from a Hebrew root signifying 
to be low. It is called the land of Canaan because there the descendants of Canaan 
settled (Gen. 10:19). In like manner the term Canaanite is sometimes applied, 
in a general sense, to all the descendants of Canaan dwelling west of the Jordan, 
as in the passages already referred to (Gen, 10:18, 19 ; 12:6 ; 13:7); and perhaps 
also to all the tribes without exception of the Perizzites. Examples are. Gen. 
24:3, 37, compared M^ith 28:6, 8 ; also Num. 14:45 ; Judg. 1:10, where the inhab- 
itants of the mountainous regions around and south of Hebron, which was the 
proper home of the Amorites and other mountain tribes (Num. 13:29; Josh. 
11:3), are called Canaanites. 



326 APPENDIX II. 

4. The particular tribes of the land of Canaan are often enumerated in the 
Pentateuch and the book of Joshua. The first list j^ found in Gen. 15:19-21. 
It comprises the Kenite, Kenizzite, Kadmonite, Hittite, Perizzite, Bephaim, 
Amorite, Canaanite, Girgashite, and Jebusite — ten tribes in all. Of these the 
Kenite, Kenizzite, Kadmonite, and Eephaim do not appear in any of the later 
lists ; either because they had been absorbed in the other tribes, or because they 
lived without the limits of the region actually conquered by the Israelites, or 
because, like the Eephaim, they possessed no independent power as tribes. 
Setting these aside, and adding the Hivites, who are not named in the primitive 
list, perhaps because they had not then extended themselves beyond their proper 
home at the foot of Lebanon and Hermon (Josh. 11:3 ; Judg. 3:3), we have the 
seven well-known Canaanitish tribes — the Canaanite, Hittite, Hivite, Perizzite, 
Girshashite, Amorite, and Jebusite (Deut. 7:1; Josh. 3:10; 24:11); or omitting 
the Girgashite, the six tribes so often enumerated (Exod. 3:8, 17 ; 33:2; 34:11; 
Deut. 20:17 ; Josh. 9:1 ; 11:3; 12:8 ; Judg. 3:1. In Exod. 13:5 the Perizzite is 
omitted, and in Exod. 23:23 three tribes are named as representatives of the 
whole. 

An examination of the above lists shows very strikingly the absence of all 
attempts to arrange these tribes in any fixed order, and yet a tendency towards 
the following : Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites. The 
Jebusites, as being the most local and limited, stand last, except in Josh. 11:3, 
where the enumeration is closed with the Hivites, apparently because of the 
explanatory addition, "under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh." Leaving out of 
account the four tribes named only in the primitive list, and also the Girgashites 
who are named but four times, and reckoning the normal place of the Perizzites 
and Hivites in the lists from which they are omitted as the fourth and fifth, we 
have in the ten different forms of enumeration above referred to, two of which 
occur each three times (that of Exod. 3:8 in Exod. 3:17 and Judges 3:5 ; that of 
Deut. 20: 17 in Josh. 9:1 and 12:8), the following order for each of the six tribes : 

Canaanites 4, 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 1, 1, 3 = 20 

Hittites 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4 = 22 

Amorites 3, 3, 3, 2, 1, 2, 2, 5, 2, 1 = 24 

Perizzites 2, 4, [4,]4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2 = 36 

Hivites - [5,]5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3, 4, 5 = 47 

Jebusites G, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6 i= 59 

The sum of the numbers gives the average order, placing the Hittites along 
with the Canaanites and Amorites in the first class of tribes ; not certainly on 
account of their military strength, but rather in consideration of their antiquity 
and dignity. 

This habit of designating the inhabitants of the land of Canaan by an enume- 
ration of the various tribes, shows conclusively that they were not organize(J 
under any central government, but acted for the most part independently of each 
other, as do the Arab tribes of the present day, forming confederacies only in 



APPENDIX IT. 327 

grave emergeucies. This want of organic union greatly facilitated the conquest 
of the land 

We add a brief notice of the individual tribes. 

5. The Canaanites. Of these, the most important notice is contained in the 
following report of the spies (Num. 13:29): "The Amalekites dwell in the land 
of the south ; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the 
mountains ; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan." 
The great Mediterranean plain that stretches from the southern border of the 
Philistines to Phoenicia (including, as we may naturally suppose, the plain of 
Esdraelon), and the long and deep valley of the Jordan, are thus assigned to the 
Canaanites. They possessed, then, the richest and most important part of the 
country, where their chariots of iron gave them great military strength (Judg. 
1:19). Some assume that the fourth son of Ham received the name Canaan 
lowland, from the circumstance of his settlement on the Mediterranean coast ; 
and that the tribe of his descendants that chose the lowlands for their home 
were called Canaanites. But tliis is uncertain. 

6. The Hittites, so named from Heth the second son of Canaan, occupied 
Hebron and the mountainous region around it in Abraham's time, and from 
them the patriarch bought the cave of Machpelah (Gen., ch. 23). We find them, 
with the Jebusites and Amorites, occupying the same mountainous region at the 
time of the exodus (Num. 13:29); and they are frequently mentioned in close 
connection with the Amorites. "The kings of the Hittites" whom Solomon 
furnished with horses and chariots from Egypt (1 Kings 10:29), and whom the 
Syrians supposed to have been hired against themselves by the king of Israel 
(2 Kings 7:G) were manifestly another and perhaps the main branch of the tribe 
living out of Palestine. The Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions are said to 
indicate that the valley of the Orontes was inhabited by Hittites, who may have 
been those referred to in the above passages. In Josh. 1:4 "all the land of the 
Hittites " seems to be equivalent to all the land of the Canaanitish tribes. 

7. The Amorites were the most powerful of all the tribes that occupied the 
land of Canaan at the time of the conquest. This is manifest from the fact that 
they had taken possession of the whole region east of the Jordan from Hermon 
to the Arnon ; forcing the Ammonites out of the western half of their territory 
(Josh. 13:25 compared with Deut. 2:19 and Judg. 11:12-27), driving the Moab- 
ites south of the Arnon (Numb. 21: 2G), and establishing two powerful kingdoms, 
of which the northern embracing the whole region of Bashan was governed by 
Og, and the southern by Sihon (Num. 21:21-35); for Og and Sihon are called 
"the two kings of the Amorites (Deut. 3:8 ; 9:10). On the west of the Jordan 
they occupied the highlands along with the other mountain tribes— the Hittites, 
Hivites, Perizzites, and Jebusites. On account of their preeminence they seem 
to represent in some passages all the tribes of mountaineers, or even the inhabi- 
tants of the land generally. See Gen. 15:16 ; 48:22 compared with Chap. 34:2 ; 
Josh. 9:7; 11:19 compared with 2 Sam. 21:2; Josh, 10:5, 6, etc. The word 
Amorite is thought to signify highlandei-; but this must not be understood as if 



328 APPENDIX II. 

it were only "a local term, and not the name of a distinct tribe" (Smith's Bibit 
Dictionary). In Deut. 7:1 they are expressly described as one of the "seven 
nations " whom God would drive out before the Israelites. 

8. The Perizzites, as already noticed (No. 1 above), do not appear to have 
belonged to the descendants of Canaan. In Josh. 11:3 they are named with the 
Amorites, Hittites, and Jebusites, as dwelling in the mountain. From Josh. 
17:15 it would seem that they occupied the hill country west of the Jordan 
assigned to Ephraim and Manasseh. We know nothing more definite concerning 
them. Inferences from the etymology of the name — persons spread abroad, living 
in the open country — are uncertain. 

9. The Hivites appear in Gen, 34: 2 as inhabitants of Shechem and the adja- 
cent region; for "Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite" was "prince of the 
country." They appear again in Josh. 9:7, 17; 11:19, as the inhabitants of 
Gibeon and the adjacent cities Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. It would 
seem, however, from Josh. 11:3, Judg. 3:3, that the main seat of the tribe was 
at the foot of Lebanon and Hermon. Their position in the enumeration of the 
tribes is generally last but one, as if they were regarded as only subordinate in 
rank and power. 

10. The Jebusites always appear in connection with the mountainous region 
around Jerusalem. In this city on Mount Zion they had their stronghold, from 
which they were not expelled till the time of David (Josh. 15:63 ; 1 Chr. 11:4-7). 

11. The Girgaskiies appear in the Pentateuch and book of Joshua only in 
the four lists: Gen. 15:19-21 ; Deut. 7:1 ; Josh. 3:10 ; 24:11, and in the genea- 
logical table, Gen. 10:16. We know nothing of their position. 



PART II. 



BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



PREFATORY REMARKS. 



The terms Arcliceology from the Greek, and Antiquities from 
the Latm, are applied to that department of history which treats 
of the customs, institutions, occupations, and modes of thought 
of ancient nations. It is customary to hmit the term according 
to the particular people described, as Jeivish Antiquities, Grecian 
Antiquities, Boman Antiquities, etc. The department of Biblical 
Antiquities has for its office to present as perfect a picture as 
possible of the daily life, manners, and employments of the He- 
brew people and the surrounding nations with which they were 
successively brought into contact. Its endeavor is to bring the 
reader, as far as may be, to look upon them as if he were pres- 
ent among them ; to understand their ways of living, acting, and 
thinking ; to catch their spirit, and reproduce in thought the feel- 
ings by which they were actuated. The immense importance of 
this science to the full understanding of the sacred record is too 
obvious to need extended illustration. Many declarations of 
Holy Writ, which were plain to the apprehension of those for 
whom they were written, appear to us obscure, perhaps incom- 
prehensible, because they refer to some usage of which we are 
ignorant, or some mode of thinking or reasoning which is foreign ^ 
to our ideas. How, for example, mthout a knowledge of the 
sacrificial feasts of the Hebrews in connection with the presenta- 
tion of their thank-offerings, shall the reader understand that 
beautiful passage at the close of the twenty-second Psalm (vers. 



332 PEEFATORY REMARKS. 

25-31), where the illustrious sufferer promises to pay liis thanks- 
giving offerings in the presence of the great congregation, and 
thus to spread a feast of which all nations shall eat and turn 
unto the Lord ? Or, how shall one who has never known of any 
bottles except those made of glass understand why new wine 
must be put into new bottles ? See on this point Companion to 
the Bible, Chap. 33, No. 6; Chap. 34, No. 6. 

The Scriptures themselves are the main source of knowledge 
in respect to Bibhcal Antiquities. This is but saying that the 
several parts of the Bible shed upon each other a mutual hght 
clearer and fuller that any that comes from without. Extrane- 
ous sources of information must not, however, be neglected. 
They lie scattered through the whole compass of ancient litera- 
ture. A formal enumeration of them is unnecessary. Suffice it 
to say that from historians like Herodotus, who describe the 
manners and institutions of the nations surrounding Palestme; 
from the pages of Homer, who delineates with such freshness 
and minuteness the customs of ancient society, and the modes 
and usages of ancient warfare ; from the treatises on natural his- 
tory that have come down to us from such writers as Aristotle 
and Pliny ; from geographical writings Hke those of Strabo ; in a 
word, from every ancient writing that*, gives us an insight into 
the constitution of society as it then existed, we may glean val- 
uable information in the department of knowledge now under 
consideration ; for while each particular nation of antiquity had 
its special customs and institutions, a general tone and spirit 
pervaded ancient society, out of which grew a large mass of com- 
mon usages and modes of thought. Josephus has left us a work 
in twenty books on Jeivisli Archceology, including in his usage of 
the term the whole of ancient Jewish history; also a history of 
the Jewish War in seven books, with several other smaller trea- 
tises : next to the Scriptures themselves his writings throw tho 



PEEFATORY REMARKS. 333 

most light on Hebrew Antiquities. From the writings of Philo 
the Jew, who, as well as Josephus, was contemporary with the 
apostles, and from the rabbinical ^Titings generally, though these 
latter abound in puerihties, the discriminating scholar may gain 
much insight into later Jewish ideas and modes of thought, 
which reflect in a measure the life of the ancient Hebrews. The 
remainmg monuments of antiquity, also, are to be taken into 
account; such, for example, as the triumphal arch of Titus, an- 
cient ruins, ancient coins, etc. Finally, modern oriental society 
is to a wonderful extent the representative of that which existed 
in bibhcal times ; for nothing is more characteristic of the eastern 
nations than the remarkable tenacity with which they cling to 
the customs and institutions of their fathers. It is astonishing 
how much light an accurate account of life as it now exists in 
Palestine throws upon the scriptural record of ancient hfe in the 
same region. "The Land" of to-day and "the Book" of past 
ages are, in very many important respects, the counterparts of 
each other. 

In the classification of the topics belonging to Bibhcal Anti- 
quities we follow the common division, which arranges them 
vmder the three primary heads of Domestic, Civil, and Sacred 
Antiquities, each of them having, again, its own subdivisions. 



BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



FIRST DIVISION. 

DOMESTIC ANTIQUITIES 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

Agriculture. 

1. The wisdom of God assigned to the covenant people their 
possessions on the west side of the Jordan, in a region adapted 
to agriculture rather than to pastoral hfe; for an agricultural 
people has more stability and is capable of higher culture than a 
race of wandering nomads. At their own request the tribes of 
Keuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh received their 
inheritance on the east of the Jordan, in a region preeminently 
adapted to cattle. Numb. chap. 32. But the great body of the 
nation passed over the river to the hills, valleys and plains of Pal- 
estine, where they were settled in permanent homes and devoted 
themselves to the culture of the soil ; and their history is mainly 
that of the theocracy. The two and a haK tribes gained what 
they sought, " a land for cattle ;" but they cut themselves off 
from any considerable influence in the national history. See on 
this subject Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 318, seq. 

2. In accordance with the divine purpose just indicated, the 
laws of Moses were specially favorable to agricultural pursuits. 
Those which relate to the sabbatical year and the year of jubi- 
lee deserve especial notice. 



336 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

(1.) The Sahhalical Year, Exod. 23:10, 11; Lev. 25:2-7; 
Deut. 15 : 1-11. Every seventh year tlie land was to be left un- 
tilled, that it might "keep a sabbath unto the Lord." The spon- 
taneous produ(^ of the fields, vineyards, and ohveyards were 
given as common property to the poor. A comparison of Exod. 
23 : 11 with Lev. 25 : 5-7 leads to the conclusion that the owners 
were not prohibited from enjoying these products in common 
with the poor, the bond-servants, the hired servants, and the 
strangers ; but they might not appropriate them to themselves, as 
in other years, by a regular harvest or vintage. " Everythmg is 
to be left- common, and every man has a right to everything in 
every place, as it is written : ' That the poor of thy people may 
eat.' Exod. 23 : 11. One may only bring into his house a little 
at a time, according to the manner of taking things that are in 
common." Maimonides quoted in Kitto. The sabbatical year 
had, first of all, a rehgious significance, as is manifest from the 
words : " The land shall keep a sabbath unto the Lord." Lev. 
25 : 1. As in the institution of the Sabbath God claimed to be 
the proprietor of all men's time, and as such assigned to them 
their days of labor and of rest, so in the ordmance of the sab- 
batical year he claimed the proprietorship of the soil and its prod- 
ucts. Six years they might cultivate the Lord's inheritance and 
appropriate to themselves its fruits, but the seventh year he 
reserved its spontaneous products for the poor of his people and 
the strangers sojourning among them. The hearts of the wealthy 
were thus expanded in liberality, and a benevolent provision was 
made for their poorer neighbors. The claiming of debts from a 
Hebrew was also forbidden during the sabbatical year. Deut. 
15 : 1-11. Whether this was a final release, or only a delay for 
that year alone, is a question that has been diJfferently answered. 
No special hardship was imposed by this ordinance on the own- 
ers of the land. In a fertile soil, lilie that of Palestine, in a good 
state of cultivation, no small amount of corn would be produced 
from the seed scattered (Heb. sapJnah, poured out, spilled) in gath- 
ering the harvest of the preceding year, while the vines, oHve- 
trees, and fig-trees would yield their fruit without culture. It 



AGEICULTUKE. 337 

has been further remarked that, in an age when the principle of 
the rotation of crops was unknown, much benefit must have 
accrued to the soil itseK from lying fallow during the sabbatical 
year. This material advantage, however, was only incidental. 

(2.) The Year of Jubilee. Lev. 25 : 8-16, 23, seq. ; 27 : 16-25 ; 
Numb. 36 : 4. Upon the expiration of seven sabbaths of years, 
the year of jubilee was inaugurated on the tenth day of the sev- 
enth month (Tishri reckoned from the new moon of October, 
see below. Chap. 20, No. 4), on the- great day of atonement, by 
the blowing of trumpets throughout all the land. Then, Jirst, in 
regard to the rest of the soil durmg this year the law of the sab- 
batical year prevailed, and on the same ground. It was a year 
holy unto them, and all its spontaneous products were claimed 
by the Lord for the common use of his people. Lev. 25 : 11, 12. 
Secondhj, every man who by reason of poverty had sold his 
paternal inheritance returned to the possession of it, so that the 
land of no Hebrew family could be permanently alienated. Be- 
fore the year of jubilee any kinsman might redeem it for his 
brother ; or, if he should find the means, 'he might redeem it 
himself. Otherwise it remained in the hands of the purchaser 
only to the year of jubilee, when it reverted to the original owner 
or his heirs. An equitable provision was made that the price of 
the estate in question should vary according to the number of 
years that remained before the jubilee. Fui^ther regulations pre- 
.^cribed the kinds of property that were to be excepted from this 
law of reversion. See Lev. 25 : 29-34. Thirdly, all Hebrews 
who were held to servitude went out free at the year of jubilee. 
This law, in its relation to other enactments, presents some pecu- 
liar difficulties, the discussion of which belongs to another place. 
See below, Chap. 19, No. 15. 

The question has been much discussed whether the jubilee coincided 
with ih.e forty-ninlh year, which was the seventh sabbatical year, or was the 
fiftieth year following. But according to Lev. 8-11 it is plain that the 
jubilee began at the end of forty-nine years ; consequently that it was the 
fiftieth year, or that immediately following the seventh sabbatical year, so 
that once in every half centur\' the tillage of the land was intermitted for 

15 



338 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

two consecutive years. The owners of the soil were forbidden to veap that 
which grew of itself, or to gather the vintage. But they might " eat the 
increase thereof out of the field ;" that is, as explained above, they might 
take out of the field from time to time what they needed for present use. 
God, moreover, expressly promised (Lev. 25 : 20-22) to command his bless- 
ing upon the sixth year — that immediately preceding the forty-ninth or 
seventh sabbatical year — that it should bring forth fruit for three years. 
Lev. 25 : 20-22. 

By the provisions of the year of jubilee the inheritance of each Hebrew 
family was secured to it by an inahenable title. This cannot but have 
operated in a powerful manner to attach the people to the soil which it was 
their high privilege to call their own for themselves and their children, and 
thus to encourage both permanence joi residence and the spirit of agricul- 
ture. 

3. In many parts of the East irrigaiion is essential to agricul- 
ture and gardening. In Egypt tlie valley of the Nile is watered 
by its annual overflow, the extent of which is greatly increased 
by means of artificial channels. Ancient Assyria and Babylonia 
were intersected by canals for the distribution of the waters of 
the Euphrates and Tigris, the remains of which exist to the pres- 
ent day. With the' exception of certain parts, as for example, 
the region around Jericho, Palestine is not so entirely dependent 
on artificial irrigation as are some of the neighboring regions. 
Moses names as a prerogative of the promised land that " it is a 
land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heav- 
en." Deut. 11 : 11. Since, however, the entire supply of rain 
falls in the six months following the middle of October (see above, 
Chap. 7, No. 3), some crops must of necessity require a supply 
of water by artificial means. Thomson says (The Land and the 
Book, vol. 2, p. 276, seq.) of the extensive gardens and orchards 
of Jaffa, that their very existence depends on the inexhaustible 
supply of water that can be procured in every garden at mod- 
erate depth, and which is raised from wells sunk in them by 
means of Persian wheels turned by mules. The wheel is put 
directly above the mouth of the well. " Over this revolve two 
rough hawsers, or thick ropes, made of twigs and branches twist- 
ed together, and upon them are fastened small jars or wooden 
buckets. One side descends while the other rises, carrying the 



AGRICULTUEE. 339 

small buckets with them — those descending empty, those ascend- 
ing full — and as they pass over the top, they discharge into a 
trough which conveys the water to the cistern." For shallow 
wells and rivers a wheel alone is used, the rim divided into com- 
partments answering to buckets, which bring up the water and 
discharge it into the cistern, when the bucket begins to descend, 
by a constant succession of streams. The wheel, called iiduraTi, 
is turned by oxen or mules ; or, as may be seen on a grand scale 
along the Orontes, by the river itself. The diameter of some of 
these wheels is eighty or ninety feet. They slowly revolve day 
and night with creakings and groanings of every imaginable tone. 
Another apparatus for raising water is the shaduf, which is sub- 
stantially the old-fashioned well-sweep of New England. An- 
other still consists of " a large buffalo skin so attached to cords 
that when let down into the well it opens and is instantly filled, 
and, being drawn up, it closes so as to retain the water." The 
water, being drawn up, is distributed, at the husbandman's will, 
through larger and smaller channels as it is needed. In allusion 
to this the wise man says : " The king's heart is in the hand of 
the Lord, as the rivers of water" (that is, as the original means, 
artificial divisions of water): "he turneth it whithersoever he 
will." Prov. 21 : 1. On level gromid square beds are formed 
surrounded by a border of earth, and the stream of water is 
turned by the gardener from one to another of these by openmg 
or closing passages in the border with the foot. Some think that 
Moses refers to this custom when he says : " The land whither 
thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from 
whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and water- 
edst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs." Deut. 11 : 10. Oth- 
ers suppose the reference to be to a water-wheel turned by the 
foot, such as Niebuhr saw in Cairo, and of which he has given a 
view. "I have seen," says Thomson, "small water-wheels, on 
the plain of Acre and elsewhere, which were thus worked." The 
Land and the Book, vol. 2, p. 280. The comparison of the right- 
eous man to a tree planted by the streams of waters (Psa. 1:3: 
Jer. 17 : 8), and flourishing all the year round, has much more 



840 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

force and pertinence to the oriental mind tlian it can possibly 
have to us, who enjoy through all the twelve months of the year 
an abundant supply of rain. 

4. The mountainous parts of Palestine and Syria have seldom 
much depth of soil, and here the mode of cultivation by terraces 
prevails now as in ancient times. " A series of low stone walls, 
one above another, across the face of the hiU, arrest the soil 
brought down by the rains, and afford a series of levels for the 
operations of the husbandmen. This mode of cultivation is usual 
in Lebanon, and is not unfrequent in Palestine, where the re- 
mains of terraces across the hills in various parts of the country, 
attest the extent to which it was anciently carried on." Art. 
Agriculture, in Kitto. Looking down from the summit of Leba- 
non upon its western slope, the tops of the stair-hke terraces are 
seen rising one above another, " all green with com or straggling 
vines or the dark fohage of the mulberry." Porter in Kitto. By 
this means Lebanon teems with villages nesthng in its precipi- 
tous sides, and is cultivated more or less to the very top. 

5. The implements of agriculture were anciently, as they are 
now, of the simplest character. "We find representations of 
these in all their variety on the Egyptian monuments, and there 
is no ground for supposing that those employed hi Palestine by 
a people that came out of Egypt differed in any material respect. 
The ancient Egyptian plough was very light. It was held some- 
times by both hands, sometimes by the left hand alone, the right 
hand carrying a stick or goad. It could only scratch a shallow 
furrow in the soft mud deposited by the overflow of the Nile. 
The Hebrew ploughs were doubtless of a similar light character, 
as they are at the present day. Those represented by Thomson 
(The Land and the Book, vol. 1, p. 207) have but a single han- 
dle, and they follow each other in a line. " I have seen," says 
Thomson, "more than a dozen of them thus at work." We read 
(1 Kings 19 : 19) that Elijah "found Elisha the son of Shaphat, 
who was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen before himj and he 
with the twelfth;" that is, twelve ploughs foUoAving each other 
very closely, drawn each by its own yoke of oxen. In EeUows' 




PLOUGHING AND SOWING ; FROM AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PAINTING 



#f^*- 




THEESHING. 




i=:e3 




ANCIENT PLOUGH, YOKES, SHARES, AND GOAD. 



WINNOWING. 



AGKICULTUBE. oil 

Asia Minor, p. 71, a plough is figured and described wliich is held 
by one hand only, and wliich appears to have been made from a 
section of the trunk of a young tree which had two branches 
running in opposite directions. The Syrian ploughman with his 
frail plough must wait till the autumnal rains have saturated and 
softened the ground before he can make any impression on the 
soil. His ploughing must be done in the rainy and cold season, 
from the last part of October and onward tlu^ough the month of 
January. To this fact there are allusions in Scripture. " The 
sluggard will not plough," says Solomon (Prov. 20 : 1), "by rea- 
son of the cold ; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have noth- 
ing." " Our farmers," says Thomson with reference to those of 
Palestine, " do actually plough in the severest weather. X have 
often seen them shivering with cold, and contending with wind 
and rain, quite enough to discourage those who are not slug- 
gards. But time has become precious and critical, and he who 
expects to reap must sow, no matter how tempestuous the weath- 
er." The Land and the Book, vol. 1, p. 207. 

" He that observetli the wind shall not sow ; and lie that regardeth the 
clouds shall not reap." Eccl. 11 :4. That one should obseiTe the wind 
in seed-time, which comes in Palestine during the rainy season, is alto- 
gether natural. But how can he be supposed to regard the clouds in har- 
vest, since this occurs after the rainy season is over, when thunder and 
rain are looked upon in the light of a prodigy ? 1 Sam. 12 : 17. Taking 
the wind and the clouds as the symbols of stormy weather, we may best 
intei^^ret the two clauses of the verse as supplementary to each other, thus : 
' ' He that observeth the \vind will not sow, and therefore he shall have no 
harvest : he that regardeth the clouds, namely in seed-time, shall not reaj), 
because he failed to sow." 

The Egyptian monuments represent a species of matfock or 
lioe, with a short handle and disproportionately long blade, which 
probably corresponds substantially to the Hebrew mattock used 
for working the soil. Isa. 5:6; 7 : 25. The harroiv is not named 
in the Hebrew Scriptures.. The verb rendered harroiu m Job 
39 : 10 signifies to break the clods, as it is elsewhere rendered. 
Isa. 28 : 24 ; Hosea 10 : 11. This may have been by cross-plough- 
ing or by tho'use of some species of han'ow — for heavier opera- 

Sac. Oeog. 



342 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

tions a log or sledge dragged over the furrows ; for lighter, a 
bush, as is done at the present day. 

It would seem that the Hebrews must, from the necessity of the case, 
jhave had not only winnomng-shovels (Isa. 30 : 24), but also shovels or spades 
for handling the soil. Yet no such implement is mentioned in the Old 
Testament, unless we adopt, with Fiirst, the opinion that the Hebrew word 
rendered in our version shm^e (1 Sam. 13 : 20) signifies a shovel or spade. 
Other implements employed in particular parts of husbandry will be no- 
ticed in their place. 

6. The animals used in ploughing were oxen. Hence comes 
the expression a yoke, that is, yoke of oxen, as a measure of land, 
meaning as much as a yoke of oxen can plough in a day. 1 Sam. 
14 : 14; Isa, 5 : 10. The ploughman carried anciently, as at the 
present day, a goad. This was a wooden rod about eight feet 
long, having at the smaller end a sharp point, and at the larger 
an iron paddle for cleaning the ploughshare. We can readily 
understand how in an emergency such an instrument might have 
been used as a spear in war. Judg. 3 : 31. The prohibition 
(Deut. 22 : 10) which forbids ploughing with an ox and an ass 
together, seems to imply that asses were sometimes employed m 
ploughmg. Horses were never used in ancient agriculture. 

Oxen, in the Hebrew use of the term, include cows, both sexes being 
employed for draught. Hence the repeated specification for certain pur- 
poses of a heifer "upon which never came yoke," Numb. 19 : 2 ; " wliich 
hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke," 
Deut. 21 : 3 ; "on which there hath come no yoke," 1 Sam. 6 : 7 — a speci- 
fication which would not be needed where cows were, by common usage, 
exempted from employment as beasts of draught. 

"We notice in order the principal departments of agriculture. 

I. THE CEEEAL AND LEGUMINOUS PLANTS. 

7. The cereal plants are those which furnish bread-corn, as 
wheat, barley, millet, etc. The leguminous plants are those of 
the pod-family, as beans, lentiles, and the like. 

Wheat and barley are now, as anciently, the chief cereal grains. In 
Egypt the many-headed wheat (Tritlcum composiium) is cultivated. To 
this there is a reference in Pharaoh's dream. Gen. 41 : 22, 23. Rye and 



aghicultuke. Mo 

oats do not grow in Pulestine. The Hebrew word (kusseineili) rendered rye 
in Exod. 9 : 32 ; Isa. 28 : 25 ; and fitches in Ezek. 4:9, is thought by some 
to denote the species of wheat called spelt, by others vetches (English vers. 
fitches), a bean-like climbing x^lant much cultivated in some countries as 
food for beasts. Millet is once mentioned. Ezek. 4:9. In modern cul- 
ture rice and maize are added to the list of cereal grains. 

To the class of pw/.s-e belong beans (2 Sam. 17 : 28 ; Ezek. 9:4), and len- 
tiles (Gen. 25 : 34, and elsewhere), of which latter Robinson says (Bib. Res., 
vol, 1, p. 167): "We found them very palatable, and could readily conceive 
that to a weary hunter, faint with hunger, they might be quite a dainty 
dish." Pottage made of lentiles is a favorite dish in the East ; and when 
the lentiles are of the red kind, it becomes the "red pottage " which Jacob 
gave to Esau (Gen. 25:30, 34), of which Thomson says (vol. 2, p. 397) 
that "when cooking it diffuses far and wide an odor extremely grateful to 
a hungry man." Vetches are now a common crop in Palestine, and as above 
remarked, are thought by some to be the plant named in Hebrew kusse- 
meth. But in Isa. 28 : 25, 27, the word rendered fitches, that is, vetches, 
probably denotes fennel or dill The tares of our Lord's parable (Matt. 
13 : 24, seq. ) are not the plant known by this name in the United States, 
which is a species of vetch, but darnel (Lolium temulenium), a plant having 
in the blade a strong resemblance to wheat, and producing a poisonous 
seed, that imparts a noxious quality to the flour when gTound with the 
wheat. " Even the farmers, who in this country generally weed their fields, 
do not attempt to separate one from the other." . . . "Both, therefore, 
must be left to grow together until the time of the harvest. " The Ijand 
and the Book, vol. 2, p. 111. <^ 

8. Seed-time, as already remarked, necessarily comes in Pal- 
estine in the rainy season. According to the most approved 
rendering of Isa. 28 : 25 : " And set the wheat m rows," wheat 
was not always sown broadcast, but sometimes in rows. But in 
the parable of the sower (Matt. 13 : 3, seq.) the seed is mani- 
festly sown broadcast ; for some of it falls by the wayside (on 
the path leading through the unfenced field), some on stony 
places, and some among the thorns. The seed is covered by 
cross-ploughing. In the soft mud of Egypt the seed is trampled 
in by the feet of goats or pigs ; and we know from the monu- 
ments that this usage prevailed in ancient times. 

Some have thought that in Isa. 32 : 20, there is an allusion to the 
custom of trampling the soft moist soil in the process of agiiculture. But 
this is very doubtful. The words of the prophet are more naturally under- 



344 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

stood of solving and pasturing in weU-watered places. In Eccles. 11 : 1 
occurs the prece}3t : ' ' Cast thy bread upon the waters : for thou shalt find 
it after many days. " This may possibly refer to the custom of sowing 
upon ground yet covered with water, or at least upon the soft mud of ground 
recently overflowed, as in Egypt. But the context favors the idea that the 
writer refers to bread given in alms, which is, to the eye of sense, thrown 
away ; but from which the eye of faith foresees a rich return in the future. 

9. The barley harvest usually precedes tlie wlieat liarvest a 
fortnight or three weeks. The times of harvest vary in Pales- 
tine with the varying localities. The wlieat harvest at Jericho, 
may be reckoned from the 7th to the 14tli of May ; at Jerusa- 
lem it takes place about four weeks later, though the two places 
are hardly more than 20 miles apart. The harvest of the Med- 
iterranean plain lies between. Kobinson, Phys. Geog., pp. 301, 
302. The only instrument employed in reaping is the sickle. 
In modern times the practice also prevails of plucking up the 
grain by the roots in order to save the straw for fodder. The 
grain v^^hen harvested is bound in bundles and conveyed to the 
threshing-floor. That carts were anciently employed in the 
collection of sheaves is plain from Amos 2:13: " Behold I am 
pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves." 
This, however, can have been only in comparatively level regions. 
The modern usage is to convey the bundles to the threshing- 
floor on camels and donkeys. "The grain is not bound in 
!iheaves, as in America, but gathered into large bundles. Two 
of these, secured in a large network of rope, are placed a few 
feet apart. The camel is made to kneel down between them, 
the large bundles are fastened to his pack-saddle, and at a 
signal from the driver up rises the peaceful beast and marches 
off towards the threshing-floor near the village." The Land 
and the Book, vol. 2, p. 323. "Long lines of camels, bearing on 
their backs burdens many times larger than themselves, were 
slowly converging to a point here at Yebna from every part of 
the plain, and the grain lay in heaps almost mountain high." 
Ibid., p. 314. 

10. The threshing-JIoors now, as anciently, are in the open 
air. The rainy season being over, no inconvenience is experi- 



AGKICULTURE. 345 

enced from this. A level spot is selected for the floor, which is of 
a circular shape, varying from fifty to eighty or even a hundred 
feet in diameter. When the ground has been made smooth and 
hard by pounding, the sheaves are spread out in a thick layer, 
and the grain is trodden out by the feet of animals. At Jericho, 
Bobinson saw " oxen, cows, and younger cattle, arranged in each 
case five abreast, and driven round in a circle, or rather in all 
directions over the floor. During the process the straw is occa- 
sionally turned with a large wooden fork having two prongs." 
Bib. Ees., chap. 1, p. 550. To this mode of threshing the scrip- 
tural precept refers : " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when ho 
treadeth out the corn " (Deut. 25 : 4), a precept containing in 
itself the equitable principle that "the laborer is worthy of his 
hire" (1 Cor. 9:9, 10; 1 Tim. 5:17, 18), of which Eobinson 
says (ibid.): "It was not very well regarded by our Christian 
fiiends, many of their animals having their mouths tied up; 
while among the Mohammedans I do not remember ever to 
have seen an animal muzzled." Besides this process of tread- 
mg, the threshing-sledge is used in the north of Palestine. " It 
consists," says Bobinson (Bib. Bes., 2, p. 307), "simply of two 
planks, fastened together side by side, and bent ujDwards in 
front ; precisely hke the common stone sledge of New England, 
though less heavy. Many holes are bored in the bottom under- 
neath, and into these are fixed sharp fragments of hard stone. 
The machine is dragged by oxen as they are driven round upon 
the grain ; sometimes a man or boy sits upon it ; but we did not 
see it otherwise loaded." The Egyptian threshing instrument, 
called norej, has several wooden rollers fixed in a frame, and 
armed with iron ridges. It is driven over the threshing-floor by 
oxen, the driver sitting on a chair above it to give the benefit of 
his weight. In Asia Minor we are told that a simple roller, 
formed of the trunk of a tree, with a pole for the attachment of 
the animals, is sometimes employed. It is only the smaller 
grains, as fennel and cummin, that nre beaten out mth a rod. 
Isa. 28:27. 

By each of the above modes of tlireshing, not only is the 



346 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

grain beaten out, but tlie straw is cut in pieces, and thus pre- 
pared to be used as provender. These oriental modes of thresh- 
ing furnish vivid images of divine judgment upon the persecutors 
of God's people. " Thou didst march through the land in indig- 
nation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger*" (Hab. 3 : 12) ; 
" The daughter of Babylon is hke a threshing-floor, it is time 
to thresh her" (Jer. 51 :33). The exhortation to Zion is: "Arise 
and thresh, O daughter of Zion ; for I will make thy horn iron, 
and I wili make thy hoofs brass : and thou shalt beat in pieces 
many people" (Micah 4:13); and the promise to Zion is: "Be- 
hold I will make thee" (not, make for thee, but, make thee to 
he) " a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth : thou shalt 
thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the 
hills as chaff." Isa. 41:15. The same figure of threshing rep- 
resents also the oppression of a conquering warrior. 2 Kings 13 : 7. 

The Hebrew hdruts, thresliiiig instrument (Isa. 28 : 27), wliich was some- 
times armed with iron (Amos 1:3), answers apparently to the threshing- 
sledge above described ; and the agalali, tlireshing-wagon (Isa. 28 : 27), to 
the Egyptian noi^ej with rollers, 

11. After threshing comes the process of winnowing. When 
the grain has been sufficiently threshed, it "is heaped up in the 
centre of the 'floor,' until it frequently becomes a little mound 
much higher than the workmen. This is particularly the case 
when there is no wind for several days, for the only way adopted 
to separate the chaff from the wheat is to toss it up into the air, 
when the grain falls in one place, and the chaff is carried to 
another." The Land and the Book, vol. 2, p. 316. The grain, 
after this first rude process of separation, is further purified by 
sifting and repeated tossings against the wind. The/a?i of the 
ancients was a winnoiving-shovel, with which the grain was 
thrown up against the wind to purify it. The Egyptian monu- 
ments represent this process carried on by means of wooden 
scoops or short-handled shovels. 

In Isa. 30 : 24, the mizreli (Eng. vers, shovel) is distinguished from the 
rahatJi (Eng. vers. /hn). The former was perhaps the winnowiyig fork, the 
latter, the winnoinng sliovel, or possibly a irinnoicing hrslvet. 



AGllICULTUKE. 3^7 

As threshing represents in the Scriptares the crusJiiny power 
of the divine judgments, so does the process of winnowing and 
sifting their separating and purifying efficacy. When the Messiah 
comes, his fan is in his hand, and with it he purges his threshing- 
floor, gathering the wheat into his garner, and burning up the 
chaff with unquenchable fire. Matt. 3 : 12, and the parallel 
passages. "Lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of 
Israel among all nations, lil^e as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet 
shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. And the sinners 
of my people shall die by the sword, which say. The evil shall 
not overtake nor prevent us." Amos 9:9, 10. Chaff and stubble 
driven away by the whirlwind or burned up by the fire furnish 
also, as we see in the above passages, an awful image of the final 
doom of the ungodly. Job 21 : 18 ; Psa. 1:4; 35 : 5 ; Isa. 40 : 24 ; 
Hosea 13:3; Isa. 5:24; 47:14; Obad. ver. 18; Nah. 1:10. 

12. The grain having been winnowed was stored up for 
future use in granaries. Storehouses (sometimes rendered barns 
in our version) are mentioned in the Old Testament, but in 
such indefinite terms, that nothing certain is known of their 
form or situation. At the present day they are often under 
ground, and this custom probably prevailed in ancient times 
also. Of these "wells or cisterns for grain," Thomson says 
(The Land and the Book, vol. 2, p. 262, seq.), that they "are 
cool, perfectly dry, and tight. The top is hermetically sealed 
with plaster, and covered with a deep bed of earth, and thus 
they keep out rats, mice, and even ants, the latter by no means 
a comtemptible enemy." . . . "They must always be dug in dry 
places; generally, as here, on the side of a sloping hill. They 
would not answer in a wet country, but in these dry cHmates 
stores have been foimd quite fresh and sound many years after 
they were thus buried." Vaulted granaries are represented on 
the Egj^tian monuments. 

13. We must not fail to notice the gracious lyyovision for the 
poor made in the Mosaic law. The husbandman was forbidden 
to reap wholly the corners of his field, or to gather the glean- 
ings of his harvest, or to go again for a sheaf thiit had been 



348 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

forgotten. These the Israehtes were to leave for the poor and 
the stranger, for the fatherless and the widow, remembering 
their own oppressed condition in Egypt ; and the same law was 
enacted in respect to the vintage and the olive-harvest. Lev. 
19:9, 10; 23:22; Deut. 24:19-22. The passer-by might eat 
grapes of his neighbor's vineyard, but not put any in his vessel. 
So also he might pluck the ears of the wheat with his hand and 
eat, but not apply the sickle. Deut. 23 : 24, 25. Hence the 
charge brpught by the Pharisees against our Lord's disciples 
was not that of theft, but of Sabbath-brealdng according to 
their frivolous distinctions. Matt. 12 : 1, seq., and the parallel 
passages. 

In the above, as in many other provisions of the Mosaic 
code, the true spirit of the gospel, the essence of which is love, 
appears with crystalline clearness. Even its sterner enactments 
had for their basis the same spirit ; for they were intended to 
preserve the covenant people from the corruptions of the hea- 
thenism which encompassed them on every side. 

Tlie harvest scenes described with such vividness and beauty in the 
book of Ruth reproduce themselves at the present day in Palestine with 
but feAV variations. The salutations between the proprietor and'his reapers 
(chap. 2:4), the presence of gleaning women who "gather after the reapers 
and among the sheaves" (chap. 2:7), the parched corn and vinegar of the 
workmen (chap. 2 : 14) — all these things are in strict harmony with modern 
usage. Parched corn is a favorite article of food. "It is made thus : a 
quantity of the best ears, not too ripe, are plucked with the stalks attached. 
These are tied in smaU parcels, a blazing fire is kindled with dry grass 
and thorn bushes, and the corn-heads are held in it until the chaff is 
mostly burned off. The grain is thus sufficiently roasted to be eaten.'* 
The Land and the Book, vol. 2, jd. 510. Boaz slept at night on his own 
threshing-floor "at the end of a heap of corn." Chap. 3:7. So do the 
owners now, to prevent steahng; and "it is not unusual for husband, 
wife, and all the family to encamp at the baiders (threshing-floors), and 
remain until the harvest is over." Ibid., ^. 511. 

II. THE CULTURE OE THE VINE. 

14. Palestine is not less celebrated for its vineyards than for 
its cornfields. The e-xcellent quality of its grapes is attested by 



AGKICULTURE. 349 

all modem travellers; and how prominent the culture of the 
vine is hi the Hebrew Scriptures every reader of the Bible 
knows. The region around Hebron is particularly celebrated 
for its vineyards, and the grapes produced here are the largest 
and the finest in Palestine. Eobinson, Bib. Ees., vol. 1, p. 214 ; 
Thomson, vol. % p. 411. Here, in the southern part of Pales- 
tine, was "the valley of Eshcol," whence the spies brought "one 
cluster of grapes," which "they bare between two on a staff." 
Numb. 13:23. Modern travellers testify that they have seen 
clusters in Palestme weiglmig ten or twelve pounds, and the 
berries of which may be compared with small plums. See the 
authorities in Smith's Bible Diet., Kitto, etc. " The vines are 
planted singly in rows, eight or ten feet apart in each direction. 
The stock is suffered to grow up large to the height of six or 
eight feet, and is then fastened in a sloping position to a strong 
stake, and the shoots suffered to grow and extend from one 
plant to another, 'forming a Ime of festoons. Sometimes two 
rows are made to slant towards each other, and thus form by 
their shoots a sort of arch. These shoots are pruned away in 
autumn." Robinson, Bib. Res., vol. 2, pp. 80, 81. 

When tlie Scriptures mention the vines of Sibmah, En-gedi, etc. (Isa. 
16 : 8, 9 ; Jer. 48 : 32 ; Cant. 1 : 14), it is simply on account of their excel- 
lence and celebrity. But the vine of Sorelc (rendered in our version choice 
vine, Gen. 49 : 11 ; choicest vine, Isa. 5:2; nohle vine, Jer. 2 : 21), was a 
choice stock, perhaps the modern Serli:i of Morocco, with small round dark 
benies and soft seeds. The wild grapes (Heb. heush.hh, had grapes) men- 
tioned by Isaiah (chap. 5 : 2, 4) are not some species of poisonous berries, as 
those of nightshade, but simply sour grapes unfit for use, such as were not 
to have been expected from a noble vine under good culture. 

15. The appointments of a vineyard are briefly described by 
the prophet (Isa. 5:1, 2): "My beloved had a vineyard on a 
very fruitful hill. And he digged it, and gathered out the stones 
from it, and planted it with the vine of the Sorek, and built a 
tower in the midst of it, and also hewed a ^vine-vat in it ;" and 
by our Lord (Matt. 21 : 33) : " There was a certain householder 
which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about [after the 



350 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Septuagint of Isa. 5:2], and digged a winepress in it, and built a 
tower." Tiiese are substantially the appointments of a modern 
vineyard. The wall or hedge is for protection. Robinson speaks 
of "enclosed vineyards," and of the path passing "between the 
walls of vineyards and olive-yards." It was in precisely such 
" a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall 
on that side," that the angel met the rebelhous prophet, and the 
ass "crushed Balaam's foot against the wall." Numb. 22 : 24-26. 
"Each vineyard has a small house or ioiver of stone, w^hich 
serves for a keeper's lodge ; and, during the vintage, we were 
told that the inhabitants of Hebron go out and dwell in these 
houses, and the town is almost deserted." Bib. Res., vol. 1, 
pp. 213, 214. Of . the wine-press and wine-vat we shall speak 
presently. 

16. The main vintage is in September and October ; though 
we are told that some grapes are gathered in July and August. 
The vintage is now, as anciently, a season of great hilarity, the 
towns being deserted, and the people hving among the vineyards 
in the lodges above mentioned, and in tent^. Judg. 9 : 27 ; Isa. 
16 : 10 ; Jer. 25 : 30 ; 48 : 33. The grapes were gathered in baskets 
(Jer. 6 : 9), and conveyed in baskets to their destined place. Of 
the vineyards belonging to the Mohammedans, Thomson says 
(vol. 2, p. 411) : " A large part of the crop is eaten or sold at 
the time ; the remainder is dried into raisins, or pressed, and 
the juice boiled down to a thick molasses, called dibs ; for the 
Moslems, as you are aware, make no wine." See also Robinson, 
Bib. Res., vol. 2, p. 81. This honey of grapes (Arabic dibs, honey, 
answering to the Hebrew debhash) was in use in ancient times, 
as it is now throughout the East ; but it is never called tcine, and 
should be carefully distinguished from it. See farther below. 

17. iVine, that is, the fermented juice of the grape, was a 
common article of manufacture and use among the ancient 
Hebrews, as is attested by numerous passages of Scripture. 
Two receptacles w^ere prepared, an upper (Heb., gafh, commonly 
rendered ivinepress in our version), for the reception and tread- 
ing of the grapes; and a Joicer (Heb., yekebh, vat), for receiving 





GOAT-SKIN WATER BOTTLES. 



AN ARAB TENT. 




INTERIOR OF AN ANCIENT HOUSE. 




WINE-PRESS. 



LODGE IN A GARDEN. 



AGBICULTUKE. 351 

the expressed juice. These receptacles were built of stone and 
covered with plaster, or they were hewn out of ihe solid rock. 
Kobinson (Bib. Ees., vol. 3, p. 137), gives the following descrip- 
tion of an ancient press and vat at Hableh : " Advantage had 
been taken of a ledge of rock ; on the upper side towards the 
south a shallow vat had been dug out, eight feet square and 
fifteen inches deep, its bottom declining slightly towards the 
north. The thickness of rocS: left on the north was one foot ; 
and two feet lower down on that side, another smaller vat was 
excavated, four feet square by three feet deep. The grapes 
were trodden in the shallow upper vat ; and the juice drawn off 
by a hole at the bottom (still remaining), into the lower vat." 
The dimensions of the upper vat — eight feet square — are those 
given by Jahn (Archseology, § 69), for the present winepress of 
Persia, its depth, however, being four feet. According to the 
Egyptian monuments two vats for the reception of the juice 
were sometimes connected with a single press. The grapes were 
trodden by the feet of men, assisted, according to the same 
monuments, by ropes fixed to a support over their heads. This 
laborious work was accompanied with songs and shouts of mirth. 
Isa. 16:10; Jer. 25:30; 48:33. The treading of grapes in the 
Tvdnepress is an expressive symbol of great slaughter, the red 
juice of the grapes representing the blood of the slain. " Who 
is this," asked the prophet (Isa. 63:1, seq.), "that cometh from 
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrali? . . . Wherefore art 
thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that tread- 
eth in the winefat?" The answer is: "I have trodden the 
winepreSfS alone ; and of the people there was none wUh me : 
for I will tread them in my anger, and trample them in my fury, 
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will 
stain all my raiment." See also Lam. 1:15; Eev. 14:19, 20; 
19 : 15. 

In the above passages of Isaiah and Revelation treading the wine- 
press represents wrath injiided, not wrath suffered, as both the figure and 
the context show. The Messiah appears here not in his character of an 
expiatory victim, as he does elsewhere (Isn. 5.3 : 7 ; John 1 : 29 ; 1 Peter 



352 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

2 :24; Eev. 1:5), but in his office as "King of kings and Lord of lords," 
breaking in pieces the enemies of his church with a rod of iron. 

18. The must, as the Latins call tlie newly expressed juice, 
was either boiled into syrup in its unfermented state (the Iwney 
of grapes mentioned above), or was subjected to a process of 
fermentation more or less complete, and then stored in firkins 
or leathern bottles. According to Jahn, the wine when preserved 
in firkins, was sometimes buried in the ground. Archaeology, 
§ 69. For new wine new bottles of skin were required, because 
the process of fermentation was not yet completed. It cannot 
have been simply to preserve the wine from air, since it is added 
that, if old bottles be used, the new wine will hurst the bottles; 
but when new bottles are employed for new wine, they have 
sufficient strength to resist the pressure, and thus both are pre- 
served. Matt. 9:17; Mark 2 : 22. 

The Psalmist says (Psa. 119 : 83) : "I am become like a bottle in the 
smoke." It is clear that a bottle blackened and soiled by exposure to 
smoke represents here the result of continuous affliction. But for what 
purpose were bottles thus exposed ? This question has been answered in 
different ways. According to Eosenmiiller, Hupfield, and others, the 
reference is to an ancient custom of suspending leathern bottles filled with 
wine in the upper part of the house, where the ascending current of smoke 
(the ancient houses had no chimneys) would come in contact with them, 
that the wine might be thus ripened. See the references in Rosenmiiller's 
Commentary. We add a single one from Horace (Odes, 3. 8): "This 
festive anniversary day shall remove the pitch-covered cork from a jar 
accustomed to imbibe the smoke." 

19. Strong drink (Heb., slieMar; Greek of the Sept., siJcera, 
whence the Latin sicera) is repeatedly distinguished from wine, 
in such passages as speak of "wine or strong drink." Lev. 
10 : 9 ; Numb. 6:3; Judg. 13 : 4 ; etc. In a single passage of the 
Pentateuch (Numb. 28 : 7), the term is applied to wine ; proba- 
bly strong old wine of the best quality. Jerome resided long 
in Palestine, and we may accept his definition of strong drink 
(sicera) as accurate for his day, and substantially for preceding 
ages. ''Sicera, in the Hebrew language, signifies every drink 



• -AGHICULTUEE. 353 

that can inebriate ; whether that which is made from grain, or 
from the juice of apples; or when a s^veet and barbaric drink 
is prepared by boiling down honey [that is, in water] ; or a 
liquor is formed from the pressure of dates ; or a thick and high 
colored infusion is made of boiled fruits in water." Epistle to 
Nepotianus. There are some allusions in Scripture to drugged 
wine, that is, wine mixed with spices to increase its strength and 
flavor. Psa. 75 : 9 ; Prov. 23 : 30. We have no certain evidence 
that the term shekhar, strong drink, was apphed to these also, 
though the opinion is not improbable, and is sustained by the 
common interpretation of Isa. 5 : 22, where, however, some under- 
stand the minglmg of strong drink with water as a necessary 
preparation for its use. Compare Prov. 9:2; Rev. 14 : 10, where 
the mingling is evidently a dilution with water. 

An intoxicating cup, wlietlier of wine or strong drink, that produces 
staggering and vomiting, is a common Scriptural figiu'e to represent tlie 
effect of God's wrath. "For a cup is in the hands of the Lord, and it 
foams with wine : it is full of mixture [wine mixed with spices] , and he 
pours out the same : the very dregs thereof shall all the wicked of the 
eai-tli suck out and drink" (Psa. 75 : 9); *' Behold I have taken out of thy 
hand the cup of reelings, the bowl of the cup of my wrath : thou shalt not 
drink it any more. But I ^ill put it into the hand of them that afflict 
thee," etc. (Isa. 51 : 22, 23); ''The cup of the Lord's right hand shall come 
round unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory" (Habak. 
2 ;16); "Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Drink ye, and 
be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword 
which I will send among you" (Jer. 25 : 27). See also Ezek. 23 : 32, seq. ; 
Obad. ver. 16 ; Kev. 14 : 10. 

20. In regard to the various terms employed by the Hebrews 
to denote the juice of the grape or preparations from it, the fol- 
lowing things are to be noted. 

(1.) For the three most important harvests of Palestine — 
corn, wine, and «oil — the Hebrew language has three terms 
specially apphed to them as products of agricidtiire, coming in 
annually each in its season. These are the following : 

Dagan, corn, which includes all the different kinds of bread- 
corn as products of agiiculture coming in from the threshing- 
sac. Oeoj, 



354 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. • 

floor; wliile for eacli particular species, ivlieat, harley, etc., it has 
names applied to both the plant and its grain. 

YitsJiar, oil; that is, the fresh harvest of oil coming in from 
the oil-press. ZaitJi is the ohve-tree (Judg. 9 : 9), and its fruits 
(Micah 6 : 15) ; while sJiemen is simply its oil as an article of use. 

Tirosh, must (occasionally asis, juice, which term is also 
applied to the juice of the pomegranate, Cant. 8:2), is the new 
wine coming in from the vintage ; while yayin is simply loine as 
an article of use, and answering exactly to the Greek oinos and 
the Latin vinum. 

The above named three terms are properly agricultural. When em- 
ployed with reference to the use of the articles which they denote, it is 
always in connection with God's bounty in giving them. Thus the prophet 
says (Zech. 9:17): "How great is his goodness, and how great is his 
beauty ! corn [dag an) shall make the young men flourish, and new wine 
{tirosh) the maidens;" and so also the manna is called "the corn of 
heaven " (Psa. 78 : 24), as being the product of heaven. 

(2.) It follows naturally that these three terms, or two of 
them, are customarily mentioned togetJicr, often in connection 
with children and flocks and herds; aU as the gifts of divine 
Providence. A striking example is the following: "Wherefore 
it shaU come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, 
and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the 
covenant and the mercy w^hich he sware unto thy fathers : and 
he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee : he wiU also 
bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, 
and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the 
flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers 
to give thee." Deut. 7 : 12, 13. So corn and tcine are mentioned 
as the gifts of Jehovah : " Israel then shall dwell in safety ; the 
fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine, also 
his heavens shall drop down dew." Deut. 33 :«28. 

(3.) Since tirosh, must, does not denote unfermented wine as 
such, in distinction from that which is fermented, but simply 
the neio ivine coming in from the vintage, we are not warranted in 
aflirming that it was never in any degree fermented. Doubt- 



AGRICULTUllE. 355 

less some of it was dnink in its unfermented state, and in this 
state also more or less of it was boiled down to honey of grapes, 
when it was no longer called must (tirdsh) but honey (debhash). 
Doubtless it was also dmnk after the process of fermentation 
had begun, as new cider is with us, when it had an exhilarating 
effect. The must which took away the heart (Hosea 4 : 11) must 
have been to some extent fermented, at least if we can judge 
from the bad company in wliich the prophet places it : " Whore- 
dom and wine and new wine (firdsJi) take away the heart." 
The same remarks hold good of the other term asls, generally 
rendered siveet ivine in our version. See Joel 1:5; 3 : 18 ; Amos 
9:13; Isa. 49:26. 

The position taken in the original edition of Kitto's Cyclopaedia (Ai-t. 
Wiyie) that iirosh denotes a solid substance, "vintage fruits,'' is satisfac- 
torily refuted under the same article in Alexander's Kitto. See also 
Smith's Bible Diet., Art., Wine. 

(4.) In Acts 2 : 13 mention is made of siveet tvine (not veto 
wine, for the feast of the Pentecost occurred in June, some two 
months before the first vintage). The ancients had various 
ways of preparuig this beverage. One was by arresting fer- 
mentation by means of vessels corked so as to exclude all air. 
See the process described in Hackett's Commentary on Acts. 
Another was, according to Jahn (Archaeology, § 69), by soaking 
dried grapes in old wine, and then pressing them a second time. 
This species of wine, which was very mtoxicating, seems to be 
that here intended. The "hquor of grapes" (Numb. 6:3) seems 
to have been something of a similar character. 

There are various poetic terms occasionally applied to wine which it is 
not necessary here to notice. "Wine on the lees" is wine which, after 
the first fermentation, has been left to stand a long time on its lees, 
whereby its quahty and flavor are improved. To this custom the prophet 
Jeremiah alludes (chap. 48 : 11): "Moab hath been at ease from his youth, 
and he litith settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel 
to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity : therefore his taste " (the 
figure of a wine-vessel continued) "remained in him, and his scent is not 
changed. '* 



356 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

(5.) Vinegar of luine (Numb. 6 : 3), called also simply vinegar 
(Ruth 2 : 14), diluted with water was anciently, as it is now, a 
refreshing drink. 

III. THE CULTUEE OF THE OLIVE. 

21. The olive-tree is common almost everywhere on the shores 
of the Mediterranean, but is peculiarly abundant in Palestine. 
Eocky hills and plains with a calcareous soil, such as prevail in 
this country, are its favorite abode. " It delights," says Thom- 
son (vol. 1, p. 70), "to insinuate its roots into the clefts of the 
rocks and crevices of this flinty marl, and from thence it draws 
its richest stores of oil.'"' To this fact there is apparently an 
allusion in the song of Moses (Deut. 32 : 13) : " He made him to 
suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock." 
The ohve is a tree of moderate size, with a gnarled trunk and 
branches twisted and interlaced in fantastic forms. Sometimes 
two or three trees from one root form a compHcated trunk, 
which is to all intents and purposes a single tree. It is of slow 
growth. "Except under circumstances peculiarly favorable, it 
bears no berries until the seventh year, nor is the crop worth 
much until the tree is ten or fifteen years old." Thomson as 
above, p. 71. But then its longevity is remarkable. It endures 
through several centuries. The aged tree may often be seen 
surrounded by several young and thrifty shoots which have 
sprung from its roots. It is also easily propagated from cuttings 
and from little swellings or knobs upon the bark containing 
embryo buds. Its smooth lanceolate evergreen leaves grow in 
pairs, and are of a dull green on the upper surface, and silvery 
pale underneath. Eobinson says (Phys. Geog., p. 294) that 
"the foliage of the olive, with its dull grayish hue, scarcely 
deserves the name of verdure." But if the beauty of the olive 
be of a sober kind, it is one that improves upon acquaintance, 
and to the eye of an orientalist it has peculiar charms: "His 
branches shall spread," says the prophet (Hosea 14:6), "and 
his beauty shall be as the ohve-tree, and his smell as Lebanon ;" 
and Jeremiah says (chap. 11 : 16) : " The Lord called thy name, 



AGKICULTUEE. 357 

a green olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit." The vigorous 
healthful gi'owth of an olive-tree is a most appropriate symbol 
of the righteous man flourishing under God's protection, and in 
the enjoyment of his ordinances. "I," says the Psalmist (Psa. 
52 : 8), "am like a green olive-tree in the house of God;" where 
we are to understand not an olive-tree planted in God's house, 
but the Psalmist himseh flourishing in God's house like an olive- 
tree. The ohve-tree produces a profusion of small Avhite flow- 
ers, which fairly cover the ground at their fall. "Not one in a 
hundred comes to maturity. The tree casts them off by millions, 
as if they were of no more value than flakes of snow, which 
they closely resemble. So it will be with those who put 
their trust in vanity." Thomson, vol. 1, p. 72, with reference to 
the words of Eliphaz, " He shall cast off his flower as the olive," 
Job 15 : 33. The flower is followed by a smooth oval plum-like 
fruit, of a violet color when ripe, and enclosing a hard rough 
stone inside of an oily pulp. The wood of the ohve is close- 
grained, approaching box in compactness, with a pleasmg yel- 
lowing tint, and is much used in cabinet work. The cherubim 
of Solomon's temple, and the doors and posts of the inner and 
outer sanctuary were made of olive-wood. 1 Kings 6 : 23, 31, 33. 
Homer describes the polished helve of a battle axe as made of 
the same material. Iliad, 13. 612. 

22. The pickled berry of the olive forms a general relish 
throughout the East ; but by far the gi'eatest part of the fruit is 
bruised or ground and pressed for oil, which is now, as anciently, 
one of the most precious treasures of Palestine. How great a 
source of wealth it was to the Hebrews appears from the fact 
that Solomon gave to Hiram annually, in return for the services of 
his people, along with twenty thousand measures of wheat, twen- 
ty thousand measures of barley and twenty thousand baths of 
wine, twenty thousand baths of oil also, a hath being about 
seven and a half gallons. See 2 Chron. 2 : 10 ; 1 Kings 5 : 11. 
Ezekiel and Hosea also mention oil as one of the articles of 
export from the land of Israel. Ezek. 27:17; Hosea 12:1. 
JCnd then vast quantities were consumed at home. Where the 



358 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

olive-tree is cultivated its oil takes the place of butter, and is 
extensively used in cooking. It lias always been in general use 
for lamps, and for tbe manufacture of soap. The custom of 
anointing the head and body with oil prevailed among the 
Hebrews, as among all the neighboring nations. It is often 
alluded to in the Scriptures, and the omission of this article w^as 
a sign of mourning. Euth 3:3; 2 Sam. 12:20; 14:2; Dan. 
10:3; Matt. 6:17; Luke 7:46; etc. It was also a customary 
honor bestowed on the bodies of the dead. Mark 14:8. So 
Achilles commands the body of his friend Patroclus to be 
washed and anointed with oil, and afterwards the body of his 
enemy Hector, before he dehvers it to Priam. Ihad, 18. 350 ; 
24. 587. Anointing with oil had also a religions use. It was a 
solemn rite of consecration and inauguration, as will be shoAvn 
in another place. 

23. According to the Hebrew interpreters, heaten oil was that 
which flowed from olive-berries bruised in a mortar but not sub- 
jected to the oil-press ; and this, as being the purest and best, 
was employed in the service of the sanctuary. Exod. 27 : 20 ; 
29:40; Lev. 24:2; Numb. 28:5; 1 Kings 5 : IL The great 
mass of the ohve-berries, however, was first crushed in a mill 
and then pressed. According to Thomson (vol. 1, p. 523), the 
modern oil-mills of the East are of two kinds. The first, which 
is worked by hand, consists of a circular stone basin, in which 
the olives are ground to a pulp by rolHng over them a large stone 
wheel. The second is driven by water power. This has an 
upright cylinder with iron cross-bars at the lower end, turning 
rapidly in a hoUow tube of stone-work into which the olives are 
thrown from above, and beaten to a pulp by the revolving cross- 
bars. The interior of the tube is kept hot, so that the mass is 
taken out below sufficiently heated to cause the oil to run freely. 
The pulp is put into small baskets of straw-work, which are 
placed one above another, between two upright posts, and pressed 
by a screw, or by a beam lever. After the first pressure the 
pulp is put into large copper pans, sprinkled with water, heated, 
and subjected to a second pressure. 



AGHICULTUEE. 359 

The ancient oil-mill was the circular stone basin with its 
stone wheel. The ancient oil-press was also the same as that 
just described, but worked with a leaver only. Many such may 
now be seen by the traveller. See Thomson, vol. 1, p. 307, who 
speaks of " another basin smaller and more concave. It may 
have served to tread the olives with the feet — a process not now 
used, but to which there is an allusion in Micah 6 : 15 : ' Thou 
shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with 
oil.' " 

24. The oil is treasured up in jars or cisterns, where it soon 
clarifies itself. " The port of GaUipoh, from which so much of 
the best oil is obtained, owes much of its celebrity to its being 
built on a rocky island, where fine reservoirs are easily excava- 
ted, in which the oil soon clarifies, and remains for years without 
becoming rancid." New Amer. Cyclopaedia, Art., Olive. 

IV. FRUIT-TREES. 

25. The date-palm (Phoenix daciylifera) was once very com- 
mon in Palestine, especially in the Jordan valley wherever there 
was water for its nourishment, and along the Mediterranean 
coast. Jericho was called "the city of palm-trees" (Deut. 34 : 3 ; 
Judg. 1:16; 3 : 13 ; 2 Chron. 28 : 15), and there is a well-know^n 
coin of Vespasian which represents Judaea as a mourning female 
sitting under a palm-tree and guarded by a Eoman soldier, with 
the inscription: Judoia caj)ta, that is, captive Judma. But the 
palm groves have now disappeared from the Jordan valley, and 
are found mainly along the Mediten-anean coast of Palestine and 
Syiia farther north. The palm-tree is a singularly beautiful and 
stately object, with its tall, round and perfectly upright trunk 
rising to the height of forty or even seventy feet, and scarred 
with the bases of the fallen leaves, its magnificent tuft of long 
feathery evergreen leaves at the summit nodding gracefully, like 
the plumes of an ancient helmet, and its enormous clusters of 
golden fruit depending beneath. The tree is of slow growth, but 
endures for s(iveral generations. 



360 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

The palm is what botanists call a dioecious plant ; that is, it bears the 
fertihzing flowers on one tree, and the fruit-bearing flowers on another. 
To make its harvest abundant and profitat»le, it is necessary that the former 
land of flawers be brought by human labor in contact with the latter. The 
Arabs chmb up the fruit-bearing trees and hang upon them clusters of 
flowers from the other kind. In other respects, also, the date-palm re- 
quires more culture than the ohve, and perishes sooner by neglect. 

26. Besides its harvest of fruit the palm-tree has other uses. 
"On the abortive fruit and the date-stones ground down the 
camels are fed. From the leaves they make couches, baskets, 
bags, mats, brushes, and fly-flaps; from the trunk, cages for 
their poultry, and fences for their gardens ; and other parts of 
the tree furnish fuel. From the fibrous webs at the bases of the 
leaves thread is procured, which is twisted into ropes and rig- 
ging; and from the sap, which is collected by cutting off the 
head of the palm, and scooping out a hollow in its stem, a spirit- 
uous liquor is prepared. Burnett's Outlines of Botany quoted in 
Eairbairn's Bible Dictionary. 

27. The scriptural allusions to the palm-tree, though not very 
numerous, are strikingly appropriate. With reference to its per- 
fect uprightness, Jeremiah says of the idols of the heathen (chap. 
10 : 5) : " They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not : they 
must needs be borne, because they cannot go." The royal 
Psalmist joins it with the cedar of Lebanon as an emblem of the 
righteous man's prosperity (Psa. 92 : 12) : " The righteous shall 
flourish like the palm-tree ; he shall grow like a cedar in Leba- 
non." There is a vivid passage in the Canticles (chap. 7 : 7, 8), 
in which the bride is compared to a palm-tree, the fruit of which 
is obtained by climbing up to the summit : " I said, I will go up 
upon the palm-tree [not " to the palm-tree," as in our version] ; I 
will take hold of the boughs thereof." The "boughs" are the 
stems of the enormous leaves underneath which the clusters of 
fruit grow. Palm-hrancJies, that is, palm-leaves with then- stems 
were, as early as the days of the Maccabees, the symbol of vic- 
tory and triumph. 1 Mace. 13 : 51. Hence, upon our Lord's 
triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the people " took branches of 



AGEICULTUKE. 361 

palm-trees and went forth to meet him" (John 12 : 13) ; and the. 
redeemed whom John sees in vision before the throne clothed 
with white robes have palms in their hands (Eev. 7:9). 

Solomon's temple was adorned -with carvings of palm-trees (1 Kings 
6 : 29, 32, 35 ; 7 : 36 ; 2 Chron. 3:5), and so also ^Yas Ezeldel's ideal temple. 
Ezek. 40 : 16. 

28. lihe Jig -tree was anciently, as it is now, very abundant in 
Palestine. Its broad green leaves afford a grateful shade, and 
its fruit is, along with that of the vine, an important article of 
food. Hence the expression. To sit under one's own vine and fig- 
tree, for the peaceable possession and enjoyment of one's pater- 
nal inheritance. 1 Kings 4 : 25 ; Micah 4:4. It is a vigorous 
bearer, and in warm climates yields three crops a year; the early 
Jigs (Isa. 28 : 4; Hos. 9 : 10 ; Micah 7:1), which ripen towards the 
end of June ; the summer Jigs, that yield a harvest in autumn ; 
and the luinterjig, which remains on the tree into winter. 

Much difficulty has been found with the transaction recorded by Mark 
(chap. 11 : 12-14), where our Lord cursed the fig-tree on which "he found 
nothing but leaves ; for the time of figs was not yet." It is to be assumed 
that our Lord, in this matter, acted according to a reasonable probability. 
He judged from the forward state of the leaves — "seeing a fig-tree afar oft 
ha^ing leaves" — that haply he might find ivnit. It was not, then, winter 
figs remaining over till the jDassover which he expected to find (if such a 
thing were possible at Jerusalem) , for of these the leaves would be no sign. 
It must have been the early figs which he sought. "There is," says Thom- 
son (vol. 1, p. 538), "a kind of tree which bears a large green-colored fig 
that ripens very early. I have plucked them in May from trees on Leba- 
non, a hundred and fifty miles north of Jerusalem, and where the trees are 
nearly a month later than in the south of Palestine ; it does not, therefore, 
seem impossible but that the same kind micjJit have had ripe figs at Easter, 
in the warm sheltered ravines of Ohvet. The meaning of the phrase, The 
time of figs had not yet come, may be that the ordinary seas6n for them 
had not yet arrived, which would be true enough at any rate. The reason 
why he might legitimately (so to speak) seek frrit from this particular tree 
at that early day, was the ostentatious show of leaves. The fig often comes 
with, or even before the leaves, and especially on the early kind. " The 
sum of the whole matter, according to this reasonable inteiijretation, is 
that while this tree gave promise of a harvest of fruit bpfore the ordinary 
"time of figs," it disappoint-ed the e7:pectation it had awakened. It was, 

16 



362 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

therefore, cursed with eternal barrenness — a symbolical act shadowing 
forth the doom of pretentious professors of godliness who bear leaves 
only. 

29. The sycamore is a species of fig-tree which flourislies in 
the warm lowlands of Palestine, and abundantly in Egypt. 
1 Kings 10:27; 2 Chron. 1:15; 9:27; 1 Chron. 27:28; Psa. 
78 : 47. It grows to a great size with widespread boughs and a 
deep strong root. Hence the pertinence of our Lord's illustra- 
tion (Luke 17:6): " If ye had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, 
ye might say unto this sycamine-tree, Be thou plucked up by the 
root, and be thou planted in the sea ; and it should obey you." 
It bears several crops of figs annually, which grow on short 
stems along the trunk and branches. The fruit is of an inferior 
quality, but the poorer classes consume it in great quantities. 
The wood is soft and of little value in comparison with the cedar 
of Lebanon. Isa. 9 : 10. Yet it is very durable, if we may judge 
from the mummy-cases made of it 4:housands of years ago. The 
ancients noticed the fact that in order to ripen the fruit it was 
necessary to puncture or nip each fig with an iron instrument a 
few days before the time of harvest ; a practice which, according 
to Hasselquist, exists in modern times. 

The word sycamore (from the Greek suJcomoros) sigTiiQ.es fig-mulberry, 
because the fruit resembles that of the true fig, while the leaves are hke 
those of the mulberry, a nearly related species. The true sycamore must 
be carefully distinguished from the American tree which commonly goes 
by that name, and which is also called builon-ioood. This latter is the occi- 
dental 2:>lo,ne (Platanus occidenialis), and has no relation to the fig family. 

The sycamine-ixee (Luke 17 : 6) is confounded with the sycamore by the 
Septuagint in 1 Kings 10 : 27 ; 1 Chron. 27 : 28 ; Isa. 9 : 10 ; and according 
to Dioscorides (p. 80) by some of the ancients. This name, however, be- 
longs properly to the black mulberry. Dioscorides, ubi supra. 

30. The pomegranate hardly merits the appellation of a tree. 
It is rather a stout thorny shrub with dense foHage, said to be 
the favorite haunt of the nightingale. Its beautiful crimson 
flowers and its large smooth fruit, surmounted by a conspicuous 
calyx and often tinged tvdth a blush of red, make it a very pleas- 
ing object to the eye. It was natural, therefore, that artificial 



AGRICULTURE. 363 

pomegranates should be selected as ornaments for the high, 
priest's robe (Exod. 28 : 33, 34), and for the pillars of Solomon's 
temple (1 Kings 7 : 18 ; 2 Chron. 3 : 16), and that the bride's 
cheeks should be compared to a piece of pomegranate (Cant. 
4:3; 6:7). The fruit is about as large as an orange, divided 
into two portions by a horizontal diaphragm, the upper consist- 
ing of five to nine cells, and the lower of three cells. The nu- 
merous seeds are surrounded by a juicy pulp of a pleasant acid 
taste, and very refreshing. Allusion is made in Cant. 8 : 2 to a 
sort of sherbet or wine made from its juice. The tough astrin- 
gent rind abounds m tannin, and is used in the preparation of 
morocco. Accordmg to Thomson (vol. 2, p. 392), "the bitter 
juice of it stains everything it touches with an undefined but 
indehble blue." 

31. Of the tajojJuaJi of the Old Testament, rendered apple in 
our version, we have already spoken. See above Chap. 7, No. 
18. The almond-tree thrives throughout Syria and Palestine. 
Almonds are mentioned among the presents sent by Jacob to 
Egypt to propitiate " the man, the lord of the country " (Gen. 
43 : 11) ; and the rods of the princes of Israel were from the 
almond-tree. Numb. chap. 17. The fruit is too well known to 
need description. The branches of the golden lamp of the sanc- 
tuary were ornamented each with " three bowls made like unto 
almonds, with a knop and a flower." Exod. 25 : 33. 

The Hebrew name of the ahnond-tree signifies the waker, or the wake- 
ful; and it is the first to awake from the torpor of winter. It puts forth 
in January a profusion of blossoms before a single leaf has yet appeared. 
Hence it is made a symbol of God's loakeful vigilance in the execution of 
his threatenings : "Jeremiah, what seest thou ? And I said, I see a rod of 
an almond-tree. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen : for I 
will awake over my word to perform it." Jer. 1 : 11, 12. 

In the description of old age (Eccl. 12 : 5) we read that "they shall be 
afraid of that Avhich is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond- 
tree shall flourish, and the grasshojiper shall be a burden, and desire shall 
fail." The blossoming of the almond-tree (according to the rendering of 
the Seventy, the Syriac, and the Latin) has been commonly understood as 
a poetical description of the hoary head. The objection raised by modem 
scholars, that the flowers of the almond-tree are not white but rase-colored, 



364 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

can hardly be considered as vaHd. The flowers of the almond are indeed 
rose colored when fresh ; but they fade with age into white, as do those of 
other related species. They are not more roseate than those of the apple- 
tree ; yet these latter, when old, fall and cover the ground like flakes of 
snow. If the rendering of the Seventy be rejected, that proposed by Ge- 
senius, "The almond is rejected," namely, by the old man, notwithstand- 
ing its dehcious fruit, deserves perhaps the preference among modern 
interpretations. 

V. VARIOUS OTHER DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICUL- 
TURAL LABOR. 

32. Gardens and orchards have ever been the delight of the 
orientaiists. The Hebrew term rendered garden includes or- 
chards planted with choice trees of all kinds, and watered with 
fountains, according to the ability of their owners. In the hands 
of princes, hke Solomon, the garden swelled to the dimensions of 
a park f2^ardes, that is, paradise, a term including in itself the 
garden, the orchard, and the pleasure-gTound), where all things 
were collected that could delight the eye or regale the senses. 
Solomon had such parks in various choice places, as at En-gedi 
on the Dead sea, at Etam by the pools south of Jerusalem, and 
on the borders of Lebanon, where were spicery and trees of all 
kinds of fruit. Eccles. 2:4-6; Cant. 1 : 14 ; 4 : 12-16 ; 6 : 2, 11. 
From these princely "paradises" there was a descent through 
all gradations to the quiet enclosure planted with a few trees 
and shrubs, and containing, perhaps, a family sepulchre ; for the 
Jews had sometimes their sepulchres in gardens. 2 Kings 21 : 18 ; 
John 19: 41. 

The gardens and orchards surrounding Damascus, and watered every- 
where by streams brought from the ancient Abana and Pharpar, have been 
celebrated in all ages for the abundance and excellence of their frails. 
Similar gardens surround Joppa, Ramleh, and other places of the Medi- 
terranean plain where water can be commanded ; and the moderns have 
added many fruits unknown to the ancients. See above Chap. 3, Nos. 8 
and 9 ; Chap. 10, No. 16, seq. In view of these well- watered gardens and 
orchards, presenting a scene of perpetual verdure and fruitfulness, bow 
beautiful and forcible are the scriptural descriptions of the righteous man 
who puts his trust in God : " He shall be Hke a tree planted by the rivers 
of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall not 



AGKICULTUEE. 365 

wither ; and wliatsoever he doeth shall prosper " (Psa. 1:3; Jer. 17 : 8) ;. 
*' The Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, 
and make fat thy bones : and thou shalt be lilie a watered garden, and hke 
a spring of water, whose waters fail not." Isa. 58:11. The heavenly 
Jerusalem itself is a paradise Avatered by the river of water of hfe that 
flows out from the throne of God and the Lamb, on whose banks grows 
the tree of life with its perpetual harvest of fruit. The river, having its 
source in the throne of God, is eternal, and so are the trees of life which 
line its borders. Ezek. chap. 47 ; Kev. chap. 22. 

33. The balsam of the Old Testament (Tsori, rendered halm 
in our version) was manifestly a product of Gilead (Jer. 8 : 22 ; 
46 : 11), and apparently of Palestine proper also; though this is. 
not certain, since the balm mentioned in Gen. 43 : 11 ; Ezek. 
27 : 17, may have been obtained from Gilead. If now we are to 
understand by the word balm a smgle, definite product, it seems 
impossible to identify the balm of Gilead with the true opobalsa- 
miim of the ancients. The shrub that produced this was a native 
of Arabia, and capable of flourishing only in hot chmates, hke 
those about Jericho and En-gedi, to which places it seems to 
have been transplanted. We cannot suppose that it could grow 
on the mountains of Gilead. The opobalsamum flowed in small 
drops from incisions made with a sharp stone in the bark of the 
shrub. It was esteemed as a very precious substance by the 
ancients, but was not the balm that came from Gilead. This lat- 
ter was probably the myrobalanum, which is obtained from the 
nuts of a tree yet common in Gilead, and highly valued for its 
healing qualities. The tree is known to the Arabs as the zulc- 
J{um {Balanites cegyptica), and should not be confounded with the 
wild oHve {Eleagnus angustifoUus). It is a thorny tree of small 
size, bearing green nuts, having a small kernel and thick shell, 
covered with a thin flesh outside. These kernels the Arabs 
pound in a mortar, and then putting the pulp into scalding water 
skim oft' the oil ; or they grind them and press out the oil, as 
they do out of ohves. See the authorities and opinions in Wi- 
ner's Eealworterbuch, Art. Balsam ; Eosenmilller on Gen. 37 : 25 ; 
Eobinson, Bib. Kes., vol. 1, pp. 559, 560 ; Tristram's Land of 
Israel, pp. 202, 203, 559. 



366 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

RosenmiiUer and others object to the identification of the Hebrew bal- 
sam with the myrohalanum on the ground that the Hebrew name (Tsori) 
denotes, according to its etymology, something that distils, not that which is 
obtained by pressure. But we have here only a choice of difficulties, and 
those on the other side are the greatest. It may be, however, that the old 
Hebrew name was generic, in which case it might include the true opobal- 
samum obtained by the Ishmaelitish merchants from Ai'abia, as well as the 
native myrobalanum of Gilead. 

34. We have already spoken of the honey of grapes. No. 18 
above. But Palestine is emphatically the land of bees also, and 
true honey is often mentioned in the Scriptures. Judg. 14 : 8 ; 
1 Sam. 14:27; Psa. 19:10; Prov. 5:3; etc. The haunts of 
bees in their wild state were then, as now, the cavities of trees, 
the holes of rocks, and even the dried carcasses of animals. 
1 Sam. 14 : 27 ; Isa. 7 : 19 ; Judg. 14 : 8. That the care of bees 
was a part of the Hebrew husbandman's occupation we cannot 
doubt. Honey is mentioned as an article of traffic (Ezek. 21 : 17), 
where it may include the honey of grapes also. 

The food of John the Baptist in the wilderness was "locusts and wild 
honey." Matt. 3:4; Mark 1:6. Both these terms are to be taken lit- 
erally. "Wild honey abounded in the wilderness of Judea as weU as locusts, 
and both were to the Hebrew lawful articles of diet. See for the latter 
Lev. 11 : 22. 



CAKE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS. 867 



CHAPTEE XY. 

The Care of Flocks and Herds and Other 

Animals. 

1. The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were nomads — 
men whose chief possessions consisted in flocks and herds, who 
lived in tents, and who moved from place to place as the con- 
venience of pasturage required. Upon the descent of the Israel- 
ites into Egypt, in obedience to Joseph's instructions, they 
answered Pharaoh's question : " What is your occupation ?" 
" Thy servants are shepherds, both we, and also our fathers." 
Gen. 47 : 3. They used the word sJiepJierds in the wide sense, 
of those whose business is to tend flocks and herds; and on 
this ground their dwelling was assigned to them in the land of 
Goshen. Upon their return to Canaan, the tribes of Reuben 
and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh received their inherit- 
ance in Gilead and Bashan east of the Jordan, because they 
saw that "the place was a place for cattle." Numb. chap. 32. 

2. But it was not God's purpose that the covenant people 
should be a race of nomads, who must always stand, other 
things being equal, upon a lower plane of ci\alization and nation- 
ahty than an agricultural people with fixed abodes and the 
stable institutions connected with them. Nomadic tribes are 
essentially roving, for their pasture-grounds change with the 
changing seasons of the year. This we see illustrated in the 
case of the Hebrew patriarchs. We find Abraham at She- 
chem, then at Hai, then "going on still toward the south." 
From the south country he descends to Egypt : from Egypt he 
returns to the south country : thence he goes to Beth-el and Hai, 
and thence to Hebron. Afterwards we find him in Gerar and 
Beer-sheba. Gen. 12 : 6-10 ; 13 : 1-4, 18 ; 20 : 1 ; 21 : 31. Jacob, 
again, upon his return from Mesopotamia, comes to Shalem in 



368 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

front of Shecliem: thence he journeys to Beth-el, and after- 
wards to Hebron. Gen. 33 : 18 ; 35 : 1, 27. From Hebron, as a 
centre, his sons go with their father's flocks to Shechem, and 
thence to Dothan. Gen. 37:12-17. The roving character of 
nomads is illustrated on a magnificent scale in the case of the 
Arab tribes. Take, for an illustration, the powerful Anazeh 
Arabs, with their numerous divisions and sub-divisions, whose 
range is from Mesopotamia to the Jordan. They arrive from 
the east about the beginning of May, spreading themselves over 
the land like locusts, and their camels are now, as in olden 
times, "without number, as the sand by the seaside for multi- 
tude." Judg. 7 : 12, " At that season the whole country from 
the Jordan to the plains of Damascus is covered with them — 
their black tents pitched in circles near the fountains, and their 
flocks and herds roaming over hill and dale." . . . "When their 
flocks have either eaten up or trampled down the pastures of 
the Jaulan, the sheikh mounts his ^mare, waves his spear, and 
his ' children ' follow him to the lakes of Damascus, round which 
they encamp for the rest of the summer." Handbook for Syria 
and Palestine, pp. 437, 438. 

The roving life of the nomads makes it necessary that they 
dwell in tents, instead of houses. Some tents are of a circular 
form, resting on a single pole, but more commonly they are 
square, resting on several poles; those of the better class on 
nine, arranged in three rows. The covering consists of black 
cloth made of goat's hair, about a yard broad, laid parallel vidtli 
the tent's length and impervious to rain. It is secured in its 
place by tent-ropes fastened to tent-pins of hard wood driven 
firmly into the ground. It is only the emir or sheikh who can 
afford to have separate tents for his women. L'sually a single 
tent divided by curtains into two or more apartments accom- 
modates the whole family, and sometimes the lambs of the flock 
also. Grant (Nestorians, part 1, chap. 9) describes a Koordish 
tent about forty feet long by eighteen wide, of which about one 
fourth part was fenced off with a wicker treUis as a shelter for 
the lambs of the flock during the night. The furniture of a 



CARE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS. 369 

tent, even though it be of the better quahty, must be simple 
and hght compared with the appointments of a fixed abode; 
for both it and every tiling in it is subjected to perpetual remov- 
als.' "Mme age," said Hezekiah, "is departed, and is removed 
from me as a shepherd's tent." Isa. 38 : 12. 

It is customary for the chief to occupy a place in the centre of his peo- 
ple who pitch their tents around him in a circle or oval, or sometimes in 
the form of a square. In a large encampment many such groups may be 
seen, arranged according to the various divisions of the tribe ; and they 
present, with their black hair coverings, a veiy pleasing spectacle. "I am 
black, but comely," says the bride (Cant. 1:5), '' O ye daughters of Jerusa- 
lem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon." 

The wandering tent life of nomad tribes is incompatible with 
the existence of that stable character and those stable institu- 
tions- which are essential to true nationahty and civilization. 
Let one consider, for example, how impossible it would be to 
develop among them the institutions and character of ancient 
Kome or modern England. The hfe of a nomad impresses 
itself upon the very substance of his character. He is essen- 
tially a wanderer, to wiiom a fixed abode, with its ever recurring 
round of duties, is intolerably irksome. And it will be well if 
he is not a plunderer also ; for everything in the nomadic sys- 
tem favors predatory expeditions, and they have ever been a 
part of the history of nomadic tribes. 

The modern plundering incursions of the Arabs, which have reduced 
to a state of desolation so many fertile regions in and around Palestine, 
are but repetitions of what took place in olden times, when the Midianites, 
and the Amalekites, and the children of the east "came up with their 
cattle and their tents, and they came as gTasshoppers for multitude ; for 
both they and their camels were without number : and they entered into 
the land to destroy it" (Judg. 6:5); and when, at a later period, the 
Amalekites from the south captui'ed and burned Ziklag, and carried off 
everything in it (1 Sam. chap. 30). Nor were such incursions confined to 
the side of the heathen. We have a notice (1 Chron. 5 : 18-22) of an 
invasion made by the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan upon ' ' the 
Hagarites., with Jetur, and Naphish, and Nadab," in which they brought 
back as sj)oil "of their camels fifty thousand, and of sheep two hundred 
and fifty thousand, and of asses two thoTisand, and of men a hundred 
thousand." 

16* 



370 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

The wisdom of God, accordingly, appointed to his people 
a residence in an agricultural region, where with fixed abodes 
and hereditary possessions descending from father to son, the 
institutions of the theocracy might have their proper develop- 
ment; for though established in the Arabian desert, they iveyit 
into full operation only upon the settlement of the nation in 
Palestine. Nevertheless, the care of flocks and herds was an 
important branch of Hebrew industry, and the Scriptural refer- 
ences to pastoral Hfe are very numerous. 

3. We begin with the camel. This is emphatically the beast 
of the desert. It appears frequently in connection with the 
nomad tribes east and south of Palestine, but not prominently 
in the history of the Israelites, because after their settlement 
in Canaan they had but little occasion for its services. On 
his arrival at Hebron from the southern desert the traveller 
may, if he choose, exchange his camels for horses. Robinson, 
Bib. Ees., vol. 2, p. 208. The camel is not less obviously fitted 
by divine Providence for the arid deserts of Arabia and Africa, 
than is the polar bear for the arctic seas; and, unlike the 
latter animal, it renders to man the most important services, 
enabhtig the caravans to traverse regions that would be other- 
wise impassable. It is well known that the camel's paunch 
is furnished with membranous cells, which enable the animal 
to receive and retain an extra supply of water sufficient for 
four or more days ; while the fatty matter accumulated in the 
hump not only adapts the back to the reception of burdens, 
but contains also an extra store of nourishment which is taken 
into the system by absorption as occasion may require. " So 
well is the use of the hump understood in the East, that the 
condition of the animal is judged of, and its improvement after 
a long journey measured by it. It is not uncommon to see 
camels come in after long painful journeys, with backs almost 
straight, exhibiting but little if any hump." Major Wayne in 
the New Am. Cyclopaedia. The coarse and prickly shrubs of 
the desert are its favorite food, which it prefers to the tenderest 
herbage. "Hardly less wonderful," says Robinson (Bib. Res., 



i:are or flocks and herds. 371 

vol. 2, p. 209), "is the adaptation of their broad cushioned foot 
to the arid sands and gravelly soil, which it is their lot chiefly 
to travel." Many travellers have noticed the silence in which 
a train of these animals passes over rocky steeps, their feet 
being as soft as sponge or leather. "Admii-ably adapted to 
the desert regions which are their home, they yet constitute 
one of the evils which travelling in the desert brings with it. 
Their long, slow, rolling or rocking gait, although not at first 
very unpleasant, becomes exceedingly fatiguing ; so that I have 
often been more exhausted in riding five-and-twenty miles upon 
a camel, than in travelling fifty on horseback. Yet without 
them, how could such journeys be performed at all?" . . . "Their 
weU-known habit of lymg down upon the breast to receive their 
burdens, is not, as is often supposed, merely the result of train- 
ing ; it is an admirable adaptation of their nature to their des- 
tiny as carriers. This is their natural position of repose ; as is 
shown too by the callosities upon the joints of the legs, and 
especially by that upon the breast, which serves as a pedestal 
beneath the huge body," Eobinson, ubi supra. 

There are two species of camels, the Bacirian with two humps, and 
the common Arabian or one-humped. The Avord dromedary, that is, 
courset^ is frequently appHed to the Arabian camel in distinction from the 
Bactrian ; but, properly speaking, dromedaries are a variety of the Ara- 
bian camel distinguished for speed and used for travel, while those of 
stronger frame and slower pace are employed to carry burdens. The 
dromedary unites the speed of the thoroughbred horse with more endu- 
rance. Seven or eight miles an hour for nine or ten hours a day is said 
to be a common performance for the swiftest breed of dromedaries, and 
they sometimes attain the speed of ninety miles or more in twenty-four 
hours, but only for a day or two over level ground. The camel's flesh is 
said to be wholesome and palatable, and its milk is not inferior to that of 
the cow in either color or flavor. 

4. Flocks of sheep and goats constitute a large part of the 
wealth of the nomadic tribes. These, however, are a treasure 
not so pecuHar to them as the camel, but one that is shared also 
by those who live in fixed abodes. Yet it is true that the more 
desert and uncultivated parts of Palestine are 4hose in which 



372 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

this species of wealth most predominates. Bethlehem, for ex- 
ample, borders on the desert of Judaea, and here in this desert 
we find David tending his father's flocks. "With whom," asks 
Ehab scornfully, "hast thou left those few sheep in the wilder- 
ness ?" 1 Sam. 17 : 28. So Nabal, who had three thousand 
sheep, and a thousand goats, had his possessions in Carmel 
(the Carmel of Judaea south of Hebron), on the very edge of the 
same wilderness. 1 Sam., chap. 25. The slopes of Lebanon 
and of the Galilean hills, with their wild wadies covered with 
de'nse forests of oak aiid underwood, are also a favorite range 
for sheep and goats. Thomson, vol. 1, p. 299, seq. Large 
parts of Carmel, Bashan, and Gilead are now, as of old, covered 
with forests, and -these " at the proper seasons are ahve with 
coimtless flocks, which live upon the green leaves and tender 
branches." Ibid., p. 304. With allusion to these weU-known 
haunts of flocks the Lord promises that in the latter day his 
flocks "shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the 
woods" (Ezek. 34:25); and Micah says (chap. 7:14): "Feed 
thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage, which 
dwell sohtarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel : let them 
feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old." 

5. Besides the common sheep of Europe and America the 
so-called Syrian sheep is abundant in Palestine. This variety 
is remarkable for the extraordinary size of its tail, which is a 
broad flattish appendage "composed of a substance between 
marrow and fat, serving very often in the kitchen the place of 
butter, and cut into small pieces, makes an ingredient in various 
dishes." "The carcase of one of these sheep, without including 
the head, feet, entrails, and skin, generally weighs from fifty to 
sixty pounds, of which the tail makes up fifteen pounds ; but 
some of the largest breed, that have been fattened with care, 
will sometimes weigh one hundred and fifty pounds, the tail 
alone composing a third of the whole weight." Kitto quoted in 
Fairb aim's Bible Diet. The ordinary fold or cote is simply a 
yard under the open sky to protect the flocks against wild 
animals. It is •only when the nights are cold that they are put 



CAKE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS. 373 

under cover in low flat buildings erected in sheltered positions. 
The modern yards described by Thomson (vol. 1, p. 299) con- 
sist of wide stone walls, crowned all around with sharp thorns, 
or sunply of a stout palisade of tangled thorn-bushes. Shcep- 
shearings were occasions of great festivity, answering to the 
harvest and vintage of the husbandman. David rightly inferred 
from the fact that Nabal was shearing his flocks that he had 
on hand abundant stores of provisions, and was holding a feast 
in his house (1 Sam. chap. 25) ; and it was at a feast made by 
Absalom on a Hke occasion that Amnon was slain when his 
heart was merry with wine (2 Sam. 13:23, seq,). In Cant. 
4:2; G:6, icasJiing is noticed as preceding shearing. According 
to Jahn (Antiq., § 46), the sheep before shearing were collected 
into an uncovered inclosure (the sheep-cote of the Old Testa- 
ment), in order that the wool might be rendered finer by the 
sweating and evaporation, which necessarily result from the 
flock's being thus crowded together. 

6. Goats have ever been a valuable constituent of oriental 
flocks. The flesh of the adult is rank, and to the European 
unpalatable; but that of the kid is excellent. It was of two 
kids of the goats that Eebckah made the "savory meat" with 
which Jacob deceived his father. Gen. 27 : 9, 14. Goafs milk, 
as all know, is preeminently rich and excellent ; and it is men- 
tioned in the Book of Proverbs (chap. 27 : 27) as an important 
article of food, as it is at the present day : " Thou sliait have 
goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy houseliold, 
and for the maintenance of thy maidens." Among the nomads 
butter and cheese are made of goats' and sheep's milk. The 
favorite Arab dish called lehen, made of sour curdled milk, is 
largely prepared from the milk of the goat. From the hair of 
goats curtains were made in ancient times as they are now 
(Exod. 25:4; 26:7; 1 Sam. 19:13; etc.); and it is weU-known 
that from the hair of certain kinds of goats a very fine and 
durable fabric — the true Cashmere shawl — is prepared. Finally, 
from the skins of goats not only is leather made, but also bottles 
are formed in which the orientals keep their water, milk, wine, 



374 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

and other liquids. When the animal is killed they cut off the 
head and feet and then draw off the skin entire, using the neck 
for the mouth of the bottle, and sewing up the other apertures, 
or leaving one leg to serve as a nozzle. The great leathern 
bottles are made of the skin of full-grown he-goats ; the smaller 
of kids' skins. 

To these leathern bottles there are many allusions in Scripture, some 
of which would be unintelligible to one acquainted only with our modern 
glass bottles. Abraham gave Hagar a bottle of water, "putting it on her 
shoulder," a common way of carrying such bottles "at the present time 
(Gen. 21 : 14) ; Jael opened a bottle of milk for Sisera, which was done by 
untying the mouth (Judg. 4:19); the Gibeonites took wine-bottles "old, 
and rent, and bound up" (Josh. 9:4); new wine must be put into new 
bottles, "else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spiUed" 
(Mark 2 : 22). Earthen bottles were also in common use, which might be 
broken in pieces by a blow. Isa. 30 : 14, margin ; Jer. 19 : 1, 10, 11. 

Ring-streaked, spotted, and speckled goats are common enough at the 
present day ; but Jacob's artifice for multiplying animals of these colors 
(Gen. 30 : 37-42) does not appear to have possessed, in and of itself, a 
natural efficiency. We must rather regard it as a means through which 
God was pleased to exert liis divine efficiency. 

7. Flocks of sheep and goats always imply the presence of 
the shepherd. The shepherd and his flock are related to each 
other as the ruler and his people. Without the shepherd the 
flock is helpless, wandering on lonely mountains and in wild 
ravines'and thickets a prey to robbers and wild beasts, or per- 
ishing in deserts for want of water and pasturage. The faithful 
shepherd remains in the fold at night armed for the defence of 
his charge. " Though there are no lions here [in Palestine and 
the slopes of Lebanon] there are wolves in abundance; and 
leopards and panthers, exceeding fierce, prowl about these wild 
wadies." . . . "And when the thief and the robber come (and 
come they do), the faithful shepherd has often to put his life 
in his hand to defend his flock." Thomson, vol. 1, p. 302. In 
the morning he leads forth his flocks, going before them and 
guiding them with his rod (Psa. 23 : 4 ; Micah 7 : 14), calling 
them to himself with his well-known voice, conducting them to 



CAKE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS. 375 

green pastures and still waters, going in search of wanderers, 
and often carrying the lambs in his bosom. In the estimation 
of the orientals the shepherd's employment is one of dignity. 
We need not be surprised, therefore, when we find in ancient 
times, the daughters of princes and men of wealth tending their 
fathers' flocks. Gen. 29:6; Exod. 2 : 16. 

The shepherd's 7'od is a long wand with a crook at the end, by placing 
which around the shoulders of an animal he can check and guide it at his 
will. The sheep are ' ' so trained that they follow their leader with the 
utmost docihty. He leads them forth from the fold, or from the houses 
in the villages just where he pleases. As there are many flocks in such a 
place as this, each one takes a different path, and it is his business to find 
pasture for them." . . . "The shepherd calls sharply from time to time to 
remind them of his presence. They know his voice, and follow on ; but, 
if a stranger caU, they stop short, hft up their heads in alarm, and if it is 
repeated, they turn and flee, because they know not the voice of a stranger. 
This is not the fanciful costume of a parable ; it is a simple fact. I have 
made the experiment repeatedly." Thomson, vol. 1, p. 301. The oriental 
shepherds, moreover, have names for the individuals of their flock, at 
least for all that have been long in their jpossession, and to these they 
promptly answer by running up to the shepherd. See in Smith's Bible 
Diet., Art. Sheep; also Thomson, ubi supra. 

8. The figurative use of the term sJiepherd to denote the ruler 
of a peojjle is so natural that we need not be surprised at its 
early use in Grecian poetry. In Homer the kings are commonly 
designated as the slieplierds of the people. So David, in pleading 
with the Lord to spare his people, says : " Lo, I have sinned, 
and I have done wickedly: but these sheep, what have they 
done?" 2 Sam. 24:17. Jacob, himself a shepherd by bhth, 
under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, first apphed the term 
shepherd to Jehovah, calling him " the Shepherd, the Kock of 
Israel." Gen. 49 : 24. For more than six centuries aftei^^ards, 
we find no echo of that noble figure, till another shepherd, " the 
sweet psalmist of Israel," arose, who sang: "The Lord is my 
Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in 
green pastures : he leadeth me beside the still waters." Psa. 
23 : 1, 2. From that day to the present the terms shepherd and 



376 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

sheep liave been consecrated to express tlie relation of Jehovah 
under the old covenant, and the Saviour under the new, to his 
people. Our Lord Jesus is "that great Shepherd of the sheep" 
which he "purchased with his own blood." He is the good 
Shepherd who "calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth 
them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth 
before them, and the sheep follow him : for they know his voice. 
And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from liim : for 
they know not the voice of strangers." Psa. 80 : 1 ; 95 : 7 ; 
100:3; Isa. 40:11; Ezek., chap. 34; Zech. 13:7; Heb. 13:20; 
Acts 20 : 28 ; John 10 : 1, seq. In like manner his servants whom 
he has set over the flock of God are under-slieplierds, and the 
Latin word ]3asior-, that is, shepherd, has become the current 
designation of them. It is their business, in humble imitation 
of "the chief shepherd," not to feed themselves but the flocks; 
to strengthen the diseased, to heal the sick, to bind up the 
broken, to bring back the driven away, and to seek out the lost. 
Ezek. 34: 2-4. 

9. Neat-cattle, though not excluded from the possessions of 
the nomads, belong rather to agricultural regions. Sheep and 
goats, if supplied with green herbage, can dispense with water, 
but not so oxen and cows. Then, again, these latter are sub- 
jected to the yoke and employed in ploughing and also for 
draught. Their flesh furnishes food, their skins leather, and 
their milk is an important article of diet. On the domestication 
and use of the buffalo throughout the East see above, Chap. 7, 
No. 24. The bulls of Bashan may have been these very ani- 
mals. 

The Hebrews have a term [lialcibh] ior milk, by which is more com- 
monly, but not always, meant fresh sweet milk. Another term [hem-ali) is 
rendered in our version huiier (Gen. 18 : 8 ; Deut. 32 : 14 ; Judg. 5 : 25 ; 
2 Sam. 17 : 29 ; Job 20 : 17 ; Isa. 7 : 15, 22 ; Prov. 30 : 33) ; but it includes, 
apparently, curdled milk in its yet fluid or semi-fluid state (Judg. 5 : 25), 
curd and butter. The common butter of the orientals, which is ordina- 
rily made by suspending a goat-skin partly filled mtli milk, and swinging 
it regularly to and fro mth a jerking motion, is a semi-fluid substance, of 
which Thomson says (vol. 1, p. 393): "When the butter 'has come,' they 



CARE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS. 377 

take it out, boil or melt it, and then put it in hot lies made of goats' skins. 
In winter it resembles candied honey, in summer it is mere oil." "Some 
of the farmers," he adds, "have learned to make our kind of butter, but 
it soon becomes rancid, and, indeed, is never good." Yet Robinson, on 
one occasion, speaks of butte;- of excellent quahty obtained at Beitm (the 
ancient Beth-el), "which might have done honor to the days when the 
flocks of Abraham and Jacob were j^astured on these hiUs. It was indeed 
the finest we found anywhere in Palestine." Bib. Res., vol. 1, p. 449. 
Cheese is simply comj)ressed curd, which may be in a softer or a harder 
state. The ten slices of milk which Jesse directed David to carry to the 
camp (1 Sam. 17 : 18), are plainly slices of coagulated milk, tliat is, cheese, 
probably cut into due shape and size at the time of making. In Proverbs 
30 : 33 the pressing or irringing of milk (as the Hebrew reads) is probably 
another mode of churning by the rej)eated pressing and wringing of the 
goat-skin containing the milk. See Thomson, vol. 1, p. 393. 

10. Fountains of running water, and where these are wanting, 
wells and cisterns are indispensable to all who have the care of 
flocks and herds. We who live in this western world so abun- 
dantly watered all the year round by the hand of nature, and 
which is, more emphatically than Palestine, "a land of brooks 
of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of valleys and 
hills," can form but a feeble idea of the preciousness of water 
in eastern countries, particularly in the desert tracts of Palestine 
and the adjacent regions, where the few perennial streams and 
fountains are all named and their position carefully noted, since 
the life of the traveller often depends on his ability to reach 
them within a given period of time. When Job would express 
(chap. 6:15-20) the bitterness of his disappointment in not 
receiving from his fiiends that consolation which they ought 
to have administered, he compares them to brooks of water 
which dry up and vanish in the hot season, thus deceiving the 
thirsty traveller to his destruction. "The troops of Tenia 
looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them. They were 
confounded because they had hoped ; they came thither and 
were ashamed." Tlie Hfe of Hagar and Ishmael in the wilder- 
ness of Beer-sheba hung upon the discovery of a weU of water 
as has that of many an eastern wanderer since her day. Gen. 
21 : 19. In the history of ancient pastoral life we find the flocks 



378 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

and herds gathered, as they are at the present day, around the 
wells, which are provided with troughs of stone for watering 
them. Gen. 24:20; 29:2, seq.; Exod. 2:15, 16. The patri- 
archs Abraham and Isaac digged wells for their flocks and 
herds, and the high value attached to them is manifest from the 
strifes of which they were the occasion. Gen. 21 : 30 ; 26 : 15-22. 
At Beer-sheba are two very ancient wells. Chap. 2, No. 50. 
The explanation is that when the Philistines, through envy, had 
stopped the well digged there by Abraham (Gen. 21 : 30, 31 ; 
26 : 14, 15), Isaac digged another (Gen. 26 : 32, 33), while after- 
wards the earher well was reopened. Another common mode 
of providing water for the use of man and beast was the digging 
of cisterns. The pit into which Joseph was cast in Dothan was 
manifestly an empty cistern. "It could not have been difficult," 
says Eobinson (Bib. Kes., vol. 3, p. 122), "for Joseph's brethren 
to find an empty cistern, in which to secure him. Ancient 
cisterns are very common, even now, along the roads and else- 
where ; and many villages are supphed only with rain water." 
u Ti^ere are," says Thomson (vol. 1, p. 442), " thousands of these 
ancient cisterns in Upper Galilee, where Josephus says there 
were two hundred and forty cities in his day, and the site of 
every one was pierced Hke a honey-comb with them. One 
should always be on his guard while exploring these old sites, 
especially if they are overgrown with grass and weeds." Such 
empty cisterns were also used for prisons (Jer. 38 : 6, seq.; Lam. 
3 : 53 ; Psa. 69 : 14, 15) ; but the dungeon in which Joseph was 
confined in Egypt was an underground prison. Gen. 39 : 20 ; 
40:15. 

In Palestine cisterns are commonly hewn in tlie soft limestone rock. 
*'Yet even those in solid rock, are strangely liable to crack," by earth- 
quakes and other casualties, "and are a most unreliable source of supply 
of that indispensable article, water. Thomson, vol. 1, p. 443. "On the 
long forgotten way from Jericho to Bethel 'broken cisterns' of high 
antiquity are found at regular intervals." Robinson, Bib. Bes., vol. 1, 
p. 325. Such "broken cisterns" aptly represent the folly of those who 
forsake the living God for earthly confidences : "My people," says Jeho- 
vah, "have committed two evils ; they have forsaken me, the fountain of 



CAKE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS. 379 

living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold 
no water." Jer. 2 : 13. 

11. Asses male and female are mentioned among the posses- 
sions of Abraham and Jacob (Gen. 12:16; 30:43), and often 
afterwards in the history of the Hebrew people. In the East 
the ass is a most serviceable animal, being used both for the 
saddle and as a beast of burden. He is especially adapted to 
rough mountainous regions, being hard-hoofed, sure-footed, pa- 
tient and enduring, capable of living on much less food than 
the horse, and carrying heavier loads without breaking down 
under them. "Issachar," says the dying patriarch in prophetic 
vision (Gen. 49:14), "is a strong ass bowing down between 
two burdens" — two panniers suspended from his back one on 
each side. In no more striking language could the patient 
drudging of Issachar's descendants have been described; for 
the ass has been from time immemorial the drudge of man. An 
ass "lying under his burden" crushed to the earth (Exod. 23 : 5) 
is as common a sight now as anciently, and the poor brute is 
oftener met with blows, than with a helping hand. Asses were 
also used for the saddle. Abraham the father of the faithful, 
Balaam the prophet of Mesopotamia, and Ahithophel David's 
counselor rode on this animal. Gen. 22 : 3 ; Numb. 22 : 21, seq.; 
2 Sam. 17 : 23. Jair and Abdon, judges of Israel, had sons and 
daughters who rode on ass-colts. Judg. 10 : 3, 4 ; 12 : 13, 14. 
There w^as anciently in the East, as there is now, a breed of 
white asses (not necessarily pure white but rather light red- 
dish white) which was liighly esteemed for riding and used 
by persons of distinction. Judg. 5 : 10. In the days of David 
m^des appeared for the first time (in Gen. 36:24 the "mules" 
of our version are probably hot sjjrin'gs) as saddle beasts for 
himself and his sons (2 Sam. 13 : 29 ; 18 : 9 ; 1 Kings 1 : 33), and 
we find them from this time onward among the regular appoint- 
ments of a king's household. 1 Kings 10:25; 18:5. Our 
Saviour entered Jerusalem riding not on a horse, the symbol 
of outward pomp and war, but on the ancestral beast of the 
Hebrew people. Matt. 21 : 1-9 ; Mark 11 : 1-10 ; Luke 19 : 29-38 ; 



380 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

John 12 : 14-16. This was not a mark of degradation ; but it 
did set him forth as the promised king of Israel, himseK meek 
and lowly, and coming in a lowly outward condition, in shai-p 
contrast with the Jewish idea of the Messiah. According to 
this view only was the transaction a fulfilment of the ancient 
prophecy concerning him (Zech. 9:9): " Eejoice greatly, 
daughter of Zion : shout, O daughter of Jerusalem : behold, thy 
King Cometh unto thee : he is just, and having salvation ; lowly 
[or "afflicted"], and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the 
foal of an ass." 

The icild ass mentioned by Job and other sacred writers as an inhab- 
itants of the wilderness (Job 24 : 5 ; 39 : 5-8 ; Psa. 104 : 11 ; Isa. 32 : 14 ; 
Jer. 2 : 24 ; Jer. 14 : 6 ; Dan. 5 : 21 ; Hosea 8:9), and described by Xen- 
ophon (Anabasis 1, 5), is common in the deserts of Assyria and the neigh- 
boring regions. ''In fleetness they equal the gazelle, and to overtake 
them is a feat which only one or two of the most celebrated mares have 
been able to accomplish." Layard quoted in Smith's Bible Diet. Whether 
this wild ass is or is not the original of tlie domestic animal is a question 
not yet settled. 

12. Horses are first mentioned in the history of Joseph. He 
gave the Egyptians bread in exchange for horses and other 
animals. Gen. 47 : 17. The horse was very early used in war, 
wherever the nature of the country permitted, especially in 
chariot warfare; but never for agricultural purposes. As the 
horses of the ancients were not shod, firmness of hoof was a 
quality of prime importance. Of the Assyrian invaders Isaiah 
says: "Their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint." From 
the mountainous nature of their country the Hebrews could not 
make much use of horses in war. Moses forbade the future 
kings of Israel to multiply horses, lest a desire of returning to 
that country should thu"S be awakened, for the horses of the 
Israehtes came from Egypt (Deut. 17:16; 1 Kings 10 : 28 ; etc.) ; 
probably also as a precaution against regal luxury and ostenta- 
tion, since there follows immediately a caution against the mul- 
tiplication of wives and silver and gold in the royal establish- 
ment. Deut. 17 : 17. 

13. "We add, as a sort of appendix to this chapter, a few words 



CAEE OF FLOCKS AND HERDS. 381 

respecting hunting and fishing. The chase was a favorite pas- 
time of the oriental monarchs. To this the Assyrian tablets, as 
well as the ancient historians, bear abundant testimony. But 
hunting as a simple sport did not suit the grave and earnest 
spmt of the Hebrews. Of hunting and fowhng for food we 
have frequent notices (Gen. 27:3, seq.; 1 Sam. 26:20; Prov. 
6:5; 12 : 27 ; Jer. 5 : 26, 27 ; Hosea 9:8); but the .chief encoun- 
ters of the Hebrews with wild beasts were in defence of their 
flocks, and to these we find many allusions in the Old Testa- 
ment. David recounts before Saul his adventures with a lion 
and a bear (1 Sam. 17 : 3tU36), and the prophets describe with 
Homeric vividness the assault of the lion upon the sheep-fold : 
" Like as the hon and the young Hon roaring on his prey, when 
a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not 
be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them : 
so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion, 
and for the hill thereof " (Isa. 31 : 4) ; " The remnant of Jacob 
shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a 
hon among the beasts of the forest, as a young Hon among the 
flocks of the sheep : who, if he go through, both treadeth down, 
and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver" (Micah 5:8). The 
flocks were also exposed to the ravages of leopards and wolves, 
as they are now, in some parts of Syria and Palestine. 

The mode of hunting, where the use of fire-arms is unknown, is essen- 
tially the same in all ages and countries. The larger animals were ancient- 
ly hunted down in the chase, and despatched with arrows and spears, or 
they were taken in pits over which a thin covering had been spread, and 
sometimes in nets, or in the two combined. Isa. 51 : 20 ; Ezek. 19 : 4, 8 ; 
Psa. 35 : 7. The lion slain in a sno^vy day by Benaiah in a well^ or cistern 
as the Hebrew reads (2 Sam. 23:20; 1 Chron. 11:22), appears to have 
fallen into the cistern when its mouth was concealed by the snow. The 
less powerful animals, and especially bii'ds, were taken in traps, nets, and 
snares ; and to these there are numerous allusions in Scripture. Job 
18 : 8-10 ; 19 : 6 ; Psa. 9 : 15 ; 10 : 9 ; 91 : 3 ; 124 : 7 ; 140 : 5 ; 142 : 3 ; Prov. 
7 : 23 ; Eccles. 9 : 12 ; etc. 

The modes of fishing are so much ahke in all places and 
ages that this department of Hebrew industry needs no particu- 



382 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

lar illustration. Fish were taken as now, with liooks (Job 41 : 1 ; 
Isa. 19 : 8 ; Hab. 1 : 15 ; Matt. 17 : 27), fish-spears (Job 41 : 7), and 
in nets (Eccles. 9 : 12 ; Isa. 19 : 8 ; Hab. 1 : 15 ; Matt. 4 : 18 ; etc.). 
The Nile was famous for its fisheries, to which there are frequent 
allusions in the Old Testament. Exod. 7 : 18, 21 ; Numb. 11 : 5 ; 
Psa. 105:29; Isa. 19:8; Ezek. 29:4, 5. The sea of Galilee, 
'aboundmg as ,it did in fish of a fine quahty, afforded employ- 
ment to a race of hardy fishermen, several of whom were called 
by our Lord to be his apostles, and thus made fishers of men. 
Mark 1 : 17. The fish of this sea remain, but the fishing-boats 
that anciently covered its surface have disappeared; and now 
the fishermen cast their nets from the shore, or they wade out 
into the water. 

Of domestic birds no mention is made in the Old Testament. But m 
the Saviour's day hens were common in Palestine. 



HOUSES AND THEIR APPOINTMENTS. 383 



CHAPTEE XYI. 

Houses and their Appointments. 

1. Caves abound in the limestone formation of Palestine. 
The region about En-gedi is full of caverns, which serve as a ref- 
uge for robbers and outlaws. Underground rooms also furnish 
to the inhabitants of some regions, as those about Bagdad and 
Mosul, a retreat from the heat of summer. Robinson describes 
a system of subterranean apartments in the vicinity of Eleuthe- 
ropolis which were evidently designed as residences. We must 
not suppose, however, that the Hebrews ever made caves their 
dwelling-places, except temporarily in times of necessity. Judg. 
6:2; 1 Sam. 13:6; Isa. 2:19-21; Heb. 11:38. The Horites 
(that is, cave-dicellers, called by the Greeks troglodytes) were an 
earlier race dweUing in Mount Seu% and dispossessed by the 
Edomites. Gen. 14 : 6 ; Deut. 2 : 22. Their excavated dwell- 
ings still remain in the sandstone chffs and mountams of Edom. 
The cave-dwellings in the south of Palestine may have belonged 
to them, or more probably to the Avim, who were one of the 
early, if not aboriginal tribes, of this region before the arrival of 
the Phihstines. Deut. 2 : 23. o^ 

2. A sharp distinction should be made between the humble 
huts m which so many thousands of the poor reside, and regular 
oriental houses. yThe dwellings of the poor are mere huts of 
mud or unbumt bricks, of one story only, and often containing 
but a single apartment ; the whole covered with a roof formed of a 
plaster of mud and straw laid upon boughs or rafters, or perhaps 
simply of dry cornstalks and straw. " Sometimes a small court 
for the cattle is attached ; and in some cases the cattle are housed 
in the same building, or the people live on a raised platform, and 
the cattle round them on the ground." .... "In Lower Egypt 
the oxen occupy the width of the chamber farthest from the 



384 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

entrance; it is built of brick or mud, about four feet high, and 
the top is often used as a sleeping place in winter." See Smith's 
Bible Diet, and the authorities there quoted. These mud-huts 
need constant repair; otherwise they soon crumble to a shape- 
less mass under the power of the weather. 

3. The general plan of an ancient oriental house may be gath- 
ered with much certainty from the Egyptian and Assyrian mon- 
uments, from the notices of ancient writers, sacred and profane, 
and especially from the modern houses of Palestine and the ad- 
jacent regions ; for in this respect, as well as others, the eastern 
nations are very tenacious of their ancestral usages. " When a 
traveller in Palestine describes a house of the present day, he 
describes very much what existed in the age of our Lord, or in 
still more ancient times. The climate, which is one great cause 
of the architectural arrangements of different countries, is the 
same, and the unchanging habits of the East have always been 
proverbial." Fairb aim's Bible Diet., Art. House. The primary 
idea of an oriental home is comfort aUe seclusion. Hence its plan 
differs essentially from that of our western houses. It is a build- 
ing or series of buildings around an open court or range of courts 
communicating with each other ; so that we may say, in an im- 
portant sense, that it fronts imvarclly. The exterior of a dwell- 
ing-house, even of the better kind, presents a blank and mean 
appearance, being relieved only by the door and a few latticed 
and projecting windows set high up in the wall. It is a parallel- 
ogram of dull gray walls, with only a single entrance. Hence a 
street of such houses, itself narrow, crooked, and filthy, presents 
a gloomy and forbidding appearance. The doorway or gate is in 
the middle of the front side of the house. It is sometimes richly 
ornamented, but is generally mean in appearance, even when 
leading to a sumptuous dwelling. The Hebrews regarded orna- 
mental display here as a mark of vanity displeasing to God. 
" He that exalteth his gate," says the wise man (Prov. 17 : 19), 
" seeketh destruction." What men do in these western regions 
by the general style of the house, the ostentatious orientahst 
accomphshed by exalting his gate. " The passage from the door- 



HOUSES AND THEIK APPOINTMENTS. 385 

way into tlie court is usually so contrived that no view can be. 
had from the street into it ; this is sometimes done by the erec- 
tion of a wall, or by giving a turn to the passage that leads into 
the court." Fairbairn's Diet, as above. The passage from the 
gateway into the court is usually furnished with seats for the 
porter and other servants. 

This gateway (Greek pulon) is called in our version the porch. Matt. 
26 : 71 ; Mark 14 : 68. The porch through which Ehud i3assed after slaying 
Eglon (Judg. 3 : 23) was an internal gallery or balcony fronting on the court, 
from the rear of which there was access to the summer parlor. See below 
No. 10. Elsewhere the porch. (Greek sioa) is an external portico. John 
10 : 23 ; Acts 3 : 11 ; 5 : 12. But the true porch was an anteroom or vesti- 
bule to the building proper, as in the case of Solomon's temple. Such 
porches supported by pillars were not uncommon in Egyptian houses, but 
they did not belong to the ordinary houses of Palestine. 

4. The gateway conducts to the court or courts around which 
the different apartments of the house are built and into which 
they open. The number of these courts varies from one to three, 
and in some of the best houses of Damascus there are said to be 
seven. Large buildings, such as convents, follow the same gen- 
eral plan. Eobinson says of the convent of Mount Sinai (vol 1, 
p. 92) : " The space enclosed within the walls is cut up into a 
number of small courts, by various ranges of buildings running 
in all directions, forming quite a labyrinth of narrow winding 
passages ascending and descending." The court is open to the 
air above, with the exception that an awnmg is sometimes draTMi 
over it. In houses of the better quahty the courts are paved 
with marble, adorned with fountains, often with trees, shrubs, 
and flowers, particularly the interior courts where there is more 
than one, and compassed round with divans and splendid apart- 
ments. Robinson (ubi supra) describes little courts of the Sinai 
convent as ornamented with a cypress or other small trees, and 
beds of flowers and vegetables ; and in the inner court of a house 
at Damascus were " two immense tanks of lowing water, and 
also two smaller ones. In the court was a profusion of trees 
and flowering shrubs, the orange, citron, and the like." Bib. 
Res., vol. 3, pp. 455, 456. In the court wells were also dug, 

Ouos. 4 Antiq. 17 



386 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

wlien occasion required, and cisterns excavated. 2 Sam. 17 : 18 ; 
Jer. 38 : 6. 

The courts of private dweUings, palaces, etc. , wliicli were, as we have 
seen, witlim the enclosure of the building, must be distinguished from the 
court of the tabernacle and those of the temple, which were wiikout the 
temple proper. The Psalmist says (Psa. 52 : 8) : "I am hke a green olive- 
tree in the house of God ;" and (Psa. 92 : 13) : " Those that be planted in 
the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." There can- 
not be in these words any allusion to trees literally planted in the courts of 
the tabernacle or temple ; for such a custom never prevailed. The house 
of God here is not his outward material sanctuary, but that which this 
sanctuary shadows forth, his spiritual presence and favor. Within this 
spiritual house, not made with hands, the righteous man flourishes, lil^e an 
oUve-tree or a palm-tree planted in the court of an oriental monarch, and 
watered from its ever-flowing fountains. 

5. Let us now examine one of the better class of houses fur- 
nished with a single court or with two courts. Taking our stand 
in the outer court, we see around part of it, if not the whole, a 
verandah, often nine or ten feet deep, with apartments opening 
into it. If there be more than one story, we see over this veran- 
dah a gallery of like depth protected in front by a balustrade, 
the apartments of the second floor opening into this gallery, as 
those of the first do into the verandah. Shaw's Travels in Bar- 
bary, chap. 3, sect. 5. According to the various uses assigned to 
the rooms around the court, they are open in front, or are en- 
tered by doors. The rooms around the court differ in number 
and quahty according to the character of the house. When there 
is more than one story, the best rooms are above, the ground 
floor being appropriated to storerooms and the daily uses of 
the family. When the house has an inner court, it is generally 
of a larger size and more elaborately finished. Here the mas- 
ter of the house has his private apartments, and here are the 
moms for the women and children carefully guarded from all 
intrusion. In general the orientals prefer a single ground floor, 
to which in the country sheds for cattle and stables for horses 
are not unfrequently attached ; but in cities houses of three or 
more stories are common. When Tristram entered Hebron, he 



HOUSES AND THEIK APPOINTMENTS. 387 

was conducted through dark ruined passages and up broken 
staircases, till up the fourth flight of stone steps he found the 
sheikh of whom he was in search in bed in a vaulted chamber. 
Land of Israel, p. 389. Cellars for storage are also found under 
the better class of houses. 

6. In the rear of the court or on one side of it is the rccejjiio^i- 
room, where visitors are received by the master of the house. 
" It is often open in front, and supported in the centre by a pil- 
lar. It is generally on the ground floor, but raised above the 
level." Fairbaim's Bible Diet. AU the circumstances of the 
evangehc narrative agree with the supposition that this was the 
room in the high priest's palace where Jesus was arraigned. It 
w^as open in front, and not much raised above the pavement of 
the court w^here Peter was "without in the palace" warming 
himseK by the fire ; so that Peter could see the Saviour, and the 
Saviour could turn and look upon Peter. Luke 22 : 61. The 
whole situation is well described by Eobinson (Harmony of the 
Gospels, § 144) : " An oriental house is usually built around a 
quadrangular interior court ; into which there is a passage (some- 
times arched) through the front part of the house, closed next 
the street by a heavy folding gate, with a small wdcket for single 
persons, kept by a porter. In the text" (Matt. 26 : 57, 58, 69-75 
and the parallel passages) "the interior court, often paved or 
flagged, and open to the sky is the hall (aule, Luke 22 : 55) where 
the attendants made a fire ; and the passage beneath the front 
of the house, from the street to this court, is the j)orch'' {proau- 
lion or pid'on, Matt. 26 : 71 ; Mark 14 : 68). " The place when^ 
Jesus stood before the high priest, may have been an open I'oom 
or place of audience on the ground-floor, in the rear or on one 
side of the court ; such rooms, open in front, being customary. 
It was close upon the court ; for Jesus heard all that was going 
on around the fire, and turned and looked upon Peter. Luke 
22 : 61." That it was in such a room that our Lord ate his last 
passover with his disciples is more doubtful. It is called simply 
a large chamber (Greek dnagaion, a term used only in the present 
connection, Mark 14 : 15 ; Luke 22 : 12), which is not necessarily 



388 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

identical with either the room just described or the upper cJiam- 
her on the roof (/mperodn, see below). Oriental houses are also 
furnished with guest chambers fitted up in the best style which 
the means of their owners w^ill allow^ ; often paved with marble 
or colored tiles, with a fountain in the centre, and a raised plat- 
form {divan) on each of three sides, wdth mattresses and cush- 
ions at the back. In addition to this the ceilings are often richly 
panelled and ornamented. There are usually no special bed- 
rooms in eastern houses. A low divan raised round the sides of 
the room serves for seats by day and for sleeping by night. It 
should be noticed that the corner of the divan is the place of 
honor, which the master never quits in receiving strangers. 

7. From the court to the roof or upper stories there are 
sometimes two flights of stairs ; but from the galleries upward 
a single flight generally suffices. Jehu was proclaimed king on 
the top of the stairs, w^liere those assembled in the court below 
could witness the transaction. 2 Kings 9 : 13. It is only in the 
humblest class of dwellings that the roof is reached by a ladder 
from the outside. The luindoivs are without glass, but have a 
lattice which can be opened or shut at pleasure. This furnishes 
fresh air, while it shelters those within from the sun. Most of 
the windows look into the court within the house ; but one or 
more open outwardly, projecting considerably beyond the lower 
part of the building, so as to overhang the street. When the 
lattice is closed those within can look out without being them- 
selves visible. Judg. 5 : 28 ; 2 Sam. 6 : 16. When Jezebel 
" painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a mn- 
dow " (2 Kings 9 : 30), the window was manifestly open. Through 
this the eunuchs within looked out to Jehu, and at his command 
threw down their mistress. The chamber in Daniel's palace at 
Babylon had several windows, which he left open wiien he 
prayed, that his acts of worship might not be concealed. Dan. 
6 : 10. " The projecting nature of the wmdow, and the fact that 
a divan or raised seat encircles the interior of each, so that usu- 
ally persons sitting in the window are seated close to the aper- 
ture, explains how Ahaziah may have fallen through the lattice 



HOUSES AND TIIEIK APPOINTMENTS. 389 

of his upper chamber (2 Kings 1:2), and Eutjchus from his 
window-seat (Acts 20 : 9), especially if the lattices were open at 
the time." Fairbairn's Bible Diet. 

8. The roofs of oriental houses are flat and made of various 
materials. " The flat roofs of the houses in this region [Leba- 
non] are constructed," says Robinson (Bib. Res. 3, p. 39), "by 
lajdng, first, large beams at intervals of several feet ; then rude 
joists ; on which again are arranged small poles close together, 
or brushwood; and upon this is spread earth or gravel rolled 
hard. This Tolling is often repeated, especially after rain ; for 
these roofs are apt to leak. For this purpose a roller of stone is 
kept ready for use on the roof of every house. Grass is often 
seen growing on these roofs ;" and again (p. 44) : " The roof was 
of the usual kind, supported by iTide props. It rained heavily 
during the night; and the Avater found its way through upon 
us. Quite early in the morning we heard our host at work roll- 
ing the roof; and saw the same process going on with other 
houses. Goats, also, were cropping the grass growing on sev- 
eral roofs." Similar is Thomson's description (vol. 2, p. 7) : " The 
materials now employed are beams about three feet apart, across 
wliich short sticks are arranged close together, and covered mth 
the thickly matted thorn-bush called hellan. Over this is spread 
a coat of stiff mortar, and then comes the marl or earth which 
makes the roof." Roofs of an inferior kind are formed of palm- 
leaves, cornstallvs, reeds, etc., covered with a layer of earth. These 
flat earthen roofs furnish, as the above accounts show, but a 
poor protection against a heavy rain-storm. They soon become 
thoroughly soaked through, and begin to drip upon those under- 
neath. "This continual dropping — tuk, tuk — all day and all 
night, is the most annoying thing in the world, unless it be the 
ceaseless clatter of a contentious woman." Thomson, vol. 1, 
p. 453. It is to this " continual dropping" of water through the 
roof to which Solomon has reference when he says (Prov. 27 : 15) : 
"A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious 
woman are ahke ;" and again (Prov. 19 : 13) : " The contentions 
of a wife are a continual dropping." 



390 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

It is easy to understand how grass can spring up on an oriental house- 
top during the rainy season, and how certainly it must wither and die as 
«oon as the dry season sets in. Psa. 129 : 6, 7. 

The account given by the evangelists of the healing of the paralytic 
(Mark 2 : 3, seq. ; Luke 5 : 18, seq. ) naturally raises in the reader's mind two 
questions: (1.) How did those who bore the sick man get access to the 
roof ? Not apparently by the stairs within the court, for that was filled 
by the throng. They could, however, easily reach it from a neighboring 
roof ; and this supposition is more probable than that the stairs were on 
the outside of the house, where they are rarely placed "except in moun- 
tain villages, and where roofs are but little used." Thomson, vol. 1, p. 53. 
(2.) How could they safely uncover the roof above such a crowd? That 
they did this is plain from the narrative. Mark says that ' ' they uncov- 
ered the roof where he was, and having dug through " (so the original 
reads), "they let down the bed wherein the paralytic lay." According to 
Luke they "let him doAvu through the tiles with his couch." The couch 
was merely a quilt well padded ; and the roof a covering of tiles, over which 
we may suppose that a layer of earth was spread. It was no difficult work 
to scrape away the earth and remove the tiles and cross-pieces on which 
they rested over a space sufficient to a4mit the descent of the couch, with- 
out danger to those who stood beloAV. See Thomson, vol. 2, pp. 6-8. 

8. The uses made of the roof by the orientals are almost 
innumerable. "During a large part of the year the roof is 
the most agreeable place about the estabhshment, especially in 
the morning and evening. There multitudes sleep during the 
summer, in all places where malaria does not render it danger- 
ous. This custom is very ancient." Thomson, vol. 1, pp. 49, 50. 
It is also a place for social intercourse and for meditation and 
prayer. When Samuel and Saul had come down from the high 
place into the city, they communed together on the roof of the 
house. " And they arose early : and it came to pass as the morn- 
ing dawned that Samuel called to Saul upon the roof" (that is, 
called from below to Saul, who was upon the roof, and had slept 
there, perhaps in the "upper chamber" erected upon it), "say- 
ing, Up, that I may send thee away." David walked on the roof 
of his house for refreshment at eventide (2 Sam. 11 : 2) ; Peter 
went upon the house-top to pray (Acts 10 : 9) ; and the people in 
Nehemiah's day made booths upon the roofs of their houses at 
the feast of tabernacles (Neh. 8 : 16). Idolaters also celebrated 



HOUSES AND TIIEIE APPOINTMENTS. 391 

tlieir rites on the roofs of houses and upper chambers. Zeph. 1:5; 
Jer. 19 : 13 ; 2 Kings 23 : 12. The roof also serves a variety of 
domestic purj)oses. Eahab hid the two spies on her roof "with 
the stalks of flax which she had laid in order upon the roof." 
Josh. 2 : 6. Here in modern times "the farmer suns his wheat 
for the mill, and the flour when brought home, and dries his figs, 
raisins, etc., etc., in safety both from animals and from thieves." 
Thomson, vol. 1, p. 49. It is a matter of course that in times of 
public excitement, the people should throng to the roofs of their 
houses to watch the progress of events. Isa. 22 : 1. 

The roof of the temple of Dagon at Gaza was capable of holding three 
thousand persons, and it was so constructed that they who were upon it 
could see what was going on in the area of the temx^le below. It is mani- 
fest, therefore, that it did not cover the whole temple. It was probably a 
wide gallery or tier of galleries one above another, projecting far into the 
temple, and supported in front by a row of pillars, the two middle pillars, 
on which the greatest weight rested, being near together. When these 
were pulled down, the central pai-t fell, and carried down with itself the 
whole galleiy, loaded as it was with the weight of three thousand persons. 

9. A place of such constant resort as the oriental roof needs 
battlements for the protection of those upon it. The law of Moses 
made the building of these an imperative duty: "When thou 
buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy 
roof, that thou bring not blood upon thy house, if any man fall 
from thence." Deut. 22 : 8. "Upper chambers" (Heb. aliybth) 
are also erected upon the roof. Eobinson says : " We were ad- 
mitted to the top of a sheikh's house [at TuUiizah] to take bear- 
ings. The house was built around a small court, in which cattle 
and horses were stabled. Thence a stone-staircase led up to the 
roof of the house proper ; on which, at the northwest and south- 
east corners, were high single rooms hke towers, with a staircase 
inside leading to the top." Bib. Ees., vol. 3, p. 302. Such an 
upper chamber on the roof is pecuharly cool and comfortable. 
Samuel would naturally assign it to Saul as his lodging-place 
during the night. Besides these upper chambers, Eobinson 
mentions (Kib. Ees., vol. 1, p. 213), as a mode of building appa- 



392 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

rently peculiar to Judea, small domes on the roofs, sometimes two 
or three to each house. He did not notice this north of Nabulus. 

In our Saviour's prediction of tlie overthrow of Jerusalem, when the 
time for escape has come, lie admonishes liim that is upon the housetop 
not to come down to take anything out of his house. Matt. 24.: 17. This 
may mean either that in descending within the court from the roof to the 
street he shall not stoj) to enter any apartment for the purpose of carrying 
away his effects, or that he shall pass from his own roof to the next, and 
so on by the most speedy route to the city gate. 

The housetop is in the East the place for pubhc proclamations. "At 
the present day, local governors in county districts cause their commands 
thus to be published." Thomson, vol. 1, p. 51. It is with allusion to this 
practice that our Lord says (Matt. 10 : 27) : '' What I tell you in darkness, 
that speak ye in light ; and what ye hear in the ear" — whispered into the 
ear — "that preach ye upon the housetops;" and (Luke 12:3): "That 
which ye have spoken in the ear in closets, shall be proclaimed upon the 
housetops ;" where proclaiming from the housetops means simply pro- 
claiming in the most public manner. 

10. Oriental houses have no chimneys. When the fire is made 
in the court, as on the occasion of our Lord's trial (Luke 22 : 55), 
the smoke escapes into the open air. Within the house the fire- 
place (which is a mere indentation in the floor, hke a pan or 
basin, to hold the ashes) may be in any part of the room, with 
a small hole in the roof as a vent for the smoke; or it may 
escape by the doors and windows. Hobinson, Bib. Kes., vol. 3, 
pp. 40, 44. The nearest approach to a chimney which Eobinson 
noticed was " a hearth in one corner, with a funnel over it for 
the smoke." Bib. Bes., vol. 3, p. 60. The monarchs and nobles 
of Judah and Israel had summer-houses and tvinter-houses (Jer. 
36 : 22 ; Amos 3 : 15), which were not necessarily distinct struc- 
tures, Hke the summer and winter residences of the Persian 
kings ; but may have been different sections of the same palace. 
The summer loft of Eglon (Judg. 3 : 20), called also the summer 
chamber (ver. 24) was an upper room, probably the upper cham- 
ber on the roof already described. 

The houses of Egypt have a hollow frame on the roof open to the north 
to receive the cool breeze from that quarter, whence it is conducted by 
pipes to the different apartments of the house. 



HOUSES AND THEIK APPOINTMENTS. 393 

11. The materials of eastern houses vary with their quahty. 
Where stone is abundant, as in the larger part of Palestine, 
houses of the better class are constructed of it. In the absence 
of stone, bricks, more commonly unburned, are employed; but 
thousands of dwellings in Palestine have only mud walls, which, 
when neglected, speedily crumble into an undistinguishable mass 
of ruins. Such houses were as common in ancient times as they 
are now, especially on the Mediterranean plain where stone is 
wanting. Owing to the scarcity of timber, wood is not now em- 
ployed in Palestine for the framework and covering of houses, 
nor was it in ancient times, the use of it in ordinary buildings 
being dispensed with as far as possible. Ceihngs of cedar were 
a part of the ostentation for which Jeremiah reproached the 
kmg of Judah. Chap. 22 : 14, 15. We have seen, m the case of 
Solomon's temple (Chap. 2, No. 32), what an immense amount 
of labor was bestowed upon the foundation. At the present day, 
all who ^are able to do so dig deep and lay tlie foundation of their 
houses on the rock. Our Saviour's figure, drawn from the two 
houses built one upon the rock and the other on the sand (Matt. 
7 : 24-27 ; Luke 6 : 47-49), was doubtless suggested by examples 
in actual hfe. It might easily happen that an improvident man, 
constructing in the dry season his frail tenement of unburnt 
bricks or mud, would build upon the sand, only to be swept 
away with it by the winds and torrents of winter. 

In Eg;y73t sun-dried bricks were the common material for private edifi- 
ces. Those made of pure clay needed no straw ; but those formed of the 
Nile mud had not sufficient tenacity without the addition of straw. Exod. 
5 : 7, seq. The Israehtes, as a nation of slaves, were extensively employed 
in brick-making. The monuments contain representations of the whole 
process, superintended by task-masters with rods. Bricks were also em- 
ployed to some extent among the ancient Israelites in Palestine (Isa. 9 : 10), 
but their use does not seem to have been common except on the Mediter- 
ranean plain, most of which was in possession of the Philistines. The 
Assyrians and Babylonians also used bricks for building pui-poses. In 
Babylonia burned and sun-dried bricks were both employed ; the former 
especially for the paving of floors and courts, the casing of massive walls, 
and wherever strength and durability were required. The burned bricks 
were cemented with hot bitumen. Herodotus thus describes the manner 

17* 



394 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

in wliicli tlie waUs of Babylon were built : "As fast as tliey dug the moat 
[the great moat around the waUs] the soil which they got from the cutting 
was made into bricks, and when a sufficient number were completed they 
baked the bricks in kilns. Then they set to building, and began with 
bricking the borders of the moat, after which they jjroceeded to construct 
the wall itself, using throughout for their cement hot bitumen, and inter- 
posing a layer of wattled reeds at every thirtieth course of the bricks." 
Book 1, chap. 179. All this illustrates the scriptural account of the mate- 
rials used in building the tower of Babel. Gen. 11 : 3. In Assyria they 
had no bitumen, and there baked bricks were less used. The ancient 
bricks were much larger than those employed in modern times, as the sam- 
ples in all our museums show. The burned bricks, as weU as the stone 
slabs employed in building, are covered with cuneiform inscriptions, and 
vast numbers of them bear the name of Nebuchadnezzar.* 

12. Among the appointments of an oriental house, the divan 
or raised seat around the borders of the room occupies a con- 
spicuous place. In the houses of the wealthy, the divans are 
floored and adorned with marbles inlaid in patterns. These 
serve for seats by day, and on tliem they place tlieir beds by 
night. Among the ancients bedsteads of iron and other materi- 
als were not unknown. Og's bedstead was of iron (Deut. 3 : 11), 
Amos speaks of beds of ivory (chap. 6 : 4), and bedsteads of vari- 
ous patterns are represented on the Egyptian monuments. But 
the bed in common use was simply a mattress with a pillow, that 
could be spread anywhere as convenience required. Carpets and 
mats, curtains and awnings, abound in the better class of orien- 
tal houses. The monuments of ancient Egypt exhibit stools, 
chairs, and tables, as well as couches ; but such articles are not 
common at the present da.y, and perhaps never were except 
among the rich and luxurious. In describing a house at Tibnin, 
Eobinson says (Bib. Res., vol. 3, p. 60) : " In our room was a 
single wooden chair, of the rudest and most ordinary kind; a 
wonder in this region, and probably procured with a view to the 
entertainment of Franks." The oriental fashion is to sit on the 
divan with the lower limbs crossed. 

13. The forbidding aspect of the streets in oriental cities, 
owing partly to their narrowness and filth and partly to the 
absence of windows opening into them from the houses, has 



HOUSES AND THEIR APPOINTMENTS. 395 

already been noticed. Wliere the ground is level and the houses 
are of the same height, one may easily pass over the roofs from 
one hou?;e to another. Before the invention of gunpowder, walls 
with gates and hars, and towers upon them at intervals, were 
indispensable. Although of little value in modern warfare, they 
remain in multitudes of cases as monuments of the past. The 
references to these walls and gates are very numerous in Scrip- 
ture ; but their use wiU best be considered under another divis- 
ion of this work. 



396 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

Dress and Personal Ornaments. 

1. We here confine ourselves to an account of the ordinary 
garments of the Hebrews. Those belonging to priestly and mil- 
itary attire will be considered elsewhere. Of the dress of the 
ancient Israehtes we have only incidental notices in Scripture. 
Omitting minute details, we give a brief description of those in 
daily use. The general form of these may be gathered, as in the 
case of oriental houses, from the Egyptian and Assyrian monu- 
ments, from the notices of ancient writers, and especially from 
the articles of modern apparel now in use in these regions. 
" With the exception of the foreign Turkish costume, and the 
modifications thereof, and with certain local exceptions, chiefly 
in mountainous regions, it may. be said that there is one prevail- 
ing costume in all the countries of Asia between the Tigris and 
Mediterranean, and throughout Northern Africa, from the Nile 
to Morocco and the banks of the Senegal." Alexander's Kitto. 
The substantial identity of this costume with that of the ancient 
Israehtes and their neighbors cannot be reasonably doubted. 
In its loose and flowing character it differs strikingly from our 
western style of dress. Many articles of apparel or ornament 
are mentioned by the sacred writers, particularly in reference to 
female attire ; but there are three garments that deserve especial 
notice, which, for want of more exact terms, we may call the tunic 
OY frock, the robe, and the mantle or outer garment. Of these 
three, two only, the first and the last, with the girdle and san- 
dals, appear to have been customarily worn by the masses of the 
people. 

2. The tunic or frock. (kethonetJi, generally but inappropriately 
rendered coat in our version) was a shirt or frock worn next to 
the skin. It might be of any material^ — ^leather, haircloth, wool, 



DKESS AND PERSONAL OllNAMENTS. 397 

cotton, linen — and was of various lengths. In its simplest form, 
as represented on the monuments, it was without sleeves, reach- 
ing about to the knees, but sometimes to the ankles. A more 
costly kind, worn by the better classes, extended to the ankles, 
and also had sleeves. The tunic was common to men and wom- 
en (2 Sam. 13 : 18 ; Cant. 5 : 3), probably with some distinction 
of style and pattern for the different sexes. 

In warm weather the tunic often forms the sole dress of the 
lower classes. Persons of higher rank may wear this garment 
alone wdthin doors, but no respectable person appears out of 
doors or receives calls without an outer garment. The term 
naked seems to be occasionally apphed to those who are clad 
with the tunic alone. Isa; 20 : 2-4 ; Micah 1:8; perhaps also 
John 21 : 7. 

The tunic which Jacob gave to Joseph (Gen. 37 : 3) is rendered in our 
version, after the Septuagint and Yulgate, a coat of many colors. But in 
2 Sam. 13 : 18, where the Hebrew expression is the same, the Greek and 
Latin give a sleeved tunic; and this is the rendering generally preferred by 
biblical scholars. It is not certain, however, that this was the proper tunic 
worn next to the skin. That of Tamar seems to have been the rohe to be 
presently described. It is remarkable that Herodotus (book 7, chaj). 61) 
describes the Persians who took part in Xerxes' expedition against Greece 
as having about their bodies sleeved tunics of divers colors. 

3. An essential accompaniment of the tunic was the cjirille, 
worn alike by men and women, and made of very different mate- 
rials. Girdles of the plainest kind were made of leather. 2 Kings 
1:8; Matt. 3:4; Mark 1 : 6. Those of a finer quality were made 
of linen (Jer. 13 : 1 ; Ezek. 16 : 10), and frequently adorned with 
gold and gems. Dan. 10 : 5 ; Eev. 1 : 13 ; 15 : 6. In a word, 
the girdle was anciently, as it is now, an article of apparel on 
which much ornament could be lavished. The high priest's gir- 
dle was " of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen." 
Exod. 28 : 8. Costly girdles, especially mihtary girdles, were 
sometimes given as presents. 1 Sam. 18 : 4 ; 2 Sam. 18 : 11. 
Gu-ding up the loins everyv\^here in Scripture represents prepara- 
tion for activity. " The orientals dress," says Eobinson (Lex. 



398 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

New Test.), " in long loose robes flowing down around tlie feet ; 
so that when they wish to run, or fight, or apply themselves to 
any business, they are accustomed to bind their garments close 
around them." Hence the direction to the Israelites that they 
should eat their first passover in Egypt with their loins girded, 
their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand, ready to 
commence their journey at any moment. Exod. 12 : 11. So also 
Elijah girded up his loins to run before Ahab's chariot (1 Kings 
18 : 46) ; Gehazi tt) go in haste from Mount Carmel to Shunem 
(2 Kings 4 : 29) ; and the young prophet to go at EHsha's bidding 
to anoint Jehu (2 Kings 9:1). But it was not simply conveni- 
ence of labor and travel that was accomphshed by the girdle. It 
added strength also and capacity of endurance, especially the 
mihtary girdle. Hence we can readily understand how the act 
of girding up the loins was employed metaphorically to repre- 
sent vigor, physical and mental, as well as preparation for active 
service, especially spiritual preparation and watchfulness. Job 
12 : 18 ; 38 : 3 ; Isa. 22 : 21 ; Luke 12 : 35 ; 1 Pet. 1 : 13. In Isa. 
11 : 5, righteousness is, by a beautiful figure, represented as the 
girdle of the Messiah's loins ; and in Ephes. 6 : 14, the apostle 
makes truth the Christian soldier's girdle. 

In 2 Sam. 20 : 8, Joab's sword girdle is apparently distinct from the 
girdle of Ms garment ; that is, it is a sword belt. The girdle seems to have 
served for carrying various articles, as a writer's inkhorn (Ezek. 9 : 2, where 
the Hebrew reads a writer's inkhorn upon his loins, apparently attached to 
his girdle), and probably pouches and other necessary things. See Jahn's 
Archaeology, ^121. 

4. The robe (me'U, sometimes rendered mantle in our version) 
was a sort of second tunic, fuller and more flowing, worn over 
the first and reaching to the feet. It was made of hnen, and 
was ordinarily destitute of sleeves. Josephus describes the high 
priest's robe as consisting not of two pieces sewed together, but 
of a single piece woven quite around its whole length, with a sht 
for the head in the direction from the breast to the back between 
the shoulders, and with slits also for the armholes. Antiq. 3. 
7. 4. The seamless coat of our Saviour (called tunic by John, 



DEESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS. 399 

chap. 19 : 23, a term applied also by Josephus to the high priest's 
robe) was evidently woven in the same way. The robe does not 
appear to have been worn by the masses, but only by persons in 
the higher walks of life. Besides the notices of the high priest's 
robe (Exod. 28 : 31, etc.), it is mentioned as worn by Job^nd his 
three fiiends (Job 1:20; 2:12); by Samuel (1 Sam. 2:19; 
28:14); by Saul and Jonathan (1 Sam. 15:27; 18:4; 24:4); 
b} David when he danced before the ark (1 Chron. 15 : 27) ; by 
Ezra (Ezra 9:3, 5) ; by the pruices of the sea (Ezek. 26 : 16) ; 
and by kings' daughters when it was furnished with sleeves 
(2 Sam. 13 : 18). "With these notices agree also the figura- 
tive uses of the word. Job 29 : 14; Psa. 109 : 29 ; Isa. 59 : 17 ; 
61:10. 

5. The outer garment or mantle (simlah or sahnaJi, frequently 
rendered cloaJc in our version) was, like the tunic, an indispensa- 
ble article for all classes. It was simply a square piece of cloth, 
var^dng in size and quality, worn on the body by day, and used 
as a covering by night. Hence the law forbidding the creditor 
to keep the debtor's outer garment over night when taken as a 
pledge : " If thou at all take thy neighbor's mantle to pledge, 
thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goetli down ; for 
that is his only covermg ; it is his mantle for his sldn : wherein 
shaU he sleep.?" Exod. 22:26, 27; Deut. 24:13. The tuide 
mantle (addereth) is mentioned as a rich outer robe of Babylonian 
origin (Josh. 7 : 21, 24), and as worn by the king of Nineveh 
(Jonah 3:6). It might be also a rough garment of hair (Gen. 
25 : 25), and worn by prophets (1 Kmgs 19 : 19 ; 2 Kings 2 : 8, 13, 
14 ; Zech. 13 : 4). The precise difference between this and the 
common outer garment (simlah) cannot be determined. 

The corresponding female garment (or at least a variety of it) seems to 
be that named mitpahath, loide mantle. In Ruth 3 : 15 it is rendered veil, 
but in the margin sheet, or apron. In Isa. 3 : 22 it is rendered wimple, an 
old English term for a sort of veil or hood, " formerly worn as an out-door 
covering, and still retained in the dress of nuns in conventual costume.'* 
Webster. But the use to Avhicli Boaz put it indicates more naturally a 
wide outer gai-ment, which was so far forth a veil as that tlie whole body, 
the face included, might be wrapped in it. 



400 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

A writer in Alexander's Kitto (x\rt. Dress) describes three kinds of outer 
garments worn by the Ai'ab tribes : (1.) The ahha, a cloak made of wool 
and hair, of various degi^ees of fineness, "altogether shapeless, being like 
a square sack, with an opening in front, and with slits at the sides to let 
out the arms. The Arab who wears it by day sleeps in it by night, as does 
also the* peasant by whom it has been adopted;" (2.) The humus (more 
generally worn by the Ai'abs of North Africa), a woollen cloak not unlike 
the ahha, but furnished with a hood ; (3.) The haik, a large wooUen blanket, 
either white or brown, and in summer a cotton sheet (usually blue or 
white, or both colors together). Putting one corner before over the left 
shoulder, the wearer brings it behind, and then under the right arm, and 
so over the body, throwing it behind over the left shoulder, and leaving 
the right arm free for action." 

Linen hreeches or drawers were worn by the priests in their ministra- 
tions (Exod. 28 : 42 ; Lev. 6 : 10 ; 16:4; Ezek. 44 : 18) ; but they are not 
mentioned elscAvhere, and seem to have been unknoAvn in daily usage. 

6. The oriental shoe (of our version) is a sandal made of leath- 
er, skin, felt, wood, etc. ; protecting simply the sole of the foot, 
and bound to it by thongs. On the Egyptian monuments the 
sandals are usually represented as turned up at the toe; but 
some forms are rounded and pointed. Assyrian sandals some- 
times encased simply the heel and sides of the foot. Modem 
oriental ladies bestow much attention upon their slippers, em- 
broidering them with flowers and other figures wrought in silk, 
silver, and gold. The same care seems to have been given by 
Hebrew women of rank and wealth to their sandals. Cant. 7:1; 
Ezek. 16 : 10. Compare Judith 10 : 4 ; 16 : 9. The stranger, upon 
entering an oriental house, was met by a servant who unloosed 
the latchet of his sandals, removed them, and brought water to 
wash his feet. Gen. 18 : 4 ; 19 : 2 ; 43 : 24 ; 1 Sam. 25 : 41. As 
the offices belonged to the lowest among the servants, the per- 
formance of them naturally became the symbol of humility. So 
John the Baptist said of the Saviour : " He that cometh after 
me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear ;" 
" There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of 
whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose" (Matt. 
3 : 11 ; Mark 1:7; Luke 3 : 16) ; and so afterwards the Saviour 
washed the feet of his disciples, as an example that they should 



DRESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS. 401 

do likewise (Jolin 13 : 4, seq.). Among tlie qualifications which 
entitled a widow to be "taken into the number" (enrolled for 
special service in the church, and probably also for maintenance 
in part), it is requked that she shall have washed the feet of 
strangers. 1 Tim. 5 : 10. Upon entering a room, the orientals 
always remove then- sandals. No one can pass the threshold of 
a sanctuary till he has first laid aside his shoes. Robinson, Bib. 
Hes., vol. 2, p. 36. In general the eastern people remove their 
shoes where we uncover the head, as a mark of reverence. So 
Moses before the burning bush, and Joshua before the captain 
of the Lord's host, receive the command : " Put off thy shoes 
from off thy feet ; for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
ground." Exod. 3:5; Josh. 5 : 15. In accordance with the 
sphit of this command, the priests in the temple are said to have 
officiated barefoot. 

We learn from Ruth 4 : 7 that it was anciently a custom among the 
Israelites that the seller should give his sandal to the buyer as a ratifica- 
tion of the bargain. So EHmelech's kinsman, when he transferred to Boaz 
his hereditary field and the rights connected with it, di-ew off his shoe and 
gave it to Boaz, as a sign of the transfer. The same custom is said to have 
prevailed among the Indians and ancient Germans. Keil, Archseologie, vol. 
2, p. G6, and the authorities there quoted. The same symbohc act, in a 
somewhat modified form, appears elsewhere. When a man refused to 
marry the widow of his deceased brother, she was to draw off his shoe in 
the presence of the magistrates, and spit in his face. Deut. 25 : 5, seq. By 
this act of unloosing the shoe "she divested him of the place which he 
held towards her and the deceased brother, or towards the ancestral house. " 
Keil, ubi supra. 

The Psalmist says (Psa. 60 : 8 ; 108 : 9) : '' Over Edom [or, upon Edom] 
will I cast my shoe. " This cannot have been as a symbol of possession, in 
accordance with the custom just referred to ; for that custom would make 
it rather a symbol of demitting his right over Edom. The modern com- 
mentators render: "Upon Edom [into Edom's hands, considered as a 
menial servant] will I cast my shoe ;" namely, that it may be borne by 
him ; and this agrees well with the context, which may be thus rendered : 
"Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is also the defence of 
my head [that is, my helmet] ; Judah is my sceptre ; Moab is my wash- 
basin ; upon Edom will I cast my shoe," etc. Wliile Ephraim and Judah 
have honorable stations under him, menial offices are assigned to Moab and 
Edom. 



402 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

7. The Egyptian men sliaved tlie hair of tlie head and the 
heard, as we learn from the monuments and the testimony of 
ancient writers. To let the hair and beard grow was with them 
a sign of mourning. Herodotus, 2. 36. In accordance with 
this usage Joseph, when called to stand before Pharaoh, " shaved 
himself and changed his raiment." Gen. 41 : 14. The Egyptian 
women wore their natural hair long and plaited, reaching down 
over their shoulders. Many female mummies have been found 
with the hair thus plaited, and in a good state of preservation. 
Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, chap. 10. The Hebrews, in com- 
mon with the Assyrians and orientals generally, wore their beard 
long, and trimmed it with care, neglecting it or plucking it out 
only in times of deep affliction. 2 Sam. 19 : 24 ; Ezra 9:3. To 
shave or mar the beard was a great indignity (2 Sam. 10 : ^10 ; 
1 Chron. 19 : 3--5) ; and no one was permitted to touch the beard 
except intimate friends in the act of Idssing (2 Sam. 20 : 9). 

The head-dress of the Assjo-iah men and of the Egyptians of 
both sexes is famihar to us from the monuments. Eespecting 
the form of the various coverings and ornaments of the head 
worn by the ancient Hebrews, we have almost no definite infor- 
mation. We only know that the noble and rich bestowed much 
care and lavished much wealth upon them ; and that hence the 
crown and the diadem are in the Old Testament standing sym- 
bols of dignity and honor. Job 29 : 14 ; 31 : 36 ; Prov. 4:9; 
12:4; 16:31; Isa. 28:5; 62:3; Jer. 13:18; Ezek. 21:26. In 
the New Testament the crown represents the royal dignity of 
the redeemed in heaven. 1 Cor. 9 : 25 ; 2 Tim. 4:8; Jas. 1 : 12 ; 
1 Pet. 5:4; Eev. 2:10; 3:11. 

8. As appendages to the apparel of men, we may notice: 
(1.) The staff, so frequently mentioned in Scripture as the trav- 
eUer's companion. Gen. 32 : 10 ; 38 : 18, 25 ; Exod. 12 : 11 ; 1 Sam. 
17:40; 2 Kings 4:29; Zech. 8:4; Mark 6:8; etc. (2.) The 
signet or seal. This was suspended by a cord from the neck over 
the breast (Gen. 38 : 18, 25 — ^where we should translate : " Thy 
signet, and thy cord, and thy staff;" Cant. 8:6); or it was at- 
tached to the ring, as in the case of the signet rings of monarchs 



DKESS AND PERSONAL ORNAMENTS. 403 

(Gen. 41 : 42 ; Estli. 3 : 10, 12 ; 8 : 2 ; Jer. 22 : 24). The monarcli's 
seal attached to any ordinance was his signature giving it vahd- 
ity. Hence the deHvery of the king's seal to one of his subjects, 
as that of Pharaoh to Joseph (Gen. 41 : 42) ; that of Ahasuerus 
to Hainan and afterwards to Mordecai (Esth. 3 : 10, 12 ; 8:2), 
invested him with the right of acting authoritatively in his mon- 
arch's name. It was the custom also at the same time to clothe 
the royal favorite with official robes, in token of his exaltation 
(Gen. 41 : 42 ; Esth. 8 : 15 ; Dan. 5 : 29) ; and when he was removed 
from office these were given to liis successor (Isa. 22 : 21). (3.) The 
necklace of gold or precious gems, worn only by men of high rank. 
Gen. 41 : 42 ; Dan. 5 : 29. In allusion to this usage, the psalmist 
says of rich and poAverful sinners (Psa. 73 : 6) : " Pride compass- 
eth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a gar- 
ment;" that is, they glory in then- pride and violence, as in a 
golden necklace or a sumptuous garment; and Solomon com- 
mends to the young man his instructions as an ornament of 
grace to his head, and chains about his neck (Prov. 1:9; 3 : 22). 
9. The veil is pecuharly an article of female apparel, in use 
fi'om very ancient times. The concealment of the iemale face 
was not enforced among the ancient Hebrews as rigidly as it is 
now in Mohammedan regions; yet the etiquette in this respect 
was stricter than among us. In their ordinary life, the women 
seem to have had their faces uncovered. Gen. 12 : 14; 24 : 16; 
26 : 7. Eebecca travelled with her face unveiled, but when she 
saw Isaac approaching, " she took a veil and covered herself." 
Gen. 24 : 65. The bride of Solomon's song goes forth into the 
streets of the city veiled (Cant. 5:7); and though the whole 
description be allegorical, it still represents the standing usage 
for women of her rank and in her circumstances. 

The muslin veil, which conceals the whole face except the eyes, and 
reaches nearly to the feet, is now a regular part of an Egyptian lady's 
attire, whenever she appears on the street ; but the ancient Egyptian mon- 
uments represent the w(fmen without veils. It may be that Tamar veiled 
herself for the purpose of concealment, while she indicated her assumed 
character by sitting in an open place by the way. Gen. 38 : 14. Concern- 
ing the difforcuit forms of veils, see bolow. 



404 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

10. The following passage from Ezekiel (cliap. 16 : 10-13) 
contains a gorgeous portraiture of the apparel of a noble Hebrew 
woman: "I clothed thee also with broidered work" (garments 
embroidered with needlework), " and shod thee with badgers' 
skin" (see above, Chap. 7, No. 28), "and I girded thee about 
with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also 
with ornaments, and put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain 
on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy nose" (marginal ren- 
dering), "and ear-rings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown 
upon thy head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and sil- 
ver ; and thy raiment was of fine hnen and silk, and broidered 
work." 

Isaiah gives also (chap. 3 : 18-24) a catalogue of the articles of 
female ornament employed in his day by the luxurious daugh- 
ters of Zion. We notice in order each term, giving first the 
word employed in our version, and adding a brief account of the 
article so far as anything can be determined concerning it : 

Tinkling ornaments about their feet — ankle hands, for the use of which see 
below under ornaments of the legs. 

Gauls — ca2:)s of network. But many prefer the rendering sujilets, orna- 
ments resembling Utile suns worn upon the neck, and this agrees well with 
the next term. 

Round tires like the moon — crescents, Httle moons worn as an ornament on 
the neck ; worn also on the necks of men and of camels. Judg. 8 : 21, 26. 

Chains — rather ear-drops. 

Bracelets — worn round the arms and wrists. 

Mujffiers — veils. The corresponding Arabic word denotes, according to 
Freytag, "a species of veil consisting of two parts, which is fastened over 
the eyes by means of clasps ; one x^art being thrown back over the head, 
and the other part hanging down over the breast, so as to cover th(? lower 
part of the face." This is probably a near representation of the Hebrew 
veil denoted by the corresponding word. 

Bonnets — head-dresses, probably of various forms. 

Ornaments for the legs — generally understood of the ankle-chains attached 
to the ankle-hands mentioned above, which the oriental women employed 
to give themselves a short mincing step. See vef. 16 of this chapter. 

Head-hands — rather gii^dles. 

Tablets — literally, houses of the soul or of breath; and rightly interpreted 
to mean boxes of perfume. 










TETLS. 



ANCIENT HAND-MILL. 



DPvESS AND PERSONAL OENAMENTS. 405 

Ear-rmgs — a rendering supported by high Jewish authority ; but many 
prefer the signification amulets, that is, gems or metallic plates inscribed 
with magical forms of words, and super.^titiously used as charms. 

Rings — signei-rings, as the Hebrew woivl denotes. 

Nose-jeicels — a common oriental ornament. 

Changeahle suits of apparel — ^holiday suits worn on special occasions. 

Mantles — lorappers, as the HebrcAV word signifies; apparently a wide 
outer garment that could be wrapped over the whole body. See Hart- 
mann's Hebrew Bide, vol. 3, p. 310. 

Wimples — see above under No. 5. 

Crisping pins — rather purses. 

Glasses — small metaUic mirrors carried in the hand. Some understand 
the word of fine transparent vestments. 

Fine linen — probably /em«/e tunics or chemises of fine materials. 

Hoods — turbans wound round the head ; worn also by men of rank. Isa. 
62 : 3 ; Zech. 3 : 5. 

Veils — i^robably a thin gauze-like covering thrown over the other ap- 
parel. It may have contained, in part at least, the "broidered work" 
referred to by Ezekiel. 

Sweet smell — that coming from perfumes and fragj.'ant ointments. 

Girdle — the ornamental girdle worn around the dress. Instead of this 
shall come the cord or rope (so the Hebrew should be rendered) with which 
they are led away as captives. 

Well-set hair — probably braided locks and curls, in the place of which is 
to come baldness. 

Stomacher — perhaps a wide flowing holiday mantle, in the place of 
which was to come a girding of sackcloth. 

The practice of paintiiig the eyebroivs has prevailed among 
oriental women from very ancient times. Among the Hebrews, 
however, if v/e may judge from the notices of it which we find in 
the Old Testament, it seems to have been regarded as a meretri- 
cious art. When Jezebel prepared lierseK to defy Jehu, " she 
put her eyes in painting" (marginal rendering), "and tired her 
head, and looked out at a window" (2 I^ngs 9 : 30 ;) 'Jeremiah, 
comparing Judah to an adulterous woman, says : " Though thou 
clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with 
ornaments of gold, though thou rendest thine eyes wdth paint- 
ing, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair : thy lovers will despise 
thee, they will seek thy hfe" (Jer. 4 : 30) ; and Ezekiel, employ- 
ing the same figure, says (chap. 23 : 40) : " For whom thou didst 



406 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyseK with orna- 
ments." 

The paint of the ancients (puk) is said to have been a black powder 
consisting of a preparation of antimony. The modern Egyptian women 
prepare a like black powder from various materials. They apply it with 
a small probe of wood, ivory, or silver, first moistened and then dipped in 
the powder, and drawn along the edges of the eyelids. The effect is said 
to be an apparent enlargement of the eye and a heightening of its expres- 



Horns made of gold or silver are used at the present day 
among the Druses of Lebanon (Thomson, vol. 1, p. lOlj; but 
there is no reason to suppose that such artificial horns constitu- 
ted a part of the Hebrew woman's apparel. With the sacred 
writers the horn is simply a symbol of dignity and power. See 
1 Sam. 2:1; Job 16 : 15 ; Psa. 75 : 4, 10 ; and especially 1 Kings 
22 : 11. 

11. The earliest material employed for clothing was the skins 
of animals. Gen. 3 : 21. In process of time men added cloth 
made of the hair of animals, of wool, of linen, and of cotton. 
All these articles were well known to the Egyptians, and of 
course to the Hebrews ; but not silk (mesJii) until the later days 
of their history. SiUi is mentioned only in Ezek. 16 : 10, 13 ; for 
in Gen. 41 : 42, margin, and Prov. 31 : 22, the term employed 
denotes linen. 

The term cotlon does not occur in our version ; yet the article was in use 
in Egypt from an early date. The mummy- wrappings, however, are of 
linen (Wilkinson on the Ancient Egyptians, chap. 9) ; and this, not cotton, 
seems to have been the di-ess of both the Egyptian and the Hebrew priests. 

The Hebrews were forbidden to wear garments of mixed 
materials, wooUen and hnen. Lev. 19 : 19 ; Deut. 22 : 11. This 
precept connects itself immediately with others of the same 
kind— that they should not sow their vineyard with divers seeds, 
nor plough with an ox and an ass together. The object of these 
precepts, as is suggested by certain commentators, was appa- 
rently to inculcate reverence for the order and distinctions of 
nature. In the same spirit, and not merely to guard against 



DKESS AND PEESONAL ORNAMENTS. 407 

impurity, the two sexes were forbidden to exchange apparel 
(Deut. 22 : 5), and all unnatural practices were prohibited (Lev. 

18 : 22, 23). The fringes on the borders of their garments, which 
became in later ages a matter of hypocritical ostentation (Matt. 
23 : 5), were originally prescribed to the Israelites as a memorial 
that they were a holy nation consecrated to God's service (Numb. 
15 : 38, 39). The ijhyladeries worn by the later Jews are httle 
leathern cases containmg texts from the law, written on strips of 
parchment, and worn on the forehead and left arm. They had 
their origin in the superstitious interpretation of Exod. 13 : 9, 16 ; 
Deut. 6 : 8, 9, and do not appear to have been in use till after 
the captivity. Here, as elsewhere, the Pharisees magnified the 
letter of the law, but lost its spirit. 

12. Among the Hebrews, as among other nations, white was 
the symbol of purity, and also of prosperity and factory. 2 Chron. 
5:12; Esth. 8:15; EccL 9:8; Eev. 3:4, 18; 7:9, 13; 15:6; 

19 : 8, 14. Sackcloth, on the contrary, made of black hair, was 
the sign of mourning and affliction. Gen. 37 : 34; 2 Sam. 3 : 31 ; 
1 Kings 20 : 31 ; etc. Purple, often associated with hlue and 
scarlet, was the color appropriate to persons of rank. The Mid- 
ianitish kings slain by Gideon were clad in purple raiment ( Judg. 
8 : 26) ; Nehemiah and Daniel, upon their exaltation, were clothed 
with garments of purple and scarlet (Esth. 8 : 15 ; Dan. 5 : 29) ; 
and Jeremiah ascribes to the statues of the heathen gods clo- 
thing of blue and purple (chap. 10 : 9). The blue and purple and 
scarlet colors employed about the curtains of the sanctuary and 
the dress of the high priest (Exod. chaps. 26, 27, 28) represented 
the dignity and excellence of God's service, as did also the pre- 
ciousness of the materials. 

Costly apparel contributed no inconsiderable part of the wealth of the 
orientals, and the gift of "changes of raiment" was with them a common 
token of honor. Gen. 45 : 22 ; Judg. 14 : 12, 13 ; 2 Kings 5 : 5. 



408 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTEK XYIII. 

The Preparation of Food and jVLeals. 

1. For crushing the kernels of gram, or other substances 
used for food, the simplest apparatus consists of the mortar and 
pestle. Mortars are mentioned along with mills as used in the 
preparation of manna (Numb. 11 : 8), and in the bruising of 
wheat (Prov. 27 : 22) : "Though thou bray the fool in the mortar 
among the bruised corn (compare 2 Sam. 17 : 19, where the same 
Hebrew word is rendered in our yersion ground corn) with the 
pestle, his folly will not depart from him." 

The same mode of preparing grain for cooking prevails among the 
modern Arabs. Niebuhr (quoted in Smith's Bible Diet.) saw an Arab 
sailor on board a vessel take every afternoon the durra or millet necessary 
for a day's consumption and pound it upon a stone, of which the surface 
was a little curved, with another stone which was long and rounded. So 
also Thomson (Land and Book, vol. 1, pp. 134, 135) describes a man "bray- 
ing wheat with a pestle in a mortar to make Tcibhy, the national dish of the 
Arabs, and a very good one it is. Every family has one or more of these 
large stone mortars, and you may hear the sound of the ' braying ' at aU 
hours, as you walk the streets of the city." He adds the correct interpre- 
tation : " I suppose Solomon means that, if we pound a fool in a mortar, 
among wheat, with a pestle, into a batch of kibby, yet will not his foolish- 
ness depart from him." There is no occasion for assuming an allusion to 
a mode of putting criminals to death by pounding them in a mortar, a cus- 
tom which is said to have existed in some oriental nations ; but it certainly 
did not among the Hebrews. 

2. For the more perfect trituration of grain, the mill is neces- 
sary. The ancient Hebrew mill, like that of the modern Arabs, 
was worked by hand. Oriental travellers describe it as consist- 
ing of two circular stones, from eighteen inches to two feet in 
diameter, and about half a foot thick. The lower stone is fixed, 
and rises by a slight convexity from the circumference to the 
centre. The upper, which turns upon it, is fitted to it by a cor- 



PKEPAKATION OF FOOD AND MEALS. 409 

responding concavity, has a liole in tlie centre tlirougli which the 
corn to be ground is admitted, and a handle by which it is turned 
upon the lower stone, and the gi-ain thus crushed. The work of 
grinding is regarded as a menial employment, and is regularly 
assigned to women, but sometimes to male prisoners. God's 
threatening to the Egyptians was that he would slay all the first- 
born of Egypt " from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon 
his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maid-servant that is 
behind the mill " — that is, that sits behind it in the act of grind- 
ing. Exod. 11 : 5. The haughty daughter of Babylon is thus 
addressed by the prophet : " Come down, sit in the dust ;".... 
*' take the millstones and grind meal." Isa. 47 : 1, seq. She is 
to be carried captive, stripped of her royal apparel, and employed 
as a captive in grinding at the mill. So Samson, when taken 
captive by the Philistines, was deprived of his eyes, and made to 
grind in the prisonhouse (Judg. 16 : 21) ; as were the young men 
of Judah in a later age by the Babylonians (Lam. 5 : 13). These 
hand-mills are worked sometimes by one woman, sometimes by 
two. "Where one is employed, she sits or squats before the mill, 
" pouring in corn with one hand and holding on to a peg in the 
stone with the other" (Osborn, Palestine Past and Present, chap. 
22); or, according to Kobinson (Bib. Kes., vol. 1, p. 485), she 
"turns the mill with both hands, feeding it occasionally with 
one." When the mill is worked by two women, they sit facing 
each other (Matt. 24:41); "both have hold of the handle by 
Avhich the upper is turned round on the 'nether' millstone. The 
one whose right hand is disengaged throws in the gTain as occa- 
sion requires through the hole in the upper stone, which is called 
the rekkab (rider) in Arabic, as it was long ago in Hebrew. It 
is not correct to say that one pushes it half round, and then the 
other seizes the handle. This would be slow work, and would 
give a spasmodic motion to the stone. Both retain their hold, 
and pull to, or push from, as men do with the whip or cross-cut 
saw." Thomson, vol. 2, p. 295. In the Saviour's day there were 
larger mills, worked by an ass. Hence the expiession ass-miU- 
stone (mulos oniJcos, Matt. 18 : B\ The orientals grind every day. 



410 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Hence the sound of the millstone is a sign of the activity of life, 
as its absence is of the silence of desolation. " I will take from 
them," says Jehovah (Jer. 25 : 10), " the voice of mirth, and the 
voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of 
the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the hght of the can- 
dle." Compare Eev. 18 : 22. In the beautiful allegorical de- 
scription of old age (Eccl. 12 : 1-7), one of the marks of decay is 
that "the grinding women cease because they are few," and 
" the doors are shut in the street when the sound of the grinding 
is low;" that is, dies away. The millstones being thus in daily 
use, the Israehtes were forbidden to take them in pledge : " No 
man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge : for 
he taketh a man's" life to pledge." Deut. 24 : 6. 

Of Leviathan it is said (Job 41 : 24, ver. 16 of the Hebrew) : "His heart 
is solid Hke a stone ; yea, solid like the nether millstone" (not, a piece of 
the nether millstone) ; where the netljer millstone seems to be chosen be - 
cause of its fixed position. 

3. The Imeading-trouglis of the Hebrews (Exod. 8:3; 12 : 34) 
appear to have been small wooden bowls, such as are represent- 
ed on the Egyptian monuments ; but some think that they con- 
sisted of pieces of leather, that could be drawn up into a bag by 
means of a running cord along the border, such as those in which- 
the Bedouin Arabs prepare and often carry their dough. 

4. The bread of the Hebrews was of two kinds, leavened and 
unleavened. On all occasions of haste unleavened cakes were 
prepared, and baked in the ashes, as was done by Sarah. Gen. 
18 : 6. These are called from then shape uggoth, round cakes, 
and unleavened round cakes. Exod. 12 : 39. Having considera- 
ble thickness they would require turning ; otherwise they would 
be dough on the one side, and burned on the other, as the prophet 
describes the Israehtish nation : " Ephraim is a cake not turned.' 
Hosea 7 : 8. 

Robinson describes the modern process as follows : ' ' They " — the Arabs — 
*'had brought along some flour, or rather meal of wheat and barley filled 
with chaff; of which they now kneaded a round flat cake of some thick- 



PKEPABATION OF FOOD AND MEALS. 411 

ness. This they threw into the ashes and coals of a fire they had kindled ; 
and after due time brought out a loaf of bread, as black on the outside as 
the coals themselves, and not much whiter within. After breaking it up 
small in a dish while still warm, they mixed it with some of the butter they 
had stolen, and thus made their meal." Bib. Res., vol. 2, pp. 117, 118. 
Again he says (ibid., p. 262): "The men were baking a large round flat 
cake of bread, in the embers of a fire of camel's and cow dung. Taking it 
out when done, they brushed off flbe ashes and divided it among the party, 
ofi'ering us also a portion. I tasted it, and found it quite as good as the 
common bread of the country. They had no other provisions. These 
were men of Bethlehem ; and this is the common fare of persons travelhng 
in this manner." This last extract serves to illustrate a passage in Ezekiel 
(chap. 4 : 9-17), where the prophet is commanded to bake his bread "with 
dung that cometh out of man ;" that is, with this dung as a fuel. Upon 
his remonstrance he is allowed cow's dung instead. Owing to the scarcity 
of wood, dried ordure is a common article of fuel in Palestine and the 
adjoining regions. 

The unleavened bread used by the modern Jews at the pass- 
over consists of " very thin sheets, almost like paper, very white, 
and also very delicate and palatable " (Robinson, Bib. Ees., vol. 
1, p. 223) ; and it probably represents with tolerable accuracy 
the paschal unleavened bread of ancient times. The question of 
the rehgious sigaificance of unleavened bread wiU be discussed 
in another place. 

The Jeavened bread of the orientals is also made in thin loaves, 
which are hroken, not cut. Hence the common expression " to 
break bread." 

5. Royal estabhshments had theu^ haJceries (Gen. 40 : 1, seq. ; 
1 Sam. 8:13), and j^Mic ovens existed in cities. The street of the 
bakers (Jer. 37 : 21) was evidently named from the public ovens 
found there ; and such are also the ovens mentioned by Hosea 
(chap. 7 : 4, 6) : " They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by 
the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the 
dough until it be leavened ;" " their baker sleepeth all the 
night" — while the dough is in process of being leavened; "in the 
morning it burnetii as of a flaming fire." Such large ovens are 
now made of brick, and are not very dissimilar to our own. But, 
as a rule, each family baked in its own private oven, which 



412 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

miglit be either portable or fixed. The portable oven was a largo 
jar of stone, earthenware, or metal", about three feet high, heated 
by kindling within a fir-e of brush- wood, dried grass, or the stalks 
of thistles, weeds, flowers, etc. Matt. 6 : 30. When the fire had 
burned down, the thin cakes were applied to it inwardly or out- 
wardly. Such ovens were in use anciently among the Egyp- 
tians, and are still common among the Bedouin Arabs. See m 
Smith's Bible Diet., Art. Bread. The fixed oven was a pit sunk 
in the ground, the sides being coated with clay or cement, and 
the bottom paved with stones. "When it was heated, the dough 
might be plastered on its sides for a few moments in thin flaps, 
and then removed and eaten hot ; or placed upon the stones at 
the bottom, and the mouth of the oven closed. Such ovens are 
common in Persia, and after the process of cooking is over, they 
furnish a genial w^armth to the members of the household. 

6. Other simple modes of cooking are in use now^ among the 
orientals, and doubtless were in ancient times. One of these is 
" a sort of pan of earthenware or iron (usually the latter), flat or 
slightly convex, which is put over a slow fire, and on which the 
thin flaps of dough are laid and baked with considerable expedi- 
tion." Then, again, "there is a cavity in the fire-hearth, in 
which, when required for baking, a fire is kindled and burned 
down to hot embers. A plate of iron, or sometimes copper, is 
placed over the hole, and on this the bread is baked." Alexan- 
der's Kitto, Art. Bread. As to the processes of boiling, stewing, 
and roasting, they are in all ages and countries substantially the 
same, and need no elucidation. 

In the second chapter of Leviticus mention is made of an oblation baken 
in the ove7i (ver. 4), of another cooked in a paw (ver. 5), and of a third 
cooked in the so-called fri/ing-paoi (ver, 7). The pan (Heb. mahabhath) is 
probably the flat plate described above ; but the so-caMed frying-pan (Heb. 
marhesheih) is probably a pot or kelile for boiling. 

7. The orientals are, in general, sparing in the use of flesh. 
Their diet consists mainly of bread, vegetables of various kinds, 
especially lentils made into pottage, and fruits, with milk, curd, 
and honey. Owing to the difficulty of preserving flesh in a warm 



PREPAEATION OF EOOD AND MEALS. 413 

climate, it is customary when an animal is slain to cook and eat 
it without much delay. Locusts were allowed to the Hebrews 
(Lev. 11 : 21, 22), and they are a common article of food in the 
East, as also in Africa. They are boiled or roasted, stewed or 
fi'ied. Sometimes they are ground or powdered, mixed with 
flour, and made into cakes; or they are salted, dried, and pre- 
sei'ved for future use. Salt is an essential article of diet, and 
the symbol of inviolable friendship. To eat bread and salt 
together is the sign of a firm league of amity ; and " a covenant 
of salt" (Numb. 18 : 19; 2 Chron. 13 : 5) means one that is indis- 
soluble. 

For the distinctions of clean and unclean in respect to food, see the 
eleventh chapter of Leviticus. The reHgious significance of these distinc- 
tions will be considered elsewhere. The Hebrews were forbidden to seethe 
a kid in the milk of its mother. Exod. 23 : 19 ; 34 : 26 ; Dent. 14 : 21. Of 
the various conjectured reasons assigned for this prohibition, that which 
places it on the broad ground of the inculcation of humanity is, perhaps, 
the most jDrobable. 

8. In respect to the posture in which food was taken by 
the ancieiit Hebrews, w^e have no very definite information. It 
seems to have been that of sitting, but not necessarily sitting 
on raised seats. On ordinary occasions they probably sat or 
squatted on the floor around a low table, while at meals of more 
ceremony they sat on chairs or stools. Both customs prevailed 
in Egypt. Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt, chap. 6. Joseph's breth- 
ren " sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, 
and the youngest according to his youth " (Gen. 43 : 33), evi- 
dently on proper seats. So also at Saul's table, when David's 
seat was empty ; each of his attendants had his place and seat 
assigned to him. 1 Sam. 20 : 5, 18. Homer represents his heroes 
•as sitting around the wall, each with his own seat and table. 
Odyss. 1.145; 17. 179. 

But in our Saviour's day the Jews had adopted from the 
Romans the custom of reclining on couches at supper, which was 
their principal meal. The Eomans, again, had borrowed the 
usage from the East. The couches of a tridinmm (as the Ro- 



414 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

mans called it) were three in number, arranged on the three sides 
of a square, the fourth being left open for the convenience of 
the servants. On each couch were commonly three, though 
more might be admitted. " They lay with the upper part of the 
body reclined on the left arm, the head a little raised, the back 
supported by cushions, and the. Hmbs stretched out at full length 
or a Uttle bent ; the feet of the first behind the back of the sec- 
ond, and his feet behind the back of the third, with a pillow be- 
tween each. The head of the second was opposite to the breast 
of the first, so that, if he wanted to speak to him, especially if 
the thing was to be secret, he was obliged to lean upon his 
bosom." Adams' Roman Antiquities, under the title. Customs, 
No. 2. The couches, as well as the places in each, were regu- 
larly numbered, and different grades of dignity belonged to them. 
By the first place (Eng. version, uppermost rooms) at a feast, so 
much coveted by the Pharisees (:^att. 23 : 6 ; Mark 12 : 39 ; Luke 
14 : 7 ; 20 : 46) is to be understood the most honorable place. 

From this usage of reclining at meals several passages of holy writ 
receive a clear illustration. We see at once how the beloved disciple, in 
whispering into the Saviour's ear the question suggested by Peter, must 
have lain on Jesus' breast (John 13 : 25) ; also what is the high meaning ol 
the fact that Lazarus "was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom," 
and was seen by the rich man in that position (Luke 16 : 22, 23). He was 
reclining at the heavenly feast, in Abraham's bosom, that is, admitted to 
share with him the bhss of Paradise. Compare our Saviour's words (Matt. 
8 : 11) : " Many shall come from the east and west, and shall recline (not, sit 
down) "with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." 
"We see also how, as Jesus recUned, with his feet in the back part of the 
couch, and his shoes left without (Chap. 17, No. 6), a woman could stand 
behind at his feet and wash them (Luke 7 : 38) ; and, in general, how, 
when the guests were seated and the door was shut, all applications for 
admission must have been out of place (Matt. 25 : 10 ; Luke 13 : 25). 

9. At an oriental supper, the old adage that "fingers were 
made before forks " has its full illustration. Knives and forks 
are not in use there. The guests reclining upon their left side 
(or, as in modern times, sitting around a common dish), take the 
food and convey it to the mouth with their right hand. Hence 
the significance of the expression : " He that dippeth his hand 




A FOOT-EACE. 




ANCIENT BOOKS» PENS, AND INKSTAND. 



I 



PEEPARATION OF FOOD AND MEALS. 415 

with me in the dish" (Matt. 26 : 23), to indicate one recUning at 
the same table. There is an allusion to the same way of taking 
food when the wise man says of the sluggard that he " hideth his 
hand in the dish,'' that is, buries it in the food of the dish before 
him (not in his bosom, as in our version), "and will not so much 
as bring it to his mouth again" (Prov. 19:24; 26:15). The 
custom prevailed anciently, as now, of passing a morsel of bread 
dipped in the grav}^ to a friend at the same table. John 13 : 26. 
" The very polite a la mode oriental will tear up the best bits, and 
either lay them next you, or insist on putting them into your 
mouth. I have had this done for me by digits not particularly 
fair, or even clean." Thomson, vol. 1, pp. 181, 182. 

Where this mode of taking food prevails, the hands will, in ordinary- 
circumstances, be washed before meals as a matter of cleanliness. But the 
Pharisees had exalted this usage, so pro^Der in itself, into a binding reli- 
gious rite, against which our Said.our thought proper to protest in a prac- 
tical way. Matt. 15 : 1, seq. ; Mark 7 : 1, seq. ; Luke 11 : 38. At the close 
of the. meal a servant poured water on the hands over a basin, and fur- 
nished a towel to wipe them. 2 Kings 3 : 11. 

Tristram (Land of Israel, pp. 262, 263) gives the following Uvely pic- 
ture of a feast among the Bedouin Arabs on the shores of the Dead Sea : 

"Dinner was brought. This consisted of a single course, served in a 
huge bowl about a yard in diameter. The bottom was fiUed with thin 
flat cakes, thinner than oat-cakes, and which overhung the sides as grace- 
ful drapery. On them was heaped boiled rice, saturated with butter and 
soup ; while the disjecia membra (dissected parts) of the sheep which had 
been slain for the occasion were piled in a cone over all. 

"The bowl having been placed in the comer, in front of us, the sheikh 
and his brother sat down ojoiDOsite to us, but without partaking ; and turn- 
ing up our sleeves, we prepared for action. Knives and forks are, of 
course, unknown, and we were expected, using only one hand, to make 
balls of the greasy mess, and devour, chucking the morsels into the mouth 
by a dexterous movement of the thumb. This, after a Httle practice, we 
contrived to do. An important piece of etiquette was for each one to 
have his own digging in the dish, and to keep his fingers to it alone. To 
have used the left hand would have been as great a solecism as putting 
the knife into the mouth at home. The meat had to be rent in strips 
from the bones, and eaten, too, with the fingers." 

When Tristram and his party were satisfied, water and soap were 
brought. The water was poured from a silver ewer on their hands over 



416 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

a basin of silver covered with a perforated plate. Coffee, black and strong, 
served in tiny cups, concluded tlie feast. 

Meanwhile the huge dish above described had been removed a little 
to the left, where the Arab retainers of the better class were sitting. 
After these were sufficiently gorged, the bowl was passed outside the tent, 
where aU the rest of the rabble, about twenty-five in number, anxiously 
awaited it. Here it "was cleared ta the twinkling of an eye ; the monkey 
paws of sundry urchins being inserted from behind their seniors, and 
extracting large flaps of greasy cakes with marvellous dexterity. Finally, 
the pack of poor hungiy dogs had a scramble and a fight over the well- 
picked bones." 

For a good description of a modern Syrian meal, see in Thomson, 
vol. 1, p. 181. 

On more formal occasions, as, for example, weddings and 
birthday celebrations, sumptuous preparations were made among 
the Hebrews. The guests were invited beforeliand, and sent 
for at the appointed hour (Matt. 22:3, 4; Luke 14:16, 17); 
flesh and wine were provided iii abundance, with music and 
dancers; and a master of the feast presided at the table, who 
had the general direction of the entertainment and arranged the 
guests. John 2 : 9. Such feasts were always held in the even- 
ning in halls brilliantly lighted, and were often the occasion 
of riotous excesses, which the sacred writers condemn in severe 
terms. Isa. 5 : 11 ; Amos 6 : 4-6. Nevertheless, festive occa- 
sions, being in themselves innocent, furnish a favorite sym- 
bol of the heavenly feast under the reign of the Messiah (Isa. 
25 : 6 ; Matt. 8 : 11 ; 22 : 1, seq.; Luke 14 : 16, seq.; Eev. 19 : 7-9) ; 
and exclusion from this feast is represented under the simiHtude 
of being cast out of the brilhantly lighted banqueting hall, where 
joy and mirth abound, into " the outer darkness " where there 
is " wailing and gnashing of teeth." Matt. 8 : 12 ; 22 : 13 ; 25 : 30. 

It has been commonly assumed that the "wedding garment" men- 
tioned in the parable (Matt. 22 : 11-13) was provided by the king, and that 
on this ground the guest who axDpeared without it was inexcusable. The 
assumption is not improbable, when we consider how common was the 
custom of making presents of changes of raiment (Gen. 45 : 22 ; Judg. 
14 : 12 ; 2 Kings 5 : 22), and especially that at the festivities connected 
with the worship of Baal the worshippers were regularly provided watb 



PREPARATION OF FOOD AND MEALS. 417 

vestments. 2 Kings 10 : 22. But it is not susceptible of direct proof. 
This only is certain, that the guest knew what was required of him, and 
that he might in some way have met the requirement. 

10. Hospitality is everywhere enjoined in the Holy Scrip- 
tures as a cardinal \irtue; and the circumstances of men in 
the primitive ages made it especially obligatory. In the history 
of Abraham, who " entertained angels unawares," we have a 
beautiful illustration of hospitahty in both its spirit and its 
form (Gen. 18 : 1-8) ; and many other like examples occur in holy 
writ. Gen. 19:1-11; 24:31-33; Exod. 2:20; Judg. 19:16, 
seq.; Acts 16 : 15, etc. The circumstances of the Bedouin Arabs 
make the same virtue equally imperative, and the sacredness 
of its obligation is everywhere acknowledged by them, at least 
in the outward form. The stranger who is received by them 
as a guest may count himself safe, though as a simple traveller 
he might be liable to be robbed and maltreated. 

Robinson (Bib. Res., vol. 1, -]}. 81) gives an amusing examxDle of the 
sternness of the Arab law of hospitality, and of the adroitness with which 
it may be abused. He and his companion had bought a kid of some 
Ai'abs whom they met on their journey, and presented it to their Arab 
guides, intending thus to furnish them with a good sux)per. They received 
it joyfully at the hand of the travellers, and at evening "the kid was lolled 
and dressed with great dexterity and despatch ; and its still quivering 
members were laid ui)on the fire and began to emit savory odors, particu- 
larly gTatifying to Ai'ab nostrils. But now a change came over the fair 
scene. The Arabs of whom we had bought the kid, had in some way 
learned that we were to encamp near ; and naturally enough concluding 
that the kid was bought in order to be eaten, they thought good to honor 
our Arabs with a visit, to the number of five or six persons. Now the stern 
laAv of Bedouin hospitality demands that whenever a guest is present at 
a meal, whether there be much or Httle, the first and best portion must be 
laid before the stranger. In this instance the five or six giiests attained 
their object, and had not only the selHng of the kid, but also the eating of 
it; while our poor Arabs, whose mouths had been long watering with 
expectation, were forced to take up with the fragments. Besharah, who 
played the host, fared worst of all ; and came afterwards to beg for a bis- 
cuit, saying he had lost the whole of his dinner." 

In those parts of Syria which have not yet been corrupted 
by the frequency of Frank travellers, the stranger is hospitably 

18* 



418 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

entertained by tlie inhabitants without tlie expectation of a 
reward. In every village there is a pubhc room, or more than 
one, called a menzil or medafeli, devoted to the entertainment 
of strangers. The guest lodges in the menzil, and his food is 
supphed by the families to whose circle it belongs. He gives 
nothing when he leaves. To offer money would be taken as an 
insult ; and to receive it would be a great disgrace. In such 
places, lying off the ordinary track of travellers, one sees gen- 
uine samples of the ancient hospitahty. But as soon as he 
comes upon the more travelled roads, it no longer exists ; for the 
Franks have taught the people to take pay for everything. See 
Eobinson, Bib. Kes., vol. 1, p. 445; vol. 2, pp. 18, 19, 71, 268. 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND USAGES. 419 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

Domestic Relations and Usages. 

I. THE FAMILY. 

1. The abuse of i^ohjgamy had its origin partly in the desire 
of offspring, but oftener in man's selfishness and sensuality. 
It existed before the flood (Gen. 4:19), and we find it again 
prevalent in the early patriarchal age. To say that God sanc- 
tioned it among the covenant people would not be so correct 
as to say that he tolerated it for the time being, and prescribed 
various regulations for mitigating the evils connected with it. 
Exod. 21 : 10, 11 ; Deut. 21 : 15-17. The Israelitish kings were 
forbidden to multiply wives (Deut. 17 : 17), after the example 
of the ancient oriental monarchs, among whom the splendor of 
their kingdom was measured, to a great extent, by that of their 
harem. This precept was, indeed, sadly disregarded by Solo- 
mon to his cost, and by other Jewish kings. 1 Kings 11 : 1, seq.; 
2 Chron. 11:18-23; 13; 21. But it is admitted that the ten- 
dency of tjie Mosaic institutions was to restore the primitive 
idea of the marriage relation, that of the union of one man with 
one woman. After the Babylonish captivity polygamy appears 
to have been less prevalent than before, though it was still 
practised; particularly in the case of princes, like Herod the 
Great, who had nine wives at the same time, the names of whom 
are given by Josephus. Antiq. 17. 1. 3. Under the gospel the 
practice was abolished, not so much by exphcit command, as 
by the general scope and spirit of our Lord's precepts and those 
of his apostles. 

2. Ancient oriental usage made a marked distinction be-, 
tween ivives and concidnnes. When a man had two or more 
wives, they were of equal rank, like Leah and Rachel (Gen.j 
ohap. 29), the wives of Esnn (Gen. 26:31; 28:G-9), Elkanah's 



420 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

two wives (1 Sam. 1:2, seq.), and apparently Solomon's "seven 
hundred wives, princesses" (1 Kings 11:3); or, if there was a 
difference, it was that of simple precedence, not of legal relation. 
But a concubine was a wife of lower rank and having low^er 
privileges. We must be careful not to regard her in the light 
of a kept mistress. She was a true wife, but in a low^er condi- 
tion. Her children, also, were legitimate, but apparently not 
entitled to inherit with the children of the proper wife without 
the special action of the father. The concubine was generally 
a maid-servant bought of her father (Exod. 21:7-11) or coming 
into the family as the servant of the proper wife (Gen. 29 : 24, 29), 
and remaining in the servile condition; or she w^as a female 
captive taken in war. Deut. 21 : 10, seq. The rights of both 
these classes of inferior wives were protected, as we see in the 
passages referred to. In the case of Hagar, Sarai's maid, and 
of the maid-servants of Leah and Rachel, it was by the sugges- 
tion of the wives themselves, that they entered into the relation 
of concubines, and the motive was the desire of offspring that 
should be reckoned as theirs. Gen. 16 : 1-3 ; 30 : 3, 4, 9. 

It may appear strange to some that the Mosaic law should have allowed 
the practice of x^olygamy and concubinage, with all the evils attendant 
upon this i^erversion of the marriage relation. . But in the case of organic 
evils that are inwrought into the texture of society it has ever been God's 
way to proceed sloAvly and cautiously, providing only they do not, like 
XDolytheism and idolatry, strike at the very substance of rehgion. So he 
dealt with the abuses of slavery and divorce, as well as of polygamy ; 
establishing i)rinciples and institutions which would prepare the way for 
their final abolition. His holy soul had no delight in these abuses ; but 
since his infinite wisdom saw fit to tolerate them for the time being, it 
was a matter of course that he should prescribe rules for the mitigation 
of the evils connected with them. The existence of such rules ought not 
to be adduced as a proof that God sanctions the practices themselves as 
normal institutions in his moral government, and valid for all time. 

3. In regard to the clioice of a ivi/'e, the young man enjoyed 
a degree of freedom in the primitive ages, yet by no means 
such as exists among us. Esau selected his Avives (Gen. 26 : 34, 
35; 28:6-9); so also Samson, through the intervention of his 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND USAGES. 421 

father. Juclg., chap. 14; compare Gen.. 34:4, seq. Men of rank 
and influence enjoyed, of course, much hberty in . this respect. 
But the purely patriarchal method is that exhibited in Abra- 
ham's mission of his servant to Mesopotamia to select there a 
vnle for his son Isaac. Gen., chap. 24. Whether Isaac was 
consulted in the matter we are not informed ; but it is certain 
that neither the father nor the son had seen the bride. It w^as 
done as a matter of rightful paternal authority. In the same 
spirit Isaac directs Jacob as to the choice of a wife (Gen. 28 : 1, 
2), and Judah chooses a wife for Er (Gen. 38:6). In the case 
of Ishmael, who had been sent away with his mother from his 
father's abode, she performed for him the same office, and "took 
lum a wife out of the land of Egypt." Gen. 21:21. When 
there were brothers, they naturally had a voice in the question 
of the espousal of tliek sister. Gen. 24 : 50 ; 34 : 8, seq. In 
respect to the young women, it cannot be said that they had, 
as a rule, any choice in the matter of their marriage. In par- 
ticular cases, as that of Eebekah (Gen. 24:57, 58), their wishes 
might be gratified on minor points ; but even she does not 
appear to have been consulted on the main question. It was 
not to her, but to Bethuel her father and Laban her brother, 
that Abraham's servant addressed himself, and they answered : 
" Behold Eebekah is before thee ; take her, and go, and let her 
be thy master's son's wife, as the Lord hath spoken" (ver. 51). 
This was fully in accordance with the spirit and usage of anti- 
quity. Daughters were disposed of in marriage at the vnH of 
their fathers and brothers, and the cases where they acted accord- 
ing to their own free inclination were exceptional. It is the 
gospel of Christ that has raised woman to her present dignity 
in this respect, and established the law that her wishes shall 
be regarded. 

In respect to the choice of concubines the young men appear 
to have enjoyed a large degree of liberty, selecting very much 
according to their inchnation; for here were no questions of 
family alUan(3e to embarrass them. But the women themselves 
had no voice in the matter. 



422 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

4. The espousal or hetrofJial was a contract between the 
father of the bridegroom, or his representative, and the father 
and brothers of the bride, accompanied, in all ordinary cases, 
by presents to the bride and her parents. A written contract 
'^as not in use until after the Babylonish captivity. From the 
time of this betrothal the parties were considered as husband 
and wife, and infidehty was regarded and punished as adultery. 
In a legal and religious point of view no further ceremony was 
necessary. The bride might be at once taken to the home of 
the bridegroom, as in the case of Rebekah. Gen. 24:61-67. 
But in ordinary circumstances she remained for a considerable 
period of time at her father's house, and all communication be- 
tween her and the bridegroom took place through the medium 
of a friend, supposed to be the same as "the friend of the bride- 
groom" referred to by our Saviour in John 3 : 29. 

5. In respect to the marriage-doivry the custom varied wide- 
ly from that which prevails among us. It was the bridegroom, 
or his father on his behalf, that gave the dowry to the bride 
accompanied with presents to her relatives. Thus, when Abra- 
ham's servant had obtained the consent of Bebekah's parents, 
he at once " brought forth jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave 
them to Bebekah : he gave also to her mother and her brother 
precious things." Gen. 24:53. So Shechem, when he asks of 
Jacob and his sons Dinah as his wife, says : " Ask me never so 
much dowry and gift" (Gen. 34:12) — the dowry for the bride, 
the gift for her friends. The marriage-dowry and gift might 
take the form of sei^vice rendered to the bride's father. So it 
was in the case of Jacob (Gen., chap. 29), of Joseph (Gen. 41 : 45), 
of Moses (Exod. 2:21; 3:1), of Othniel (Judg. 1:12, seq.), and 
of David. When Saul proposed to David that he should be 
his son-in-law, the answer was : " Seemeth it to you a light 
thing to be the king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man, 
and of low rank?" and Saul's answer was: "The king desireth 
not any dowry, but a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be 
avenged on the king's enemies." • 1 Sam. 18 : 22-25. The only 
customary dowry (if it may be so called) which fathers gave 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND USAGES. 423 

with their daughters consisted of maid-servants. Gen. 24 : Gl ; 
29 : 24, 29. There were, however, special cases where a father 
gave a portion with his daughter. When Caleb gave to Othniel 
Achsah his daughter with "a south land" he added, at her 
suggestion, " the upper springs and the nether springs." Judg. 
1 : 14, 15. But this was a case where very eminent service had 
been already rendered by the bridegroom. 

When female captives were taken as concubines, they were 
regarded simply as prizes of war. When maid-servants bought 
with money became concubines, the price paid for them took 
the place of the customary marriage-gift. In neither case did 
they receive a dowry. 

6. The marriage was ordinarily consummated by the removal 
of the bride from her father's house to that of the bridegroom 
or his father. This ceremony took place in the evening, and 
was followed by the marriage-feast. The bridegroom and bride 
were both arrayed in festive robes redolent with sweet odors. 
Psa. 45 : 8 ; Cant. 4 : 10, 11. He wore on his head a nuptial 
turban (Heb., ^e-er, Isa. 61:10; Cant. 3:11), and she a bridal 
chaplet, adorning herself also with jewels. Psa. 45 : 13, 14 ; Isa. 
49:18; 61:10; Eev. 19:8; 21:2. The bridegroom went forth 
in the evening from his own house to that of the bride's father, 
attended by a company of young men — "the children of the 
bride-chamber " (Matt. 9 : 15), and, as we may well suppose, by 
musicians and singers also. After a delay, which was often 
protracted tiU midnight, he with his companions conducted the 
bride and her maidens to his own house with many demonstra- 
tions of joy. On their way they were joined by a party of 
maidens, friends of the bridegroom and bride, who fell into 
the procession bearing in their hands hglited lamps; and at 
the house a sumptuous feast was prepared. Matt. 22 : 1-10 ; 
25 : 1-10 ; Luke 14 : 8 ; John 2 : 1-10 ; Eev. 19 : 9. In patriarchal 
times the festivities of the occasion seem to have lasted se\en 
days. It is hardly necessary to add that on the occasion of 
this procession the bride was closely veiled from view, as she 
also was when conducted to the bridal chamber. Gen. 29 : 25. 



424 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

The above-named festivities were not essential to the consummation of 
the marriage relation, and might, in certain exigencies, be omitted, as they 
always were in the case of concubines. 

7. The so-called law of the levirate (from tlie Latin levir, hiis- 
hand^s brother) was founded on a custom not established by 
Moses, but existing prior to his time (Gen. 38 : 8), the object of 
which was to perpetuate the name of a brother who had died 
without leaving issue. The provisions of this law are thus sta- 
ted (Deut. 25 :5, G): " If brethren dwell together, and one of 
them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry 
without unto a stranger : her husband's brother shall go in unto 
her, and take her to him to mfe, and perform the duty of a hus- 
band's brother unto her. And it shall be that the firstborn which 
she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, 
that his name be not put out of Israel." But this was not made 
absolutely imperative. If he refused, his brother's wife was to 
" loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face," in the 
presence of the qlders of his city, and his name was to be called : 
The Ivouse of the man of unloosed shoe. Deut. 25 : 7-10. " The 
disgrace," says Jahn (Antiq., §157), "which would be the conse- 
quence of such treatment from the widow, was not so great, but 
that a person who was determined not to marry would dare to 
encounter it." We may add that this ignominious treatment was 
not made imperative on the part of the widow, but was simply 
permitted. 

By plucking the shoe from the foot of the brother-in-law, the widow 
symbolically took from him the place which he held to her and to the 
house of the deceased brother. "The above-named signification of this 
symbolic act is explained from the custom mentioned in the book of Ruth 
(4:7), according to which the plucking off and delivering to another of 
one's shoe was an ancient usage in Israel in matters of redemption and 
exchange to confirm every bargain. Since we take possession of landed 
estate, and assert our right to it by setting our feet uiDon the soil and stand- 
ing thereon in our shoes, the plucking off and delivering to anotJier of the 
shoe was the symbol of the renunciation of one's place on the estate and 
his possession of it." . . . "In the case before us, the symbol was some- 
what modified. The brother-in-law who declined the marriage did not 
taJie off his own shoe and give it to the brother's widow, but she plucked 



DOMESTIC DELATIONS AND USAGES. 425 

it off from him, and thus divested him of the position which he held to 
her and the deceased brother, or to the ancestral house." Keil, Bib. 
Arch£Bol., ^108. 

8. For the degrees of consanguinity within which marriage was 
forbidden by the Levitical law, the bibHcal student is referred to 
the eighteenth and twentieth chapters of Leviticus. 

The meaning of the prohibition (Lev. 18 : 18) : "Neither shalt thou take 
a wife to her sister" (marginal rendering, " one wife to another"), "to vex 
her, to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her hfe-time," has been 
a matter of much controversy. We give, in a somewhat abridged form, the 
judicious note on this passage in Smith's Bible Diet. (Article, Marriage) : 
" It has been urged that the marginal translation, ' one wife to another,' is 
the correct one, and that the prohibition is really directed against polyg- 
amy. The following considerations, however, support the rendering of 
the text : (1.) The writer would hardly use the terms rendered 'wife' and 
* sister ' in a different sense in ver. 18 from that which he assigned to them 
in the previous verses. (2. ) The usage of the Hebrew language, and indeed 
of every language," requires- that the expression ' one to another ' should be 
preceded by a plural noun. The cases in which the expression woman lo 
her sister [as the Hebrew reads] is equivalent to ' one to another ' (Exod. 
26 : 3, 5, 6, 17 ; Ezek. 1 : 9, 23 ; 3 : 13), instead of favoring, as has generally 
been supposed, the marginal translation, exhibit the pecuUarity above 
noted. [It may be added that they are all cases of the figurative application 
of the terms to inanimate objects.] (3.) The consent of the ancient ver- 
sions is unanimous. (4. ) The Jews themselves, as shoA\'ii in the Mishna, 
and in the works of Philo, permitted the marriage. (5. ) Polygamy was 
recognized by the Mosaic law, and cannot consequently be forbidden in 
this passage." 

The Israehtes were further prohibited from intermarrying 
with the Canaanites on the special gi'ound that such connec- 
tions would lead them into idolatry (Exod. 34 : 16 ; Deut. 7 : 3, 4 ; 
Josh. 23 : 12, 13), a result which actually followed the violation of 
the rule (Judg. 3 : 6, 7 ; 1 Kings 11 : 2, seq. ; 16 : 31). 

Besides these prohibitions which had respect to the wdiole 
body of the Hebrew nation, special restrictions were laid upon 
the high priest : " He shall take a wife in her virginity. A widow, 
or a divorced woman, or a profane woman [who is] a harlot — • 
these shall he not take : but he shaU take a virgin of his own 
people to wife." Lev. 21 : 13, 14. The common priests were for- 



426 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

bidden to marry a harlot or a divorced woman, but not a widow. 
Lev. 21 : 7. 

In accordance with the spirit of these special prohibitions, which re- 
qnired of the priest more caution in respect to his outward relations than 
was enjoined u]pon the i^eople at large, we are probably to understand the 
precepts of the apostle in respect to bishops and deacons (1 Tim. 3:2; 
Titus 1 : 6) not of contemporaneous polygamy — having two wives at the 
same time, but ratlier of successive polygamy — the marriage of a second 
wife after the decease of the first. A disregard of the prevailing pubhc 
sentiment, which, though it did not disallow, yet disparaged second mar- 
riages, would have been, in this age, a hinderance to the bishops and dea- 
cons in their official work. On the same general ground, the widow who 
was enrolled on the church-list (probably for special services, and not mere- 
ly for maintenance) was required among other things to have been ' ' the 
wife of one man " (1 Tim. 5:9), while the apostle's counsel to the younger 
widows (ver, 14) was that they should marry again. 

9. With ns divorce is an act qf the civil judicature, made (at 
least in the intention of the law) upon application and due proof 
on the part of the injured party. But among the Jews the hus- 
band put away his wife by his own act. The precept of the 
Mosaic law, hteralJy translated, reads as follows : " When a man 
shall take a woman and marry her, then it shall be, if she do not 
find favor in his eyes because he hath found in her the naked- 
ness of a thing, that he shaU write for her a bill of divorce, and 
give it into her hand, and send her away from his house." The 
wife thus divorced might be married to another man, but she must 
in no case return to her former husband. Deut. 24 : 1-4. In 
regard to the true interpretation of the words, " the nakedness of 
a thing," there were among the Jews two schools of interpreters ; 
that of Shammai, who limited it to immoral conduct in the wom- 
an, and that of Hillel, who understood it to mean anything offen- 
sive to the husband. This latter interpretation is given by Jose- 
phus : "If a man wish to be separated from the wife who hves 
with him for whatever reasons (but many such might occur to 
men), let him affirm in writing his purpose no longer to cohabit 
with her," etc. Antiq., 4. 8. 23. Our Saviour undoubtedly sanc- 
tioned the principle for which the school of Shammai contended : 



DOMESTIC KELATIONS AND USAGES. 427 

" Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, 
and shall marry another, committeth adultery " (Matt. 19 : 9) ; 
and this, with the added clause, " Whosoever marrieth her that 
is put away committeth adultery," contains the general rule for 
the Christian church. But it does not follow that he sanctioned 
Shammai's interpretation of tlie Mosaic ride. On the contrary, his 
words, " Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered 
you to put away your wives ; but from the beginning it was not 
so," imply that the Mosaic rule departed, for a special reason, 
from the original idea of the marriage relation in allowing the 
husband at his discretion to put away his wife. Adultery, more- 
over, was punished with death by the Mosaic law ; and we can- 
not suppose that it would embody two contradictory rules, the 
one commanding that the adulteress should be put to death (Lev. 
20 : 10; Deut. 22 : 22), the other allo^ving the husband to give her 
a bill of divorce. No reciprocal right of divorce was allowed to 
the Hebrew wife. This would have been foreign to the whole 
spuit of the Mosaic institutions. In noticing Salome's act of 
divorcing her husband Costobarus, Josephus expressly states that 
it was not according to the Jewish laws, but in conformity with 
prevaiHng usage — ^the later Eoman usage. Antiq., 15. 7. 10. 

10. In the view of the Mosaic law, adultery is unlawful inter- 
course with a married or betrothed woman. Where polygamy 
prevails, no other concei3tion of this crime can well be formed. 
The prescribed penalty was the death of both the guilty parties. 
Lev. 20 : 10 ; Deut. 22 : 22-24. From some notices of Scripture 
we gather that the manner of the execution was stoning. Ezek. 
16 : 38-40 ; John 8:5. In the case of a betrothed woman guilty 
of unfaithfulness, usage allowed the husband (at least in New 
Testament times) to put her away by a bill of divorce, if he did 
not wish to proceed with her according to the extreme rigor of 
the law. Matt. 1 : 19. A mitigation of the death penalty was 
prescribed when the adulteress was a bondmaid betrothed to a 
husband. In this case both parties were to be scourged, and 
the man was to present a trespass-offering before the Lord. 
Lev. 19 : 20-22. For the solemn ordeal prescribed in the case of 



428 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

a woman suspected of adultery, the reader may consult tlie fifth 
chapter of the book of Numbers. 

11. The deske of offspring was strong in the bosom of the 
Hebrew wife, and barrenness was considered as a reproach. 
Gen. 16 : 1, seq. ; 25 : 21 ; 29 : 31, seq. ; 30 : 1, seq. ; Euth 4 : 13-15 ; 
1 Sam., chap. 1 ; Luke 1 : 13 ; John 16 : 21. The birth of a son 
was a joyous occasion, and its anniversary was celebrated with 
festivities (Jer. 20 : 15 ; Job 1 : 4, where Ids day means Ms hirth- 
day). The rite of circumcision took place on the eighth day 
after his birth, on which occasion the child was named. Gen. 
17 : 12 ; Lev. 12 : 3 ; Luke 1 : 59 ; 2 : 21 ; Phil. 3 : 5. The offer- 
ing for the purification of the mother took place, in the case of a 
son, at the end of forty days from the time of the birth ; in the 
case of a daughter, at the expiration of eighty days. Lev., 
chap. 12. 

Hebrew names were ahvays significant. In some cases they referred to 
present or past character or circumstances. Adam called his wife's name 
Eve (Heb., Havva, life) "becausb she was the mother of all living" (Gen. 
3:20); Eve called her firstborn son Cain, acquisition, saying: "I have 
acquired a man from the Lord" (Gen. 4:1). So also the names Isaac, 
laughter (Gen. 18 : 12 ; 21 : 6), Jacob, supplanter, and Esau, hairy (Gen. 
25 : 25, 26 ; 27 : 36), of Jacob's sons (Gen., chaps. 30, 31); of Moses, water- 
saved (Exod. 2 : 10) ; and of many others that might be mentioned. In 
other cases they were clearly pi^ophetic. Examples are David, beloved; 
Solomon, pacific; and especially Jesus, salvation (Matt. 1:21). So also 
Abel, vanity, unless, as some think, this appellation was applied to him 
afterwards in allusion to his untimely end. Among some of the orientals 
it was the custom, when a man was elevated to a post of dignity, to confer 
upon him a new name. So Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paa- 
neah (Septuagint, Psonihomphanech), which is generally understood to 
mean savior of the, age. For other examples see 2 Kings 24 : 17 ; Dan. 
1:6, 7. In like manner God himself changed the name of Abram, father 
of height, to that of Abraham, father of a multitude; and the name of Sarai 
(of uncertain meaning) to that of Sarah, princess ; and gave to Jacob the 
more honorable title Israel, prince with God, or contender loith God (Gen. 
32 : 28). Isaiah, by divine direction, confers upon his children names pro- 
phetic of the future destiny of the covenant people or their enemies — 
Shear-jashub, the remnant shall return; Maliar-shalal-hash-baz, hasten-booly, 
hurry-prey (Isa. 7:3; 8:1, 3); so also Hosea (chap. 1). Isaiah, moreover, 
bestows upon Zion and her sons a multitude of new names, aU expressive 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND USAGES. 4:29 

of her preciousness in God's siglifc, and the high honor that awaits her. 
She is called TJie city of the Lord, TJie repairer of the breach. The resiorerr of 
paths to dwell in, Hephzi-hah, My delight is in her, Sought out, A city not for- 
saken; her land is named Beulah, married; her walls Salvation, her gates 
Praise; and her children are called, Trees of righteousness, Priests of the 
Lord, Ministers of God, the Holy people, the Redeemed of the Lord (Isa., chaps. 
G0-G2), See also the epithets bestowed upon the Messiah. Chaps. 7 : 14 ; 
8 : 10 ; 9:6. 

12. The 'power of thefatlwr over his children in ancient times 
was well nigh absolute. It included the right of disinheriting his 
children, and even of putting them to death. Gen. 38 : 24. By 
the Mosaic law, however, it was limited in several respects. 

(1.) The father could not put his son to death. by his own 
arbitrary act. It must be done by due process of law before the 
elders of his city, it being understood that they judged respecting 
the validity of the charges on the ground of which the condem- 
nation of the son was demanded. If it could be shown that he 
was stubborn and rebellious, a glutton and a drunkard ; or that 
he had beaten or cursed his father or mother, the elders were 
bound to give sentence against him, and see it executed by the 
customary process of stoning. Exod. 21 : 15, 17 ; Lev. 20 : 9 ; 
Deut. 21 : 18-21. 

The honor of father and mother required by the law did not He in 
words alone. It was to be manifested by deeds of love. Matt. 15 : 4-6 ; 
Mark 7 : 10-13. The father's blessing, on the other hand, was highly val- 
ued, and in the case of the ancient patriarchs both this and his curse h^ 
a prophetic efficacy. Gen. 9 : 20-27 ; chaps. 27, 49. 

(2.) The father was bound to recognize the right of the first- 
bom by giving him a double portion of the estate, without allow- 
ing himself to be governed by his private inclinations. Deut. 
21 : 15-17. Before the time of Moses we have examples of the 
transfer of the right of primogeniture to a younger son, partly 
in connection with the misconduct of the first-bom, and partly 
by the sovereign appointment of God. Gen. 25 : 31-34 ; chap. 
27; 48 : 14, 18-20; 49 : 3, 4, compared with ver. 8. 

Besides the right already mentioned of receiving a double portion of 
the father's estate, the firstborn son enjoyed other prerogatives. He was 



430 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

naturally, next after his father, the head of the family, and had authority 
over the household. It was announced to Rebekah by the spirit of proph- 
ecy, as an inversion of the ordinary rule, that the elder should serve the 
younger. Gen. 25 : 23. When Isaac unwittingly transferred to Jacob the 
birthright, it was with the declaration : "Be lord over thy brethren, and 
let thy mother's sons bow down to thee " (Gen. 27 : 29); and when after- 
wards Jacob gave the same privilege to Judah, he added: "Thy father's 
children shall bow down before thee " (Gen. 49 : 8). In the same way the 
firstborn son of a monarch was, as a rule, the heir to his father's kingdom, 
though in special cases, like that of Solomon, it was given to a younger 
brother. 1 Kings, chap. 1. 

There is good ground for believing that, before the Mosaic law, the 
functions of the priesthood belonged to the firstborn son, as the head of the 
household. This much, at least, is certain, that when the Levites were 
taken "instead of all' the firstborn among the children of Israel" (Numb. 
3 : 4:1), the priestly office, with all the service of the sanctuary pertaining to 
it, was transferred to them. 

We see, from the above facts, how naturally the ieTTn firstborn came into 
use to denote dignity and •privilege. God caUs Israel his son, even his first- 
born (Exod. 4 : 22);. and promises to make the Messiah his firstborn, higher 
than the kings of the earth (Psa. 89 : 27). Believers are called "the church 
of the firstborn " (that is, consisting of the firstborn) " enrolled in heaven " 
(Heb. 12 : 28), because they are all raised to the dignity of kings and 
priests (Eev. 1:6). Christ is "the firstborn among many brethren " (Rom. 
8 : 29), as having preeminence among his redeemed ; and "the firstborn of 
the whole creation " (Col. 1 : 15), because he is its author and head. 

II. MASTERS AND SERVANTS. 

• 13. In the Hebrew commonwealtli, as in the ancient nations 
generally, the distinction between emj)loyers and hired servants on 
the one hand, and masters and hond-servants on the other, was 
definite and well understood. The hired servant entered, of his 
own choice, into a contract with his employer for a stipulated 
amount of wages ; and when the service was performed and the 
wages were received, the special relation between the two ceased. 
But the master had a permanent claim to the services of the 
bond-servant without wages, except so far as the maintenance 
and protection received by the latter might be regarded in the 
light of wages. In the view of the Mosaic law, however, the 
servant was not a "personal chattel" divested of the rights of 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND USAGES. 431 

humanity. In a certain sense his condition was that of slavery, 
since he might be transferred by sale from one master to an- 
other, and owed service without compensation. But it was sla- 
very only in a very mitigated sense of the word. The absolute 
surrender of servants to the arbitrary will of the master, his 
right to chastise them without limit, and even to kill them with 
impunity — all these were set aside by the Mosaic code in the 
case of foreign as well as Hebrew servants. This code recog- 
nized their rights as men. If, for example, the master smote out 
the eye or the tooth of his servant, he was to let him go free for 
his eye's or his tooth's sake. Exod. 21 : 26, 27. If the master 
smote his servant or maid with a rod, so that he died under his 
hand, he was to be punished; "but," adds the statute, "if he 
continue a day or two, he shall not be punished ; for he is his 
money." Exod. 21 : 20, 21. The master had such a moneyed 
interest in the continued hfe of his servant, that it was to be pre- 
sumed, in this case, that he did not mean to kill him. The 
reader ^\tI1 notice that the instrument of correction is " the rod.'* 
If a man inflicted a mortal wound upon his servant with a deadly 
mstrument, he was undoubtedly dealt with as a murderer. 

Then as to religious privileges, all that the free Israelite en- 
joyed were guaranteed to his servants — the rest of the Sabbath 
(Exod. 20 : 10 ; Deut. 5 : 14) ; attendance on the national festi- 
vals (Deut. 16 : 1-17 compared with chap. 12 : 17, 18) ; and the 
public reading of the law (Deut. 31 : 10-13). 

In respect to the rile of circumcision, Saalschiitz maintains (Mosaic Law, 
cliap. 101, 1 7, note) that the circumcision of servants of adult age bought 
■with money was optional on their part ; that is, that they were permitted, 
if they desired it, to become fully incorporated with the household by cir- 
cumci.sion, and thus to obtain naturalization, at least so far as was compat- 
ible with theii' relations. But Mielziner (Slaveiy among the Ancient He- 
brews, in the Am. Theol. Keview, April and July, 1861) maintains with 
much reason the common view, that the circumcision of such servants was 
obligatory on the pai*t of their Hebrew masters. The precept (Exod. 
12 : 44) may be thus fairly rendered : ' ' And as to every servant — a man 
bought with money, thou shalt circumcise him ; then shall he eat thereof." 
So the translators and interpreters generaUy. But in respect to the Inter 



432 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Rabbinic usage, it is agi'eed that coercion of conscience was not used with 
a Gentile servant of adult age. See further in Bib. Sacra for 1862, pp. 
62-64. 

14. The body of servants consisted of the following classes : 
First, captives taken in war. Deut. 20:13, 14; 21:10-14, 

where the female captive taken as a wife is already in the con- 
dition of servitude. This was in accordance with the general 
usage of antiquity. 

Secondly, debtors or their children. Exod. 21 : 7 ; Lqv. 25 : 39 ; 
2 Kings 4:1; Neh. 5:4, 5 ; Isa. 50 : 1. This also was the com- 
mon law among the cincients. Matt. 18 : 25. 

Thirdly, persons sold for theft. Exod. 22 : 3. 

Fourthly, the children of servants. Gen. 14 : 14 ; 17 : 23 ; 
21 : 10. 

Man-steaHng was punished by the law of Moses with death. 
Exod. 21 : 16 ; Deut. 24 : 7. But the Israelites might purchase 
Hebrew servants, and also servants of foreigners. Exod. 21 : 2, 
seq. ; Lev. 25 : 39, seq. 

15. In respect to the limitation of the time of servitude, the 
Mosaic law contains tivo classes of passages, the reconciliation of 
which is a matter of some difficulty. In Exod. 21 : 2-6 the direc- 
tion is : "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve 
thee ; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he 
came in by himseK, he shaU go out by himself ; if he were mar- 
ried, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have 
given him a wife, and she hath borne him sons or daughters ; 
the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go 
out by himself." If he do not choose to part with his family, 
then by submitting to the ceremony of having his ear bored 
through with an awl, he becomes his master's servant for ever. 
In Deut. 15 : 12-18 we have substantially the same precept, with 
the addition : " And also unto thy maid-servant thou shalt do 
likewise." These passages belong to ihefrst class. 

The law respecting a maid-servant sold by her father (Exod. 21 : 7-11), 
does not come into account here ; for it is a case where the purchaser is 
expected to take her as his wife, or at least betroth her to his son. He 



DOMESTIC EELATIONS AND USAGES. 433 

must either(l) tiike her to be his wife ; (2) give her as a wife to his son (her 
rights being in either case protected if a second Avife is taken) ; or (3) let 
her go out free without money. 

The second class of passages is found in Lev. 25 : 39-43, and 
ver. 47-55 ; where the Hebrew servant goes out, not at the expi- 
ration of six years, but in the year of jubilee. 

If, noAv, we assume, as is commonly done, that both classes 
of passages refer to the same persons, we may adopt the expla- 
nation given long ago by Michaelis, which is the following : " Or- 
dinarily the man became free after six years of service, that is, 
at the beginning of the seventh year ; but if he had been sold 
into servitude a few years before the year of jubilee, he was not 
to wait for the seventh year ; but he regained his freedom in the 
year of jubilee." Commentary on the Laws of Moses, §127. 
But Saalschlltz maintains that the two classes of passages refer 
to different classes of servants. He would refer the second class 
of passages. Lev. 25 : 39-43, and ver. 47-55, to unpoverished 
Israehtes, whose hereditary possessions were to revert to them 
at the year of jubilee; but i\\e first class, Exod. 21 : 2-6, Deut. 
15 : 12-18, to a pecuhar class of servants, constituting a sort of 
middle class between impoverished Israehtes and Gentile slaves 
purchased of the heathen — a class made vi\), in his view, of per- 
sons born in the house of an Israelite from the marriage of ser- 
vants, and also of servants bought with money who had become 
incorporated with the family by circumcision, and thus attained 
to a kind of naturaUzation. According to thi^ view the servant 
had, upon every change of masters, the privilege of freedom after 
six years of service. See the two views fully presented by Miel- 
ziner (Am. Theol. Eeview for Apiil, 1861), and Saalschlltz (Bib. 
Sacra for January, 1862). 

There has been a difiference of opinion as to the meaning of the words : 
'' He shall serve him for ever" (Exod. 21 : 6 ; Deut. 15 : 17), spoken of the 
servant whose ear had been bored with an awl. The common Jewish opin- 
ion is that the period designated extended only to the year of jubilee. But 
some maintain that the servant, by submitting himself to this rite, re- 
nounced absolutely all claim to hberty at any futures time. 

It is maintained, again, by mnny that the words of Moses in reference 

Of a-;, k Antiq. 19 



434 • BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

to the year of jubilee, *' And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim 
liberty throughout aU the land to all the inhabitants thereof " (Lev. 25 : 10), 
apply, by fair interpretation, to servants of foreign origin also, as being a 
part of "the inhabitants of the land." But others argue with much force 
from the context that the provisions of this verse refer, like all the rest 
contained in the chapter, to impoverished Israelites returning to their 
hereditary possessions. Such has ever been the view of Jewish commen- 
tators. While they have held that Hebrew servants, whose ears had been 
bored, were released at the year of jubilee, they have not extended this 
rule to Gentile servants. 

16. Servitude among the Gentile nations, the Greeks and Eo- 
mans included, differed widely from Hebrew servitude. It was 
slavery in tlie full sense of the term ; and it was a merciful pro- 
vision of the law' of Moses that fugitive slaves fleeing to the 
Hebrews should not be forcibly returned to their former mas- 
ters. Deut. 23 : 15, 16. 

III. FOKMS OF SOCIAL INTEECOUKSE. 

17. The hvely temperament of the orientals manifests itself 
in their /orms of salutation, which among us would carry an air of 
extravagance, "when in truth," as Jahn remarks, "those ges- 
tures and expressions mean no more than very moderate ones 
among us." Examples of the etiquette of primitive times occur 
in the history of the patriarchs. Before the three strangers who 
presented themselves at his tent-door Abraham " bowed himself 
towards the ground." Gen. 18 : 2. So also, in negotiating with 
the children of Heth for a burying-place, he twice " bowed down 
himself before the people of the land." Gen. 23 : 7, 12. "When 
Laban heard of Jacob's arrival, " he ran to meet him, and em- 
braced him, and kissed him " (Gen. 29 : 13) ; and afterwards Jacob 
" bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near 
to his brother," Avhom he met not as an equal, but as a chieftain 
at the head of an armed, band, upon whose favor his hfe and all 
his possessions depended. Then Esau "ran to meet him, and 
embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him ; and they 
wept." "Then the handmaidens came near, they and their chil- 
dren, and they bowed themselves. And Leah also with her chil- 



DOMESTIC DELATIONS AND USAGES. 435 

dren came near, and tliey bowed themselves : and after came 
Josepli near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves." Gen. 
33 : 1-7. In this narrative we have a true picture of an oriental 
meeting of the more formal Idnd. Another example is that of 
Jacob's sons, who, upon their presentation to Joseph, " bowed 
down themselves before him with their faces to the earth." Gen. 
42:6; 43 : 28. Prostration of the body before a man of rank 
continued to be the usual toiien of respect, as it is at the present 
day in eastern lands. 1 Sam. 20:41; 24:8; 25:41; 2 Sam, 
1:2; 9:6', 14 : 4, 22 ; etc. They who came to our Saviour with 
petitions for themselves or their friends often fell down at his 
feet and did him reverence. Though it was not necessarily as a 
divine being that they thus honored him, it was certainly as a 
messenger of God invested with superhuman dignity. 

Various /o,'?/?.9 of 'greeting are given in the Old Testament, 
such as: " The Lord be with you;" "the Lord bless you;" "the 
blesshig of Jehovah be upon thee " (Euth 2:4; Psa. 129 : 8) ; but 
the current form, still retained in the East, was : " Peace be unto 
thee;" or more formally and fully: "Unto thee be peace, and 
unto thy house be peace, and unto all that thou hast be peace" 
(1 Sam. 25 : 6) ; " Peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to 
thine helpers" (1 Chron. 12:18). So also it was customary to 
take leave with wishes of peace. Exod. 4 : 18 ; 1 Sam. 1:17; 
20 : 42 ; Mark 5 : 34 ; etc. It is in allusion to both the salutation 
and the parting that our Saviour says : " Peace I leave with you, 
my peace I give unto you : not as the world giveth, give I unto 
you." John 14 : 27. The peace which the world gives is too 
often an empty form, and when sincere, not efficacious. But 
when the blessed Saviour says : " Peace be unto you ;" " Go in 
peace," there is both a divine fulness of meaning in his words, 
and a divine efficacy accompanying them. 

To tlie above-named inflections and salutations the modem orientals 
add various other gestures and actions. "In pronouncing the form of 
salutation just given, the orientals place the right hand upon the left 
breast, and with much gravity incHne the head. If two Arab friends of 
equal rank in life meet together, they mutually extend to each other the 



436 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

right band, and having clasped, they elevate them, as if to kiss them. 
Having advanced thus far in the ceremony, each one draws back his hand, 
and kisses it instead of his friend's, and then places it upon his forehead. 
If one of the Arabs be more exalted in point of rank than the other, he is 
to give the other an opportunity of kissing, instead of his own, the hand 
of his superior. The parties then continue the salutation by reciprocally 
kissing each other's beards, having first placed the hand under it, in which 
case alone it is lawful to touch the beard. 2 Sam. 20 : 9. It is sometimes 
the case that persons, instead of this ceremony, merely place their cheeks 
together. It is the common practice among the Persians for persons in 
saluting to kiss each other's lips ; if one of the individuals be a person of 
high rank, the salutation is given upon the cheeks instead of the lips." 
Jahn, ArchseoL, |175. These modern oriental modes of salutation un- 
doubtedly represent, for substance, the usage of ancient scriptural times. 

To the salutations succeeds an elaborate series of mutual inquiries and 
expressions of joy, wliich are not only, for the most part, heartless, but 
consume much time, often followed by protracted trivial conversation. 
Hence we may illustrate Elisha's direction to Gehazi, when he sent him in 
haste to Mount Carmel : "If thou meet any man, salute him not ; and if 
any salute thee, answer him not again" (2 Kings 4:29), and the similar 
command of our Lord when he sent out the seventy discij)les : ' ' Salute no 
man by the way " (Luke 10 : 4). See Thomson, The Laud and the Book, 
vol. 1, p. 534 ; Lane, Modern Egyptians, vol. 1, pp. 253, 254. 

"In the presence of the great and the noble, the orientals incline them- 
selves almost to the earth, kiss their knees or the hem of their garment, and 
place it upon their forehead. When in the presence of kings and princes 
more particularly, they go so far as to prostrate themselves at full length 
upon the ground ; sometimes with their knees bent, they touch their fore- 
head to the earth, and before resuming an erect position either kiss the 
earth, or, if they prefer it, the feet of the king or prince in whose presence 
they are permitted to appear." Jahn, ArchseoL, §175 ; Herodotus, 1. 134. 
The Romans were not accustomed to render such servile honor to their 
rulers. "When CorneHus feU down at Peter's feet and did him reverence, 
he regarded him as a messenger of God invested with superhuman dig- 
nity. But the apostle promjDtly lifted him up, with the words : "Stand 
up ; I myself also am a man." Acts 10 : 25, 26. 

18. On occasions of great national joy dancing, always witli 
tlie accompaniment of music, took the character among the 
Hebrews, of a religious act. This was in accordance with the 
general usage of antiquity. See in Smith's Diet, of Greek and 
Boman Antiquities, Art., Chorus. So, upon the occasion of the 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND USAGES. 437 

deliverance of the Israelites at the Red "sea, " Miriam the proph- 
etess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and aU 
the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances;" 
and tmder her guidance they sung, with music and dancing, the 
divine song composed by Moses on that occasion. Exod. 15 : 20, 
21. In lOie manner, when Saul was returning with David from 
the slaughter of the Philistines, " the women came out of all cit- 
ies, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with 
joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered 
one another, as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thou- 
sands, and Darnl his ten thousands." 1 Sam. 18 : 6, 7. See also 
Judg. 11 : 34 ; 21 : 21. "When the ark was removed to Jerusalem, 
" David danced before the Lord with all his might, girded with 
a linen epliod;" and when Michal reproached him for the act, 
which was certainly unusual in the case of a monarch, he vindi- 
cated himself with the answer: "It w^as before the Lord." 
2 Sam. 6 : 14, seq. 

But tlie Hebrews delighted in social dancing also. Jer. 
31 : 4, 13. In accordance with the general spirit and usage of 
the East (see below), in all modest dances the sexes performed 
separately. In idolatrous festivals, as at the worship of the 
golden calf (Exod., chap. 32), men and women may perhaps have 
danced together promiscuously in imitation of like heathen orgies, 
but certainly not in any dances of the true Hebrew character. 

19. The Mosaic law recognized the essential equality of the 
sexes, describing them both as man, made in God's image, male 
and female. Gen. 1 : 26, 27. The subordination of the woman 
to the man is one of office, rather than of nature. Gen. 2 : 18, 23. 
The ancient Hebrew women enjoyed a large degree of liberty, 
though they had neither that um^estrained freedom, nor that high 
position assigned to them in modern Christian nations. In orient- 
al countries the social intercourse between the sexes has always 
been marked by a degree of reserve unknown among the Chris- 
tians of the West ; Paganism and Mohammedanism are alike in 
consigning them to their present condition of degradation and 
seclusion. 



438 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

"Oriental women," says Thomson (vol. 1, p. 187), "are never regarded 
or treated as equals by the men." Of this fact he gives (ibid., and pp. 175, 
176) various illustrations : they never eat with the men, but the husband 
and brothers are first served, and the wife, mother, and sisters wait and 
take what is left ; in a walk the women never go arm in arm with the men, 
but foUow at a respectful distance ; the woman is, as a rule, kept closely 
confined, and watched with jealousy; when she goes out she is. closely 
veiled from head to foot. Moslem women never join in the prayers at the 
mosques ; and in churches the Christian women are accommodated with 
a part railed off, and latticed to shield them from public gaze ; the guest, 
as he enters a home, finds no ladies to entertain him, and he never sees 
them in evening gatherings. All this, and much more of the same kind 
that might be named, is, as Thomson remarks, "a necessary compensation 
for true modesty in both sexes," and nothing but a pure and enlightened 
Christianity can remove the evil. 

Such being the degradation of woman, it is not surprising that the 
birth of a son should be hailed as a joyful event, while that of a daughter 
is often looked upon as a calamity ; and cases occur where the brutal hus- 
band divorces his wife for no other reason. " This accounts," says Thom- 
son, "for the intense desire which many of these poor creatures manifest 
to become mothers of sons." Compare Gen. 30 : 1 ; 1 Sam. 1 : 11. 

20. Oriental visits are accompanied by no little ceremony. 
" "Wlien one enters the room, all rise to their feet, and stand 
steadfast and straight as a palm-tree to receive him. The 
formal salam is given and taken all round the room, with the 
dignity of a prince and the gravity of a court ; and when the 
new-comer reaches his seat, the ceremony is repeated in pre- 
cisely the same words. In one of your full divans, therefore, 
a man gives and receives about fifty salams before he is fairly 
settled and at his ease. Then comes the solemnity of coffee 
and smoking, with a great variety of apparatus." Thomson, 
vol. 1, p. 163. The coffee and smoking are of modern introduc- 
tion; but the ceremonial of oriental visits has come down in 
great part from ancient times. Jahn (Archseol., § 176) mentions 
a custom of regaling a visitor with incense or burnt perfume, 
as a polite intimation that it is time to brmg the interview to a 
close. 

There was an open space near the gate of the ancient city where jus- 
tice was administered, pubhc deliberations were held, and ah kinds of 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND USAGES. 439 

business were transacted. Dent. 21 : 19 ; Ruth 4 : 1, 11 ; 1 Kings 22 : 10 ; 
Job 5:4; Prov. 22 : 22. This .was of course a common resort for those 
who wished to learn the news of the day, and hold conversations with 
those assembled there. Gen. 19 : 1 ; Psa. 69 : 12 ; Prov. 31 : 23, 31. 

21. Among equals the bestowal of gifts seems to have been 
a matter left to every o^e's discretion. The gifts brought to 
rulers and rehgious teachers by those who approached them wiU 
be considered elsewhere. Alms-giving was inculcated in both 
the Old and the New Testament, as one of the imperative duties 
of religion. Besides the provisions made for the poor in con- 
nection with the harvest and vintage (Chap. 14, No. 13), the 
duty of relieving their wants by gifts of charity was inculcated 
in both the law and the prophets. Deut. 15 : 7, 8 ; Isa. 58 : 7 ; 
Ezek. 18 : 7, 16. The New Testament reaffirms these precepts, 
and insists on the necessity of obeying them not in the letter 
alone, but in the spirit also. Matt. 6 : 1-4 ; 1 Cor. 13 : 1-3. 

It has been from ancient times a question with interpreters, whether 
our Lord's words, "When thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet 
before thee, as the hj^ociites do in the synagogues and in the streets, 
that they may have glory of men" (Matt. 6:2), refer to an actual prac- 
tice, or are simply a figurative expression for ostentations display. But, 
taken either way, the caution which they give in respect to deeds of char- 
ity is the same, and one that deserves careful consideration on the part 
of all who hope for a heavenly approval ujDon their alms. 

IV. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. 

22. That the body should be left after death unburied, a 
prey to wild beasts and birds, was considered by all the ancient 
nations as a great calamity. No greater insult could be offered 
to the corpse of an enemy than to deprive it of burial cere- 
monies. 1 Sam. 31:8-10; 2 Sam. 4:12; Jer. 22:19. Goliath 
says to David, in the true spuit of an ancient warrior : " Come 
to me, and I ^vill give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and 
to the beasts of the field ;" and David, in turn, threatens that he 
will do the same to "the carcasses of the host of the Philis- 
tines." 1 Sam. 17:44, 46. Such threats are common with 
Homer's heroes; and God by the prophets often denounces 



MO BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

upon the wicked a like doom for their persistent disobedi- 
ence to his commands. Deut. 28:-26; 1 Kings 14:11; 16:4; 
21:24; Jer. 7:33; 15:3; 16:4; 34:20; Ezek. 29:5; 32:4. "The 
supper of the great God " to which all the feathered fowls and 
wild beasts are invited (Ezek. 39:17-20; Eev. 19:17, 18) is 
made up of the flesh of men and horses that have perished in 
their vain attempt to make war upon God and his Messiah. 

23. Of the methods of embalming practised among the Egyp- 
tians notice has been taken elsewhere (Chap. 8, No. 19) ; also 
of the forms of the ancient Hebrew sepulchres (Chap. 2, No. 43). 
It remains to say a few words on the funeral rites of the ancient 
Hebrews. These appear to have been in primitive times of a 
very simple character. The sacred record notices the closing 
of the eyes, the kissing, and the washing of the corpse (Gen. 
46:4; 50:1; Acts 9: 37) — all simple customs common to every 
nation. Coffins wei*e used in Egypt and Babylon, but not 
among the Hebrews. The body was swathed in grave-clothes, 
with a bandage also around the head (John 11 : 44), laid on a 
frame or bier, and thus conveyed to its final resting-place. Wher- 
ever the means of the friends would aUow it, the materials em- 
ployed were of the most costly character — fine linen with an 
abundance of spices and ointments. Mark 15 : 46 ; 16 : 1 ; Luke 
23:56; 24:1; John 19:39, 40. That the spices and omtment 
were commonly employed is manifest from our Lord's words: 
"She is come beforehand" — that is, in the counsels of God — ■ 
"to anoint my body for the burial" (Mark 14: 8) ; and also from 
the remark of the Evangelist : "as the mann*er of the Jews is to 
bury" (John 19:40). Compare the burial of Asa, whom they 
laid " in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and divers 
kinds of spices prepared by the apothecary's art: and they 
made a very great burning for him." 2 Chron. 16:14. The 
burning which they made for Asa, and refused afterwards to 
make for Jehoram (2 Chron. 21 : 19), was one of fragrant incense. 
Compare Jer. 34 : 5. The burning of the corpse was a Grecian 
and Eoman custom. It was practised among the Hebrews only 
in exceptional cases. 1 Sam. 31 : 12 ; Amos 6 : 10. 



DOMESTIC llEIrATIONS AND USAGES. 441 

24. The oriental expressions of mourning agree A^dtli tlieir 
lively and demonstrative character. We have abundant notices 
of them in the Old Testament. Among these may be men- 
tioned — (1.) Bending the garments (Gen. 37:29, 34; 44:13; Josh. 
7: 6, etc.), for which the Jewish doctors prescribe several degrees 
corresponding to those of relationship. (2.) Putting on sack- 
cloth; that is, a coarse and dark-colored cloth made of hair, or 
other dark-colored apparel. The custom was so common that 
no references are needed. (3.) Sprinkling ashes or earth on the 
person, particularly the head. Josh. 7 : 6 ; 1 Sam. 4 : 12 ; 2 Sam. 
13 : 19 ; 15 : 32. Sitting, lying, or wallowing in ashes was a kin- 
dred usage. Esther 4 : 3 ; Job 2 : 8 ; Isa. 58 : 5 ; Jer. 6 : 26 ; 25 : 34 ; 
Ezek. 27 : 30. (4.) Shaving the head and plucking off the hair are 
mentioned as tokens of deep affliction. Job 1:20; Ezra 9:3; 
Jer. 7:29; 16:6; Amos 8:10. The captive woman whom a 
Hebrew took to be liis wife was to shave her head in connection 
with the month's mourning allowed her. Deut. 21 : 12. On the 
other hand, covering the head is mentioned as a sign of grief 
(2 Sam. 15 : 30 ; Jer. 14 : 4) ; also covering the upper lip, Ezek. 
24 : 17-22 ; Micah 3 : 7. This last rite was specially prescribed 
in the case of the leper. Lev. 13 : 45. (5.) Bemoval of orna- 
ments and general neglect of person. Exod. 33 : 4 ; 2 Sam. 14 : 2 ; 
19 : 24 ; Dan. 10:3; Micah 1 : 11. The Pharisees disfigured their 
faces and went with a sad countenance when they fasted; 
whereas the Saviour directs that when we fast we wash the 
face and anoint the head. Matt. 6 : 16-18. Such voluntary neg- 
lect of the person is to be distinguished from the forced naked- 
ness and humiliation of captives. 2 Sam. 10:4; Isa. 20:4; 
47 : 2 ; Jer. 13 : 22, 26 ; Nah. 3 : 5. (6.) Abstinence from food and 
drink, a sign of mourning so natural and common that refer- 
ences are unnecessary. The abstinence was sometimes simply 
from pleasant food, wine, and other luxuries. Dan. 10 : 3. When 
long continued it was necessarily so, except in cases of mirac- 
ulous support. (7.) Equally natural signs of mourning are 
weeping, ivailing, and beating the breast and thigh. Gen. 23:2; 
1 Sam'. 1:7; 30:4; 2 Sam. 15:30; Esther 4:1; Ezek. 21:12; 

19* 



442 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Nahum 2:7; Luke 18:13; 23:48; etc. (8.) Tlie practice of 
employing professional mourners is mentioned by the Hebrew 
prophets. Such were the persons " skilful of lamentation " (Amos 
5:16), and the "mourning and cunning women" of whom the 
prophet says : " Let them make haste, and take up a wailing for 
us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush 
out with water." Jer. 9 : 17, 18. In the Saviour's day this was 
an established usage. When he came to the house of Jairus, 
he found there "minstrels" playing mournful strains, and "them 
that wept and wailed greatly;" and it was to these hhed mourn- 
ers chiefly, if not exclusively, that he directed his rebuke : " Why 
make ye this ado and weep ?" Matt. 9 : 23, 24; Mark 5 : 38, 39. 
The children sitting in the markets imitated in their sports wed- 
dings and funerals. At a mimic wedding, some "piped" — played 
a hvely air, either actually or by way of imitation, while their 
companions were expected to dance. At a mimic funeral, some 
"mourned" — played a funeral dirge, at which their companions 
were to set up the customary wail. Matt. 11 : 16, 17. See 
further the article on mourning in Smith's Bible Diet., from 
which the above particulars have been mainly condensed. 

The oriental expressions of mourning have been handed down from 
high antiquity, and they stiU prevail as in olden times. ^' There are," 
says Thomson, "in every city and community Tyomen exceeding cunning 
in this business. These are always sent for and kept in readiness. When 
a fresh company of sympathizers comes in, these women ' make haste ' to 
take up a waiHng, that the newly come may the more easily unite their 
tears with the mourners. They know the domestic history of every per- 
son, and immediately strike up an impromptu lamentation, in which they 
introduce the names of their relatives who have recently died, touching 
some tender cord in every heart, and thus each one weeps for his own^ 
dead, and the performance, which would othermse be difficult or impos- 
sible, becomes easy and natural, and even this extemporaneous artificial 
sorrow is thereby redeemed from half its hoUow-heartedness and hypoc- 
risy." 

The heathen practice of self-laceraticm for the dead, by cutting the 
flesh, and imprinting marks upon it, was forbidden by the Mosaic law, 
along with other superstitious rites — making baldness upon the head, 
shaving off the corner of the beard, making baldness between the eyes. 
Lev. 19 : 28 ; 21 : 5 ; Dent. 14 : 1. The spirit of true religion demands 



DOMESTIC KELATIONS AND USAGES. 443 

both genuineness and moderation in the expression of giief for the dead. 
All hypocritical displays of mourning, as well as the abandonment of the 
soul to excessive sorrow, ar<j most unbecoming in the child of God who 
is an heir of heaven, and whose daily language should be, " Tiiy will be 

DONE." 

APPENDIX.— GRECIAN AND ROMAN GAMES. 

25. Public games were not a Hebrew institution. The three 
gi-eat national festivals prescribed by the Mosaic law furnished 
a recreation of a nobler and more spiritual character. It is 
true that in the reign of Antiochus Epiplianes the high priest 
Jason, who had bought his office of the king, established a 
gymnasium at Jerusalem for the practice of Grecian games, 
and that afterward Herod erected a theatre and amphitheatre 
at Jerusalem, as well as at Csesargea and Berytus. 1 Mace. 1 : 14 ; 
2 Mace. 4: 12-14; Josephus Antiq., 15. 8. 1 ; 9. 6; 19. 7. 5. But 
such departures from ancient Jewish usage were regarded with 
abhorrence by the body of the people, among whom only the 
simplest sports were common. 

Jerome, for example, in commenting on the words of Zechariah (chap. 
12 : 3): "In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all 
people : aU that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though 
aU the people of the earth be gathered together against it," illustrates 
them by reference to a custom still prevalent in his day in Judsea. Round 
stones of great weight were placed in the villages, towns, and fortresses, 
with which the young men might try their strength. Some were able to 
raise them only to their knees, some to their navel, some to their shoul- 
ders and heads ; a few only could hold them with arms erect above their 
heads, thus making manifest the greatness of their strength. 

26. The public games of the Greeks and Eomans, though 
foreign to Hebrew usage, are yet so often referred to in the 
New Testament that a brief notice of them is desirable. The 
Grecian games were celebrated at four different places in Greece ; 
the Olympian, at Olympia not far from the town of Pisa im Elis ; 
the Pythian, near Delphi in Phocis ; the Nemean, at Nemea in 
Argolis; the Isthmian on the Isthmus of Corinth. They con- 
sisted of chariot and foot races, leaping, throwing the quoit 



M4: BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

and javelin, wrestling, and boxing with leathern gloves armed 
with lead or iron. The competitors were required to enter 
their names beforehand, and were subjected to a long and 
severe course of trainmg in which their daily diet and exercises 
were carefully regulated. For each of the games rules were 
prescribed and sternly enforced, and the prizes were awarded 
by judges appointed for the purpose. These prizes were in 
themselves trivial — at the Olympian games a chaplet formed of 
the leaves of the wild olive, at the Isthmian games one of pine- 
leaves, etc. — but the honor of the victory, of which they were 
the sign, was very great, and it was eagerly sought by the young 
men of Greece. 

The \dctor upon his return home, especially from the Olympian games, 
was universally honored. He rode in a triumphal chariot into his city, and 
the walls wera broken down to give him entrance. He had an honorable 
seat at all shows and games, and at some places was maintained at the pub- 
lic expense. See Potter's Antiquities of Greece (Book 2, chaps. 21-25) and 
the authorities there referred to. 

27. In the New Testament are various allusions to these 
games as emblems of Christian conflict. The apostle refers to 
them generally when he says : " Fight the good fight of faith ; 
lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called" (1 Tim. 
6 : 12) ; for here the Greek word (agon) denotes not a fight on 
the battlefield, but a conflict in the stadium. So also 2 Tim. 
4:7; Phil. 1 : 30 ; and elsewhere. Again, the Christian life is 
described as a race set before the behever (Acts 20 : 24 ; 2 Tim. 
4:7; Heb. 12 : 1, where the race is run in the presence of a great 
cloud of heavenly witnesses, in allusion to the crowds that assem- 
bled to witness the Grecian games) ; and the apostle compares 
himself (Phil. 3 : 13, 14) to a racer who, forgetting all that is be- 
hind, ever reaches forward towards what is before him, his body 
being bent forward in the race, and his eye steadily fixed on the 
mark.. He further refers to the strict rules of the games (2 Tim. 
2:5): "If a man also strive for masteries, he is not crowned 
except he strive lawfuUy;" and to the cro^Ti dispensed by the 
judge of the games (2 Tim. 4:8): " Henceforth there is laid up 



DOMESTIC RELATIONS AND USAGES. 445 

for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, shall give me in that day." In the epistle to the Ephe- 
sians (chap. 6 : 12) the conflict of believers with the powers of 
darkness is represented under the figure of the wTesthngs of the 
Grecian games, which were emphatically hand-to-hand struggles, 
although the figure is immediately changed to that of an armed 
warrior. 

We have in 1 Cor. 9 : 24-27 an accumulation of beautiful allusions to 
these games. The competitors "run all, but one receiveth the prize." 
They are "temperate in aU things," and their reward is a "corruptible 
crown," the chaplet of leaves above noticed, and the perishable honor 
which it represents. "I therefore so run," says the apostle, "not as uncer- 
tainly ;" not running at random, but with my eye steadily fixed on the 
goal. Then, passing to the figure of a boxer, he adds : "So fight I" (lit- 
erally so box I), " not as one that beateth the air," as the boxer does when 
he fails to hit his antagonist. Reverting again to the severe training of the 
combatants, with the fig-ure of the boxer still in his mind, he says: "I 
keep under my body " (hterally beat it in the face black and blue, as the boxer 
does the face of his antagonist by striking it under the eyes), "and bring 
it into subjection ; lest, perchance, having preached the gos}3el to others, I 
myself should become a rejected one ;" that is, rejected as unworthy of the 
prize. 

28. The Greeks and Komans were also passionately fond of 
theatrical exidhitions, which were as foreign to the true Hebrew 
spirit as the games above noticed. The Eomans had amphithea- 
tres — vast elliptical buildings, with an elliptical space in the cen- 
tre called the arena, and tiers of seats around the wall rising 
one above another. These w^ere used for public games, espe- 
cially gladiatorial shows and contests with wild beasts. Gladia- 
tors fought with each other sword in hand for the amusement of 
the spectators, and vast numbers perished in this way. There 
was a class of men who fought with wild beasts for hire. Others 
were exposed to wild beasts by way of punishment, as the prim-' 
itive Christians often were. In such cruel exhibitions the Koman 
populace took great delight. 

When the apostle says (1 Cor. 4:9): " God hath set forth us the ajios- 
tles last, as it were appointed to death : for we are made a spectacle mito 
the world, and to angels, and to men," he probably alludes to the exposure 



446 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

of condemned malefactors in the ampMtlieatre, that they might be de- 
spatched by gladiators or wild beasts. 

"Whether the fighting with beasts at Ephesus to which the apostle Paul 
alludes (1 Cor. 15 : 32) is to be understood figuratively, or is a reference to 
an actual exposure, has long been a matter of controversy among commen- 
tators. Considering the fact that his Roman citizenship made siich an 
exposure utterly unlawful, and also the silence of the record in the book of 
Acts as to any such transaction, we may, perhaps, best understand the 
expression in a figurative way. • 



THE SCIENCES AND ARTS. U7 



CHAPTEE XX. 

The Sciences and Arts. 

1. The Hebrews were not distiiiguislied for their attainments 
in the arts and sciences, their energies being turned in another 
and a higher direction. The whole field of astrology was to 
them forbidden ground, and theii' study of astronomy had refer- 
ence solely to the divisions of time. In the peaceful arts they 
did not excel the neighboring nations, and in some respects fell 
short of them. What relates to military matters will be consid- 
ered elsewhere. ^ "1^ 

I. HEBREW. DIVISIONS OE TIME. 

2. The Hebrew year was necessarily solar, its great festivals 
being connected, as we shaU see, with the products of agricul- 
ture; but the months of the Mosaic law were certainly limar. 
According to Josephus (Antiq., 3. 10. 5), the passover was cele- 
brated " on the fourteenth day of the month Nisan according to 
the moon, the sun being in the sign Aries;" and Philo (Life of 
Moses), testifies in hke manner that this was the day of the full 
moon. The custom of beginning the year from the new moon 
of Nisan or Abib had come doTvn to the later Jew^s from anti- 
quity, and we cannot assume any fundamental change in this 
respect from the time of Moses. We may add that the Septua- 
gint renders by the term neiv moon the Hebrew expressions for 
the first day of the month (Exod. 40 : 2, 17) and the heginning of the 
month (Numb. 10 : 10 ; 28 : 11). 

AH adujit that the Hebrew word for mmiih, which signifies newness, 
renovalion, was taken from, the new moon of the primitive lunar month. 
But upon the adoption of a solar division of the months, the term would 
natiirally remain ; so that from this alone no sure conclusion can be drawn. 
The expression new moon does not occur in the Hebrew Scnpturcs. Where 
our translators employ it the orij^iiifil has the simple word month or months. 



448 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

See 1 Sam. 20 : 5 ; 2 Kings 4 : 23 ; Psa. 81 : 3 ; Isa. 66 : 23 ; Ezek. 46 : 1 ; 
Amos 8 : 5 ; 1 Chron. 23 : 31 ; 2 Chron. 2:4; Isa. 1 : 13 ; etc. Here, how- 
ever, we must naturally understand, with our translators, the beginning of 
the lunar month, as a phenomenon that could be noticed by all. It has 
been commonly assumed that in the account of the deluge the months 
contained each thirty days ; since from the seventeenth day of the second 
month, when the deluge began (Gen. 7 : 11) to the seventeenth day of the 
seventh month, when the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat (Gen. 
8:4), we have apparently the hundred and fifty days (five months of thirty 
days each) during which the waters prevailed (Gen. 7 : 24 ; 8 : 3). At least, 
we cannot see what other sign than this of the ark's resting on the land 
Noah could have had that the waters had ceased to prevail, shut up as he 
was from all view without. Compare chap. 8 : 6-13. We know, moreover, 
that a year of three hundred and sixty days divided into twelve months of 
thirty days each, with an intercalation of five days, prevailed from very 
ancient times in Egypt. 

3. Since the lunar month consists of a little more than twen- 
ty-nine and a half days, and the Hebrews never reckoned less 
than a whole day to a month, it follows that their months must 
have varied between twenty-nine and thirty days, making a year 
of 354 days, so that an intercalary month would be necessary 
every third year, and sometimes on alternate years. This inter- 
calation was doubtless made from the beginning by the priests 
who had charge of the sanctuary services, as we know that it 
was in later times. 

In later Jewish history the beginning of the month was determined by 
the first appearance of the new moon, which was reported by witnesses 
appointed for the purpose. As the Jewish day began at sunset, if the 
announcement was made before dark, that day was the first of the month ; 
if not till after dark, the following day began the month. 

4. By the appointment of the Mosaic law the Hebrew year 
hegan with the month of Abib, that is, of green ears (Exod. 12 : 2 ; 
l.S : 4 ; Deut. 16 : 1) called in later times Nisan (Neh. 2:1; Esth. 
3:7). According to the modern rabbinical Jewish calendar, 
Nisan answers to our 3Iarch. But there are strong grounds for 
believing that originally it coincided more nearly with our April. 

J. D. Michaelis (Hebrew Months) argues for the coincidence of Nisan 
with April on the following grounds: (1.) That the chmate of Palestine 



THE SCIENCES AND ARTS. 449 

would not permit tlie oblation of the sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest 
ordered for the second day of the Passover festival (Lev. 23 : 10 compared 
with ver. 15, 16) at an earlier date ; since the barley harvest does not take 
place even in the warm climate about Jericho until about the middle of 
Apiil, while it is stiU later on the highlands. (2. ) That the Syrian calen- 
dar, which has essentially the same names for the months, makes its Nisan 
absolutely parallel with our April. (3. ) That Joseplms, in one place, makes 
Nisan equivalent to the Macedonian month Xanthicus ; and also mentions 
that on the 14th of Nisan the sun was in the sign Aries, which could not 
be on that day except in April. The later Jews may have departed from 
the ancient order, as Michaelis suggests, in imitation of the Romans, who 
began their year with March. 

It is commonly assumed that the Hebrews had two rnode^ of 
reckoning : a sacred year reckoned from Nisan, and a civil, reck- 
oned from the new moon of Tishri, the seventh month. This is 
true only in a modified sense. The sabbatical year and the year 
of jubilee were indeed reckoned from the seventh month (Lev. 
25 : 9 compared with ver. 20-22), as the convenience of the hus- 
bandman required^ this being at the close of one agricultural 
year and the beginning of another. But the months were in all 
cases numbered from Nisan. 

It has been conjectured that before the time of Moses, the year began 
about the autumnal equinox, and that he, by divine direction, transferred 
its beginning to the vernal equinox ; that is, to the new moon nearest to 
that point of time. The words of the ordinance (Exod. 12:2): "This 
month shall be unto you the beginning of months : it shall be the first 
month of the year unto you," certainly have the ai^pearance of containing 
a new ordinance. Had the year always begun with the month of Abib, we 
can hardly suppose that such a command would have been given, with the 
annexed reason (Deut. 16 : 1) : ''for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God 
brought thee forth out of Egypt by night." 

We give from Jahn (Archaeology, 1 103) the later names of the Jewish 
months in order. They are Babylonian, adopted during the captivity. 
"Where no scriptural authority is given, they are taken from the Talmud. 
The few earher Hebrew names that occur in the Old Testament are added 
in parentheses. 

1. Nisan, from the new moon of April, Neh. 2:1; Estli. 3 : 7 (Abibf 

Exod. 13:4; etc.); 

2. Ijar, " •' May (Ziv, 1 Kings 6 : 1, 37); 

3. Siran, '' " June, Esth. 8:9; 



450 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

4. Tammuz, from the new moon of July ; 

5. Ab, " " August; 

6. Elul, " " September, Neh. 6 : 15 ; 

7. Tishri, " " October ('£'i(7^amm, 1 Kings 8 : 2) ; 

8. Marcheshvan, " " November (^5 wZ, 1 Kings 6 : 38); 

9. Km'ev, " " December, Neli. 1:1; Zecli. 7:1; 

10. Teheih, " " January, Esth. 2:16; 

11. Shebat, " *' February, Zech. 1 : 7 ; 

12. Adar, " " March, Estli. 3 : 7 ; etc. 

The intercalary month was called Veadar, which may be rendered Sec- 
ond Adar. 

5. The division of time into tveeks was originally made by 
God himself in commemoration of the order of creation. Gen. 
2 : 2, 3. From certain notices in the book of Genesis (7 : 4, 10 ; 
8 : 10, 12 ; 29 : 27, 28) we infer that a weeldy division of time 
existed from the beginning. With this agree the words of the 
fourth commandment : " Eemember the Sabbath-day to keep it 
holy," in which the Sabbath-day is not ordained for the first 
time, but referred to as already well known. The religious sig- 
nificance of the Sabbath, and the -change of the day under the 
Christian dispensation, wiU be considered elsewhere. We simply 
remark here that the Hebrew Sabbath, as commemorative of 
the rest after creation, occurred at the end of the week, and thus 
answered to our Saturday. 

The week of weeks was the period of seven weeks or forty-nine days 
from the morrow after the paschal Sabbath, and it was followed on the ff- 
tieth day by the feast of Pentecost (Greek pentecoste, fifty). It is hence called 
ih.Q feast of weeks. Lev. 23 : 15, 16 ; Deut. 16 : 9, 10. 

The week of years was the period of seven years, ending with the sabbat- 
ical year. See above, Chap. 14, No. 2. 

The iceek of sabbatical years was the period of seven times seven years, 
succeeded by the year of jubilee. See above. Ibid. 

In Lev. 23 : 15 the word sabbath is thought by some to denote not the 
weekly Sabbath, but the first day of the passover, as a day of holy rest. 
Compare Lev. 23 : 15, 16 with Deut. 16 : 9, 10. 

6. The Hebrew day, as indicated in the primitive record (Gen. 
1 : 5, etc.), was reckoned/rom evening to evening. Hence the com- 
mand : " From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath." 
Lev. 23 : 32. 



THE SCIENCES AND AETS. 451 

The pasclial lamL and the lamb of the daily sacrifice were to be slain 
between the two evenings. Hebrew of Exod. 12 : 6 ; 29 : 39, 41 ; Lev. 23 : 5 ; 
Numb. 9:3, 5, 11 ; 28 : 4, 8. At the same time Aaron was to light the 
lamps of the sanctuary and burn incense upon the golden altar. Exod. 
30 : 8. The quails also came between the two evenings. Exod. 16 : 12. Ac- 
cording to the Karaites and Samaritans, this was the time between sunset 
and deep twihght ; but the Pharisees began the first evening with the ninth 
hour (about three o'clock in the afternoon), and the second at sunset. So 
Josephus, who says that the paschal lamb was slain from the ninth to the 
eleventh hour. Jewish War, 6. 9. 3. 

7. Hours are first mentioned in the book of Daniel, but there 
only in an indefinite way. Dan. 3 : 6, 15, etc. In New Testa- 
ment times the day was divided into twelve hours, numbered 
from sunrise to sunset. John 11 : 9 ; Matt. 20 : 3, 5, 6 ; etc. The 
hours varied in length according to the varying seasons of the 
year. 

Mention is made of a sun-dial. 2 Kings 20 : 9-11 ; Isa. 38 : 8. Another 
instrument for measuring time was the clepsydra, in which water was used 
much as we now use sand in hour-glasses. 

The ancient Hebrews divided the night for mihtary purposes 
into three watches. Of these the second was the middle icatch 
(Judg. 7:19), and the last, the morning tuatch (Exod. 14:24; 
1 Sam. 11 : 11). In the Saviour's day the Eoman usage pre- 
vailed, according to which the night was divided into/o2^r luaiches, 
of which the second, third, and fourth are mentioned (Matt. 14 : 25 ; 
Mark 6 : 48 ; Luke 12 : 38) ; and all four are apparently referred 
to (Mark 13 : 35) as evening, midnight, coch-croiving , and morning, 

II. THE DOMESTIC AND MECHANICAL AKTS. 

8. We have seen in the former part of this work (Chap. 8, 
No. 5) that the domestic and mechanical arts were practised in 
Egypt with great skill from very early times. "When the Hebrews 
left Egypt they carried mth them the Imowledge of these arts. 
They were skilful in spmning, weaving, and embroidery ; produ- 
cing not only plain fabrics of a fine texture, but those inwrought 
with various colors and figures, to which, in the case of the most 



452 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

precious garments, golden threads were added. They under- 
stood the art of dyeing ; for there were found among them stores 
of bhie, and purple, and scarlet, and red skins of rams. They 
had workmen in gold, silver, and brass, and in wood also ; who 
manufactured with skill the furniture and implements of the 
tabernacle. They could set precious stones, and compound pre- 
cious ointments and incense of sweet spices " after the art of the 
apothecary." All this is manifest on the face of the narrative in 
the book of Exodus, in which are given in detail the materials 
and construction of the tabernacle with its court and its furni- 
ture ; and it is confirmed by the later books of the New Testa- 
ment. 

The Hebrew lias two terms rendered in our version cunning workman 
(Hoshebh) and embroiderer (rokem) ; of which, according to the Jewish 
rabbins, the former denotes one who inweaves patlerjis of different colors, 
the latter one who embroiders with the needle, and to this view Gesenins 
assents. But while it is certain that the Egyptians were skilful in inweav- 
ing patterns, it is not certain that they embroidered with the needle. Some 
would therefore refer the terms rokem and rikmdh (rendered in our ver- 
sion embroiderer and needlework) to the inweaving of patterns by the loom. 
See for one view Gesenins in his Thesaurus ; for the other, Smith's Bible 
Diet., Ai"t., Embroiderer. 

9. We cannot, however, claim for the Hebrews any preemi- 
nence in the above-named arts. They had sufficient skill in them 
for the ordinary occasions of life ; as also in the manufacture of 
iron implements for agricultural purposes and for war, the man- 
ufacture of leather, the cutting of stones, the building of houses, 
and the construction of household furniture. But in none of 
these respects did they excel their neighbors, and in some they 
fell short of them. In sword-blades, for example, Damascus was 
superior to them ; in rich dyes, the Tyrians and several other 
nations. It was the testimony of Solomon himself, in his mes- 
sage to Hiram, king of Tyre, that none of his people could "skill 
to hew timber like unto the Sidonians;" or had equal skill with 
them to work in the precious metals and iron, and in purple, 
crimson, and blue. 1 Kings 5 : 6 ; 2 Chron. 2:7. It was not in 
these secular arts that God had appointed the covenant people 



THE SCIENCES AND AETS. 453 

to be a light to the world ; but in the knowledge of himself and 
of that great salvation which he was through them preparing for 
all nations. 

III. THE AET OF WEITING. 

9. Moses, being "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyp- 
tians," was of course famihar with the various modes of wiiting 
that prevailed in that country long before his day. The Hebrew 
alphabet, however, which he employed, is Shemitic in its origin, 
the same substantially as that used by the Phoenicians, and 
which probably came to them from Chaldeea. The great He- 
brew legislator appears as a writer very early after the exodus 
before the giving of the law (Exod. 17 : 14), and aU along the 
course of his history (Exod. 24:4; 34:27; Numb. 33:2; Deut. 
31 : 22 ; etc.) ; and the knowledge and practice of the art are 
assumed in the law of divorce. Deut. 24 : 1. 

For the change in the Hebrew alphabet from the earher form repre- 
sented on coins to the Assyrian or square writing, and for various partic- 
ulars as to the ancient mode of writing see Companion to the Bible, Chap. 
3, No. 2 ; Chap. 14, No. 2, 3 ; Chap. 2G, No. 5. 

10. The materials of writing were various. Mention is made 
in the Pentateuch of stone plates on which the words were 
graven dnectly (Exod. 31 : 18 ; 32 : 15, 16 ; Deut. 4 : 13) ; of great 
stones plastered with plaster upon which the words of the law 
were written (Deut. 27:2-8); of a plate of gold (Exod. 28:36); 
and of precious gems (Exod. 28:11, 21). Job refers to the 
custom of writing "with an iron pen and lead in the rock" 
(chap. 19 : 24), the letters being first deeply cut in the rock, and 
then filled with lead. The ancients also used palm leaves, the 
inner bark of trees, bones, shells, ivory, bricks, clay tablets, 
cylinders and prisms of fine terra-cotta, wood, wax tablets ; in 
a word, whatever furnished a smooth surface. The ruins of 
Assyrian and Chaldgean cities furnish bricks, clay tablets, and 
cylinders, in countless thousands, as well as slabs of stone, 
covered with arrow-headed inscriptions. According to Eawlin- 
son (Ancient Monarchies, vol. 1, pp. 330, 478) some of the Assyr- 



454: BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

ian hollow cylinders and prisms have characters so minute 
that a magnifying glass is needed to decipher them. The two 
principal materials, however, which the Hebrews employed were 
paper manufactured from the papyins plant, and parchments 
prepared from the skins of sheep, goats, and other animals. 

For a brief notice of the papyrus plant see above, Cliap. 7, No. 21. 
According to Pliny (Hist. Nat., 13. 11) the method of preparing the 
paper was as follows: The stem (either the inner cuticle or pith) 'was 
divided by a needle into thin plates, each as large as the plant would 
allow, and these were placed side by side on a table kept moist with 
Nile water. When the table was covered, another layer was spread over 
the first transversely, and the two layers were united by being subjected 
to pressure. As many sheets were afterwards joined together as were 
needed for a given roll. This paper was very much used by the ancients 
and was of various qualities, as was also the parchment prepared from the 
skins of animals. 

11. The instruments for writing varied of course, as they 
do now, with the materials employed. For refractory sub- 
stances they had "a pen of iron" and "the point of a diamond;" 
that is, a graver with a point of steel, or one tipped with dia- 
mond; the latter being especially necessary in engraving upon 
precious stones. For writing on tablets covered with wax they 
had a style sharp at one end and at the other flat and circular. 
With the sharp end they formed the letters, and erased them 
with the flat end, as occasion required, smoothing over again 
the surface of the tablet. On paper and parchment they wrote 
with a pen and ink. The reed pen split at the end has been 
in use among the orientals from high antiquity, and is still 
employed by the Arabs. 

The ink of the ancients appears to have resembled the Chinese or India 
ink — a combination of lampblack with glue or gum — reduced to a fluid form. 
According to Josephus (Antiq. 12. 2. 10) the parchments containing the 
Jewish law, which the high priest Eleazar sent to Ptolemy king of Egypt 
to be translated into Greek, were of marvellous thinness, joined together 
so exactly that the seams could not be discerned, and written in letters of 
gold. When, about the eleventh century, paper of a finer texture, made 
of linen and cotton, came into common use, this rendered necessary pens 



THE SCIENCES AND AKTS. 455 

of a finer character. These were supplied by the quills of geese, swans, 
crows, etc. ; till in our day metallic pens took their place. 

12. The form of ancient hooks depended on the material 
employed. When tablets of wood, or plates of ivory or metal 
were used, they were connected mth rings at the back through 
which a rod was passed. When the soft and flexible papyrus 
was used, the books took the form of* roJh. The sheets, being 
fastened together at their edges, were wound round a cylindrical 
stick, or sometimes two cylinders, whence the term volume, that 
is, roll (Latin, volumen) is derived. The cylinders projected at 
each end beyond the roll and were ornamented with bosses. 
The volume was read by unrolling the scroll so as to expose 
successfully its several sheets. Books written on parchment 
may take the square form with leaves, or the roll form. The 
pubHc Hebrew manuscripts consist of synagogue rolls ; the pri- 
vate manuscripts are written with leaves in book form. See 
Companion to the Bible, Chap. 14, No. 8 ; and for the ancient 
manuscripts of the New Testament, Chap. 26, No. 5. 

The roll-form prevailed among the ancient Hebrews (Isa, 8:1; Jer. 
36:2, seq. ; Ezek. 2:9, seq. ; Zech. 5:1), also in other nations. Ezra 
6 : 1, 2. In the synagogue at Nazareth our Lord read from a roll. "Hav- 
ing unrolled the book" (so the original reads) "he found the place where 
it was written," etc. When he had finished reading "he rolled up the 
book, and gave it back to the attendant." Luke 4 : 17, 20. The manner 
in which the ancients speak of rolls written within and without (see the 
references in Alford and Meyer on Rev. 5 : 1) indicates that this was some- 
thing unusual, the rule being to write only on the inner side. The roll 
which Ezekiel sees in vision (chap. 2 : 10), the flying roll of Zechariah 
(chap. 5:1-3, where "on this side" and "on that side," ver. 3, refer to 
the inner and outer sides of the roll), and the apocalyptic book sealed 
with seven seals (Rev. 5:1), are each written within and without to denote 
the fulness of their contents. In resj^ect to the seven successive revela- 
tions of the apocalyptic book, ansAvering to the breaking, one after 
another, of the seven seals, there are two views : (1,) it is assumed that 
the breaking of each seal allowed a certain portion of the scroll to be 
unrolled, and thus its contents to he rend; (2,) it is assumed that the roU 
remains closed, the breaking of the seals in succession being simply s?/m- 
holic of revelations to be made of parts of its contents, not by inspection. 



456 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

but by the visions that foUow. See further in the commentaries on the 
passage. 

13. Extended epistles, like most of those in the New Testa- 
ment, took the form of small volumes. Letters^ in the strict 
sense of the word — short eommnnications on special subjects — 
ordinarily received the seal of the sender. In all matters of 
importance this was necessary for authentication, and sometimes 
for secrecy also ; as in the case of David's letter to Joab, which 
he sent by the hand of the man whose destruction he sought. 

2 Sam. 11:14,15; 1 Kmgs 21:8; Esther 3: 10; 8:8, 10; Isa. 
29:11. In their addresses and salutations the writers of the 
New Testament conform in general to the usage of the day. 
Compare the letter of the apostles and elders (Acts 15 : 23-29) 
with that of Claudius Lysias to Eelix. Acts 23 : 26-30. Both 
state at the outset by whom and to whom the letter is sent, and 
both close with the simple salutation, ''Earewell." The only 
modification is that in most of the apostolic epistles a benedic- 
tion more or less extended took the place of the brief Farewell. 

IV. MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 

14. The Hebrews, like other oriental nations, were fond of 
music on all occasions of social and national rejoicing. Then- 
songs were, as a rule, accompanied with musical instruments, 
and sometimes with dancing also. Thus they took, from the 
outset, a lyrical character. Gen. 31 : 27 ; Exod. 15 : 1, 20 ; Judg. 
5:1; 11 : 34 ; etc. In the schools of the prophets instituted 
by Samuel music seems to have been regularly cultivated. 
1 Sam. 10 : 5. Its elevating and tranquillizing influence was 
well understood by the courtiers of Saul (1 Sam. 16 : 16, 23) ; 
and was afterwards sought by Elisha himself, that he might 
thus be prepared to receive the Spirit of prophecy. 2 Kings 

3 : 15. David, "the sweet Psalmist of Israel," himself a master 
in both the composition and lyrical performance of sacred song, 
made music vocal and instrumental a regular part of the tab- 
ernacle service (1 Chron. 16:4-6, 41, 42; chap. 25); and at 
the dedication of the temple by Solomon the musical part of 




CYMBALS, TIMBREL, ETC. 



DRUM, SISTRUM, ETC. 




A WAR GALLEY. 



THE SCIENCES AND AKTS. 457 

the service was of the most magnificent character. 2 Chron 
5 : 12, 13. 

15. The Egyptian and Assyrian monuments have made us 
familiar with the form of the musical instruments anciently 
employed in Eg}^pt, Assyria, and Babylon. From their long 
residence in Eg^^pt the Hebrews must have been perfectly 
acquainted with the musical instruments of this country. It 
is not certain, however, that they borrowed from the Egyptians 
exclusively their own musical instruments. These may have 
•come with theii' ancestors, in part at least, from Chaldsea and 
Mesopotamia, as did their language and theii' alphabet. In 
investigating the difficult question of the form of the Hebrew 
instruments of music, it is necessary that we compare the Egyp- 
tian T\dth the Assyrian models, as they are revealed to us by 
the monuments. Between the two are contained, substantially 
at least, the forms of the instruments mentioned in sacred writ. 
16. Musical instruments are of three classes, stringed instru- 
ments, luind instruments, and instruments oi percussion. 

STEINGED INSTEUMENTS. 
Foremost among the stringed instruments of the Egyptian 
and Assyrian monuments is the Jimy. The harp is usually 
defined to be a stringed instrument of music of a triangular 
figure, the form allowing the strings to be successively of diifer- 
ent lengths. This definition holds good of modern harps and 
some forms of ancient harps. But the idea of the Eg}3)tian 
harp seems rather to have been that of the bow. A bow 
standing upright, and furnished with a sound-chest and a suit- 
able number of strings (which varied according to the size and 
model of the instrument) gives substantially the idea of the 
common Egyptian hai^Ds. Some of them have almost exactly 
the form of the bow, but usually the curvature of one end is 
more abrupt than that of the other. Instead of the curved the 
triangular form also appears with various modifications. The 
number of strings varies from three to twenty and more. The 
heavier lands stand upright upon the floor, while the lighter 

Ofo-. St Antlfi, OA 



458 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

kinds are portable. In one case an Egyptian woman carries on 
her shoulder a harp with three strings, playing it at the same time 
with her fingers. On the Assyrian monuments we have porta- 
ble harps of a triangular form. One class of these is carried 
by the performer in front with the sound-chest next to him in 
an upright position, and is played with the fingers. Another 
class is carried at his side with the sound-chest horizontal, and 
is played with a plectrum. 

The lyrei^ essentially a modified form of the harp. In this 
the sound-chest constitutes the base. From the end of this* 
arise two rods curved or straight connected above by a cross- 
piece, and the strings are stretched upward from the base to 
the cross-piece. It is always portable, is carried in an upright 
or a horizontal position, and is commonly played with the fin- 
gers, but sometimes with a plectrum. 

The ancient Egyptian guitar or lute was of an oval form 
with a long neck. The strings, which were few in number, 
were carried over a bridge. 

17. The identification of the Hebrew stringed instruments is 
a matter of great difficulty. The two of most common occur- 
rence are the kinnbr and nehel, of which the first is commonty 
rendered harp in our version, and the second psaltery. Respect- 
ing the form of these the opinions of biblical scholars are very 
discordant, and cannot be discussed to any profit within the 
limits prescribed to the present work. 

Josephus remarks (Antiq., 7. 12. 3): "The kinura (Heb., kinnor) being 
furnished with ten strings, is struck with a plectrum : but the nahla (Heb., 
nehel), having twelve strings, is played with the fingers." This definition 
is loose and unsatisfactory enough ; and seems to be, moreover, at vari- 
ence with the words of Scripture, according to which David played on 
the harp with his hand. 1 Sam. 16 : 23 ; 18 : 10 ; 19 : 9. The Hebrew 
kinnor was certainly portable, at least in some of its forms ; for David and 
others played on it in procession before the ark. 2 Sam. 6 : 5. See also 
1 Sam. 10 : 5 ; Isa. 23 : 16. We think it probable that the kinnor was an 
instrument of the harp kind, including possibly the lyre. As to the nebel 
we can only adopt the language of a writer in the Imperial Bible Diction- 
ary : ' ' We prefer to leave it a doubtful question whether the nehel was a 
lyre or a lute, or even some other form of stringed instrument." The 



THE SCIENCES AND ARTS. 459 

nebel dsor (Psa. 33:2; 144:9) was a len stringed-nehel ; not '*a psaltery 
and an instrument of ten strings." Yet it seems to have been a peculiar 
variety of the instrument ; for elsewhere the dsor is distinguished from 
the simple nebel : "upon an dsor and upon a yiebeV Psa. 92 : 3. 

In Daniel (chap. 3) mention is made of the sahheka, rendered in our 
version sackhid; but which was probably identical with the Greek sambuTce^ 
a stringed instrument of the harp Idnd. In the same chapter we have 
the word pesanterin, that is, psaltery (Greek, psalterion), also a species of 
harp. 

WIND INSTRUMENTS. 

18. The primitive Jiorn was what the name denotes — made' 
from the horn of an ox or ram. From this came by a natural 
transition, the curved metallic trumpet {sliophar), and the straight 
trumpet {hatsotserah) , the form of which is preserved on the 
triumphal arch of Titus. 

In our version the word shSpJiar is often rendered cornet, especially 
where it occurs in connection with hnlsotserah, which last is then rendered' 
trumpet 1 Chron. 15 : 28 ; 2 Chron. 15 : 14 ; Psa. 98 : 6 ; Hosea 5:8; etc. 

The Egyptian monuments exhibit the flute and the injje 
single and double. The Hebrew term JialU (1 Sam. 10 : 5 ; 
1 Kings 1 : 40 ; Isa. 5 : 12 ; 30 : 29 ; Jer. 48 : 36), rendered in our 
version pipe, denotes either the pipe or the flute. So also prob- 
ably the plural form neliilbth in the title to Psalm 5. 

The Hebrew organ (ugah) was an instrument of high anti- 
quity. Gen. 4 : 21. The most probable opmion concerning it is 
that it was the so-called i^ipe of Fan; a compound instrument 
consisting of several reeds of unequal length, so arranged that 
the performer could pass his mouth from one to another. 

The Chaldean name sumpdnya, that is, st/mphony (Dan., chap. 3), is 
borrowed from the Greek. It is rendered in our version dulcimer, but is 
probably equivalent to the Hebrew ugab, organ ; as mashrohltha in the same 
chapter (Eng. \eYs.,fli(te) is to halll 

INSTRUMENTS OF PERCUSSION. 

19. The most common of these are the timbrel (Heb., toph) and 
the cymbal (Heb., tseltselim). The timbrel or tabret was a hoop or 



4.60 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

square frame over which a membrane was strained. It was 
beaten with, the fingers. Cymbals are plates of brass which, 
being struck together, produce a loud clanging sound. Both 
timbrels and cymbals are represented on the Egyptian monu- 
ments, as also drums of various shapes. 

Mention is also made of the shoTish (1 Sam. 18 : 6, where our version 
renders instruments of music), which was, perhaps, a triangle; and of the 
menadnim (2 Sam. 6:5), where our version has cornets. But the wordi 
denotes rather an instrument answering to the ancient sistrum, which gave 
• forth a tinkUng sound upon being shaken. 

For the character, form, and office of Hebrew poetry, see Companion 
to the Bible, Chap. 21, Nos. 1-4. 

V. THE MEDICAL ART. 

20. The medical art was early cultivated in Egypt. Accord- 
ing to Herodotus (2. 84) it was practised in that country on the 
principle of division, each physician treating a single disorder; 
one diseases of the eye, another those of the head, another those 
of the teeth, and so on. Of course a special class of physicians 
made the art of embalming their proper business (Herod., 2. 86) ; 
and these were the men who embalmed Jacob, and afterwards 
Joseph (Gen. 50 : 2, 26). When the Hebrews left Egypt they 
must have carried thence no inconsiderable knowledge of the 
healing art as it then existed. Physicians are mentioned in the 
book of Job (chap. 13 : 4), and in the later history of the Israel- 
itish nation (2 Chron. 16 : 12 ; Jer. 8 : 22) ; and in New Testament 
times they constituted a regular profession in Palestine as else- 
where (Matt. 9 : 12 ; Mark 5 : 26 : Luke 4 : 23 ; Col. 4 : 14 ; etc.). 
In ancient times the medical art embraced that of surgery as its 
most prominent branch. The physicians described by Homer 
are skilful in extracting from the wound the arrow's point, in 
cleansing it from gore, and in applying to it soothing medica- 
ments. Iliad, 4. 213-219. So also Jeremiah speaks of the bal- 
sam of Gilead in connection with the physician. Jer. 8 : 22 ; and 
compare 2 Kings 8 : 29. Of the practice of the Hebrew physi- 
cians in the treatment of diseases we know nothing with certainty. 



THE SCIENCES AND ARTS. 461 

21. It does not come within the plan of the present work to 
give a list of the diseases to which the Israelites were subject, in 
common with other nations of antiquity. There are, however, 
two maladies which appear so prominently in scriptural history 
that a few words respecting them will be in place. These are 
leprosy and demoniacal possessions. 

Leprosy is a disease of hot climates, very prevalent in Egypt 
and the adjoining regions. The formidable character of the dis- 
ease in Moses' day may be inferred from the minuteness with 
which he describes the disease in its various forms, the careful- 
ness with which he distinguishes it from other maladies, and the 
sternness of the seclusion imposed upon those afflicted with it. 
See Lev., chap. 13. The interpretation of this chapter in its 
details belongs to the commentator. We remark generally that 
the leprosy here described appears to have been the ivldte lep- 
rosy^ and not the malignant disorder known as elephantiasis of the 
Greeks. This latter is an awful malady, beginning with dusky 
shining spots upon the skin ; succeeded, after a series of months 
or years, by soft, reddish, hvid tumors ; and then by ulcers that 
exude a sanious fluid, till at last the joints of the extremities are 
separated, and they fall off. Moses does not hint at such ex- 
treme symptoms, and whiteness of the skin is everywhere men- 
tioned as one of the marks of leprosy. Exod. 4:6; Numb. 
12 : 10 ; 2 Kings 5 : 27. Leprosy was regarded as an infliction 
from God, incurable by human means, and rendering the sufferer 
ceremonially as well as physically unclean. The seclusion im- 
posed upon lepers has been thought to indicate the infectious 
character of the disease. But this assumption is not sustained 
by modern observation. The uncleanness contracted by the 
malady, and the painful fact that it is, to a certain extent at 
least, hereditary, were sufficient grounds for the separation im- 
posed on lepers by the Mosaic law. 

Leprosy exists in modern Syi'ia in all its malignity. See Thomson, The 
Land and the Book, vol. 2, p. 516, seq. But this fact does not prove that 
such a form as this — the true elephantiasis — was found in Moses' day in the 
Israelitish camp ; since diseases change their type in the same countiy from 



462 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

age to age. We would not, however, absolutely deny that it did ; since the 
symptoms described by Moses have respect to the beginning of the malady 
rather than to its termination. 

As to the leprosy in Jiouses and garments (Lev. 13 : 47-59 ; 
14 : 34, seq.), this was not a proper disease, but a decay of the 
materials due to some chemical change, perhaps with the pres- 
ence of living animalcules), which rendered them unwholesome 
and unfit for use. 

In regard to the reahty of demoniacal possessions there has 
been much controversy, one class of theologians maintaining that 
those recorded in the New Testament are simply cases of insan- 
ity, in which the- sufferers beheved themselves to be under the 
power of demons, in whose name they spoke. But the candid 
reader of the New Testament must be profoundly impressed with 
the conviction that the Saviour regarded demoniacal possessions 
as a reality. The narrative of the entrance of the demons into 
the swine (Matt. 8 : 28-34 ; Mark 5 : 1-16) is utterly inconsistent 
with the hypothesis that they were simply a figure of speech, as 
some maintain. 

The New Testament makes a distinction between lunatics and demoniacs 
(Matt. 4 : 24) ; but also ascribes lunacy to the influence of a demon (Matt. 
17 : 15, seq.), nor is there any inconsistency here ; for though all demoni- 
acs were lunatics, it does not follow that all lunatics were demoniacs. 
Unless we take the Sadducean gTound of denying the existence of all crea- 
ted spiritual beings beyond the sphere of our senses, we cannot, with any 
show of reason, deny that some of these beings may be malignant in char- 
acter, just as is the case among men. Nor, until we know not only the 
inmost essence of our own material-spiritual nature, but also the inmost 
essence of the nature belonging to these invisible spiritual beings, can we 
deny that, under certain conditions of the human subject, bodily and men- 
tal, they may gain an overmastering control of him ; or, in scriptural phra- 
seology, take possession of him, and bring him into a state analogous to 
that of lunacy, if not identical with it. 



TRADE AND COMMERCE. 463 



CHAPTEE XXI. 

Trade and Commerce. 

1. Before the Babylonish captivity the Hebrews were emi- 
nently an agricultural and pastoral people, living contentedly 
upon their own soil. At the close of the captivity a part of the 
Jews remained settled in foreign lands when their brethren re- 
turned from exile. Their descendants, increased by fresh colo- 
nies from Palestine after it had again become full of inhabitants, 
spread themselves over all the regions around the holy land — 
Parthia, Media, Persia, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Syria, 
Asia Minor, Cyprus, and the .^gaean isles, the chief cities of 
Greece and Rome, and especially Alexandria in Egypt. Jose- 
phus testifies (Antiq., 14. 7. 2) that in the time of Sylla (who died 
B. c. 78) the Jews had filled the habitable world ; and he quotes 
Strabo as saying that " this people had now entered every city, 
so that one could not easily find a place in the world which had 
not received this race and was not occupied by them." Com- 
pare Acts 2 : 9-11. These Jews, who also included the remnant 
of the ten tribes, constituted "the Dispersion" (James 1:1; 
1 Pet. 1 : 1), or more fully "the Dispersion of the Gentiles" 
(John 7 : 35). They remained steadfast in the faith of theii 
fathers, acknowledged Jerusalem as their religious head, and 
considered themselves as strangers and sojourners. As they 
were settled chiefly in the cities, they naturally turned their 
attention to trade and commerce rather than to agriculture, and 
thus became emphatically a people of traffic. 

2. The Hebrews before the captivity were never a commer- 
cial people. The chief ports of the Mediterranean were held on 
the south by the Egyptians and Philistines, and on the north by 
the T^Tians. Solomon indeed estabfished navies to go to Opliir 
and Tarshish (see above, Chap. 8, No. 24 ; Chap. 10, No. 30), but 



464 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

it was in conjunction witli Hiram king of Tyre, the Tyrians being, 
as we have seen (Chap. 10, No. 27), the great commercial nation 
of antiquity. 

3. In an age when the mariner's compass was unknown (at 
least in the western world), navigation was confined to the coasts. 
In the longest voyages, as those to Ophir in the east, to Tarshish 
in the west, and along the African coast, the vessels kept of 
necessity near to the land, creeping cautiously along from one 
headland to another. Ships of war were called long ships, be- 
cause they were of a longer shape than ships of burden, the latter 
beiag more round and deep. Ships of war, though furnished 
with sails, were propelled chiefly by oars (Caesar, GaUic War, 
3. 13; 4. 25), of -which there were two, three, or more banks. 
Merchant vessels rehed chiefly on sails, especially those of the 
larger class. The vessel in which Paul was wrecked " cast four 
anchors out of the stern." This was done in an exigency, and 
was the right course, the plan being to run the ship aground at 
daybreak. See Smith's Bible Diet., Art., Ship. The more usual 
custom was to anchor from the prow. JEneid, 6, end. Under- 
girders (Acts 27 : 17) were cables or chains, which, in case of 
necessity, could be passed round the ship and made tight for the 
purpose of strengthening it. 

The ship in which Paul was wi'ecked contained 276 souls, besides a 
cargo of wheat. Acts 27 : 37, 38. It cannot then have been much less 
than five hundred tons burden. The ship in which Josephus was wrecked 
in the same part of the Mediterranean (Life, 3) contained six hundred per- 
sons. There were much larger ships, but their size was exceptional. See 
the article in Smith's Bible Diet, above referred to, where the writer comes 
to the conclusion that "if we say an ancient merchant-ship might range 
from five hundred to one thousand tons, we are clearly within the mark." 

The standard work on ancient ships is that of James Smith, Esq. , of 
Jordanhill, entitled. The Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, which throws 
much light on the thrilling narrative of that event contained in the twenty- 
seventh chapter of the Acts. 

4. Commerce by overland routes w^as carried on by means oi 
caravans, the beast of burden being the camel ; which is, there- 
fore, appropriately called the ship of the desert. Caravans for 



TllADE AND COMMERCE. 4G5 

mercantile purposes are regularly organized bodies of merchants 
provided with officers, guides, and servants ; and attended, when 
necessary, by a military escort. They sometimes consist of a 
thousand or more persons, and several thousand camels. Such 
a caravan was the company of Ishmaelites and Midianites to 
whom Joseph w^as sold. Gen. 37 : 25-28. They were on their 
way from the region east of the Jordan to Egypt by one of the 
roads travelled at the present day. See above, Chap. 2, No. 8. 
Such also were "the troops of Tema" and "the companies of 
Sheba" mentioned in the book of Job (chap. 6:19), who are 
represented as perishing from the failure of the waters on which 
they had placed their reliance ; just as it frequently happens at 
the present day to caravans traversing the desert, where wells 
are few and widely separated from each other. 

Among the ancient caravan routes were the following : 

a. The route from Upper Sjrm across the desert by Pal- 
myra to the Euphrates. According to Josephus (Antiq., 8. 6. 1), 
Palmyra, the Tadmor of Scripture (1 Kings 9 : 18 ; 2 Chron. 8:4), 
was two days' journey from Upper Syria, one day's journey from 
the Euphrates, and six days' journey from Babylon; and the 
reason why Solomon built the city in ^hat remote part of the 
desert was that low^er down no water is to be had, but here only 
are found fountains and wells : 

h. The route from Palestine into Egypt along the shores of the 
Mediterranean from Gaza to Pelusium. There is another more 
circuitous route by the way of Mount Sinai : 

c. The route from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, by 
which the Phoenicians received the goods of India. " Sometimes 
they received them from the Arabians, who either brought them 
by land through Arabia, or up the Bed Sea to Ezion-geber." 
Jahn, Archaeology, § 109. 

The deserts of Africa and Arabia and the great salt desert of 
Asia can be traversed only m this way. 

5. The inns mentioned in the Pentateuch (Heb. mdlon, lodg- 
ing-place, Gen. 42 : 27 ; 43 : 21 ; Exod. 4 : 24) were perhaps only 
lodging-places in the open air selected chiefly for the convenience 

20^- 



4:66 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

of water. But the inns of tlie New Testament (Luke 2:7; 
10 : 34) correspond to the modern khans or caravanserais, spacious 
buildings constructed simply for the convenience of caravans 
carrying with them their own provisions for man and beast. 
They are, therefore, as a rule, utterly unfurnished, offering to the 
traveller nothing but shelter ; though some of the modem khans 
" are inhabited by a keeper who sells coffee, provisions, and the 
like, to the guests, so far as they may need ; and furnishes them 
with fire and the means of cooking for themselves." Eobinson, 
Bib. Ees., vol. 2, p. 487. 

6. Weiglits and measures are absolutely necessary for trade 
and commerce. "We find them in existence in Abraham's day 
(Gen. 18 : 6 ; 23 : 16 ; 24 : 22) ; and in the Pentateuch they every- 
where appear as a well-developed system. The exact determi- 
nation of Hebrew weights and measures, especially of those in 
use before the captivity, is a matter of great difficulty. We give 
below the common tables of Hebrew weights, measures, and 
coins, remarking, however, that they are to be considered only 
as approximations to the truth. 

TABLES OF WEIGHTS, MEASUKES, AND MONEY, 
MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE. 

1. JEWISH WEIGHTS, REDUCED TO ENGLISH TROY WEIGHTS. 

lbs. oz. pen. gr. 

The gerah, one-twentieth of a shekel 12 

Bekah, half a shekel - - 5 

Theshekel - - 10 

The maneh, 60 shekels - 2 6 

The talent, 50 manehs, or 3,000 shekels - 125 

2. SCRIPTURE MEASURES OF LENGTH, REDUCED TO ENGLISH MEASURE. 

Eng. ft. Inches. 

Adigit 0.912 

4:::=. A palm - - 3.648 

12:- 3 = Aspan - 10.944 

24= 6= 2=rrAcubit 1 9.888 

96= 24= 8= 4 = Afathom - - 7 3.552 

144= 36= 12= 6 = 1.5 = Ezekiel's reed - 10 11.328 

192= 48= 16= 8= 2= 1.3 = An Arabian pole 14 7.104 

1920 = 480 = 160 = 80 = 20 = 13.3 = 10 A measuring line 145 11.04 



TRADE AND COMMERCE. 467 

3. THE LONG SCRIPTURE MEASURES. 

Eng. miles. I'aces. Feet. 

Acubit 1.824 

400 = A stadium, or furlong ---- 145 4.6 

2000= 5 = A sabbath-day's journey - --- 729 3 

4000= 10= 2 = An eastern mile 1 403 1 

12000= 30= 6 = 3 = A parasang 4 153 3 

96000 = 240 = 48 = 24 = 8 = A day's journey 33 172 4 

Note.— 5 feet = 1 pace; 1,053 paces = 1 mile. 



4. SCRIPTURE MEASURES OF CAPACITY FOR LIQUIDS. REDUCED TO 
ENGLISH WINE MEASURE. 

Gal. Pints. 

Acaph - 0.625 

L3 = Alog -• 0.833 

5.3= 4 = Acab -- 3.333 

16 = 12= 3 = Aliin - 1 2 

32 = 24= 6= 2 = Aseali - 2 4 

96 = 72= 18= 6= 3 = A bath, ephah, or firkin 7 4.50 

960 = 720 = 180 = 60 = 30 = 10 = A kor, choros, or homer 75 5.25 

5. SCRIPTURE MEASURES OF CAPACITY FOR THINGS DRY, REDUCED TO 
ENGLISH CORN MEASURE. 

Bu. Pks. Gal. Pints. 

Agachal 0.141 

20 = Acab 2.833 

36= 1.8 = An omer, or gomer 5.1 

120= 6 = 3.3 = Aseah • -- 10 1 

360= 18 = 10 = 3 = Anephah - 3 3 

1800= 90 =50 =15= 5 = Aletech ;4 1 

3600 = 180 =100 = 30 = 10 = 2 = A homer, or kor--'- 8 1 



6. JEWISH MONEY, REDUCED TO THE ENGLISH AND AMERICAN 
STANDARDS. 

£ s. d. $ cts. 

Agerah 1.3687 02.5 

10 = Abekah--- 1 1.6875 25.09 

20= 2 = A shekel 2 3.375 50.187 

1200= 120= 50 = A maueh, or mina Hebr. 5 14 0.75 25 09.35 

60000 = 6000 = 3000 = 60 = A talent 342 3 9 1505 02. 5 

A soli dus aureus, or sextula, was worth 12 0.5 2 64.09 

A siclus aureus, or gold shekel, was worth- 1 16 6 8 03 

A talent of gold was worth - - - 5475 24309 00 

In the preceding bxble, silver is valued at 5s. and gold at £4 per ounce. 



468 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

7. ROMAN MONEY, MENTIONED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, REDUCED TO 
THE ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STANDARDS. 

£ s. d. far. $ cts. 

Amite 0.75 00.343 

A farthing, about 1.50 00.687 

A penny, or denarius ---. 7 2 13.75 

A pound, or mina - 3 2 6 13 75 

Kemark. The ancient Egyptian cubit is known to us from 
specimens preserved in the tombs. " No great difference," says 
a writer in Smith's Bible Dictionary (Article, Weights and Meas- 
ures), " is exhibited in these measures, the longest being estima- 
ted at about 21 inches, and the shortest at about 20J, or exactly 
20.4729 inches (Wilkinson, Anc. Eg., 2. 258)." There is a strong 
presumption that "the old Hebrew cubit (2 Chron. 3 : 3) must 
have agreed -wiih. this, and cannot, therefore, have exceeded 21 
inches. Keil (Archaologie, § 126) estimates it at about 214.512 
Persian hues, or a trifle over 19 inches English measure. But 
Jahn (Archaeology, §113) and Saalschlitz (Archaologie, 59. 2) 
reckon the old Hebrew cubit from the elbow to the wrist, wliich 
would make it not over a foot. After the captivity another 
cubit was in use, as is plain from the words of 2 Chron. 3 : 3, 
where we are told that the cubits giving the dimensions of Sol- 
omon's temple are " after the ancient measure." The angel 
whom Ezekiel sees in vision during the captivity has a measur- 
ing-reed in his hand " six cubits long by the cubit and a hand- 
breadth." Chap. 40 : 5. Is this the Hebrew cubit with the ad- 
dition of a hand-breadth to make the Babylonian cubit, or the 
Babylonian cubit with a hand-breadth added to make the Hebrew 
cubit ? If, as is natural to suppose, the angel uses the cubit of 
the covenant people, we must suppose the latter. The reader 
will find this subject discussed more at large in Smith's Bible 
Dictionary, under the article Weights and Measures. 



PATKIARCHAL FORM OF GOVEENMENT. 469 



SECOND DIVISION 

CIVIL^ANTIQUITIES. 



CHA.PTEE XXII 



The Patriarchal Form of Government. 

1. The terms of tlie covenant made by God with Abraham 
for himseK and his posterity are as follows : " I will estabhsh my 
covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their 
generations, for an everlasting covenant ; to be a God unto thee, 
and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to 
thy seed after thee, the land whereon thou art a stranger, all the 
land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be 
their God." Gen. 17 : 7, 8. The reader will notice that this was 
a sovereign act of God's grace, and thus was equivalent to a 
promise. Gal. 3 : 16. But inasmuch as the blessings which it 
contains are conditioned on the obedience of Abraham and his 
children after him (Gen. 18 : 19), and thus the action of two par- 
ties — that of God on the one side, and that of Abraham's seed 
on the other — is involved in its fulfilment, it is properly called a 
covenant ; but not a covenant in such a sense that it could be 
annl^lled at the will of either party. God could not annul it, 
because it was originally made with Abraham as " an everlast- 
ing covenant." The Israelitish people could not annul it, but 
only deprive themselves of its blessings by their disobedience. 

In the transaction between God and the Israelites recorded in Exodus 
(chap. 19 : 5-9), God says, on his pai*t : "If ye will obey my voice indeed, 
and keep my covenant, then ye sliall be a peculiar treasure unto me above 



470 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

all people : for all the earth is mine : and ye shall be nnto me a kingdom 
of priests, and a holy nation." And -the people reply on their yavt: 
"All that the Lord hath spoken we -will do ;" which words Moses returns 
to the Lord, and then he proceeds to give them the law from Sinai. We 
must not interpret this transaction as if God left it to the free election of 
the people whether they would or would not have him for their covenant 
God, in such a sense that, if they did not choose his service, they might 
be released from their special relation to him, and become Hke the other 
nations of the earth. This would involve the absurdity of supposing that 
God gave to Abraham's posterity the oppoi?4unity of abrogating the ever- 
lasting covenant made with their father and confirmed with sacrifices and 
a solemn oath. Gen. 15 : 8-21 ; 22 : 15-18. The true purport of the trans- 
action was rather to set forth before the Israehtes the great truth that the 
blessings of the covenant were conditioned on their obedience, and that 
this obedience must be their own free and hearty act. In the same way 
Joshua, after the giving of the law, proposed to the people the service of 
Jehovah as something that must be sincere and hearty to be acceptable : 
"Now, therefore," says he, after recounting to them the past dealings of 
Jehovah, "fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and 
put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the 
flood, and in Egypt ; and serve ye the Lord. And if it be evil unto you 
to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve," etc. Josh. 
24 : 14, 15. 

2. The supremacy wliich God claimed over the covenant 
people was absolute, extending to all their civil as well as their 
religious institutions. From the nature of the case, however, 
the Mosaic laws are far more numerous and fundamental in 
the sphere of religion than of purely civil life. When God led 
the Israelites out of Egypt, he found them under the patriarchal 
form of government. This form he left for the time being 
untouched in all its essential features, simply modifying some 
of its usages, that, for example, which related to the avenger 
of blood (Numb., chap. 35), the law of the levirate (Deut. 
25 : 5-10), etc.; and superadding what was needed ; as for exam- 
ple, judges in the different cities. Deut. 16 : 18. The patriarchal 
form of government, then, is that wliich first claims our atten- 
tion. 

3. The patriarcJial form of government grows naturally out 
of the family; is, in truth, but an expansion of it into tribes 



PATRIAECHAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 471 

or clans with their various divisions and subdivisions, each ol 
them having its own chieftain, generally according to the law 
of primogeniture. It follows from the very constitution of this 
form of government that the family relation must constitute 
the great bond of union. This unites, first of all, the different 
tribes, as descendants of a common ancestor, then the various 
divisions and subdivisions still more intimately. The predom- 
inant spirit is that of attachment to one's particular clan, in- 
stead of loyalty to a common government, as in our modern 
civilization. It is obvious that under such a system the growth 
of the nation must continually weaken the ties which bind 
together its several parts ; and that without some counteracting 
influence, such as that provided by the Mosaic theocracy, the 
final result must be jealousies, feuds, and a succession of deso- 
lating wars between the different tribes. All this is illustrated 
by the history of the Arabian tribes, of the clans of Scotland, 
and of our own aborigines. 

4. When the Israehtes left Egypt they had increased to a 
nation of some two and a half milhons. The primary division 
was into tribes which bore the names of Jacob's sons. These 
were again divided inio families, and the families into houses, or 
more iuRj, fathers' houses. 

The Israelitish tribes are uniformly reckoned as twelve, from the twelve 
sons of Jacob. Gen. 49 : 28 ; Exod. 24 : 4 ; 28 : 21 ; Numb. 1 : 44 ; Acts 
26 : 7 ; Jas. 1:1; etc. But inasmuch as Jacob adopted the two sons of 
Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, and thus made them heads of two tribes 
(Gen. 48 : 5, 6), the number of the tribes inchiding Levi was properly 
thirteen. The Levites, however, had no inheritance with their brethren, 
being distributed throughout the land in cities assigned to them (Numb. , 
chap. 35); so that the number of the tribes reckoned according to tho 
division of the land of Canaan remained twelve. 

The divisions and subdivisions of the tribes may be learned very defi- 
nitely from two passages. Wlien it was to be ascertained for whose sin 
the Israelites had been discomfited before Ai, God directed that it should 
be done by lot. First, Israel was brought by tribes, and the tribe of 
Judali was taken : then the families of Judah were brought, and the lot 
fell upon the family of the Zarhites : next the Jio?(se of Zabdi, one of the 
divisions of the family of the Zarhites, was taken. It now remained to 



^72 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

bring the men of Zabdi's house, each of whom stood at the head of a 
household, and Achan was taken. Josh. 7 : 16-18. "When again, at an 
earher period, the IsraeUtes were to be numbered, Moses was directed 
(Numb. 1 : 2) to take the sum of the congregation ' ' after their famihes, by 
the house of their fathers " (or, as we might better render, hy their fathers' 
houses) ; and twelve men, one from each tribe, were appointed to preside 
over the work. We learn also from the second numbering (Numb. , chap. 
26) that the number of families belonging to the twelve tribes, the eight 
families of Levi (Numb., chap. 3) being excluded, was fifty-seven. These 
families were named mostly from the sons of the founders of the several 
tribes, but partly from their grandsons; and in the case of Gilead's six 
sons from the great-grandsons. The number and names of the tribes 
remained constant throughout the history of the ancient Hebrews. But 
the less divisions were apparently subject to changes through the extinc- 
tion of old families and houses and the rise of new ones. The family of 
Matri, for example, to which Saul belonged (1 Sam. 10 : 21), is not named 
among the old famihes of Benjamin. Numb. 26 : 38-41. 

To avoid confusion, it is further important to notice that the term 
family is used in a general sense, as well as in the special technical sense 
above defined. God says to Abraham (Gen. 12:3), "In thee shall all 
famihes of the earth be blessed," where the word families is equivalent to 
nations. Again, the word family is used loosely for a tribe, as when "the 
family of Judah " is spoken of. Josh. 1:11. The term father'' s house, or 
in the plural fathers' houses, is also used not only technically of the divis- 
ions of the famihes belonging to a tribe, but also more generally of the 
leading father's house of a tribe, under which was comprehended the whole 
tribe (Numb. 1:4; 17 : 2— in the Heb. text, 17 : 7— Josh. 22 : 14); and of 
the leading father's house of a family, under which was comprehended the 
whole family. Numb. 3 : 24, 30, 35. 

5. At the suggestion of Jethro (Exod. 18 : 13, seq.), Moses 
appointed "rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of 
fifties, and rulers of tens," whose special office was to act as 
judges. As this was a division of the people for civil and not 
for military purposes, we have a right to assume that it was 
ingrafted upon the existing organization of the tribes, and that 
the first division coincided with that of the famihes. With this 
assumption agrees the fact that the families are frequently 
designated by the term thousands. Thus Samuel directs the 
people to present themselves before the Lord by their tribes 
and bv their thousands. 1 Sam. 10 : 19. In accordance with 



PATRIAKCHAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 473 

this direction the IsraeHtes (ver. 21) first come by tribes, when 
the tribe of Benjamin is taken ; then this tribe comes by fam- 
ihes, when the family of Matri is taken. Here it is plain that 
the thousands of ver. 19 are the families of ver. 21. So also 
when the princes of tlie tribes are called " heads of thousands 
in Israel" (Numb. 1:16; 10:4), the meaning is heads of the 
thousands, that is, families, which constituted the primary divis- 
ion of the tribes. 

For explanation of this use of the term iJiousand we may conveniently 
begin with the smallest division, that of tens. This obviously consisted 
not of ten individuals "from twenty years old and uj) wards" (a number 
too inconsiderable for judicial purposes), but of ten heads of families with 
their sons and in some instances grandsons ; or, in the case of elder broth- 
ers, with their younger brothers and sons. Thus Jesse of Beth-lehem 
with his seven sons (according to 1 Sam. 16 : 10, his eight sons) constituted 
07ie in a division of tens. The enrolled men in a division of te72S, consist- 
ing of those who were twenty years old and upwards, would thus consti- 
tute a number varying between less and more than a hundred. Assuming 
105 as the average, we have for the hundreds 1,050, and for the thousands 
10,500, and for 57 famihes or thousands 598,500. This comes very near 
to the sum of the fifty-seven families of the second census (Numb. , chap. 
26), which was 601,730. As the tens constituted a variable number of 
individuals, so did the hundreds and thousands. 1 Sam. 9 : 21 ; Micah 
5:2. 

6. Each tribe and division of a tribe had its chief, who seems 
to have held his office, as a general rule, according to the law 
of primogeniture. The proper title for the chief of a tribe is 
prince (Heb., nasi, variously rendered in our version prince, ruler, 
chief), less frequently head (Heb., rosli). The chiefs of the less 
divisions are called heads, and occasionally princes. Numb. 
3 : 24, 30, 35 ; 16 : 2. These chiefs of the different tribes, fam- 
ilies, and fathers' houses constitute collectively the elders of 
Israel; those of a particular tribe, the elders of that tribe; and, 
after the settlement in the land of Canaan, those of a particular 
city, the elders of that city. The elders are the representatives 
of the people. When Moses addresses the whole congregation 
of the IsraeHtes he does this through their elders. So he and 
Aaron are dhected (Exod. 12 : 3) to speak unto " all the congre- 



474 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

gation of Israel ;" and in pursuance of this command Moses calls 
(ver. 21) for " alltlie elders of Israel," and communicates to tliem 
God's message. In Deut. 31 : 28, the elders of Israel, with their 
officers (see below), represent, in like manner, the whole people ; 
and the song which Moses recites in their hearing he is said (ver. 
30) to speak " in the ears of all the congregation of Israel." God 
elsewhere directs (Numb. 10 : 3, 4) that when a signal is given by 
blowing with the two silver trumpets, " all the assembly " shall 
assemble themselves at the door of the tabernacle of the congre- 
gation ; but when one trumpet only is used, " the princes, heads 
of the thousands of Israel," shall assemble themselves. It is 
obvious that here "all the assembly" means all the elders of 
Israel, in distinction from the assembly of the princes of the 
tribes. And, in general, the whole congregation of the Israehtes, 
assembled for the transaction of business, consists of their repre- 
sentatives in the persons of the whole body of elders, unless 
indeed there is a specification like that contained in the follow- 
ing words : " Gather the people together, men, and women, and 
children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates" (Deut. 
31 : 12), where the law is to be read in the hearing of the whole 
multitude, the people being doubtless divided into sections with 
a competent number of expositors. Compare, Neh. 8 : 7. 

Mention is made (Numb. 1 : 16 ; 16 ; 2) of the called of the congregation 
(not, as in our version, renowned of tlie congregation and famous of the con- 
gregation), who are also designated in the latter passage as men of reputa- 
tion. These called of the congregation are those who were customarily called 
to the assembly of the elders, and who thus rejjresented the whole people. 

7. Mention is made very early in the history of the Israehtes 
of a class of men called officers. The Hebrew name {slibterim) 
properly denotes scribes or registrars. They appear in the double 
capacity of registrars and also administrators. The officers of 
the Israelites in Egypt (Exod., chap. 5) are men of their own 
nation set over them by the Egyptian taskmasters, whose busi- 
ness it is to enforce the performance of the daily tasks laid upon 
the people by their oppressors, and to render to the taskmasters 
an account of tlie same. As registrars they keep an account of 



PATRIARCHAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 475 

the work, and as administrators tliey are responsible for its per- 
formance. At a later period they appear as executing the com- 
mands of Joshua (Josh. 1 : 10 ; 3:2), and of the commander in 
war (Deut. 20 : 5, 8, 9). The same executive capacity is assumed 
in Solomon's advice to the sluggard (Pro v. 6 : 6-7) : " Go to the 
ant, thou sluggard ; consider her ways, and be wise : which having 
no judge, officer, or ruler, piovideth her meat in the summer, and 
gathereth her food in the harvest." The officers are closely asso- 
ciated with the judges in the Old Testament : "Judges and officers 
shalt thou make thee in all thy gates." Deut. 16 : 18, and com- 
pare Deut. 1 : 15. The relation of the officers to the judges is 
nowhere defined in the Old Testament. They seem to have 
assisted the judges not only as scribes and registrars, but also 
as counsellors; and to have been charged with carrying their 
decisions into execution. 

The officers held their office by election, though the manner of the 
election is not specified. They seem to have been selected, as a rule, 
from among the elders, as were the judges appointed at Jethro's sugges- 
tion. Deut. 1 : 15. We cannot, however, infer from the record of the 
appointment of the seventy elders in the wilderness (Numb. 11 : 16) that 
this was always the case. The direction of God to Moses : *' Gather unto 
me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be elders 
of the people and their officers," can only prove that the men selected on 
this special occasion must be elders who were also officers. 

It is a common and not improbable supposition that these officers had 
the charge of the genealogical tables. "As the writers and keepers of 
the genealogical Hsts, they had to assist in levying troops for military 
service, and to mark off those whom the law excused. Deut. 20 : 5, com- 
pared with 2 Chron. 19 : 11. They had also to stand by the side of the 
judges when they administered the law, because all questions of projoerty 
and many other judicial proceedings were connected with families and 
correct lineal descent. After the time of David both they and the judges 
were chiefly, if not exclusively chosen from the Levites." Keil on Josh. 
1:10. 

8. During the sojourn in Egypt the Hebrews did not feel the 
need of a special class of men to act as judges. In accordance 
with patriarchal usage, their elders administered justice so far as 
jurisdiction was allowed them by the Egyptians. But upon their 



476 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

emergence from a state of bondage to one of self-government 
questions of a judicial nature began to multiply, and these were 
by common consent referred to Moses, till, at the suggestion of 
Jethro, lie appointed, as we have seen, "rulers of thousands, 
rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens," whose 
office was to "judge the people at all seasons." The hard causes 
they were to bring to Moses, but the small matters they were to 
judge among themselves. Exod. 18 : 21-26. 

The question lias been raised : What was the relation to each other of 
this series of courts ? According to some, appeals lay from the judges 
over tens to the next higher court, and so on. According to others, ' ' the 
judges over tens could decide only matters of very little importance ; the 
judge over fifties, greater questions ; the judge over hundreds, still weight- 
ier," etc. Knobel on Exod. 18 : 21, seq. Another, and perhaps the most 
probable opinion, is that the difference between these courts lay in the 
extent of their jurisdiction — that the judges over thousands settled differ- 
ences that arose between the famihes constituting the first great division 
of a tribe ; the next two loAver courts, controversies among the less divis- 
ions ; while the courts of tens took cognizance of crime and controversies 
within its own pro]3er section, the final a^ipeal in difficult matters being 
from each of the courts to Moses. See Keil, Archaol. , 1 149. 

Upon the entrance of the people into the land of Canaan this 
arrangement necessarily underwent a modification. In antici- 
pation of this Moses commanded : " Judges and officers shalt 
thou make thee in all thy gates" — the gates, as places of public 
resort, being opportune for the exercise of judgment — "which 
the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes ; and they 
shall judge the people with just judgment." Deut. 16 : 18. 

Neither the number of the judges nor the manner of their appoint- 
ment is specified. Under the commonwealth they were probably chosen 
by the elders, and selected, as a rule, from among their number. Deut. 
1 : 15. Josephus says that they were seven in number, with two assist- 
ants. "Let seven men preside in each city who have been previously 
trained in virtue and in the love of justice ; and to every court let two 
assistants be given from the tribe of the Levites." Antiq,, 4. 8. 14. By 
the assistants he probably understands the officers associated with the 
judges in the original appointment. This statement of Josephus is evi- 
dently taken from the later usages of the Jews. According to the Talmud 
there were two local courts : a greater, for the large cities, consisting of 



PATBIARCHAL FORM OF GOVEPvNMENT. 477 

twenty-three men, and a smaller for the towns and smallest cities. See Keil, 
Archaol., ^ 149, who adds that "probably the number of the judges varied 
in the different cities, and corresponded only generally with the number 
of the inhabitants, according to the rule: judges over tens, fifties, etc." 
After the settlement of the people in Canaan, the final appeal in difficult 
cases was, before the time of the kings, to the high priest who resided at 
the tabernacle, or to the extraordinary judges mentioned below. Deut. 
17 : 8-13. 

9. It remains to speak of those extraordinary rulers wlioin 
God raised up from time to time in great emergencies, that he 
might accomplish through them his gracious purposes towards 
the covenant people. Foremost among these in time, and in the 
dignity of his office, is 3Ioses. The twofold office committed to 
him is clearly indicated in the sacred record. First, he is sent 
to deliver the Israelites from their bondage to the Egyptians. 
"Behold," says God to him, "the cry of the children of Israel is 
come unto me ; and I have also seen the oppression wherewith 
the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will 
send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my peo- 
ple, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." Exod. 3 : 9, 10. How 
he executed this part of his office, with the miraculous help of 
Jehovah, is familiar to all. Secondly, he is the mediator of the 
covenant estabhslied at Mount Sinai between God and his peo- 
ple. God began by addressing the people directly from amid 
the thunders and lightnings of Sinai. But they could not en- 
duie this mode of communication. " Speak thou with us," was 
their petition to Moses, "and we wiU hear; but let not God 
speak with us, lest we die." Exod. 20 : 19. In reply the Lord 
said: "They have well spoken that which they have spoken" 
(Deut. 5 : 28 ; 18 : 17) ; and immediately added : " I wiU raise 
them up a prophet from among their bretliren, like unto thee, 
and will put my words in his mouth ; and he shall speak unto 
them all that I shall command them. And it shall come to 
pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he 
shall speak in my name, I will require it of him." Deut. 18 : 18, 
19. The two essential things here (so far as the mode of com- 
munication is concerned) are that God will henceforth commu- 



478 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

nicate with man through the medium of man; and that such 
communications have the same authority as they would have 
were he to address man directly, as he did on Sinai. The Great 
Prophet of the latter days is to be a man speaking in God's 
name to his brethren; and the promise of such a Prophet con- 
tains in itself the pledge that, until his advent, God will make 
all needful communications to his people tln-ough men like them- 
selves. 

In both of the above offices Moses was an eminent type of 
Christ ; and in neither of them could he, from their very nature, 
have any successor until the appearance of his great Antitype. 
See Deut. 34 : 10-12. 

10. The office of Joshua was also twofold. He was the mili- 
tary leader of 'the people in the conquest of Canaan (Josh., chaps. 
1-12), and afterwards their civil ruler in the distribution of the 
land among the several tribes (Josh., chaps. 13-24). To this 
office he was called by God himself (Numb. 27 : 18-23), and from 
its nature he had no successor. 

11. After the death of Joshua and the elders who survived 
him there was a succession of judges in an eminent sense, who had 
general authority over the nation; or, perhaps in the case of 
some of them, over a section of the nation. The book of Judges 
records the names of twelve, that of Abimelech being excluded, 
namely: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Barak with Deborah the 
prophetess, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, 
Samson; and the first book of Samuel adds those of EH and 
Samuel. Most of these men were called by God himself to their 
office in times of national calamity ; and their first work was to 
deliver the Israehtes from their oppressors. They began, there- 
fore, as military leaders ; but, after the settlement of the people 
in peace, they exercised an authority wliich was freely accorded 
to them, and which was general and political rather than muni- 
cipal. "With the exception of EH, and apparently Samuel (see 
the genealogy 1 Chron. 6 : 33-38, where Shemuel of our version is 
only a more exact representation of the Hebrew name for Sam- 
uel J, none of them were taken from the tribe of Levi. 



PATRIARCHAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 479 

No notice is taken of any military services performeVl by Tola, Ibzan, 
Elon, or Abdon. The land seems to have enjoyed rest from oppression 
during theu* office. Eli and Samuel, also, were civil and not military lead- 
ers. Jephthah and the three succeeding judges seem to have exercised 
their office in Northeastern Israel beyond the Jordan. The scene of Sam- 
son's exploits was Southwestern Israel. In the opinion of some he was 
contemporary with Eli, who judged Israel at Shiloh. 

12. Under this simple patriarchal constitution the Israelitish 
nation lived, according to the longer chronology, " about the space 
of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet." The 
general affairs of the several tribes, with their divisions and sub- 
divisions, were managed by their elders, not according to definite 
written rules, except so far as they were contained in the Mosaic 
law, but rather according to ancient usage — ^the mos mo jorum of 
the Eomans, and the common laiv of later times ; while the judges, 
assisted by the officers, administered justice. The judges whom 
God raised up for them in succession did not constitute an 
organic part of the government, but exercised their authority 
only through the common consent of the people. The tribes, 
not being bound together by any permanent civil head, acted 
either singly or a few of them in concert, independently of the 
nation as a whole. The tribe of Dan, for example, sent six hun- 
dred of its warriors to take possession of Laish and the adjoin- 
ing region without consulting the other tribes (Judg., chap. 18) ; 
the tribes of Judah and Simeon made a mutual agreement to act 
in concert in the expulsion of the Canaanites from their terri- 
tory (Judg. 1:3, 17); "the house of Joseph" went separately 
against the inhabitants of Beth-el (Judg. 1 : 22-25) ; Deborah 
and Barak had the help of only a part of the tribes in their war 
agauist Sisera (Judg. 5 : 14-18) ; Gideon summoned, at the be- 
ginning of his conflict with the Midianites, only four of the north- 
ern tribes, for which he was sharply rebuked by the Ephraimites 
(Judg. 6 : 35 : 8 : 1-3) ; and Jephthah seems to have acted inde- 
pendently of the tribes west of the Jordan. It was only rarely 
and on very special occasions that all the tribes acted in concert, 
as they did in avenging the wrong done to the Levite in Gibeah 
of Benjamin. Judg., chap. 20. It is this loose relation of the 



480 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

tribes to each otlier whicli the sacred penman describes when he 
says (Judg. 17:6): "In those days there was no king in Israel, 
but every man did that which was right in his own eyes." He 
did not mean to indicate a state of anarchy within the several 
tribes, but rather the absence of a regularly organized central 
power that could give unity to the movements of the people. 

13. Nevertheless there was a religious and social bond of union. 
By the provisions of the Mosaic law aU the sacrifices were to be 
offered on the brazen altar at the door of the tabernacle, and 
three times a year aU the male inhabitants of the land were 
required to present themselves there before the Lord at the three 
feasts of the passover, of the pentecost, and of tabernacles. 
Exod. 23 : 14-17 ; 34 : 22, 23 ; Deut. 16 : 16. These great national 
gatherings were social as well as rehgious, and the first and third 
of them lasted a whole week. They brought aU the tribes to- 
gether in their peculiar character as the covenant people of Jeho- 
vah. Encamped around the tabernacle they offered sacrifices 
together; they feasted together; together they were instructed 
in the law of Moses ; and together they recounted the mighty 
acts of the God of their fathers. Thus God placed the unity of 
the nation on a religious instead of an organic civil foundation. 
It was a unity of wliich he was himself the centre, not any earthly 
chiefiain. Had the people remained true to him, they must have 
remained true to each other also. The bond which united them 
to their covenant God, would have united them among them- 
selves. "WeU did Jeroboam the son of Nebat understand the 
power of these national gatherings. " If this people," said he, 
after the revolt of the ten tribes, "go up to do sacrifice in the 
house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this peo- 
ple turn again unto their lord, even unto Kehoboam king of Ju- 
dah, and they shall kill me, and go again unto Rehoboam king 
of Judah." 1 Kings 12 : 27. So he set up two golden calves, 
one in Beth-el and the other in Dan, as a means of withdrawing 
{/he people from the yearly feasts at Jerusalem. He was willing 
to corrupt the reHgion of his whole kingdom that he might 
secure his family on the throne. 



PATRIAKCHAL FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 481 

We see, then, that the Hebrew commonwealth, as established 
by God, offered to the people a large amount of true hberty, 
while it secured for them a national unity grounded in their alle- 
giance to himself, tliek true head and king — a unity of the noblest 
and the most ennobling character. It was for them the best 
form of government, upon the simple condition of their remain- 
ing faithful in the service of their covenant God. Happy, thrice 
happy had been the Israelites before the days of the kings, had 
they but understood their privileges ! But they did not under- 
stand them. The spirit of loyalty to Jehovah died out among 
them, and a worldly spirit took its place. Then they began to 
clamor for a king, that they might be " like all the nations ;" and 
God gave them a king in his anger, and afterwards took him 
away in his wrath. 



L 



21 



482 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



OHAPTEE XXIII. 

The Kingly Form of Government. 

1. In demanding of Samuel a king the Israelites were actua- 
ted, as we have seen, by a worldly and unbeheving spirit. They 
had withdrawn from Jehovah, their almighty heavenly King and 
Protector, their faith, love, and obedience. Thus the rehgious 
bond which should have united them as a nation was broken, 
and a process of disintegration was going on which imperilled 
their national existence, surrounded as they were by numerous 
and powerful enemies. The evils of disunion were real, though 
the cause was reprehensible. God, therefore, while he sharply 
rebuked the people for their request, yet decided to grant it; 
because the kingly form of government, though not in itseK the 
best, was best under existing circumstances. It would bring 
upon the people many evils, as he faithfully forewarned them 
(1 Sam. 8 : 10-18) ; yet, in view of their character and condition, 
it was expedient that it should be established. 

2. In changing, through the agency of Samuel, the ancient 
patriarchal form of government to one that was monarchical, 
God was careful to assert, in the manner of the transaction, his 
continued supremacy over the covenant people. The monarch 
was one of his own selection; first, by a private revelation to 
Samuel, who was directed to anoint him as the future king of 
Israel (1 Sam. 9 : 15-17 ; 10 : 1, seq.) ; secondly, by a public ap- 
peal to the sacred lot (1 Sam. 10 : 17-25). Then, again, the new 
king was given to understand, upon his inauguration, that he 
must exercise his office in hearty and unreserved subjection to 
the commandment of Jehovah, from whom he had received it. 
Finally, when he showed himself regardless of God's authority, 
he was rejected, and a man from another tribe and family was 
selected as his successor. 1 Sam. 13 : 13, 14 ; chap. 15 ; 16 : 1-13. 
By these successive acts of sovereignty God made it manifest to 



THE KINGLY FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 483 

all that, though he had granted the request of his people for an 
earthly monarch, he had not thereby vacated one jot or tittle of 
his supremacy over them ; and that their king was not indepen- 
dent of his will, but absolutely subject to it. 

It may be said, in an important sense, that Saul, the first king of Israel, 
was a man after the people's heart. He had those external physical qualities 
Avhich in those days were highly valued in a leader of the people. He was 
' ' a choice young man, and a goodly : and there was not among the children 
of Israel a goodHer person than he : from his shoulders and upward he was 
higher than any of the people." 1 Sam. 9 : 2. Nor was he a mean com- 
mander in war, as his successes show. 1 Sam. 14 : 47, 48. His misfortunes 
were due not to want of ability but to disobedience of God's commands. 

David, his successor, had still higher qualities as a military and civil 
leader. But it was not in view of these that God described him as a man 
after his own heart. This high praise was given him as one in whose heart 
the reigning iDrinciple was faith and love towards Jehovah, producing a 
uniform and hearty obedience to all his commands. Divinely designated 
as the successor of Saul, he waited patiently till the throne should be made 
vr.cant by his death ; and, after a suitable probation, the kingdom was con- 
firmed to him and his family for ever. 2 Sam., chap. 7. 

3. The kingly form of government having been estabhshed, its 
bright side began to manifest itself, and afterwards its dark side, 
as foretold by Samuel. Looking first to the bright side, we notice 
an immediate increase of national strength from the new centre 
of union which the different tribes had in theu' common sov- 
ereign. The reign of Saul was upon the whole prosperous in its 
outward relations. 1 Sam. 14 : 47-52. Its sad close came in 
accordance with the divine purpose to set aside his house, for 
his persistent disobedience to God's commands. Under David, 
Saul's successor, the Hebrew nation attained to full organic 
unity, and was victorious over its enemies on every side. This 
was the culmination of the military power of Israel. As the 
fruit of David's victories Solomon received a kingdom extending 
from Tiphsah on the Euphrates to Gaza, " and he had peace on 
all sides round about him." 1 Kings 4 : 24. The new national 
unity which the monarchical form of government brought to the 
Hebrew people was also favorable to internal tranquiUity. It 
put an end, as a rule, to dissensions between the tribes and divis- 



484 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

ions of the tribes ; such as that between Abimelech and the men 
of Sheehem (Judg., chap. 9) ; between the Gileadites and the men 
of Ephraim, in which forty-two thousand Ephraimites perished 
(Judg. 12 : 1-6) ; and between the tribe of Benjamin and the other 
tribes, by which the former was well nigh destroyed (Judg., chaps. 
19-21). It may be mentioned as a further advantage that the 
pious kings — like David before the division of the kingdom, and 
Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah after the division, did 
much to suppress idolatry and estabUsh the worship of Jehovah, 
at least in its outward form. 

4. But the dark side also manifested itself less rapidly, but 
not less certainly. Here we can hardly mention the abridgment 
of power in the case of the individual tribes ; for this was, in the 
existing circumstances, a benefit rather than an injury. But the 
prerogatives that belong to the very idea of an oriental king, and 
the expenses of maintaining an oriental royal estabhshment soon 
began to be felt, with increasing power, by the Hebrew people. 
A " limited monarchy," in the modern Enghsh sense of the ex- 
pression, was then, and has ever been, foreign to the ideas of 
the eastern nations. Their kings administer justice in a sum- 
mary way : and the right of life and death belongs to them, not 
by any constitutional provision, but by immemorial usage. This 
prerogative was exercised from the first by the Hebrew mon- 
archs, particularly in the case of state criminals, or those whom 
they chose to regard as such. Saul unrighteously slew eighty- 
five priests on the alleged ground that they had conspired against 
him. 1 Sam., chap, 22. David gave commandment to kill Re- 
chab and Baanah, the murderers of Ishbosheth, and he charged 
Solomon to see that Shimei and Joab were slain. This charge 
Solomon executed, and also put to death his brother Adonijah 
for attempting to usurp the throne. 2 Kings, chap. 2. 

In the case of ordinary criminals, it is natural to suppose that the pen- 
alty of the law was inflicted through the medium of the regular judges and 
officers ; jet here also the final power rested Avith the sovereign, and he 
might exercise it directly by virtue of his kingly x)rerogative. 2 Sam. 12 : 5 ; 
14 : 8-11. 



THE KINGLY FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 485 

The king had also, by the same immemorial usage, summary 
power to demand the personal services of his subjects and to 
levy upon their property for pubhc uses. The picture which 
Samuel drew of the royal prerogative (1 Sam. 8 : 10-18) was 
taken from the actual practice of monarchs in his day : " He will 
take your sons, and appoint them for himseK, for his chariots, 
and to be his horsemen ; and some shall run before his chariots. 
And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains 
over fifties; and will set them to ear" (that is, j^^omjh) "his 
ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of 
war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your 
daughters- to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be ba- 
kers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your 
oHveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 
And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, 
and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take 
your men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your goodliest 
young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. And he 
will take the tenth of your sheep ; and ye shall be his servants." 
In illustration of the truthfulness of this portraiture we may 
remark that Solomon raised a levy of thirty thousand men, whom 
he sent to Lebanon by courses, besides the seventy thousand 
that bare burdens, and the eighty thousand that w^ere hewers in 
the mountains (1 Kings 5 : 13-15) ; and that " Solomon's provis- 
ion for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore 
measures of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pas- 
tures, and a hundred sheep, besides harts, and roebucks, and 
fallow-deer, and fatted fowl. 1 Kings 4 : 22, 23. This was the 
daily provision for Solomon's household, and it is in perfect 
accordance with the magnificence and luxury of an oriental 
court, with its numerous retinue of servants and its harem of 
wives and concubines. The necessary sequel is heavy taxes. 
The burden of these was felt under Solomon's reign, and the 
refusal of his son Rehoboam to lighten them was the occasion of 
the revolt of the ten tribes. 

The royal prerogative enabled pious kings, as we have seen, 



186 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

to do much for the maintenance of the Mosaic institutions. It 
must now be added that the same prerogative in the hands of 
wicked men was most disastrous to the cause of rehgion. The 
very first of the Israehtish kings corrupted the worship of his 
whole kingdom, and all his successors followed in his footsteps 
as a matter of state pohcy. It was easier for a camel to go 
through the eye of a needle than for a monarch of the ten tribes 
to serve Jehovah ; for there were the golden calves at Beth-el 
and Dan, the worship of which he felt himself bound to maintain, 
lest his subjects should go to Jerusalem to worship, and turn 
again to the house of David. What a corrupting influence was 
exercised in the Idngdom of Judah, also, by such monarchs as 
Ahaz and Manasseh, is famihar to all. 

The first cliech to the abuse of the royal prerogative lay in 
the character of the monarchs. Good kings, hke David, were 
" just, ruhng in the fear of God." And their influence was " as the 
light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning with- 
out clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by 
clear shining after rain." 2 Sam. 23 : 4. A further check lay in 
the character of the people. They had inherited' from their 
fathers a patrimony of hberty and manly independence which 
their kings could not safely disregard, as we see in. the case of 
Eehoboam. In the case of the earher kings the restraining 
power from this source must have been great. But with the 
increasing degeneracy of the people its influence gradually died 
out. 

5. In respect to ouhuardform, the monarchical being, so to 
speak, superimposed upon the ancient patriarchal constitution, 
was administered, in a great measure, through the medium of its 
forms and usages. It is recorded (1 Sam. 10 : 25) that " Samuel 
told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a 
book, and laid it up before, the Lord." This can hardly have 
been a " constitution" in the modern sense of the word, with its 
various specific provisions. It seems to have been rather a gen- 
eral statement of the principles upon which the kingly govern- 
ment was to be administered (compare Deut. 17 : 14-20) ; one of 



THE KINGLY FOKM OF GOVEKNMENT. 487 

the most important of which was the inviolabiUty of the Mosaic 
code. Ihe king had no authority to set aside any of its laws, 
or to usurp any office under it belonging to others. When, long 
afterwards, Uzziah attempted to burn incense on the golden 
altar, which was a priestly function, he was vaUantly withstood 
by the high priest and his associates, and smitten with leprosy 
by the immediate act of God. 2 Chron. 26 : 16-21. It was only 
in details not touching the fundamental principles of the theoc- 
racy that discretion was allowed to the Hebrew monarchs ; as 
when David distributed the Levites into twenty-four courses; 
arranged the service of song in the sanctuary; and appointed 
from among the Levites porters, treasurers, officers, and judges. 
1 Chron., chap. 23, seq. Changes in the service of the temple 
like those made by Ahaz and Manasseh (2 Kings, chaps. 16, 21) 
were impious acts of rebellion against Jehovah. 

6. The essential rite of inauguration to the kingly office was 
anointing icitli the sacred^ oil. Exod. 30 : 22-33. When this rite 
was privately performed by a prophet under God's dii'ection, as 
in the case of Saul (1 Sam. 9 : 16; 10 : 1), of David in the pres- 
ence of his father's family alone (1 Sam., chap. 16), and of Jehu 
(2 Kings 9 : 1-10), it conferred simply a title to the throne, the 
occupancy of which took place afterwards, either by the com- 
mon consent of the people (1 Sam. 10 : 17-25 ; 2 Sam. 2:4; 
5 : 1-3), or by force (2 Kings, chap. 9). The pubhc anointing was 
in connection with the monarch's induction into office. Thus 
David was anointed at Hebron, first as long over the tribe of 
Judah (2 Sam. 2:4), and afterwards as king over all Israel 
(2 Sam. 5:3); Solomon was by David's command pubhcly 
anointed by Zadok the priest with oil out of the tabernacle 
(1 Kings 1 : 39) ; and Joash was anointed by the high priest 
Jehoiada in the presence of " the rulers over hundreds, with the 
captains and the guard" (2 Kings 11 : 4^12). 

The above are the only cases in which the anointing of a Hebrew mon- 
arcli is mentioned. "Wliere the crown descended regularly from father to 
son, or from an elder to a younger brother without controversy, it does not 
appear that the ceremony of anointing was thought necessary. "As far as 



488 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

we are informed," says Jahn (Archaeology, ^223), ^^ unction, as a sign of 
investiture with the royal authority, was bestowed only upon the first two 
kings who ruled the Hebrews, namely, Saul and David ; and subsequently 
upon Solomon and Joash, who ascended the throne under such circum- 
stances that there was danger of their right to the throne being forcibly 
disputed." • 

Solomon and Joash, wliose right to the throne was a matter 
of controversy, were pubhcly crowned upon their inauguration 
with shouts and the blowing of trumpets. 1 Kings 1 : 39, 40 ; 
2 Kings 11 : 12. In the case of Joash it is added that " they 
gave him the testimony," that is, a copy of the law of Moses as 
the rule of his administration. Compare Deut. 18 : 17-20. We 
may reasonably infer that these ceremonies were usual when a 
new king was inducted into office ; and also that, in the case of 
a peaceable succession to the kingdom, his predecessor's sceptre 
was placed in his hand, and he was seated upon his throne. 
Sacrifices also were offered on the occasion, and a magnificent 
feast was provided. See 2 Sam. 15 : 12 ; 1 Kings 1 : 9, seq., where 
the usurpers manifestly follow the usage of the times. 

7. The officers of the royal estabhshment may be conveni- 
ently considered in several groups. 

The following geiiieral executive officers are mentioned : 

The commander-in-cliief of the army — in the phraseology of 
the sacred record, the man who was " captain of the host," or 
" over the host." 1 Sam. 14 : 50 ; 2 Sam. 8 ; 16 ; 20 : 23 ; 1 Kmgs 
2:32; 4:4; etc. 

The commander of the body-guard, the same as " the captain 
of the guard" under Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. Gen. 
37 : 36 ; 2 Kings 25 : 8 ; etc. This body of men waited on the 
king's person and executed his commands. From the nature of ■ 
their service they were not only the keepers of his person, but 
also his executioners in the case of state criminals. That " the 
Cherethites and the Pelethites" (2 Sam. 8 : 18 ; 20 : 23 ; 1 Chron. 
18 : 17) were David's body-guard, according to the interpretation 
of Josephus (Antiq. 7. 5. 4), is admitted by all. But why they 
received this appellation is a matter of controversy. The Cher- 
ethites are mentioned (1 Sam. 30 : 14 ; Ezek. 25 : 16 ; Zeph. 2 : 5) 



THE KINGLY FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 489 

in such a connection as shows that they were either the Philis- 
tines themselves, or more probably, a tribe of that people. 
Hence it has been supposed that David's body-guard consisted of 
PhiUstines from the tribes called Cherethites and Pelethites. In 
favor of this view has been urged the fact that Ittai the Gittite, 
with his six hundred followers, was a tiTisty friend of David 
(2 Sam. 15-: 18-22); and also the usage of some modem sov- 
ereigns of Euro^De, the pope, for example, with his Swiss guard. 
Others understand the two words Cherethites and Pelethites as 
terms of office, and render them executioners and couriers. 

The recorder (Heb., mazkir, remembrancer, 2 Sam. 8 : 16 ; 
20:24; 1 Kings 4:3; 2 Kings 18:18, 37; etc.) had charge of 
the public records of the kingdom. He was not, however, a sim- 
ple annalist. His office seems to have included not only the 
record of passing transactions, but the collection, for the mon- 
arch's use, of accurate information concerning the affairs of his 
kingdom. How high a position he occupied at the court is man- 
ifest from the fact that the recorder was one of the three officials 
sent by Hezekiah to confer with Rab-shakeh, the commander of 
the Assyrian armies, the other two being the scribe and the man 
who was over the royal household (2 Kings 18 : 18, 37 ; Isa. 36 : 3, 
22) : also one of the three appointed by Josiah to repair the 
temple (2 Chron. 34:8). 

The scribe, also another high officer (2 Sam. 8:17; 20:25; 
2 Kings 18 : 18, 37 ; 22 : 3 ; etc.), was the state secretary. As 
such, he is to be distinguished from the inferior scribes often 
mentioned elsewhere, who were ready writers employed in civil, 
militaiy, and sacred service (2 Kings 25 : 19 ; 1 Chron. 24 : 6 ; 
Ezra 7:6; etc.). Two scribes are mentioned as associated under 
Solomon. 1 Kings 4:3. 

Under David and Solomon was an officer who was over the 
service (Heb., mas, rendered in our version sometimes levy^ but 
generally tribute). The service consisted of a levij of men to be 
employed upon the public works. Of these Solomon had thirty 
thousand, over whom he set Adoniram, or Adoram, as he is 
elsewhere called. 2 Sam. 20 : 24 ; 1 Kings 4:6; 5 : 13, 14. 

21* 



490 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

The Hebrew term mas is very seldom employed to denote a tribute of 
money. The most certain example of this usage occurs in one of the latest 
books. Esther 10 : 1. It almost always denotes tribute-service, and con- 
cretely a service, that is, a body of men levied to do service. 

We come next to a more interior class of courtiers. Here 
belong the kings counsellor, and the Icing's companion or friend. 
(2 Sam. 15 :12, 37; 16:16, 17,; 1 Chron. 27 :32, 33. The dis- 
tinction between these two seems to be that the counsellor's 
office was more public and official ; that of the fiiend more per- 
sonal and private. 

Mention is made of another class of courtiers, called in our version 
chief rulers (Heb., cohen, priest), who held an intimate relation to the mon- 
arch. 2 Sam. 8 : 18 ; 20 : 26 ; 1 Kings 4 : 5, That these were not priests 
in any proper sense of the word is manifest. They were neither descend- 
ants from Aaron nor Levites. That David, who so scrupulously regarded 
the Mosaic institutions, should have bestowed upon his own sons (2 Sam. 
8 : 18) or any not pertaining to the house of Aaron priestly functions is not 
to be admitted for a moment. We have in two passages a clue to the right 
meaning of the word in this connection. In the list of Solomon's officers 
(1 Kings 4 : 2-6) Zebud, son of Nathan, "was priest and companion of the 
king." Again, the author of the books of Chronicles, in giving the list of 
David's officers (1 Chron. 18 : 15-17), substitutes for the words, " The sons 
of David were priests " (2 Sam. 8 : 18), " the sons of David were chief men 
at the king's hand." This is a true gloss, and gives the nature of their 
office. They were employed about his person as trusty friends to execute 
his orders. 

There remains a class of officers belonging not to the king- 
dom at large, but to the Mng's liousehold. Here belongs the man 
who was over the house (1 Kings 4 : 6 ; 2 Kings 19 : 2 ; etc.), an offi- 
cer wlio first appears in the reign of Solomon, and whose duties 
corresponded generally to those of the chamberlain of the house- 
hold in European courts. Then there were twelve officers "who 
provided victuals for the king's household : each man his month 
in a year made provision." They had their separate districts, 
by which means the burden was distributed throughout the 
whole kingdom. See 1 Kings, 4 : 7-19. There were also special 
officers, who had charge of " the substance that was king Da- 
vid's" — his storehouses, husbandmen, vineyards, wine-cellars, 



THE KINGLY FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 491 

olive-trees, oil-cellars, sycamore-trees, herds, camels, and asses. 
See 1 Chron. 27 : 25-31. There were other inferior officers, as 
" the keeper of the wardrobe " (2 Kings 22 : 14), of whom it is 
not necessary to speak. 

8. The sources of the royal reveriue were, according to Jahn 
(Archaeology, § 234), the following : 

(1.) Presents given voluntarily. 1 Sam. 10 : 27 ; 16 : 20. 

(2.) The produce of the royal possessions mentioned above. 

(3.) A tribute exacted of the people, apparently in the shape 
of a tithe of their produce. 1 Sam. 8 : 15, 17. A part may have 
been in ready money. 

(4.) The spoils of conquered nations, at least a large share of 
them, and the tribute imposed on such nations. Thus Mesha 
king of Moab rendered to the king of Israel as a tribute "a 
hundred thousand lambs, and a hundred thousand rams with 
the wool." 2 Kings 3 : 4. See also 1 Kings 4 : 21. ^ 

(5.) The tribute imposed upon merchants who traded in the 
Hebrew territories. 1 Kings 10 : 15. 

9. The appointments of the royal household seem to have 
been, at the beginning, very simple. But there was a rapid 
increase towards the pomp and luxury of oriental courts, which 
culminated ia the reign of Solomon, who echpsed ah the neigh- 
boring monarchs in the splendor of his estabhshment ; unhappily 
also in the extent of his harem. See 1 Kings, chaps. 10 and 11. 
All this was contrary to both the letter and the spirit of that law 
in which he was commanded to read all the days of his life. 
Deut. 17 : 14-20. It was most corrupting in its influence, and it 
brought speedy disaster upon his kingdom. For the burden laid 
upon his subjects to support such a magnificent court, with its 
"seven hundred wives, princesses, and three nundred concu- 
bines," became, under the management of Jeroboam the son of 
Nebat, the occasion of its division, with all the sad train of evils 
that followed. 



4:92 • BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTEE XXIY. 

The Form of Government after the Captivity. 

1. The captivity of the ten tribes was completed about 721 
years before Christ. " The king of Assyria," as the sacred rec- 
ord informs us (2 Kings 17 : 6), " took Samaria, and carried Israel 
away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by 
the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." Afterwards 
•*the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cu- 
thah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, 
and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children 
of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities 
thereof" (jer. 24). These foreign colonists, whose descendants 
constituted the people afterwards called Samaritans, did not 
spread themselves over the whole of what once constituted the 
territory of the ten tribes. Their home was Samaria and its 
adjacent cities, where we afterwards find them, apparently in 
exclusive possession of the region from their first entrance into 
it. It is not certain, however, that the remaining parts of the 
kingdom of Israel were everywhere stripped of all their Hebrew 
inhabitants. We know that at the time of Hezekiah's passover, 
a few years before the end of Hoshea's reign, this was not the 
case ; for a multitude of people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, 
Issachar, and Zebulun, came to the feast at Jerusalem upon his 
invitation. 2 Chron., chap. 30. More than eighty years after- 
wards, when Josiah had cleansed Judah and Jerusalem of idols, 
it is added that his servants did the same "in the cities of Ma- 
nasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali" (2 Chron. 
34 : 6) ; words which clearly imply the presence of some, at least, 
of the Israehtish inhabitants. 

The extinction of the Jewish kingdom took place about 588 
years before Christ, the poor of the land being left to be hus- 
bandmen and vine-dressers. 2 Kings 25 : 12. Upon the con- 



GOVERNMENT AFTER THE CAPTIVITY 493 

quest of Babylon by Cyrus, the Jews were permitted to return to 
their own land after their seventy years' captivity. Many availed 
themselves of this privilege, but not all. A part of the Jews 
remained in the land of their captivity, while they steadfastly 
adhered to the rehgion and institutions of then forefathers, and 
acknowledged Jerusalem as the seat of supreme ecclesiastical 
authority. There is good reason to believe that, upon the resto- 
ration of Jerusalem, a remnant of the captives belonging to the 
ten tribes (to say nothing of those who had been left in Pales- 
tine) returned with the Jews, and became incorporated with 
them. Cyrus certainly did not throw any obstacles in their way, 
and the Jews must have received them with open arms, acknowl- 
edging them, as did Hezekiah long before (2 Chron. 30 : 6), as a 
part of the covenant people. 

The idea that the "ten tribes" are living as a body in some obscure 
region of the East, and are hereafter to be restored as such to the land of 
their fathers, does not appear to rest on a sure basis of scriptural evidence. 
The promise of the reunion of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel (Ezek. , 
chap. 37) Avas limited to "a remnant" of both (Isa. 6:13; 10:22). The 
first instalment, so to speak, of its fulfilment took place at the restoration 
under Cyrus. That some of the ten tribes became at this time incorpora- 
ted with the Jews, and kept their genealogy, we learn from the notice of 
*'one Anna, a j)roi3hetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser." 
Luke 2 : 36. What higher fulfilment awaits the promise hereafter God wiU 
make manifest in his own time. 

2. From the above historical sketch it is manifest that, upon 
the restoration of the Jewish commonwealth after the captivity, 
the distinction of tribes, though kept in the genealogical tables, 
became comparatively miimportant. Henceforth it was not so 
much the twelve tribes of Israel, as the people of the Jews, that 
were known in history. Of these the Galileans constituted a 
part, but not the Samaritans. In other respects the covenant 
people were reestablished under their old constitution and laws, 
only that they were required to acknowledge the supremacy of 
their Persian rulers. Syria remained under Persian rule till B. c. 
333, when Alexander the Great became master of it. At the 
beginning of this Persian period the temple was rebuilt at Jeru- 



494 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

salem, and about seventy years after its completion tlie walls of 
Jerusalem. Though the Jews were subjected to many annoyan- 
ces from the machinations of their neighbors the Samaritans, 
they had general peace and quiet with the free exercise of their 
rehgion. 

Under the Persian rule satraps had command of provinces, while the 
less districts, Uke Judaea, were administered by governors (Heb,, peha). 
This title is applied to the governors of the Jews (Ezra 5 : 14 ; 6:7), and 
also that of Tirshaiha (Ezra 2 : 63 ; Neh. 7 : 65, 70 ; 8 : 9 ; 10 : 1). What 
was the difference, if any, between these two titles is not known. 

3. Alexander bestowed eminent favor upon the Jews; but, 
upon the division of his empire, Palestine fell betv/een the two 
rival monarchies of Egj^t on the south and Syria on the north. 
The Jews suffered much from the contentions of these two king- 
doms, and they frequently changed masters, as the one or the 
other of them prevailed. The cruelties and outrages practised 
upon the Jews by the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes are well 
known. Aided by a party of apostate Jews, he sought to sup- 
press the Jewish religion, and substitute in its stead the rites of 
heathenism. This led to a protracted and bloody conflict, which 
finally resulted in the establishment of the independence of the 
Jews B. c. 143. Their rulers at the first bore the title of princes, 
but afterwards that of kings. The independence of the Jews 
was terminated B. c. 63 by Pompey, who captured Jerusalem 
and demolished its walls ; appointing Hyrcanus II. high priest 
and prince of the country, on condition that he should submit to 
the Romans and pay tribute, not assuming the diadem, nor 
attempting to enlarge his territories. " Thus," says Jahn (Heb. 
Commonwealth, § 109), " the Jews, who had been the allies of 
the Romans, were now reduced to a subordinate principality, 
and, in a short time, were compelled to pay more than ten thou- 
sand talents of tribute to their conquerors." It was the policy 
of the Romans to allow their dependencies the enjoyment of 
their ancient civil and religious institutions, so long as they ac- 
knowledged Roman authority and paid the revenue demanded 
of them. It is not necessary to enumerate all the changes which 



GOVEPvNMENT AFTER THE CAPTIVITY. 495 

the government of Judea underwent in its outward form under 
the sway of the Eomans. Suffice it to say that B. c. 37 Herod 
the Great, a prince of Idumaean descent, received from the Eo- 
man senate the grant of the kingdom of Judsea. After a series 
of conflicts with, his enemies in Palestine he captured Jerusalem, 
and thus established himself in his kingdom. Our Saviour was 
bom in the last year of his reign or near the close of the prece- 
ding year. Among the last acts of his hfe was the slaughter of 
the children at Bethlehem. Matt. 2 : 16. 

Upon the death of Herod the Great, the emperor Augustus 
refused to confer upon his son Archelaus the kingly dignity; 
but gave him Judaea, Idumeea, and Samaria, with the title of 
ethnai'ch, while his brother Antipas was made tetrarch of Galilee 
and Pergea, and Philip, another brother, tetrarch of Trachonitis 
and the adjacent region. 

The term ethnarcli signifies prefect or ruler, and is variously used. The 
term tetrarch originally signified the ruler of the fourth part of a district or 
province ; but was used loosely of a tributary prince inferior in dignity to 
a king. 

4. We come now to the last form which the government of 
Judaea took under the Romans. In the year 12 of the Christian 
era Augustus united Judaea and Samaria to Syria, and constitu- 
ted the whole into an imperial province. There were two classes 
of Eoman provmces, imperial and senatorial. The magistrates of 
the senatorial provinces were appointed annually by the senate ; 
but those of the imperial provinces held theh office at the will of 
the emperor. . The chief magistrates of the imperial provinces 
had the title of presidents, ^vhile the revenues were managed by 
'procurators appointed by the emperor. " Sometimes a procura- 
tor discharged the office of a governor, especially in a smaller 
province, where the governor could not be present ; as Pontius 
Pilate did, who was procurator or prcepositiis (Suet. Yesp. 4) of 
Judaea, which was annexed to the province of Syria (Tacitus, 
Annals, 12. 23j. Hence he had the power of punishing capitally 
(ibid., 15. 44), which the procurators did not usually possess 
(ibid., .4. 15)." Adam's Roman Antiquities, imder the head of 



4:96 BIBLICAL AIsTIQUITIES. 

Provincial Magistrates. The Jews had now lost the power of 
inflicting capital punishment, as appears prominently in our 
Lord's trial. 

5. The rise of the various Jewish sects noticed in the gospel 
history a\ ill be considered hereafter. But one Jewish tribunal 
arose after the captivity of transcendent influence, and which 
was so far civil in its character that it may be appropriately 
noticed in the present connection. This was the great Sanhedrim. 
The Talmud traces the origin of this august body to the seventy 
elders whom Moses, at God's direction, associated with himseK 
in "the government of the people. Numb. 11 : 16, 17. We may 
well believe that this primitive body of elders gave the idea of 
the later Jewish . council ; but that it was perpetuated through 
all the intervening ages is a baseless hypothesis. The first ex- 
press notice of the sanhedrim which we have in Josephus is about 
47 B. c, when that body summoned Herod, then a young man 
and governor of Galilee, to answer for the arbitrary manner in 
which he had exercised the power of life and death. Antiq., 
14. 9. 4. But it was certainly then an ancient institution. It 
appears in the second book of Maccabees under the title of the 
senate (1:10; 4:44; 11:27) in the days of the Syrian kings in 
the first half of the second century before Christ. 

The term sanliedrim, or more accurately sanhedrin, is formed from the 
Greek [avvedpLov, session), and this indicates that the body had its origin 
in the period of Grecian rule. Besides the term session (in our version 
council, Matt. 26 : 59 ; Mark 14 : 55 ; John 11 : 47 ; etc. ) it is called presby- 
tery (in our version, estate of the elders, Luke 22 : 66 ; Acts 22 : 5) ; and once, 
as a parallel term, senate (Acts 5 : 21). 

If, as there is reason to suppose, the idea of the sanhedrim 
was taken from the council of seventy elders that assisted Moses 
in the wilderness (Numb., chap. 11), we may assent to the Rab- 
binic statement that it consisted of seventy-one members, an- 
swering to the seventy elders in the wilderness, with the addition 
of Moses as their head (not seventy-two, as some have supposed ; 
for Eldad and Medad, who remained in the camp and prophe- 
sied there, " were of them that were written," that is, plainly, of 



GOVERNMENT AFTEii THE CAPTIVITY. 497 

the number of the seventy, ver. 26). From the New Testament, 
which is our only rehable source of information, we gather that 
this tribunal was composed of chief priests, elders^ and scribes. 
Matt. 26 : 57, 59 ; Mark 15 : 1 ; Luke 22 : m. The chief priests 
were apparently the heads of the twenty-four courses of priests 
(1 Chron., chap. 24), together with the high priest and those 
who, in these times of frequent and irregular changes, had borne 
the office of high priest. The elders were probably men of 
experience and influence selected from among the heads of the 
Jewish f amHies ; and the scribes were men chosen into the body 
for their learning in the law of Moses. The sanhedrim had a 
president, called head or jyi^ince, who was, as a rule, the high priest ; 
a vice-president, called father of the house of judgment ; and officers 
who executed its commands. Matt. 26 : 47 ; Mark 14 : 43 ; Luke 

22 : 63 ; John 7 : 32 ; 18 : 3, 22 ; Acts 4 : 1, seq. ; etc. It contained 
members of the sect of Sadducees as well as of Pharisees. Acts 

23 : 6, seq. Its sessions were held in a hall at or near the tem- 
ple ; but in emergencies, as when the Saviour was arraigned 
before it, at the high priest's palace. The sanhedrim was the 
supreme judicial tribunal of the land. To it belonged the decis- 
ion of all questions pertaining to rehgion ; as for example, the 
trial and condemnation of false prophets and teachers, and men 
guilty of blasphem}^ On this ground Jesus, and afterwards his 
apostles, were arraigned before it. It had the power of life and 
death until this prerogative was taken away by the Romans, 
according to the rabbins some forty years before the destruction 
of Jerusalem ; at all events, before our Lord's trial. John 18 : 31. 
There then remained the right of arrest and trial not only in 
Palestine, but, as it appears fi'om Acts 9 : 2, beyond its hmits. 
This must, however, have been with the consent or connivance 
of the Roman authorities; for the sanhedrim could not compel 
Paul to appear before its tribunal in Jerusalem without leave 
obtained from the Roman governor. Acts 25 : 9-12. 



4:98 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTEE XXY. 

The Administration of Justice. 

1. "We liave seen tlie provision made for judges in the wilder- 
ness of Arabia, and afterwards in the land of Canaan (Chap. 22, 
No. 8), which latter remained in force, with but shght modifica- 
tions, till the Babylonish captivity. Upon the reorganization of 
the commonwealth under Ezra, he was authorized by a royal 
edict to set magistrates and judges over the people according to 
the law of his God (Ezra 7 : 25, 26), that is, according to the 
Mosaic constitution. Thus the ancient system of judges was 
restored, as far as the altered circumstances of the people per- 
mitted. We have seen also how, under the Grecian rule, the 
supreme tribunal of the nation, called the great sanhedrim, arose. 
Chap. 24, No. 5. It remains to consider the processes by which 
justice was administered, and the penalties inflicted upon viola- 
tors of the law. 

I. PEOCESSES OF JUSTICE. 

2. For the judges, as well as for the priests and magistrates, 
the Mosaic law was the supreme rule. In the twenty-first, twen- 
ty-second, and twenty-third chapters of the book of Exodus is a 
summary code of civil laws, and various additional statutes are 
scattered through the remaining books of the pentateuch. It is 
not to be supposed, however, that these specific precepts could 
cover all the particular cases that would arise in the intercourse 
of life. They embodied rather the spirit of the Mosaic law, and 
those great principles of justice by which the judges were to be 
governed in their decisions. Moses solemnly admonished the 
judges whom he appointed that they acted in God's stead, and 
were bound to give their decisions without respecting men's per- 
sons, fearing men's power, or taking gifts to pervert judgment . 



THE ADMINISTEATION OF JUSTICE. 499 

" Hear the causes between your brethren, and judge righteously 
between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with 
him. Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall 
hear the small as well as the great ; ye shall not be afraid of the 
face of man ; for the judgment is God's : and the cause that is 
too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it " (Deut. 
1:16, 17); "Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not 
respect persons, neither taiie a gift ; for a gift doth blind the eyes 
of the wise, and pervert the cause " (marginal rendering matters) 
" of the righteous" (Deut. 16 : 19). 

False prophets and idolaters were to be j)unished with death. Deut. , 
chap. 13. In the case of individuals this penalty would naturally be in- 
flicted (before the institution of the Sanhedrim) by the ordinary magistrates 
after due investigation. In the case of a city that had apostatized from the 
service of God to idolatry, the inhabitants with their cattle were to be 
slain, and all the spoil burnt with fire — a punishment which could only be 
inflicted by the people in their collective capacity under the guidance of 
their rulers. Compare the action of ''all the children of Israel" under the 
direction of "the chief of all the people," in the case of the Benjamite 
who protected the children of Belial in Gibeah. Judg. , chap. 20, seq. 

3. The ordinary 'places of trial in ancient times were the gates 
of the cities. " They were adapted to this purpose, inasmuch as 
they were public, and were used not only for entering and de- 
parting, but for fairs, places of business, and to accommodate 
those who were assembled merely to pass away the time." Jalin, 
Archaeology, § 247. 

The allusions in the Old Testament to the gates of cities as places of 
common resort and publicity are almost innumerable. It is there that Boaz 
redeems Elimelech's estate, and with it receives Ruth as his wife (Ruth, 
chap. 4) ; there EU sits to hear tidings from the ark of God (1 Sam. 4 : 13) ; 
there the two kings of Israel and Judah hold their council respecting the 
expedition to Ramoth-gilead (1 King 22 : 10) ; there wisdom is represented 
as lifting up her voice and crying to the children of men (Prov. 8:3); there 
the wise counsellor speaks (Job 29 : 7, seq. ; Prov. 24 : 7) ; and there the 
upright judge rebukes iniquity and establishes judgment (Amos 5 : 10, 15). 
To be crushed, oppressed, or turned aside in the gate (Job 5:4; Prov. 
22 : 22 ; Amos 5 : 12), is to be overthrown there by an unrighteous judg- 
ment. Other places of judgment were chosen according to convenience. 



500 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Moses, for example, decided causes at tlie door of tlie tabernacle in the 
wilderness ; Deborah under a palm-tree, where the children of Israel came 
to her for judgment ( Judg. 4:5); and the kings in their palaces (2 Sam. 
14 : 4 ; 1 Kings 3 : 16 ; 7:7). The publicity of the process in all these pla- 
ces is worthy of notice. 

From some incidental notices of Scripture (2 Sam. 15 : 2 ; Psa. 101 : 8 ; 
Jer. 21 : 12) it has been inferred that judges ordinarily held their sessions in 
the morning. In a warm climate, like that of Palestine, such a custom would 
be natural and convenient. It is doubtful, however, whether the last two 
of the above passages express anything more than the promptness and zeal 
which a righteous judge exercises in the discharge of his duty ; and as for 
Absalom he would begin his labors early that he might win to himself the 
greater number. 

4. In accordance with oriental usage, the process of trial was 
simple and summary. In civil cases the plaintiffs brought their 
complaints personally before the judges, and it was the right of 
the accused to be present and answer for themselves. Exod. 
22 : 9 ; Deut. 25 : 1 ; 1 Kings 3 : 16, seq. In both, civil and crim- 
inal causes, the examination of witnesses and the sifting of their 
testimony was the most essential part of the proceeding. In 
cases of life and death, two or three witnesses were required : 
" Whoso killetli any person, the murderer shall be put to deatli 
by the mouth of witnesses; but one witness shall not testify 
against any person to cause him to die " (Numb. 35 : 30) ; "at the 
mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is wor- 
thy of death be put to death ; but at the mouth of one witness 
he shall not be put to death" (Deut. 17 : 6). Another precept of 
the law (Deut. 19 : 15) is more general in its provisions : " One 
witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for 
any sin, in any sin that he sinneth; at the mouth of two wit- 
nesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be 
established." A false witness, after due conviction, received in 
his own person the penalty which he had sought to bring upon 
his neighbor. Deut. 19 : 16-21. When the circumstances per- 
mitted, the accused might bring other proof of his innocence ; 
the torn body, for example, of his neighbor's beast that had 
been intrusted to his care. Exod. 22 :.13 ; see also Deut. 22 : 15, 
seq. "ViTiere no testimony was available, the oath of the accused 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 501 

was accepted in proof of his innocence. Exod. 22 : 10, 11. The 
whole process was oral, and there is no decisive proof that advo- 
cates were employed by either the accuser or the accused. 

There is a passage in Leviticus (chap. 5:1) which may be thus literally 
rendered : "And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of adjuration, and he is 
a witness, or has seen or known ; if he shall not declare, then he shaU bear 
his iniquity." The meaning of these words seems to be this :. If a soul 
shall sin by withholding his testimony when he hears the voice of adjura- 
tion, in a case where he is a witness, as one who has either seen or other- 
wise kno^Ti the matter in question ; then he shaU bear his iniquity. In 
what sense, now, does he hear the voice of adjuration ? According to 
MichaeUs (Laws of Moses, 6. ^ 299) and others, it is in the sense of hearing 
the voice of the judge who administers to him the oath ; whence they in- 
fer that the usual custom was to put witnesses upon their oath. But Keil 
(Commentary on Lev. 5 : 1) and others understand by " the voice of adju- 
ration" a solemn adjuration on the part of the judge addressed to the mul- 
titude, by which all present, who have knowledge of the matter, should feel 
themselves called upon to come forward as witnesses. Whichever interpre- 
tation be adopted, the passage in Proverbs (chap. 29 : 24, " The partner of 
a thief hateth his own soul ; he heareth adjuration, and doth not declare 
it ") must be explained in a corresponding way. 

The sanhedrim employed scribes, and made use of writing. See on 
this point Saalschiitz, Mosaic Law, chap. 87, note. As to the use of wri- 
ting in the judicial processes of the earHer times, the same writer remarks 
that the notices that appear in the biblical books (Isa. 10 : 1 ; Job 13 : 26 ; 
31 : 35) are obscui*e and isolated. The connection of the passage in Isaiah 
seems to show that it includes written judicial decrees as customary in the 
prophet's time. The two passages in Job certainly refer to written accu- 
sations, though not necessarily those of Hebrew courts ; for the writer may 
have had in mind the Egyptian processes of law, where, as is well known, 
■vvi'iting was employed on the side of both the accuser and the accused. See 
Diodorus Siculus, 1. 75. 

5. After due examination the sentence was pronounced and 
carried into execution without delay. The statement of Jahn 
(Archaeology, § 246), that " according to the Talmudists (Sanhe- 
drim, 4) it was not lawful to try causes of a capital nature in the 
night, and it was equally unlawful to examine a cause, pass sen- 
tence, and put it in execution the same day," and that "the last 
particular was very strenuously insisted on," must be restricted 
to the later usage as determined by the sanhedrim. It does not 



502 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

appear from the Old Testament that there was more delay in 
capital cases,, than in those of fine and corporal punishment. 
When Achan had been found guilty, the sentence of death was 
immediately executed upon him. Josh., chap. 7. By the same 
summary process was the blasphemer put to death (Lev. 24 : 10, 
seq.), and the Sabbath-breaker (Numb. 15 : 32, seq.). Although 
the judgment, in these cases, proceeded immediately from Jeho- 
vah, it does not appear that in respect to the promptness of exe- 
cuting it there was any departure from the custom of the times. 
In the case of corporal punishment, the judge was to see the 
sentence carried into execution " before his face." Deut. 25 : 2. 



II. HEBKEW PENALTIES. ■ 

6. The constitution of the Hebrew commonwealth being 
ordered throughout by God in the interest of religion — being, in 
truth, a state that embodied in itself organically all the institutions 
of religion; or, if one choose to say so, God's church put into 
the form of a state — its magistrates and judges took cognizance 
alike of offences against rehgion, against morality, and against 
social order. The gradations of punishment were determined 
partly from the nature of the offence, whether committed imme- 
diately against God in its outward form, or more directly against 
man ; partly from the spirit manifested by the offender. Thus 
idolatry, witchcraft, and blasphemy, murder, man-stealing, adul- 
tery, bestiality, and some forms of incest, were punished with 
death; but not simple injuries done to the person, estate, or 
character of a neighbor. Then, again, sins of ignorance or 
neglect might be expiated by a sin-offering or a trespass-offer- 
ing (Lev., chap. 4, seq.), but the presumptuous transgressor was 
to die without mercy (Deut. 17 : 12). 

7. Imprisonment, as a form of penalty to be inflicted upon 
convicted criminals, was not in use among the ancients. The 
accused were sometimes kept in ward till their case could be 
examined and adjudged (Lev. 24 : 12), and there were of course 
among them prisoners of state (2 Kings 24 : 12 ; 2 Chron. 33 : 11 ; 



THE ADMINISTEATION OF JUSTICE. 503 

Jer. 32 : 2) ; but a criminal was never sentenced npon conviction 
to imprisonment as a specific form of punishment. 

Prisoners were not unfrequently confined in empty cisterns. Such was 
the dungeon into which Jeremiah was tliro^vn, and from which he was de- 
livered by the intercession and kind offices of Ebed-melech. Jer. , chap. 
38. Prisoners were often confined with chains, or their feet were put in 
the stocks. Jeremiah was subjected to both of these indignities. Jer. 
20 : 2 ; 40 : 4. 

8. In enumerating the penalties prescribed by the Mosaic 
law, we begin with fines in their various forms. The man who 
had defamed his newly married wife was to be chastised and 
also to pay to her father, upon conviction, a hundred shekels of 
silver. Deut. 22 : 19. If an ox, previously known to be vicious, 
gored a free man or woman, the penalty was death ; but instead 
of this a fine might be accepted, the amount being determined 
by the judges. If the person gored was a servant, a fine of 
thirty shekels was to be paid. Exod. 21 : 28-32. For other 
cases see Exod. 21 : 22, 33, 34; Deut. 22 : 28, 29. 

Under the head of fines we may properly consider the cases 
in which compensation in land was required. If, for example, a 
man had stolen an ox or sheep, and killed or sold it, he was to 
restore five oxen for an ox, and four sheep for a sheep. If the 
animal were found in his hand, he was required to restore dou- 
ble. If he had allowed his beast to feed in another man's field 
or vineyard, of the best of his own field or vineyard was he to 
make restitution, etc. See Exod. 22 : 1, seq. ; 21 : 35, 36. 

9. Corporal punishment is prescribed under two distinct forms. 
The first is that of strijjcs, to be inflicted, apparently, at the dis- 
cretion of the magistrate, within a prescribed limit. "If there 
be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, 
that the judges may judge them ; then they shall justify the right- 
eous, and condemn the wicked. And it shall be, if the wicked 
man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to 
lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, 
by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give him, and not 
exceed : lest if he should exceed, and beat him above these with 



504 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee." 
Deut. 25 : 1-3. The judge may order more or less stripes, " ac- 
cording to his fault," but the number is not to exceed forty. As 
a safeguard against exceeding this limit, the Jews were accus- 
tomed to inflict in extreme cases " forty stripes save one." 2 Cor. 
11 : 24. Only a few cases are specified in which scourging was 
to be inflicted (Lev. 19 : 20 ; Deut. 22 : 18) ; but there is no rea- 
son to doubt that this form of punishment was employed in 
many other cases, at the discretion of the judge. This indeed is 
imphed in the general precept above given. 

The instrument of pnnislinient is not mentioned. According to the 
Habbins it was a whip made of leather. In New Testament times this was 
in common use (Matt. 10 : 17 ; 23 : 34 ; Acts 5 : 40) ; but in earlier ages it 
may have been the rod so often mentioned as the common instrument of 
punishment (Exod. 21 : 20 ; Prov. 10 : 13 ; etc.). The scourge of scorpions 
(1 Kings 12 : 11, 14) is supposed to have been a scourge armed with knots 
and sharp points, or a rod beset with thorns. 

The second form of corporal infliction is that of retaliation. 
The cases in which this is allowed are thus stated : " If a man 
cause a blemish in his neighbor, as he hath done, so shall it be 
done unto him: breach" (fracture of a limb) "for breach, eye 
for eye, tooth for tooth : as he hath caused a blemish in a man, 
so shall it be done to him again." Lev. 24 : 19, 20. In the case 
of a false witness, the judges are commanded to do to him as 
he had thought to have done unto his brother : " Thine eye shall 
not pity ; but life shall go for Hfe, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, 
hand for hand, foot for foot." Deut. 19 : 16-21. The same rule 
is prescribed in the special case of injury done to a woman with 
child, if it proceed farther than to cause " that her fruit depart 
from her." Exod. 21 : 22-25. It was only in the case of free 
persons that retaliation in kind was allowed. If a man smote 
out the eye or tooth of a servant, the prescribed penalty war 
that he should let him go free. Exod. 21 : 26, 27. The law ot 
retaliation was allowed only in certain specified cases of wilful 
injury^ where it would have a salutary influence in restraining 
the violence of the strong and passionate. It does not appear 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 505 

to have been made absolutely binding except in the single case 
of "life for life." In other cases the injured party might, if he 
thought proper, accept satisfaction in the form of a sum of 
money. In this way the law seems to have become mainly obso- 
lete in practice. 

The notion that the law of retaliation sanctioned aU kinds of private 
revenge (Matt. 5 : 38, seq. ) was a gross perversion of its form as well as its 
spirit. It was a rule for the magistrate alone. It prescribed what the in- 
jured party might claim from him, but which the higher spirit of the gos- 
pel would inchne him to remit, at least upon condition of reasonable pecu- 
niary compensation. 

10. The loss of freedom was prescribed as the penalty of theft, 
when the thief was unable to make restitution. Exod. 22 : 3. 
This case is to be distinguished from that of the Hebrew who, 
according to the usage of the age, was sold, or was compelled to 
deliver up his children as servants, to satisfy the claims of his 
creditors. Lev. 25 : 39 ; Deut. 15 : 12 ; 2 Kings 4:1; Isa. 50 : 1. 
The latter was, or might be, a case of simple misfortune. The 
former was one of crime, for which the penalty was loss of liberty. 

11. Two cases have already been noticed in which the j^f^tialty 
of death was prescribed ; that of murder, in which the law was 
" life for hfe," and that of the false witness who sought the life 
of his neighbor. Divine revelation guards with solemn severity 
the sanctity of human Hfe. The words of God addressed to 
Noah, and through him to aU nations, were : '•' At the hand of 
every man's brother will I require the hfe of man. Whoso shed- 
deth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed : for in the 
image of God made he man" (Gen. 9 : 5, 6) — words which cannot 
be diluted down to a mere prophecy, but which manifestly con- 
tain a divine precept, and that on ground vaHd for all time. In 
accordance with the spirit of these words is the Mosaic com- 
mand : " Ye shaU take no satisfaction for the hfe of a murderer, 
who is guilty of death ; but he shall be surely put to death." And 
the reason assigned is that " blood defileth the land : and the land 
cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the 
blood of him that shed it." Numb. 85 : 31, 33. In the case of 

Geo;:, k Alltiq. ''2 



506 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

the unknown murderer, the guilt was first to be laid on the near- 
est of the cities adjacent to the spot where the slain man's body 
was found, and then to be expiated by a sacrifice, with which 
was joined a solemn protestation of innocence on the part of 
the elders. Deut. 21 : 1-9. It is a sign not of the advance of 
true Christian civihzation, but rather of the decay of a whole- 
some sense of justice, that' it is with us so difficult to convict the 
murderer, and so easy for him when convicted to escape the 
penalty of death. 

Other capital offences were the smiting or cursing of parents 
(Exod. 21 : 15, 17 ; Lev. 20 : 9) ; man-stealing (Exod. 21 : 16 ; 
Deut. 24 : 7) ; adultery, the indulgence of unnatural lust, and 
gross forms of incest (Lev. 20 : 10-21 ; etc.) ; idolatry, all forms 
of witchcraft, and the false assumption of the character of a 
prophet (Deut., chap. 13 ; etc.) ; Sabbath-breaking (Exod. 31 : 14, 
15 ; Numb. 15 : 32-36) ; and blasphemy (Lev. 24 : l6). A stub- 
born and rebellious son might be brought by his parents before 
the elders of his city, and if found guilty, put to death by sto- 
ning. Deut. 21 : 18-20. Insubordination to the magistrate was 
an offence against the state ; and, if persisted in, was punished 
with death as rebellion. 

12. The ordinary, if not the exclusive, /orm of capital pun- 
isliment for persons duly convicted of the above-named crimes by 
a regular civil process was stoning, as appears from numerous 
passages of the Old Testament. Lev. 20 : 2, 27 ; 24 : 14, 16, 23 ; 
Numb. 15 : 35 ; Deut. 13 : 10 ; 17 : 5 ; 21 : 21 ; 22 : 21, 24 ; etc. The 
witnesses were required to begin the work of execution. Deut. 
13 : 9 ; 17 : 7. Compare Acts 7 : 58. Executions by means of a 
sword or other military weapon were rather of a military charac- 
ter. Thus the children of Levi, at Moses' command, slew with 
the sword the idolaters at Sinai (Exod. 32 : 27-29) ; Phinehas the 
man who had brought a Moabitish woman into the camp, and 
the woman also (Numb. 25 : 7, 8) ; Samuel, Agag (1 Sam. 15 : 33) ; 
and Benaiah, at Solomon's command, Adonijah, Joab, arid Shimei 
(1 Kings, chap. 2). Thus, also, the individual man or woman 
convicted of idolatry was to be stoned ; but a city that had apos- 



THE ADMINISTKATION OF JUSTICE. 507 

tatized to idolatry was to be smitten with the edge of the sword. 
Deut. 13 : 6-18. 

In respect to the form of punishment, military men allowed themselves 
much freedom. David's treatment of the conquered Ammonites, for exam- 
ple, (2 Sam. 12 : 31), and Jehu's conduct in respect to Ahab's sons and the 
brethren of Ahaziah (2 Kings 10 : 1-14) are to be regarded as military, not 
regular judicial proceedings. 

13. Hanging or gibbeting appears never to have been a mode 
of execution among the Hebrews, but only an exposure of the 
body after death as accursed of God. " If," says Moses (Deut. 
21 : 22, 23), " a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and 
he be put to death " (not, as in our version, be to be put to death), 
" and thou hang him on a tree ; his body shall not remain aU night 
upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day (for 
he that is hanged is accursed of God) ; that thy land be not de- 
filed, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." 
The assumption that hanging was the mode of execution led our 
translators to render, after the Latin (et adjudicatus morti appen- 
susfiierit patibido) : and he be to be put to death. But the Hebrew 
says simply, and he be put to death. He is first put to death and 
then gibbeted till evening, precisely as Joshua proceeded in the 
case of the five Canaanitish kings (Josh. 10 : 26), and, as we infer 
by parity of reason, in that of the king of Ai (Josh. 8 : 29). So 
David first slew and mutilated the murderers of Ishbosheth, and 
then " hanged them up over the pool in Hebron." 2 Sam. 4 : 12. 
When Israel had joined himself to Baal-peor, God's direction to 
Moses was : " Take all the heads " (that is, chiefs) " of the people 
and hang them up to Jehovah before the sun." In pursuance of 
this command Moses said to the judges of Israel : " Slay ye every 
one his men that were joined imto Baal-peor." Numb. 25 : 4, 5. 
The most natural interpretation of the passage, taken in con- 
nection with the other instances of hanging, is that the men were 
first slain with the sword, and then gibbeted. As to the seven 
persons of Saul's family (2 Sam., chap. 21) who were delivered 
to the Gibeonites, the presumption is, as in the case of the king 
of Ai. that they were first slain and then hanged. But it is not 



508 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

necessary to determine this point, since the Gibeonites did not 
foUow the precept of the Mosaic law, which required that aU 
bodies that had been hanged should be taken down before sun- 
set. Hanging as a Persian punishment may weU haye been 
hanging ahve as a mode of execution. Ezra 6 : 11 : Esther 7 : 10. 

14. In the case of Achan's sin (Josh., chap. 7), the direction 
of God was : " He that is taken with the accursed thing shall be 
burned with fire, he and aU that he hath." Taken by themselves 
these words might be understood of burning alive, as a mode of 
execution. But the record shows us that Achan and all the liv- 
ing things pertaining to him were first stoned and afterwards 
burned with fire. Upon the same principle may we interpret the 
direction concerning the incestuous persons (Lev. 20 : 14), though 
some understand the words of the manner in which they were to 
be put to death. 

Strangulation is mentioned by the Eabbins (Sanhedrim, 7. 3) as a pun- 
ishment for various offences. But this is unknown to the law of Moses ; 
as is also their statement (Sanhedrim, 7. 2) that execution by burning was 
accompHshed by pouring melted lead down the culprit's throat. 

15. It remains to consider the oft-repeated threatening of 
excision : " I will set my face against that soul, and will cut him 
off from among his people;" "that soul shall be cut off from 
Israel;" "he shaU be cut off from his people;" "he shall bear 
his iniquity." That the penalty of excommunication is meant, 
according to the opinion of the later Jews, cannot be maintained, 
for in some cases (Exod. 31 : 14, 15 ; Lev., chaps. 18 and 20) there 
is added the penalty of death. According to Jahn (Archaeology, 
§ 258), when God is introduced as saying, in respect to any per- 
son, "I will set my face against that soul, and will cut him off 
from among his people" (Lev. 17:10; 20:3, 5; and compare 
1 Kings 14 : 10 ; 21 : 21 ; 2 Kings 9 : 8), the expression means 
death — and in this connection premature death — by the provi- 
dence of God ; but if the expression be, " He shall be cut off 
from his people" (Exod. 30 : 33 ; Lev. 7 : 20, 21, 25, 27 ; 17 : 4, 9 ; 
18 : 29 ; 19 : 8 ; etc.), the punishment of stoning is meant. It is 
difficult to maintain this distinction; for we find both forms of 



THE ADMINISTKATION OF JUSTICE. 509 

expression employed with respect to the same offence — the eat- 
ing of blood (Lev. 17 : 10 ; 7 : 27). According to Keil (Archaolo- 
gie, §153, note) and others, "we are to understand by the excis- 
ion which the law prescribes for various offences stoning, not 
only where the penalty of death is annexed; but also where the 
mention of it is omitted. On the expression, "I will cut him off 
from his people" (Lev. 20 : 2-6), he remarks that "it proves only 
this much, that God himself will cut off the transgressor, when 
the earthly magistrate wdnks at the crime of idolatry, and does 
not himseLt' cut off the idolater." This candid concession, to- 
gether with the difficulty of maintaining the distinction made by 
Jahn between the two forms, " I will cut him off from his peo- 
ple," and "He shall be cut off from his people," seems to indi- 
cate as most probable the interpretation proposed by Saalschiitz 
(Mosaic Law, chap. 60), that the threatened excision does not, 
in and of itself, lay upon the magistrate the duty of putting the 
offender to death ; and that in cases where it is expressly con- 
nected with the death-penalty, the meaning is, that if the offend- 
er should in any way escape punishment at the hand of the 
magistrate, a premature death shaU sooner or later follow at the 
hand of God. 

16. The infliction of the death-penalty belonged regularly to 
the magistrate ; but, in conformity with ancient usage, an excep- 
tion was allowed in the case of the murderer. He was to be 
slain by the avenger of hlood, that is, by the nearest relative of 
the murdered person. To guard against the abuse to which this 
custom was hable, Moses, by divine direction, appointed six cit- 
ies of refuge, three on either side of the Jordan, to which any man 
who had slain another might flee and be protected till a regular 
judicial inquiry could be instituted. If found guilty of wilful 
murder, he was to be dehvered up to the avenger of blood ; if 
acquitted, he was to remain in the city of refuge tiU the death 
of the high priest, when he was at liberty to return to his home. 
See, for the particular provisions. Numb., ch. 35 ; Deut. 19 : 4-13. 
We have ffire, as in the case of divorce, an ancient usage tolerated, 
and at the same time ameliorated by the provisions annexed to it. 



510 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

The cities on the west side of the Jordan were Kedesh in Gahlee, She- 
chem in Mount Ephraim, and Hebron in Judah. On the east side they were 
Golan in Bashan, Ramoth-gilead in the tribe of Gad, and Bezer in the tribe 
of Reuben. Josh. 20 : 7, 8. An inspection of the map shows how conve- 
niently they were distributed over the Israelitish territory. The direction 
in Deut. 19 : 3, '* Thou shalt prepare thee a way," means that plain and 
convenient roads should be kept open to these cities. A writer in Kitto 
(Art. , Cities of Refuge) states, on the authority of the Rabbins, that the main- 
tenance of these roads in good condition belonged to the Sanhedrim ; that 
at every turning there were posts erected bearing the words, Refuge, Refuge, 
to guide the unhappy man in his flight ; and that two students in the law 
were appointed to accompany him, that, if the avenger should overtake him 
before he reached the city, they might attempt to pacify him till the legal 
investigation could take place. 

III. PENALTIES OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 

17. Among tlie penalties inflicted by foreign nations we no- 
tice the following : 

Imprisonment, ^s of debtors, until they or their friends should 
satisfy their creditors. Matt. 5 : 25 ; Luke 12 : 58. John the 
Baptist was imprisoned by Herod as an expression of his dis- 
pleasure (Matt. 14 : 3) ; but most of the cases of imprisonment 
mentioned in the New Testament were with reference to a future 
trial (Acts 5 : 17-40 ; 12 : 4 ; etc.). So also Paul, during his two 
long imprisonments, first at Csesarsea and afterwards at Rome 
(Acts 24 : 27 ; 28 : 16, 30, 31), was waiting for a decision of his 
case. 

The Romans had a custom of fastening their prisoners, sometimes by 
one hand to a soldier (Acts 28 : 16), sometimes by both hands to a soldier 
on each side (Acts 12 : 6). In the latter case the confinement was close ; 
but in the former case a larger degree of liberty was allowed to the prisoner. 

Scourging was regarded by the Romans as an ignominious 
punishment, and its infliction upon Roman citizens was forbid- 
den by tlie Porcian law. Cicero pro Rabinio, c. 3. To this ex- 
emption there is reference in the history of the apostle. Acts 
16 : 37 ; 22 : 25. According to Adam (Roman Antiquities, Judi- 
cial Proceedings), whips were employed in the case of slaves; 
otherwise rods. Compare 2 Cor. 11 : 25. 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 511 

Decapitation was a common mode of execution among the 
Greeks and Komans, as well as other nations. So also were 
hanging and strangulation. See Adam, as above. 

Beating to death (2 Mace. 6 : 10, 19, 28, 30 ; Heb. 11 : 35, where 
our version uses the word torture) was a cruel Grecian punish- 
ment. Dichotomy or cutting in pieces was a mode of execution 
practised by the Chaldeans and some other nations. Dan. 2 : 5. 
-To this our Saviour refers Matt. 24 : 51 ; Luke 12 : 46. Burning 
alive and exposure to wild beasts are mentioned as Chaldean and 
Persian punishments. Jer. 29 : 22 ; Dan., chaps. 3, 6. They 
were also, as is well known, in use at Home under the emperors, 
and multitudes of Christians were thus destroyed. When crim- 
mals were burnt they were dressed in a tunic besmeared with 
pitch and other combustible matter. See Adam, as above. 

Crucifixion was a mode of execution common among the 
Eomans in the case of slaves. Eoman citizens were exempted 
from it, and it was inflicted upon free persons only when they 
wished to mark them with infamy. Scourging regularly prece- 
ded it ; but the other insults to which our Lord was subjected by 
the Eoman soldiers are to be put simply to the account of their 
brutahty. The cross consisted simply of a post intersected a 
little below the top by another piece at right angles with it. 
The criminal, having been scourged, was subjected to the further 
ignominy of bearing his own cross, at least so far as his strength 
allowed, to the place of execution, wliich was without the city. 
The cross was laid on our Lord in the first instance (John 
19 : 17), but afterwards one Simon, a Cyrenian, was compelled to 
bear it after hun. Matt. 27 : 32 ; Mark 15 : 21 ; Luke 23 : 26. 
Unless we bear in mmd this custom of compelling the condemned 
man to bear on his own shoulder the instrument of his death, we 
shall fail to apprehend the full meaning of our Saviour's words, 
spoken in anticipation of the ignominious death appointed for 
him in the counsels of heaven : " He that taketh not his cross, 
and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." Matt. 10 : 38. He 
is to follow his Master to the place of execution with the cross 
on liis shoulder. Thousands have imitated their Lord hterally 



512 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

in this respect, and all true disciples do it in spirit. Arrived at 
the place of execution the victim was stripped of his garments 
and stretched upon the cross, his hands being nailed to the ex- 
tremities of the cross-piece and his feet to the upright part. The 
raiment of the sufferer fell to the four soldiers who carried into 
execution the sentence of crucifixion. John 19 : 23, 24, and the 
parallel passages. 

According to the ancient church fathers (Justin Martyr, Trypho, 91 ; 
Tertullian adv. Nat., 1. 12), there was a piece projecting from the middle 
of the upright part of the cross, on which the criminal sat. The design of 
this was to support the body, since otherwise its weight might have torn 
away the hands from the nails driven through them. It is probable that, 
as a rule, the cross was first erected and then the condemned man hfted up 
and fastened to it ; though he may, in some instances, have been sti*etched 
upon it as it lay on the ground, and then lifted up with it. Tying of the 
feet, and sometimes of the hands also, was a less usual mode of procedure. 
In our Lord's case both the hands and the feet were nailed. Luke 24 : 40 ; 
John 20 : 20, 25, 27. The modern representations of the cross exaggerate 
both its size and its height. The feet of the condemned man were proba- 
bly not more than three or four feet above the ground. Crucifixion must 
be distinguished from the no less barbarous punishment of Impaling, which 
we see represented on the Assyrian monuments. 

The crucified person suffered a fingering and very painful 
death, sometimes surviving till the third day, and even longer. 
Pilate marvelled that our Lord should have expired on the day 
of his crucifixion. Mark 15 : 44. It was customary with the 
Eomans to leave the body of the crucified person upon the cross 
indefinitely. But they allowed the bodies of Jewish malefactors 
to be taken down before sunset, in conformity with the Mosaic 
law. Deut. 21 : 22, 23. To this end they hastened their death 
by breaking their legs. John 19 : 31. The vinegar offered by 
the soldiers in mockery (Luke 23 : 36), and afterwards received 
by the Saviour in the agony of death (Matt. 27 : 48 ; Mark 15 : 36 ; 
John 19 : 29, 30) was a customary drink adapted to quench thirst. 
But the " wine mingled with myrrh " (Mark 15 : 23 ; Matt, 27 : 34, 
where the "vinegar mingled with gall" is the same preparation), 
whicli was offered to the Saviour just before his crucifixion, was 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 513 

a stupefying drink intended to deaden the sense of pain. Wlien 
our Lord had ascertained its nature by tasting it, he refused it, 
choosing to suffer with the faculties of his mind in full exercise. 
By the thrust of the soldier's spear his real death was certified 
beyond the possibihty of doubt. John 19 : 34-36. 

Thus did the Father expose his beloved Son to ignominy and 
death on the accursed tree for our redemption, as it is written : 
" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made 
a curse for us." Gal. 3 : 13. In contemplating the painful scene 
of the crucifixion let us remember that the Saviour, now at the 
right hand of glory, asks not our sympathy, but our humble 
acceptance of the great salvation which he purchased for us by 
his own blood on Calvary. 



22* 



514 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



• CHAPTEE XXYI. 

Military Affairs. 

I. THE LEVYING OF TROOPS. 

1. Two enrolments were made in the wilderness, of all the 
males " from twenty years old and upwards " (Numb., chaps. 1, 26); 
and these, after the necessary deduction for the aged and infirm, 
constituted the men of war. After their forty years' training in 
the wilderness, the Israelites entered the land of Canaan a nation 
of soldiers. This fact appears very conspicuously in the transaction 
recorded in the thirty-second chapter of the book of Numbers. 
The tribes of E-euben and Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, 
received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, on con- 
dition that aU the men of war should pass over with their breth- 
ren and help them subdue the land. " Our little ones, our wives, 
our flocks and all our cattle," said they to Moses (vers. 26, 27), 
"shall be there in the cities of Gilead. But thy servants will 
pass over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to battle, 
as my lord saith." The whole body of able-bodied warriors was 
to take part with their brethren in the conquest of Canaan, and 
thus they were to stand on the same footing as the other nine 
and a half tribes. 

2. We learn from the book of Judges that before the time of the 
kings, when foreign enemies were to be repelled, the people were 
lemed in a mass, but not generally from all the tribes. Only those 
were summoned who lived in the vicinity of the scene of conflict. 
Thus Ehud " blew a trumpet m the mountain of Ephraim, and 
the children of Israel went down with him from the mount, and 
he before them " (chap. 3 : 27) ; Barak took with him ten thousand 
men of NaphtaU and Zebulon to meet Sisera (chap. 4:5-10); 
Gideon blew a trumpet and assembled an army of thirty-two 



MILITARY AFFAIRS. 515 

thousand men from ManasseK and the northern tribes (chaps. 6 : 
34, 35 ; 7 : 3) ; and Jephthah assembled against the Ammonites an 
army mainly from the region east of the Jordan (chap. 11, seq.). 
Upon Saul's accession to the kingdom, there was a general sum- 
moning of all the men of war throughout all the coasts of Israel 
— 330,000 in number — to rescue the men of Jabesh-gilead 
(1 Sam., chap. 11). These hasty levyings of the people were for 
brief expeditions. No regular provision appears to have been 
made for any standing army. The warriors assembled on the 
spur of the moment, fought without wages, accomplished their 
work, and then returned to their homes. 

A very remarkable provision of the Mosaic law is recorded in tlie book 
of Deuteronomy (chap. 20:1-9). When the Hebrews were about to en- 
gage in battle, it was the duty of the priest to exliort the soldiers to cour- 
age and confidence in God. The officers were then to make proclamation 
of exemption from the war to every man who had built a new house and 
Qot dedicated it, or planted a vineyard and not eaten the fruit of it, or be- 
trothed a wife and not taken her ; and finally they were to say : "What 
man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? let him go and return unto 
his house, lest his brethren's heart faint as well as his heart." 

3. But upon the estabhshment of a monarchical form of gov- 
ernment, a standing army, with some regular provision for its 
maintenance, became a necessity. It is manifest from the his- 
tory of Saul that he had troops in constant attendance upon 
him, and so had all the kings after him; though we have no 
definite information as to the manner of their selection. In 
special emergencies there was, under the kings, in addition to 
the regular army, a general levying of the men of war. Thus 
Behoboam assembled from the tribes of Judali and Benjamin 
an army of 180,000 men, with the intention of fighting against 
Jeroboam (1 Ejngs 12 : 21) ; Abijah, king of Judah, with an army of 
400,000 men, met Jeroboam, king of Israel, who had at his com- 
mand double that number (2 Chron. 13:3); and Asa had an army 
of 580,000 men (2 Chron. 14 : 8). 

Of the paid troops m the regular armies of the Greeks, 
Romans, and other foreign nations, we do not propose to speak. 



516 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

II. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ARMY. 

4. The mountainous character of Palestine was not suitable 
to the employment of cavalry, or of war chariots. These were 
both common in Egypt (Exod. 14 : 9, 23, 25, 28), and the Israelites 
encountered war-chariots very early after their entrance into the 
land of Canaan (Josh. 17 : 16, 18 ; Judg. 1 : 19 ; etc.) ; but they never 
employed them or mounted warriors before the time of the kings. 
Samuel forewarned the people that their king would have char- 
iots and horsemen, and some to run before his chariots (1 Sam. 
8 : 11, 12). Solomon and the monarchs after him had chariots and 
horsemen. 1 Kings 10 : 26 ; 16 : 9 ; 2 Kings 10 : 16 ; Isa. 2:7; etc. 
The kings and their chief captains rode in chariots, with a retinue 
of horsemen, but the main strength of the Hebrew armies always 
lay in their foot-soldiers. These, as among other ancient nations, 
were divided into heavy-armed troops, who fought hand to hand 
with swords and spears, and light-armed troops, wdiose chief 
weapons were bows and slings. 

5. The division of the army into thousands and hundreds, with 
their captains, is frequently mentioned. 1 Sam. 8 : 12 ; 17 : 18 ; 18 : 
13 ; 22 : 7 ; 29 : 2 ; 1 Chron. 12 : 14. These corresponded very nearly 
to our modern regiments and companies. There was also a sub- 
division of the hundreds into fifties. 1 Sam. 8 : 12 ; 2 Kings 1 : 9, 
seq. Larger divisions of the army were made according to circum- 
stances. Thus, when Saul marched against the Ammonites, he 
divided his army into three parts (1 Sam. 11 : 11); so, also, David, 
when he fought against Absalom, keeping also a reserve with 
himself (2 Sam. 18 : 2). In his encounter with the Syrians and 
Ammonites, Joab made two divisions of his army, and placed 
them so that they could succor each other. 2 Sam. 10:9-14. 
Each division had its commander, and over the whole was a 
commander-in-chief. 

III. ARMS OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE. 

The chief iveapons of offence used by the heavy-armed soldiers^ 
were the sword, spear, and javelin. 

The form of the Egyptian and Assyrian sivords, as also of the 



MILITAEY AFFAIRS. 517 

Grecian and Koman, is well known to us from the ancient monu- 
ments and works of ai-t. The Egyptian swords were from two 
and a half to three feet in length, straight, and tapering to a 
sharp point. They appear to have been, as a rule, two-edged. 
They had also a falchion, of a curved form, and furnished with 
a single edge. This was used only for cutting, while the sword 
was a cut-and-thrust instrument. The Assyrian swords were 
both straight and curved. The swords of the Greeks and Eo- 
mans were, as a rule, short and straight, made for cutting and 
thrusting. The swords of the Hebrews seem to have been of 
the same general character. Thrusthig through with the sword 
is frequently mentioned in the Old Testament ; cutting or hew- 
ing with it but seldom. 

Ehud's sword (so the Hebrew reads, Judg, 3: 16, making no distinction 
between the sword and the dagger) was a cubit in length, straight and two- 
edged. It appears to have had the usual form of two-edged swords, but 
was, perhaps, shorter than the average. 

The sword, when not in use, was encased in a sheath, which, 
as well as the handle of the sword, was often elaborately orna- 
mented. The ancients generally carried the sword on the left 
side attached to a belt. The monuments represent Roman sol- 
diers wearing on the right side a short dagger-like sword. The 
Persian acinaces was also worn on the right side. 

The spear was a staff of wood, of varying length, armed with 
an iron blade. The Grecian spear, as used by Homer's warriors, 
served for both thrusting and throwing. That of Hector was 
eleven cubits in length. II., 6. 319. The Hebrew spear seems to 
have served, occasionally at least, the same double purpose. It 
was the spear which Saul ordinarily carried (1 Sam. 13 : 22 ; 26 : 
7, seq.; 2 Sam. 1 : 6) that he threw at David (1 Sam. 18 : 11 ; 19 : 10), 
and afterwards at Jonathan (1 Sam. 20 : 3). The translators seem 
to have chosen the rendering javelin in these last named passages, 
simply from the circumstance of its having been thrown, while 
they elsewhere render the same word spear. The hind end of 
the spear was armed with a sharp point, by means of which it 
could be ftuck in the ground. 1 Sam. 26:7. It Avas this that 



518 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Asaliel thrust tlirough the body of Abner as he followed him. 
2 Sam. 2:23. 

The true javelin or dart (Heb. Jcidhbn or sJielah) was a missile 
weapon of a lighter construction, and is distinguished from the 
spear. Thus Goliath of Gath had a spear like a weaver's beam, 
the blade of which weighed six hundred shekels of iron ; and, in 
addition to this, a javelin (Heb. kidhon), of brass, between his 
shoulders; that is, slung over his shoulders to be used as occa- 
sion might require. 

The mace or ivar-club was a staff armed with iron, used by the 
Assyrians, Egyptians, etc. It seems to be the instrument referred 
to by Jeremiah (Heb. mappets, rendered in our version, battle-axe, 
chap. 51 : 20). The true battle-axe, as represented on the Egyp- 
tian monuments, does not appear to have been in use among the 
Hebrews. 

7. The weapons of the light-armed troops were in part com- 
mon to them with the heavy-armed soldiers. According to Raw- 
linson (Herodotus, 9. 32, note), the Egyptian hght-armed in- 
fantry "were chiefly archers; who, besides their bows, had clubs, 
swords, or battle-axes, and occasionally a sort of flail (as in the 

middle ages) Some had hght javelins, which were also 

used by the chariot corps." The Roman light-armed troops 
(velites), besides their bows or shngs, carried each a cut-and- 
thrust sword and seven javehns with slender points like arrows, 
so that when thrown they bent, and could not easily be thrown 
back by the enemy (Adam, Roman Antiquities). But the dis- 
tinguishing weapons of the light-armed troops were hows and 
slings. Hence the divisions into archers and slingers. 

In the hands of the ancients the bow was a very formidable 
weapon. The bow of the foot-soldiers was five feet or more in 
length, with either a single or a double curvature. It was made 
of tough, elastic wood tipped with horn, sometimes of metal, or 
of the horns of animals. The bow of Pandarus (II., 4. 105, seq.) 
was made of the horns of a wild goat of sixteen palnls spread. 
The power of the bow was measured by the strength required 
to bend it. This operation was commonly performed by placing 




COAT OF MAIL. 



CATAPULT. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS. 519 

the foot upon one end of it, and pressing down the other end by 
the left hand and the weight of the body, while the string was 
passed into the notch with the right. Hence the common He- 
brew expression to tread the hoiv, for bending it, as our translators 
have uniformly rendered. The suitors of Penelope iried in vain 
to bend the bow of the mighty Ulysses, which he himself strung 
with ease (Od., Bk. 21). Such a bow in the hands of its owner 
was a ten-ible instrument of death, as we see in the case of Jehu, 
who sent an arrow quite through the body of the retreating king 
of Israel, so that it came out at his heart. 2 Kings 9 : 24. Each 
bowman was furnished with a quiver plentifully supphed with 
ajToivs, and often highly ornamented. The arrow^s were of wood 
or reed, tipped with a metallic head and furnished with feathers. 

The sling was in common use among the Hebrews, Egyptians, 
and Assyrians, as it was in later ages among the Greeks and 
Romans. It was very simple in its construction, consisting of a 
leathern strap with two strings. The stone, being placed m the 
strap, w^as whirled rapidly round, and then discharged by letting 
go one of the strmgs. Sometimes bullets of lead w^ere used in- 
stead of stones. By constant practice the slinger learned to 
throw with great precision, as we see in the case of David. The 
Benjamites had, in their war with the other tribes, " seven hun- 
dred chosen men left-handed ; every one could sling stones at a 
hair-breadth, and not miss. Judg. 20 : 16. 

8. The ivar-cJiariot of the ancients had always two wheels, 
and was drawn by two horses abreast. If there were three or 
four horses, they were in hke manner harnessed abreast. The 
frame of the Egyptian chariot was, according to Wilkinson, a 
nearly semi-circular wooden frame wdth straightened sides. It 
had a floor made of rope network, and was mounted fi'om behind, 
where it was open. The Assyrian chariot was not essentially 
different. Both the chariot and the trappings of the horses are 
ornamented according to the rank of the owner. The ordinary 
complement of a war-chariot is two persons, the warrior with 
tis bow and quiver, and sometimes his spear, also, attached to 
the side of the chariot ; and the charioteer, standing at his left 



520 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

side; but in some instances the king is represented alone, 
with the reins tied around his body, his arms being thus left at 
full liberty to wield his weapons. Sometimes, again, a third 
person appears standing behind the other two. He is appa- 
rently the third man (Heb., shalish, English version, captain), who 
waited on the warrior and executed his commands (2 Kings 
9:25). In the king's chariot of state, he carried, in times of 
peace, the royal umbrella ; in war, a shield to protect his master. 
The chariots of iron (Josh. 17 : 16, 18 ; Judg. 1:19; 4:3) were 
probably not chariots armed with scythes, which seem to have 
been unknown to the inhabitants of Asia in this early age (Xeno- 
phon, Cyropsedia, 6. 1. 30) ; but chariots bound with iron, or per- 
haps furnished with iron frames. 

The difficult passage (Exod. 14 : 7) , where, according to the common ren- 
dering, Pharaoh " too^ six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of 
Egypt, and captains (Heb. s}ial\shhn, iliird men) over every one of them," 
may, perhaps, be rendered with equal propriety: "third men on all of 
them," the meaning being that each chariot had, besides its warrior and 
charioteer, its attendant. 

9. Defensive armor was an essential part of the ancient w^ar- 
rior's equipment. The introduction of gunpowder has made this 
useless. Against artillery it can avail nothing, and the protection 
which it might furnish against musketry is more than counter- 
balanced by the loss of agility and speed. At the begmning of 
the present century, the heavy cavalry of some nations still 
wore defensive armor. But this has fallen more and more into 
disuse, and, with the present immensely increased efficiency of 
small arms, may be regarded as obsolete for all coming time. 
But against the weapons of ancient warfare defensive armor was 
of indispensable importance. The principal parts of it were tho 
following : 

The lielmet for the head, generally furnished with flaps to pro- 
tect the ears and back of the neck, but leaving the face uncov- 
ered. The heaviest helmets were made of the hides of animals, 
covered with plates of brass or iron, and having the flaps strength- 
ened by metallic scales. Then there were lighter helmets, made 



MILITxVKY AFFAIKS. 521 

simply of leather, felt, quilted stuff, etc. As to form, some took 
the shape of a skull-cap, fitted closely to the head ; others, that 
of an oval, or of a pointed cone. The top was usually orna- 
mented with a knob, or with a conspicuous crest, or a nodding 
plume. Sometimes it was entirely plain. There are various 
fanciful forms represented on the monuments, which it is not 
necessary to describe. 

The breastplate, as a covering for the body. It was made of 
leather or quilted cloth, and was often strengthened above with 
small metallic plates, or, in a later age, iron rings twisted within 
one another like chains ; or it was, perhaps, made entirely of me- 
taUic plates or rings, and w^orn over a shirt. Over the breast- 
plate was worn the military girdle. 1 Kings 2:5. 

We read (1 Kings 22 : 34) that ' ' a certain man drew a bow at a venture, 
and smote the king of Israel between the joints and the breastplate" 
(marginal rendering), inflicting upon him a mortal wound. The words 
may be understood, with our translators, to mean between the joints of the 
harness; that is, in the seam where one part of the harness was joined to 
another; or they may mean where the harness was joined to some other 
part of the armor. But some render : between the armpits and the harness. 

Greaves for the protection of the legs. They were made of 
leather, felt, cloth, or metal. Gohath had greaves of brass ; and 
the greaves of the Greeks and Romans were generally made of 
brass or tin. See the references in Potter's Grecian Antiqui- 
ties, 3. 4. 

There was also a military shoe, to wliich there is a reference in 
2 Sam. 2: 5, where Joab is said to have "put the blood of war 
upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that 
were on his feet." To these, also, Paul refers in his well-known 
comparison of the Christian to an armed warrior (Ephes. 6: 15): 
*•' Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." 
The Roman military shoe, worn by the common soldiers, was set 
with nails (Juvenal, 16. 24, 25). 

The above pieces of armor were worn on the body. The shield 
was carried in the left hand, or by an armor-bearer who went 
before the warrior. The frame of the shield was a light fi-ame 



522 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

of wood or "wicker-work, covered with bull's hide, and often with 
plates of brass or wood, and a boss jutting out in the middle. 
Homer describes the shield of Ajax as covered with seven thick- 
nesses of bull's hide and an eighth covering of brass. IL, 7. 222. 
The shields of his heroes were round, as appears from the con- 
stant epithet, equal on all sides. The Egyptian shield was circu- 
lar at the summit, and square at the base, like a funereal tablet, 
and was about half the soldier's height. The Assyrian shield 
was circular or oblong. They had also a shield which stood up- 
right on the ground and covered the whole body. The top of 
this curved inward, and it seems to have been used as a defence 
against missiles from the walls of cities. Layard's Nineveh, 2, 
chap. 4. The Greeks and Romans had a larger oblong shield, 
and a smaller circular shield. The distinction of a larger and a 
smaller shield existed among the Hebrews also. The larger 
shield {tsinnah, answermg to the Latin scutum) appears to have 
been either oblong or shaped like the Egyptian shield. It was 
this that Gohath's armor-bearer carried before him (1 Sam. 17:7). 
The small buckler (magJien, Latin clypeus) was of a round form. 
The shield and buckler are, in the Old Testament, the constant 
emblems of God's protection. 

The most complete description which we have in the Old Testament of 
an ancient warrior's equipment, occurs in the account of Goliath's challenge 
to the Israelites (1 Sam. 17:5-7): "He had a helmet of brass upon his 
head; and he was clothed with a harness of scales" (Heb. kaskassim, scales, 
that is, small plates like scales) ; ' ' and the weight of the harness was five 
thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and 
a javelin of brass" (that is, armed with a head of brass) "between his 
shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and the 
head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron; and one bearing a 
shield went before him." The description i^ drawn from the life, and 
agrees almost exactly with that of Homer's heroes. Instead of "six cubits 
and a span," as the height of this champion, Josephus reads "four cubits 
and a span." The weight of Goliath's armor was six hundred shekels of 
brass, which Thenius estimates at something over one hundred and forty- 
two Dresden pounds, the Dresden pound being a trifle heavier than the 
English pound avoirdupois. 

The apostle Paul, in his celebrated description of the Christian warrior 
(Ephes. 6: 13-17), enumerates almost all the armature of the Roman soldier: 



MILITARY AFFAIRS. 523 

** Wherefore take to yourselves the panoply of God, that ye may be able 
to withstand in the evil day, and, having accomplished all " (having gone 
through with the fight in this divine armor), *'to stand. Stand, therefore, 
ha\'ing your loins giii about with truth, and having put on the breastplate 
.of righteousness; and having shod your feet with the preparation of the 
gospel of peace " (the preparedness, cheerful promptitude, which the gos- 
pel of peace gives); "besides all, taking to yourselves the shield of faith, 
wherewith ye shall be able to to quench all the fiery darts " (darts or arrows 
fitted with combustible substances) "of the wicked one. And take the 
helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word 
of God." 

IV. THE ORDER OF BATTLE. 

10. In regard to the Hebrew order of tattle, we have no defi- 
nite information. The Koman armies were drawn up in three lines, 
the light-armed troops being posted in the intervals between the 
companies of heavy-armed soldiers, and on the wings. But we 
have no reason to think that any such definite arrangement pre- 
vailed in the Israelitish armies. We may infer from the analogy 
of procedure in the armies of other nations that the battle was 
begun by the light-armed troops, the main body following them 
with a rapid and impetuous charge and loud shouts. 2 Chron. 
13 : 15 ; Jer. 50 : 15 ; 51 : 14. The Orientals relied much on the 
impetuosity of the first charge ; while it was the custom of the 
Roman armies to stand stiU, and let the enemy exhaust his 
strength in the assault. The Hebrews, in common with all 
other nations, made use of amlniscades. Josh., chap. 8 ; 2 Chron. 
13 : 13, 14. 

11. The progress of the science of war, with its numerous 
modem appliances, has continually tended to sink the individual 
in the mass. The elements of success in modern warfare are 
numbers, abundance of the material of war, strategic skill on 
the part of the commander, courage and discipline on the part 
of the troops. Except in special emergencies, personal strength 
and prowess are of little avail. But in ancient times a large 
part of the battle consisted in the individual encounters of sol- 
diers with soldiers, the victory depending mainly on personal 
strength and valor. In this respect there is a wonderful agree- 



524 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

ment between the battles described by Homer and those re- 
corded in the Old Testament. When Achilles shows himself on 
the Grecian rampart, and shouts aloud, the Trojans flee before 
him in dismay, as the Hebrews do at the challenge of Gohath. 
The Iliad is filled with the account of personal encounters. The 
briefer notices of the Hebrew battles record the exploit of Jona- 
than and his armor-bearer in putting to flight the whole army of 
the Phihstines (1 Sam., chap. 14) ; of David in slaying Gohath 
(1 Sam., chap. 17) ; of the three mighty men who brake through 
the host of the Philistines, and drew w^ater from the well of 
Bethlehem ; with various other like achievements on the part of 
David's heroes (2 Sam., chap. 23). 

V. THE SIEGE OF CITIES. 

12. The siege and defence of cities have in all ages constituted 
a prominent part of war. Although the ancient modes of attack 
and defence differed widely from those which now prevail, they 
were no less systematic, and called into exercise no less sldll and 
endurance. Anciently, all towns of importance were surrounded 
by walls, sometimes of immense height and tliickness, and fur- 
nished with gates and holts of brass or iron. There was a breast- 
work at top for the protection of the defenders, and towers 
were arranged at intervals along the summit where the be- 
sieged could with more effect attack the assailants. When the 
nature of the ground permitted, a ditch was dug without the 
walls, which increased their relative height and made them more 
difficult of access, especially if it was filled Avith water, as in the 
case of the moat about the walls of Babylon. In addition to 
these means of defence, some cities enjoyed the advantage of 
being built on the edge of precipices, or on the surnmit of steep 
hills. Jerusalem, for example, was protected on the east and 
south by deep ravines, and Alesia, in Gaul, was built on the 
summit of a very lofty hill, so that it was impregnable to direct 
assault. 

13. If a city could not be taken by sudden assault, strata- 
gem, or the treachery of its defenders, the assailants prepared 



MILITARY AFFAIRS. 525 

for a regular siege, and the defenders for a protracted resistance. 
The first concern of the latter, provided they had timely no- 
tice of the assault, was to strengthen the defences as far 
as possible, and to see that the place was abundantly sup- 
plied with provisions and water. If there were fountains and 
reserv^oirs without the walls of the city, they endeavored to 
make them unavailable to the besiegers. Hezekiah stopped 
the waters of certain fountains around Jerusalem, apparently 
by carrying them into the city by subterranean channels. 
2 Chron. 32 : 3, 4, compared with ver. 30. Besides the common 
offensive weapons, the men on the walls were provided with 
great stones to cast down upon the enemy ; also with engines, 
called by the Romans catapults and hallistcE. According to 
Jalin (Archaeology, § 280), "the catapults were immense bows, 
which were bent by means of a machine, and which threw with 
great force large arrows, javelins, and even beams of wood. The 
hallistce, on the other hand, may be denominated large slings, 
which were discharged likewise by machines, and threw stones 
and baUs of lead." Of this nature were the engines provided in 
Jerusalem by Uzziah, "on the towers and upon the bulwarks, 
to shoot arrows and great stones withal." 2 Chron. 26:15. The 
same engines were used by the besiegers, as well as fiery darts 
to set fire on the one hand to the houses of the city, and on the 
other to the works of the assailants. 

The besiegers, on their side, encompassed the city with two 
lines of fortifications at some distance from each other ; the m- 
ner one to protect them against the salhes of the townsmen, the 
outer to guard against attacks from Avithout. Among the Romans 
"the hues were," says Adam (Antiq., Mihtary Affahs), "com- 
posed of a ditch and a rampart, strengthened with a parapet and 
battlements, and sometimes a solid wall of considerable height 
and thickness, flanked with towers and forts at proper distances 

round the whole From the inner fine was raised a mounts 

composed of earth, wood, and hurdles, and stone, which was 
gradually advanced towards the town, always increasing in 
height, till it equalled or overtopped the walls. The mount 



526 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

which Csesar raised against Avaricum, or Bourges, was 330 feet 
broad, and 80 feet high. Cses. B. G., 7. 24." There were also 
^xed towers, consisting of different stories, from which showers 
of darts and stones were hurled upon the besieged by means of 
the engines above described; also, movable toivers, which were 
pushed forward and backward on wheels. The towers were 
protected against the flaming missiles thrown from the town 
by raw hides and other appliances. The towers were some- 
times of immense size and height, overtopping even the towers 
of the city. 

But the most formidable engine of assault was the battering 
ram. The Roman battering-ram is thus described by Adam 
(ubi supra): "It was a long beam, hke the mast of a ship, and 
armed at one end with kon in the form of a ram's head, whence 
it had its name. It was suspended by the middle with ropes 
or chains fastened to a beam that lay across two posts; and 
hanging thus equally balanced, it was by a hundred men, more 
or less (who were frequently changed), violently thrust forward, 
drawn back, again pushed forward, till by repeated strokes it 
had shaken and broken down the wall with its iron head." The 
ram and the workmen generally were protected by sheds or 
mantlets, made of wood and hurdles, and covered with earth, 
raw hides, or other incombustible substances. These sheds 
were placed on wheels, and thus moved backward or forward as 
occasion required. Meanwhile the besieged, when they saw that 
a breach would soon be made in the waUs, reared new walls be- 
hind it with a deep ditch before them. 

Another mode of both attack and defence consisted in the 
running of mines. Thus the. besiegers sought to undermine the 
walls or cut off the springs in the city. The besieged employed 
the same means to overturn the works of the enemy. Some- 
times the opposing parties of miners met under ground and 
had bloody conflicts there. When all the above-named means 
of assault (and various others which need not be specified) 
proved unavailing, the assailants sought to reduce the city by 
famine. 



MILITARY AFFAIRS. 527 

There are references in the Old Testament to the besiegers' mount (2 Sam. 
20:15; 2 liings 19:32; Isa. 37:33; Jer. 32:24; 33:4; Ezek. 4:2; Hab. 1:10, 
etc.); to the haltering ram (2 Sam. 20 : 15 ; Ezek. 4:2; 21:22); to the engines 
for hurhng javehns and stones (2 Chron. 20:15); and to the military worJiS 
of the besiegers generally (Deut. 20:20; Micah 5:1). The Hebrew dayek, 
rendered in our version/or^, or, in a collective sense, /orfe (2 Kings 25 : 1 ; Jer. 
52:4; Ezek. 4:2; 17:17; 21:22; 20:8) is explained by some to mean, in a col- 
lective sense, towers; by others, lines of circumvallaiion. In Ezek. 4:1, 2, 
the prophet describes in his own graphic way the different processes of a 
siege: "Also, thou son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, 
and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem; and lay siege against it, and 
build against it towers (or, lines of circumvallation), and cast up against it 
a mount, and set the camp against it, and set battering-rams against it 
round about." 

14. Among the remarkable sieges of antiquity, we notice the 
following : 

The siege of Azotus (AsJidod) by Psammeticlms, king of Egypt, 
about B. c. 630. He took the city after a siege of twenty-nine 
years, the longest siege on record. Herodotus, 2. 157. 

The siege of Jerusalem hy NebucJiadiiezzar, who captured and 
burned the city and temple after about a year and a half. B. c. 
588. 2 Kings, chap. 25. 

The siege of Tyre, hy Nebuchadnezzar, which Josephus says 
(Antiq., 10. 11. 1, against Apion, 1. 21) lasted thirteen years. He 
does not state the issue ; but, according to Ezeldel (chap. 26), he 
must have been successful. See above, Chap. 10, No. 30. 

The siege of Babylon, by Cyrus. Finding it impossible to 
take the city by the ordinary methods of assault, he diverted the 
course of the Euphrates, and then marched in by its channel 
imder the wall. This was about B. c. 536. See Herodotus, 1. 
191 ; Xenophon Cyropaedia, 7. 5. 

The siege of Tyre, by Alexander the Great, about B. c. 332. 
The city, being on an island, could not be directly approached. 
But Alexander built a causeway from the main land to the island, 
and thus succeeded in taking it after seven months of hard toil. 
Josephus, Antiq., 11. 8. 3 ; Diodorus Siculus, 17. 40-46. 

The siege of Jerusalem, by the Bomans under Titus. For the 
particulars of this celebrated siege, in which a million of persons 



5'28 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

are said to have perished, and which ended in the complete de- 
struction of the city and temple, about A. D. 71, see Josephus' 
Jewish War, books 5 and 6. 

VI. THE EIGHTS CLAIMED BY THE VICTORS. 

15. War is essentially cruel. It is the meeting of force by 
force. The conquerors among the ancient heathen nations ac- 
knowledged no limit to their power, but such as they prescribed 
to themselves on the ground of policy. When a city or people 
capitulated upon specified conditions, the recognized law of an- 
cient nations required the conquerors to abide in good faith by 
these conditions. But when a city was taken by assault, the vic- 
tors claimed the light of disposing of the persons and possessions 
of the vanquished as they saw good. The men were very com- 
monly slain, and the women and children carried into captivity 
or sold as slaves. Sometimes the principal men only were put 
to death, and the rest carried captive with the women and chil- 
dren. At other times the conquered territory wa*^ not depopu- 
lated, but reduced to a tributary condition. Such was ancient 
warfare in what may be called its normal forms. But, under the 
impulse of the malignant passions which war generates, many 
atrocities were perpetrated the recital of which makes us 
shudder. 

16. For warfare with other nations than the Canaanites, the 
law of Moses prescribed a definite rule : " When thou comest 
nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. 
And it shall be if it make thee an answer of peace, and open unto 
thee, then it shall be that all the people that is found therein 
shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if 
it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, 
then thou shalt besiege it ; and when the Lord thy God hath de- 
livered it into thy hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof 
with the edge of the sword ; but the women and the little ones, 
and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, 
shalt thou take unto thyself, and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine 
enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee." Dent. 20 : 



MILITAEY AFFAIRS. 529 

10-14. It is to be assumed that the war here contemplated was 
just and necessary; waged not against a peaceful neighboring 
people, but against those who sought to injure the Israelites. 
The rule of procedure is in full accordance with the usage of 
ancient warfare. With regard to its severity, the following re- 
marks of Jahn (Heb., Archaeology, § 296) are worthy of being 
pondered : "It is permitted, by the natural law of nations, to a 
people, to inflict as many and as great evils upon an enemy, as 
shall be necessary to deter others from committing the like of- 
fence. The prevalent state of feeling among nations, whether it 
tend to kindness or to cruelty, will determine how much is neces- 
sary to secure such an object. Nations anciently could not 
exliibit that humanity and forbearance in war which are common 
among modern European nations, without running the risk of 
exposing themselves to every sort of mjury." We must by no 
means, however, suppose that all the cruelties practised by He- 
brew monarchs, of which we have an account in the Old Testa- 
ment, are in accordance with either the spirit or the letter of the 
Mosaic law. Such atrocities as those recorded in 2 Kings, 15 : 16 ; 
2 Chron. 25 : 12 ; and, we may add, 2 Sam. 12 : 31, compared with 
1 Chron. 20 : 3, are simply recorded but not justified. 

We have in Dent. 20:19, 20, a precei^t wliicli beantifnlly illnstrates the 
jnst and considerate spirit of the Mosaic law. In besieging a city they 
were forbidden to destroy the fruit-trees of the neighborhood, to employ 
them in the siege; and the annexed reason is: "for the tree of the field is 
man's hfe." No wonder that the peoi>le who lived under such a law should 
have had the rej^utation of being merciful in war. 1 I^ngs 20:31. 

17. The extirpation of the Canaanites was placed by Jehovah 
himself on a different ground. " Of the cities of these people 
which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou 

shalt save ahve nothing that breatheth That they teach you 

not to do after all their abominations which they have done unto 
their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God." Deut. 
20 : 16-18. The same precept is elsewhere given, and enforced by 
the same reason (Deut. 7 : 1-6 ; 12 : 29-31) ; and the subsequent his- 
tory of the Israelites show's that the danger to be guarded against 

Oeog. 4 Ai.flq. 23 



530 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

was not imaginary but real. Judg., cliap. 2. It pleased the sov- 
ereign Lord of heaven and earth to give the land of Canaan to his 
people as their heritage. The grant itseK involved the alternative 
of either expelling and destroying them or reducing them to servi- 
tude. Since the latter course would have exposed the covenant 
people to inevitable corruption, the former was adopted ; and the 
divine command was a warrant to the Israelites to do what would 
have been otherwise unlawful. This transaction, hke the whole 
history of God's government, was based upon the eternal princi- 
ple that the cause of truth and righteousness is of supreme value 
— worth infinitely more than the lives and possessions of the 
idolatrous Canaanites ; both of which belonged to Jehovah, and 
could be destroyed if he saw good, in any way that he should 
appoint, in the interest of the great pla n of redemption. " Be- 
hold, therefore," we may say, "the goodness and severity of God" 
— towards the Canaanites, whose measure of iniquity was full, 
severity (Gen. 15 : 16); but towards the chosen people goodness, 
if they had but understood it and continued in it. 



ROMAN CITIZENSHIP. 531 



APPENDIX TO THE SECOND DIVISION. 

On Roman Citizenship. 

1. The Apostle Paul, on more than one occasion, availed himself of his 
rights as a Roman citizen to protect himself from injury. At Philijjpi he and 
Silas had been openly beaten and thmst into the inner prison, with their 
feet made fast in the stocks. The next morning the magistrates sent to 
the keeper of the prison an order for their release. Whereupon Paul re- 
phed : "They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and 
have cast us into j)rison ; and now do they thrust us out privily ? Nay, 
verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out." Upon hearing 
this message from Paul, the magistrates "feared, when they heard that 
they were Romans. And they came and besought them, and desired them 
to depart out of the city." Acts 16 : 23, 24, 35-39. When, again, they 
were binding him in the castle at Jerusalem, for the purjDOse of scourging 
him, he said to the centurion who stood by : " Is it law^ful for you to scourge 
a man that is a Roman and uncondemned ? When the centurion heard 
that, he went and told the chief captain, saying. Take heed what thou 
doest : for this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came, and said 
unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman ? He said, Yea. And the chief cap- 
tain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, 
But I was free born. . Then straightway they departed from him that 
should have examined him " (examined him by scourging) ; " and the chief 
captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because 
he had bound him. " Acts 22 : 24-30. 

In view of these passages in the history of Paul, two questions arise : 
In what ways did foreigners obtain Roman citizensliix3 ? and, what were 
the privileges to which it entitled them ? Passing by the times of the Re- 
public, we shall restrict our inquiries to the earlier period of the Empire. 

2. In the time of the Empire, Italy, Cisalpine Gaul included, enjoyed the 
right of Roman citizenship. Out of Italy, it was granted to certain towns 
called municipal iowyis (municipia). "Of these," says Adam (Antiq., Art., 
Public Rights), "there were different kinds. Some possessed aU the rights 
of Roman citizens except such as could not be enjoj^ed without residing at 
Rome. Others enjoyed the right of sei-ving in the Roman legion, but had 
not the right of voting and obtaining civil offices." The municipal to\NTis 
enjoyed their own laws and customs, and were not obliged to receive 
the Roman laws unless they chose it. Then, again, there were colo- 
nies, consisting of cities or lands which Roman citizens were sent to 



532 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

inhabit. These colonies differed from the free towns {viuniclpia) in this 
that they used the laws prescribed to them by the Romans. ' ' Some colo- 
nies," says Adam (nbi su^^ra), "consisted of Roman citizens only, some of 
Latins, and others of Italians. Liv. , 39. 55. Hence their rights were dif- 
ferent. Some think that the Roman colonies enjoyed aU the rights of citi- 
zens, as they are often caUed Roman citizens, and were once enrolled in 
the censor's books at Rome. Liv. , 29. 37. But most are of opinion that 
the colonies had not the right of voting, nor of bearing offices at Rome, 
from Dio,43. 39 and 50. " It was at a much later period that Caracalla granted 
the freedom of Roman citizenship to all the free inhabitants of the Roman 
world. Finally, the right of Roman citizenship was obtained as a reward 
for Jidelily to the Roman interest (Suetonius, Aug., 47), or hj purchase, as in 
"the case of the chief cajDtain. Acts 22 : 28, and see Dio Cassius, 60. 17. 
The children of Roman citizens enjoyed by birth the prerogative of their 
fathers ; that is, they ^nq^xq free-horn. 

3. It is certain that Paul's father was a Roman citizen ; but how he, or 
some of his ancestors before him, had obtained that privilege is unknown. 
Some have supposed that he had it simply as a citizen of Tarsus. But 
this is denied by Biblical scholars generally. "Tarsus," says Meyer (Com- 
mentary in loco), "was neither a colony nor a municipal town, but 2. free 
city {urbs libera) ; which had received indeed from Augustus, after the 
civil war, the privilege of being governed by its own laws and magistrates, 
in subordination to the Roman authority, and with this other prerogatives 
(Appian, Bell, Civ. 5. 7 ; Dio., Clirys., 2, p. 36 ed., Reisk), but not Roman 
citizenship." See also Winer, Bib. Realworterbuch, Art., Tarsus. It is 
sufficient to point out the various ways in which a foreigner, like Paul's 
father, could have obtained Roman citizenship, without attempting to de- 
cide anything further. 

4. Among the privileges to which Roman citizenship entitled its possessor 
was exemption from stripes and torture. This was given with certain lim- 
itations by the Valerian law, and afterwards absolutely by the Porcian law. 
To this there are many references in the writings of Cicero. " The Porcian 
law," says he (Pro Rabirio, c. 3), "forbade rods to be used on the body of 
any Roman citizen. " In his oration against Yerres occurs the well-known 
passage : "A Roman citizen, judges, was beaten with rods, at Messana, in 
the open forum : while, in the meantime, no gToan escaj^ed the Hps of the 
sufferer, no other words wore heard from him, amid the resounding blows 
of the rods, except these: 'I am a Roman citizen.' By this mention of 
his citizenship he thought to lepel from his body all stripes and torture. 
But in vain. Not only did he not save himself from the violence of rods, 
but, while he repeatedly implored deliverance and proclaimed the fact of 
his citizenship, the cross, the cross, I say, was made ready for the unhappy 
sufferer, who had never witner^sed such an exercise of power" (2. 5. 62, 63). 



IIOMAN CITIZENSHIP. 533 

The expi'ciso of j^owc^r to wliicli the orator refers was that of scourging and 
crucifying a Homan citizen : for Roman citizenship protected its possessor- 
from ignominious forms of punishment, such as crucifixion, Avhich wa.s espci- 
cially a sei-vile punishment. According to Cicero (against Yerres, 2. 1. 3), 
exemption from it was the privilege of every Roman citizen. In accord- 
ance with this is the tradition of the ancient church that, while Peter was 
subjected to tJie ignominious death of crucifixion. Paul was beheaded. 

5. Another i')rivilege enjoyed by the Roman citizen was the rigid of (tppe<(l 
from a lower to a higher tribunal. This was established by the Valerian 
law, and afterwards once and again renewed. After the subversion of the 
Rejjublic, the final appeal was to the emperor. See Adams' Roman An- 
tiquities, Art., Judicial Proceedings, and the authorities there referred to. 
The ai)ostle Paul, as a Roman citizen, availed himself of this right to escape 
the snares laid for him by the Jews. Acts 25 : 9-12. 



534 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



THIRD DIVISION 

SACRED ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 

Historical jSuryey. 

1. "First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in 
the ear," is the divine law of procedure in the kingdom of grace, 
not less than in the kingdoms of nature and of providence. He 
in whose sight a thousand years are but as yesterday, when it is 
past, never forces results prematurely. He gave man at the be- 
ginning two fundamental institutions, the Sabbath and Marriage; 
the first looking more immediately to man's relation to his Crea- 
tor, the second, to the relation of the sexes to each other, and 
thus to the constitution of society in its inmost essence. After the 
fall he gave the great promise concerning the Seed of the woman, 
which contained in a germinal form the whole history of re- 
demption. He also gave, apparently, the institution of sacrifices, 
which prefigured the work that the Seed of the woman should 
perform for our salvation. Gen. 4 : 3, 4. From that day to the 
present it seems to have been a principle of the Divine govern- 
ment to give men institutions only when their necessity had been 
fully evinced by experience ; and that, apparently, on the ground 
that in no other way, humanly speaking, can their permanent 
observance be secured. 

2. The sacred record informs us that in the third generation 
"began men to call upon the name of the Lord." Gen. 4:26. 
From some notices in the New Testament (2 Peter 2:5; Jude, 



HISTORICAL SURVEY. 635 

14, 15), we gather that there were before the flood preachers of 
righteousness who warned the ungodly of the impending judg- 
ments of heaven. There was a spontaneous separation between 
the righteous and the wicked, but there was no written word 
and no church; that is, no organic body constituted by God 
to be his pecuhar people, and having institutions of his appoint- 
ment. As to civil government they had apparently only the 
loose organization growing out of the family relation. The 
idea of a state as an organic whole had not yet been developed; 
nor had the great law, "whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by 
man shall his blood be shed," which contains within itself the 
germ of a state, been as yet promulgated. The first great exper- 
iment was made with the race as a whole without a church, 
and without positive enactments, civil or religious, except so far 
as the institutions of Eden, with that of sacrifices, may be re- 
garded as such. 

3. After the deluge, the laio against murder was announced, 
when now its necessity had been shown by centuries of violence 
and bloodshed, some other enactments were added, and the ex- 
periment with the race as a whole was renewed and continued 
until the time of Abraham. Then, when men had once more 
apostatized fi*om their Maker, and idolatry, with aU the gross 
vices that accompany it, was overspreading the world, God 
changed his plan of procedure. Leaving the mass of manldnd 
for a season "to walk in their own ways" (Acts 14:16), he se- 
lected one family, that of Abraham, to be his peculiar people and 
the depositaries of the precious boon of revelation ; that, having 
trained them up in the knowledge of liimseK and prepared them 
by types and prophecies for the advent of his Son, he might, 
from them as a centre, propagate the true religion in its last and 
most perfect form, over aU the earth. He began with one family, 
but he had in view the redemption of the race, as the original 
promise shows: "In thee shall all famihes of the earth be 
blessed." He gave to Abraham and his posterity the single rite 
of circumcision. In other respects divine worship was left in its 
primitive simplicity. There was neither sanctuary nor prescribed 



536 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

ritual. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob builded altars under the 
open heaven ; and there they offered sacrifices and called on the 
name of the Lord. Doubtless their posterity in Egypt wor- 
shipped in the same primitive way. 

4. But when God had brought the covenant people, now 
grown to be a nation, out of Egypt into the wilderness of Arabia, 
he gave commandment, for the first time in the history of the 
world, that they should make him a sanctuary, that he might 
dwell among them (Ex. 25 : 8) ; and, in connection with this, he 
gave to them in the Mosaic law an elaborate national constitu- 
tion, embracing alike civil and rehgious institutions. Here it is 
importaut to bear in mind the following points : 

First: The Mosaic economy, havmg God for its immediate 
author, and being intended to regulate the whole national hfe of 
the Hebrews, made no distmction between civil and religious 
duties, so far as the jurisdiction of the magistrate was concerned. 
It was not a state united with a church, but a state embosoming 
in itself all the ijistitutions of religion in an organic way. Conse- 
quently the magistrate took cognizance ahke of offences against 
God, such as idolatry and witchcraft, and civil offences, like mur- 
der, theft, and false witness. 

Secondly : It was supplementary to the Abrahamic covenant. 
It did not supersede it, but prepared the way for the advent 
of Christ, in whom its provisions were to be fully carried out. 
This end it accompHshed in various ways ; particularly by the 
full revelation which it made of God's unity and infinite per- 
fections ; by the conviction of sin which it produced, with which 
was connected an ever-deepening sense of the need of redemp- 
tion ; and by its types which continually foreshadowed this re- 
demption. Unless we constantly bear in mind this, its pre]3ara~ 
tory character, we fail to comprehend the wisdom and suitable- 
ness of its provisions. 

Thirdly : It follows from the above that while the Abrahamic 
covenant was made for aU time, the Mosaic economy was tern- 
porary, and destined, after it should have fulfilled its office, to 
wax old and vanish away. 



HISTORICAL SUEVEY. 537 

Fourflily: The multiplicity and minuteness of its provisions 
were adapted, as the Apostle Paul shows (Gal. 4 : 1-5), to the 
childhood of the covenant peojDle who constituted God's church. 
They were "under tutors and governers until the time appointed" 
by God for the full hberty of manhood ; and the ordinances of 
the Mosaic law, " Touch not, taste not, handle not," were, there- 
fore, in place. The same view may be taken of the splendor of 
its ritual. Its final end was the estabhshment of the simple, 
sph'itual and universal system of Christianity. But the human 
mind could not be elevated at once to the idea of such a system. 
It must be brought up to it by a long course -of preparation. 
God, therefore, gave to his people a ritual, which rigorously 
excluded all forms of idolatry and image worship, and impurit}^ 
of eveiy kind ; while it was, at the same time, better adapted 
than the rituals of the surrounding heathen nations to strike the 
aiinds of the worshippers with awe. Its multiphed ordinances and 
its outward magnificence served as a resting-place for the reH- 
gious feelings of the Hebrews, and also as a guard against the 
seductive influence of the sensuous and imposing rites of heathen- 
ism which they could not but witness in the worship of the sur- 
rounding nations. If the Israehtes abused this ritual to nourish 
in their souls a spmt of formalism, it was the abuse of what was 
good and needful for the time bemg. 

FiftJily : Since it was God's purpose that his people should 
have a constitution absolutely free from all admixture of heathen- 
ish superstitions, it followed of neceesity that it should be given 
by himself immediately , not merely in its great prniciples, but iii 
all its details. The subsequent history of the Israehtes shows 
that if any discretion had been left to them m respect to the 
rites of their rehgion, heathenish superstition would have crept 
in as a bad leaven to corrupt the whole, and thus the very end 
of the economy would have been defeated. To guard against 
this, God gave the priests, who had charge of his service, a 
severe lesson at the very outset on the necessity of a stiict 
adherence to the rites of his appointment. Nadab and AbHiu, 
tlie two eldest sons of Aaron, were slam by the unmediate judg- 

23* 



538 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

ment of God, because they "offered strange fire before the 
Lord" — fire not taken fi'om that kept burnmg upon the altar 
(Lev. 6 : 12, 13) — "which he commanded them not." And Moses' 
comment on the transaction was : " This it is that the Lord spake, 
saying : I will be sanctified in aU them that come nigh me, and 
before all the people I will be glorified." Lev. 10 : 1-3. This 
simple principle covers a multitude of particulars. The ritual 
must come from Jehovah in ah its details, that it might be pure 
throughout from aU admixture of heathenism. It is probable 
that some very obscure provisions of the Mosaic law had refer- 
ence to heathenish superstitions of which we are ignorant. 

5. The Mosaic law, with the exception of its moral precepts, 
faugJd mainly by types. These were the "shadow of good things 
to come," of which Christ is the substance. The general duties 
of the priests in the line of instruction are specified in various 
passages of the Old Testament : " That ye .may put difference 
between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; so 
that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which 
the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses." Lev. 
10 : 10, 11. Of the priests in the sanctuary, which Ezekiel sees 
in vision, aU the appomtments of which are in conformity with 
the Mosaic law, it is said : " They shall teach my people the dif- 
ference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern 
between the unclean and the clean." Ezek. 44 : 23. " The priest's 
lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at liis 
mouth ; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Mai. 2 : 7. 
It was the duty of the priests to see that the people were in- 
structed in the law of Moses and that its statutes were main- 
tained in their purity. It is worthy of notice, however, that, so 
far as we can gather from the Old Testament, there does not 
seem to have been any provision for the stated instruction of the 
people out of the law before the Babylonish captivity, if we ex- 
cept the reading of the law before aU Israel, " men and women and 
children," once in seven years, "in the solemnity of the year of 
release, in the feast of tabernacles." Deut. 31 : 10-13. It is not 
surprising, therefore, that, in the period immediately preceding 



HISTORICAL SURVEY. 539 

the captivity, when the priests had become, as a body, unfaitliful 
to their charge, the grossest ignorance of the divine law should 
have prevailed, and that even the pious king Josiah should have 
"been, in great measure, ignorant of its contents. 2 Kings, chap. 22. 
"It is probable," says Keil (Commentary on vers. 9-14), "that 
liitherto Josiah had not possessed or read any copy of the law ; 
although the fundamental Imowledge of the law, which all the 
prophets display, makes indubitable the dissemination of the 
Pentateuch in the prophetic cu-cles." Such was the daily service 
of the sanctuary for several successive centuries, till the time of 
David — a solemn adumbration of silent types, in which neither 
the words of the li\'ing teacher nor the voice of holy song was 
heard. 

6. But when "the sweet psalmist of Israel" arose, saoxd 
foesy burst from his soul, smit by the inspiration of God's Spirit, 
like the Jordan from the foot of Hermon, in a pure and full 
stream ; and it has flowed through the sanctuary ever since, and 
will continue to flow to the end of time. The songs of David 
and his coadjutors may be supplemented, but they can never be 
superseded ; for they open the floodgates of the pious heart, and 
pour forth its emotions as no uninspired song can do. They 
well up from the centre of the soul, fresh and sparkling, and for 
this reason the lapse of ages does not diminish their adaptation 
to the wants of God's worshippers. In the twenty-fifth chapter 
of the first book of Chronicles we have a detailed account of 
the arrangement made by David of the sons of Asaph, Heman, 
and Jeduthun, in twenty-four courses, "who should prophesy 
with harps, with psalters and with cymbals." And the record 
adds that " the number of them, with their brethren, that were 
instructed in the songs of the Lord, even aU that were cimning, 
was two hundred four score and eight." From that time onward 
"the service of song in the house of the Lord" (1 Chron. 6 : 31) 
constituted a part of divine worship at the sanctuary. 

The account of the cleansing of the sanctuary under Hezekiah contains 
a Hvcly x^icture of this part of di\ine worshij). In connection Tsitli tlio 
offcrinpf of the several sacrifices the king "set tlie Levites in the house of 



540 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

tlie Lord with cymbals, witli psalteries, and with harjDS, according to the 
commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the 
prophet ; for so was the commandment of the Lord by liis prophets. And 
the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the 
trumpets. And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt-offering upon the 
altar. And when the burnt-offering began, the song of the Lord began 
also with the trumpets, and with the instruments ordained by Dayid, king 
of Israel. And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and 
the trumpeters sounded ; and aU this continued until the biu'nt-offering 
was finished. And when they had made an end of 'offering, the king and 
all that were present with him bowed themselves and worsliipped. More- 
over, Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing 
praises unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. 
And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and 
worshipped." 2 Chron. 29 : 25-30. 

The same service' of song was carefully perpetuated, after the captivity, 
in the second temple. Ezra 2 : 41 ; 7:7; Neh. 7:1; 11 : 22, 23. 

7. Yery soon after the establishment of the twenty-four 
courses of singers, came, under Solomon, the suhstitutiwi of t}t£ 
temple for the taherncwle. This, however, brought no change to 
the Mosaic ritual. It was simply an accommodation of the sanc- 
tuary to the altered circumstances of the people, as intimated by 
David. " See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of 
God dwelleth within curtains." 2 Sam. 7 : 2. With the ediiice 
erected by Solomon were connected courts and chambers for the 
convenience of the worshippers and of the priests. But the 
temple proper, as we shall see hereafter, was modelled after the 
tabernacle, and all the services appointed by Moses remamed 
unchanged. The same was true of the second temple erected 
after the captivity by Zerubbabel and his associates, and after- 
wards renewed by Herod the great, with a splendor exceeding 
even that of Solomon's temple. 

8. After the captivity there grew up in a quiet way an- 
other institution of immense importance, the mfluence of wliich 
reached over into Christendom, and is felt in our day. This was 
the Jewish Synagogue. Of this we shall speak more particularly 
in the proper place. "We notice it now as containing an essential 
addition to the stated worship of God ; an adchtion, however, 



HISTOKICAL SUHVEY. 541 

not having for its seat tlie temple, but dispersed througli the 
cities and villages of the land, and thus foreshadowing, in a re- 
markable way, the great principle of Christianity announced by 
our Lord in his discourse with the w^oman of Samaria : " The 
hour Cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at 

Jerusalem, worsliip the Father The hour cometh, and 

now is, w^hen the true worshippers shall worship the Father in 
spirit and in truth. God is a sphit, and they that worsliip him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth." John 4 : 21, 23. The 
s^Tiagogue adumbrated the Christian sanctuary, also, in the sim- 
plicity of its forms of worship. Leaving to the temple the altar 
with its priesthood and ritual of types, it occupied itself Avith 
prayer, praise, the reading of the Scriptures, and addresses to 
the people. Sections of the law and the prophets were read, 
and, on certain occasions, other portions of the Old Testament, 
and expounded in the vernacular of the congregation. After this 
came the sermon or address to the people. These simple spir- 
itual services, with singing and prayer, constituted the body of 
the synagogue w^orship; and thus naturally furnished to the 
primitive Christian congregations a model of divine service. To 
complete the stated public worship of God it only remained that 
the teachings of Christ and his apostles should be added to the 
words of Moses and the prophets. This came in the fullness of 
time, and is our rich inheritance from the past. 



542 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTEE XXVIII. 

The Tabernacle and its Furniture. 

I. STKUCTUEE OF THE TABERNACLE AND COURT. 

1. The Divine command to Moses (Exocl. 25 : 8), " Let tliem 
make me a sanctuary ; that I may dwell among them/' gives the 
essential idea of a sanctuary, and that for all time. It is a house 
built for God, that he may dwell in it, and manifest himself 
there to his people. In his essential presence, God dwells in no 
temple made with hands, "seeing the heaven and heaven of 
heavens cannot contam him." But in his manifested presence — 
that is, in the revelations which he makes to men of his own 
character and works, and of then duties to him — he can and 
does dwell in human temples, where his servants worship him 
through the ordinances of his appointment. 

2. The Israelitish tabernacle, as described by Moses (Exod., 
chap. 25, seq.), was very simple in its structure. Its framework 
for three sides — the north, south, and west — consisted of boards 
standing upright, side by side (rather planks than boards, but we 
retain the familiar term of our version), and making an enclo- 
sure for these three sides, ten cubits high, thirty cubits long from 
east to west, and ten cubits wide. The eastern end, which con- 
stituted the front, had only a veil suspended from five pillars. 
This enclosure of thirty cubits by ten with a height of ten 
cubits was then divided by a rich veil, running parallel to the 
two ends and supported by four pillars, into the outer sanctuary 
or holy place, twenty cubits by ten, and the inner sanctuary, or 
holy of holies, ten cubits in each of its three dimensions. Each 
of the upright boards had two projections or "tenons" at its 
lower end, and underneath were two sockets of silver, one for 
each tenon. Though not stated by Moses, it is manifest that 
there was, in the words of Josephus (Antiq., 3. 6. 3) " a hole m 




VIEW OF THE TABEENACLE. 



OfTHl^ ]c 




PLAN OF THE TABERNACLK. 




HIGH-PRIEST AND BREASTPLATE. 



THE TABEENACLE AND ITS FUENITURE. 543 

each socket for receiving the tenon." These walls were faiiher 
strengthened on the outside by bars running crosswise through 
rings of gold. 

S/nlihn-wood was employed for the woodwork of the tabernacle and its 
furniture throughout. It is agreed on all hands that this was a species 
of acacia, growing in the Arabian peninsula. No acacia-trees are found 
in this region at present large enough to furnish x^lanks of the length and 
width ascribed to the boards of the tabernacle — ten cubits by a cubit and a 
half ; but we must remember that the primitive forests existing in Moses* 
day liave long been destroyed. According to Theophrastus (Hist. Plant, 
4. 3) , boards were anciently cut from the Acacia tw^elve cubits in length ; 
and Jerome says (on Joel, 3 : 18) : " The trees are so great that very wide 
planks [iahulata) maybe cut from them." It is not, therefore, necessary 
to assume, as some do, that the boards of the tabernacle consisted of two 
or more pieces joined together ; although this might be admitted, since in 
the only passage out of the book of Exodus where the Hebrew word oc- 
curs [keresli, Ezek. 27 : 6) it denotes plank-work ; that is, planks joined to- 
gether composing the deck of a ship. Shittim-wood was every way suita- 
ble for the movable fi'amework of the tabernacle, being, according to the 
testimony of Jerome (ubi supra), "a very strong wood of incredible light- 
ness and beauty ;" and he adds, elsewhere (on Lsa. 41 : 19), that it was not 
subject to decay. 

The boards of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, and the woodwork of 
its interior furniture were overlaid with gold, probably in very thin plates. 
Moses gives ten cubits for the height of the boards, and a cubit and a 
half for their width. Their thickness is nowhere stated. The rabbins as- 
sume that it was a cubit. The way in which they arrive at this extraordi- 
nary^ conclusion (in which they are foUowed by many modern scholars) is 
})lain. The sacred record tells us that on each side were twenty boards, 
each a cubit and a half in breadth, which makes the required length of 
thirty cubits. It further gives for the west or hind end, first, six boards, 
and then, separately, two boards, one for each corner. Exod. 26 : 22, 23. 
The six boards, being each a cubit and a half wide, make a Avail of nine 
cubits. Assuming now, as do the rabbins, that the two comer boards were 
of the same width as the rest, we have for the entire west end twelve cu- 
bits, just enough to reach across from outside to outside, pro\dded the 
I" thickness of the side walls be taken at a cubit. But we may w(^ll hesitate 
B to admit such an enormous thickness. How could such an immense maos 
I of timber with all "the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sock- 
K ets thereof," and, in addition to these, "the pillars of the coiu*t round 
^k about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords " (Numb. 4: 31, 32), 



544 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

oxen, the number assigned to the sons of Merari (Numb. 7 : 8) for this ser- 
vice ? Even upon the lowest assumption for the length of a cubit, it is plain 
that four wagons, drawn by four yoke of oxen, could not have transported 
48 pieces of timber, each ten cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and 
a cubit thick, all of them overlaid with gold ; 9 pillars for the taberna- 
cle, ten cubits in length and overlaid with gold ; 60 piUars for the court, 
five cubits in length ; 100 sockets of silver, weighing a talent each ; with 
aU the sockets, pins and cords of the court. Nor is it necessary to assume 
such a thickness for these boards. The fact that the two corner boards are 
mentioned separately allows us to assume that their width was determined 
by the exigency of their position. Joseplms says (ubi supra) that they 
Vf eve four fingers thick. This would make the width of the corner boards 
half a cubit and four fingers. 

Another hypothesis, based on the marginal rendering : they sliall he 
twinned, that is, doubled (Exod. 26 : 24), makes the corner boards to consist 
.each of two parts joined together at right angles with each other ; one part 
on a line with the west end, the other on a line with the sides. But this 
would of necessity make the length of the area of the tabernacle exceed 
thirty cubits — an objection which is not disposed of by making an allow- 
ance for the pillars that supported the veil between the inner and the outer 
sanctuary (Keil and others) ; for these pillars did not constitute the sepa- 
rating waU. That was made by the veil, which must have hung on the one 
side of them or on the other, and have constituted the limit of the apartments 
on each side. See Bahr, Symbolik 1, p. 59, who explains the words, "they 
shaU be coupled or doubled to one ring" (Exod. 26 : 24) to mean that where 
the corner boards meet each a side board the two shall be firmly joined to- 
gether above and below by one ring let into each. 

The silver sockets weighed each a talent. Exod. 38 : 27. Some sup- 
pose that they were of a quadrangular form ; others that they were pointed 
or wedge-shaped beneath, so as to be sunk into the earth. So Josephus, 
who compares them (Antiq. , 3. 6. 2) to the spike at the butt end of a spear. 

There were five bars on each side running through rings on the outside 
of the boards. Of these it is said that ' ' the middle bar in the midst of the 
boards shall re^ch from end to end. " Exod. 26 : 28. According to Josephus 
(ubi sujDra), the middle bar at the west end projected somewhat each way, 
and received into holes provided for the purjjose the middle bars of the 
sides, by which means the sides and ends were bound firmly together. It 
is natural to suppose that the other four bars on each side extended half 
the length of the tabernacle, and were placed end to end in two lines ; so 
that there were [liree rows of bars, not five, as represented by Lundius and 
others. So Jarchi (on Exod. 26 : 26), who, however, makes the unnecessary 
supi)osition that the middle bar passed not on the outside through rings 
provided for it, but through the substance of the boards. 



THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE. 54:5 

3. We come next to the covering of the framework, which 
was four-fold. 

First : The innermost and by far the richest covering, which is 
called emphatically the tabernacle (Exod. 26 : 1, 6, 7 ; 36 : 8, 14), 
consisted of the curtains made of fine twined linen, with blue, 
and purple, and scarlet, and cherubim, the work of the cunning 
workman. The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, 
and its width four cubits, a convenient width for weaving. They 
were then joined (probably by sewing, as Jarclii suggests, on 
Exod. 26 : 3) into two compound curtains, consisting each of five 
pieces, and therefore twenty cubits in width. The provision for 
fastening these together, when the tabernacle was set up, is thus 
stated by Moses (Exod. 26 : 4-6), according to the most approved 
rendering of the text: "And thou shalt make loops of blue on 
the edge of the one curtain" (one compound curtain), "on the 
border of the coupling" (on its edge where it is coupled to the 
other compound curtain) ; " and so shalt thou make in the edge 
of the outermost curtain" (the curtain lying farthest from the 
door of the sanctuary) "at the second coupling" (where this 
second compound curtain is coupled to the first). "Fifty loops 
shalt thou make in the one curtam, and fifty loops shalt thou 
make in the border of the curtain which is at the second coupling " 
(the border where the second compound curtain is coupled to the 
first); " the loops shall be over against each other. And thou shalt 
make fifty taclies" (or clasps) "of gold, and thou shalt join the 
curtains together with the taches, and it shall be one tabernacle." 

Secondly : Over the innermost curtam was a second made of 
goats' hair, which is called, in distinction from the first, the tent. 
Exod. 26 : 11, 12, 13, etc. This consisted of eleven curtains, each 
thirty cubits long and four wide, united, like the preceding, into 
two compound curtains ; the one in front containing six single 
pieces, and having, therefore, a width of twenty-four cubits ; the 
other made of five pieces, with a width of twenty cubits. These 
two compound curtains were joined together b}^ loops and brass 
taclies, when the tabernacle was erected, in the same manner as 
the two parts of the inner curtain. 



546 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Thirdly : Over the curtain of goats' liair was a coverhig of 
rams' sldns djed red, as our version rightly renders ; not as Lun- 
dius, skins with the wool of rams having a reddish brown fleece. 

Fourthly : Over all was a covering of tahash skins, rendered 
in our version badgers' skins, but thought by many to have been 
the skins of some species of marine animal that anciently 
abounded in the Eed sea, probably the seal or the dugong. 

The symbolism of the inner curtain wiU be considered hereafter. We 
add here a few remarks pertaining to its material structure. There has 
been much controversy on the question whether this inner curtain was 
made of Ihien or cotton, since the Hebrew word [shesh] seems to include 
both. This question is discussed by Bahr (Symbolik, p. 263, seq.), Keil 
(Archaologie, | 17)^ and many other writers. We pass it by as of no par- 
ticular importance. It is generally agreed that the colored stuffs were of 
wool. The blue ( liyncinth of the Septuagint and Vulgate) was a bluish br 
cerulean purple, obtained from a species of shell-fish found in the Medi- 
terranean. The x>urple proper was a reddish purple obtained from another 
species of shell-fish. The scarlet (including crimson) was a dye produced 
from an insect [coccus ilicis) found in eastern countries. It is generally 
agreed that these colors were inwoven, not embroidered. 

4. Bespecting the arrangement of these curtains there are 
several discordant opinions. "We give, first of all, the common, 
and, as it seems to us, the preferable view : that the two inner- 
most compound curtains, called the tabernacle, were laid across 
the framework of the tabernacle, side by side, and hung down 
without on each of its sides. Being each twenty cubits in width, 
the first would exactly cover the outer sanctuary, so that the line 
of loops and taches, by which it was joined to the second or 
hinder curtain, would come directly over the veil that separated 
the outer from the inner sanctuary. Exod. 26 : 33. One-half of 
the width of the hinder curtain would cover the inner sanctuary ; 
while the remaining ten cubits would hang over the west end of 
the framework, being prevented from reaching the ground by 
the width of the boards, which may be assumed to have been 
not over a quarter of a cubit. The curtains were tw6nty-eight 
cubits in length. Of this about ten and a half cubits would he 
over the sanctuary and the ends of the boards; and the remain- 



THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE. 547 

der would hang down one-half on each side, the ends being 
somewhat more than a cubit from the ground. 

The two compound curtains of goats' hair were next laid on 
so that their line of loops and taches coincided with that of the 
inner curtains. The first of these curtains consisted, as we have 
seen, of six pieces, only five of which were needed to cover the 
outer sanctuary. The sixth superfluous piece was to be doubled 
over in the fore-front of the tabernacle. Exod. 26 : 9. The sa- 
cred record adds (vers. 12, 13) : " And the remnant that remaineth 
of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth" (that 
is, as we understand it, the half of the hindermost compound 
curtain that remains after the innermost sanctuary is covered) 
" shall hang over the back side of the tabernacle. And the cubit 
on the one side, and the cubit on the other side of that which 
remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent" (which were 
thhty cubits long, and therefore just a cubit longer on each side 
than the innermost curtains underneath them) " shall hang over 
the sides of the tabernacle on this side and on that side to cover 
it." We understand by "the tabernacle" in this and the prece- 
ding verse, the innermost curtainj as in vers. 1, 6, 7 ; and thus all 
is plain and consistent. 

Various other arrangements have been assumed, which will 
now be briefly noticed. 

Bahr, Kiel, Fairbairn, and others assume that the innermost curtain 
hung down on (lie inside of the framework, being supported by rows of 
hooks attached to the tops of the boards. Biihr maintains this view on 
various grounds, among which are the following : that the innermost cur- 
tain is often called the inheimacle, as the second is the tent, because, as he 
thinks, it constituted the tabernacle itself, that is, the inside of the same, 
its walls of wood serving only as a framework to support it : and again, 
that the inner sanctuary of Solomon's temple, which was modelled after 
the tabernacle, was cai-ved on the inside with images of cherubim. 1 Kings 
G : 29. We are wilHng to allow due weight to these two considerations. 
But when he argues, further, that since this innermost curtain was the 
most sumptuous and elaborate work of aii; belonging to the tabernacle it 
is unreasonable to suppose that only the part overhead was allowed to be 
visible, he takes a wrong view of the matter. The tabernacle and its fur- 



548 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

niture were not simply works of art, made to please the eye of the be- 
holder, but they contained a holy symbolism. It is necessary that works 
of art should be exposed to full view ; but all that is needful in the case of 
material symbols is that their structure be known, as that of these could 
be from the reading of the law and the reports of the officiating priests. 
The power of symbols is increased by a degree of concealment. In 
truth, the deepest symbol within the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant 
with its overshadowing cherubim, was seen only once a year by the high 
priest ; and the interior of the ark, overlaid as it was with gold, and con- 
taining the two tables of the law, written with the finger of God, was hid 
from even his view. Whatever weight there may be in the above-named 
arguments of Bahr, and others which he adduces, it is, as it seems to us, 
overborne by the plain words of the record above quoted (Exod. 26 : 13), 
which are perfectly natural and intelligible upon the supposition that the 
curtains of goat's hair rested throughout upon the innermost curtains, but 
not otherwise. 

Ferguson, in an elaborate article in Smith's Bible Dictionaiy under the 
word Temple, propounds a pecuHar theory. According to him, the central 
pillar at the front of the tabernacle was fifteen cubits in height, with a 
corresponding pillar at the hind end, and probably an intermediate piUar 
also ; and these piUars sujDported a ridge-pole over which the curtains 
were thrown. Then he places on each side of the tabernacle a verandah, 
five cubits wide. The result is the framework of a roof, the two slopes of 
which are each almost exactly fourteen cubits wide, and meet at right an- 
gles to each other — just width enough to be covered by the innermost cur- 
tains, while the curtains of goats' hair must hang over them on each side 
to the extent of a cubit. He further supposes, contrary to the plain mean- 
ing of the context, that "the middle bar in the midst of the boards," which 
reaches from end to end (Exod. 26:28), is the ridge-pole above noticed, 
understanding the words "in the midst of the boards" to mean not half- 
way between the top and the bottom but halfway between the north and 
the south side ; whereas it is obvious from the connection that this middle 
bar is one of the five bars named in the preceding verse. The main argu- 
ment for this arrangement is that there must be a roof to shed rain and 
snow. It must be conceded that in Palestine, during the rainy season, 
some provision for carrying off water from the roof of the tabernacle was 
necessary. But could not the priests who had charge of it have provided 
for this exigency in some less cumbersome way ? 

"The pins of the tabernacle" (Exod. 27:19; 35:18), which are dis- 
tinguished from "the pins of the court," are apparently the pins used in 
making fast the coverings of the tabernacle which we have been consider- 
ing. The necessity of these, at least for the outer coverings, is obvious. 



THE TABEENACLE AND ITS FUENITUEE. 549 

5. The tabernacle was enclosed in an open court one liundred 
cubits long by fifty in width. The enclosure consisted of curtains 
five cubits high suspended by hooks from pillars resting on sock- 
ets of brass and " filleted mth silver " at the top ; that is, connected 
at the top by fillets or slender silver rods running from one pillar 
to ^another. The curtains were made simply of "fine twined 
linen," with the exception of the gate on the eastern side which 
was twenty cubits wide, and adorned with a rich veil " of blue, 
and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with 
needlework." Exod. 27 : 16. 

The wood of which the pillars were made is not specified. Doubtless 
it was shittim-wood. They had "chapiters," that is, ornamented heads, 
overlaid with silver. Exod. 38 : 19. There were 20 pillars on each side, 
and 10 on each end. This gives 60 x^illars in all, provided the corner-pil- 
lars be each reckoned once only. This is manifestly the true mode of reck- 
oning, since it gives exactly five cubits for the spaces between the pillars. 
If we begin, namely at one corner, and measure around the court, placing 
a pillar for every five cubits of distance, we shall have at the end of the 
circuit, where the last j)illar is j)laced, just 60 in all. 

The position of the tabernacle within the court is not given. It is nat- 
ural to assume, after Philo (Vita Mos., 3, p. 668), that its front was 50 cu- 
bits from the entrance, and that it was equally distant from the north and 
south side. " The tabernacle," says he, "was pitched in the midst [of the 
court] , being thirty cubits long, while its boards had a breadth of ten cu- 
bits. It was equally distant from the coui-t in three directions, those of 
the two sides and that of the hind end, and this distance amounted to 
twenty cubits. But in front, as was suitable on account of the multitude 
of those that entered, there was the larger interval of fifty cubits." 

II. THE FURNITUKE OF THE TABERNACLE. 

6. We begin with the holy of holies. Here was the ark of the 
covenant (Exod. 25 : 10, seq.), so-called because in it were depos- 
ited tlie two tables of the law which contained summarily the 
terms of the covenant made by God with his chosen people. 
Exod. 25 : 16. It was, therefore, the most sacred piece of furni- 
ture belonging to the tabernacle, and above it was, as we shall 
see, the peculiar dwelling-place of Jehovah. The ark was a chest 
of shittim-wood, two and a half cubits long, and a cubit and a 



550 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

a liali iu width and depth. It was overlaid within and without 
with pure gold, and had an ornamental cornice of gold around its 
upper margin. It was further fitted with four gold rings, one at 
each corner, and therefore two on a side. Through these were 
passed two staves of shittim-wood overlaid with gold, by which 
it was borne when the Israehtes journeyed from one place to 
another. The direction concerning these staves, that they " shall 
be in the rings of the ark; they shaU not be taken from it" 
(ver. 15), seems to mean, when compared with Numb. 4: 8, that 
when the ark is in its place in the holy of holies, the staves shall 
be in the rings. They were apparently taken out in the process 
of covering it for removal. 

Above the ark was placed a lid of pure gold, of the same 
length and breadth, which is called in our version, the mercy- 
seat. This expression represents the words employed in the 
Greek and Latin versions, both of which mean place of jpropitia- 
ti'on; and there can be no reasonable doubt that they truly ex- 
press the meaning of the original Hebrew word (kapporeth), a 
term apphed only to this cover of the ark, on and before which 
was sprinkled the blood of propitiation on the great day of 
atonement, to "make propitiation for the holy place, because of 
the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their 
transgressions in all their sins." Lev. 16 : 14-16. Above the 
mercy-seat, at its two ends, were placed the two cherubim, which 
are thus described (Exod. 25 : 18-20) : " And thou shalt make 
two cherubim of gold, of beaten Avork shalt thou make them, at 
the two ends of the mercy-seat. And make thou one cherub at 
the one end and one cherub at the other end. Of the mercy- 
seat shalt thou make the cherubim" (that is, apparently, thou 
shalt make them as inseparable parts of its substance) " at the 
two ends thereof. And the cherubim shall spread forth their 
wings above, covering the mercy-seat with their wings ; and their 
faces shall be towards each other; towards the mercy-seat shall 
the faces of the cherubim be" (that is, their faces shall be to- 
wards each other, and at the same time inclined towards the 
mercy-seat). Hence we infer that the two wings of each cherub 




ARK OF THE COVENANT. 




INCENSE- ALTARS. 



ALTAK OF BUENT-OFFESINGS. 




TABLE OF SHOW-BBEAD. 



GOLDEN CANDLESTICK. 



THE TABEENACLE AND ITS FUENITURE. 551 

were spread upward and forward so as to meet those of the 
other cherub over the middle of the mercy-seat. Different from 
this was the arrangement of the tw^o great cherubim in Solomon's 
temple. 1 Kings, 6 : 27. Between the cherubim over the mercy- 
seat w^as the sheldnah, that is, dwelling-place of Jehovah. See 
further in No. 19 below. 

The mercy-seat, as covering the ark, may be called a lid. But we must 
not conceive of it as simx)ly a cover, and so a mere appendage to the ark. 
On the contrary, it was coordinate with it in importance, constituting with 
it, as we shall seejiereafter, one glorious symbol. The rendering propitia- 
iory, ov place of jyi'opiiiation, is in full accordance with the Hebrew form of 
the word (from the Piel form kipper, to atone). 

The meaning of these cherubic figTires will be considered in another 
place. As to their particular form we have little light. The cherubim of 
Ezekiel's vision (chap. 1) had each four faces — of a man, of a Hon, of an 
ox, and of an eagle. In the book of Revelation (chap. 4) these four faces 
are distributed among the four Uving creatures, one to each. From the 
words of Ezekiel (chap. 10 : 14) : "And every one had four faces ; the first 
face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, 
and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle," 
where "the face of a cherub" manifestly corresponds to "the face of an 
ox" (chap. 1 : 10), we infer that the Hebrew cherub ordinarily had but one 
face, and that the face of an ox. Ideal winged beings were famihar to the 
ancients, as we learn from the EgyjJtian and Assyrian monuments, on 
which appear Avinged men, and quadrupeds with the heads of eagles, 
winged asps, winged buUs Avith human heads, etc. It would seem that 
God took the general idea of winged symbolic beings already known to 
the covenant people, ennobled it, spiritualized it, and removed it from 
aU approach to idolatrous worship). The Egyptians had their sacred arks 
surmounted by winged figures, but containing within a cat, crocodile, or 
serpent, as an object of worship. Clement, of Alexandria, quoted in Wil- 
kinson's Ancient Egyi^tians, 5. 275. But the ark of the covenant contained 
only the Divine law, written on two tables of stone, and hidden from all 
eyes ; and above God dwelt not irillua the cherubim, but between them ; 
not in any material form, but invisible to mortal eyes. 

7. In the outer sanctuary, before the veil that separated it 
from the holy of hohes, stood the table of shoichread on the 
north side, the golden candlestick on the south side, and the 
golden altar of incense between them. Exod. 40 : 22-26. 

In describing these we begin with the golden altar of incense. 



552 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Exod. 30 : 1, seq. This was made of sliittim-wood, a cubit square 
at top and bottom, and two cubits in heiglit, with horns at the 
corners. It was overlaid throughout with gold, and had also a 
golden border round about, underneath which on two opposite 
sides (not corners) were two golden rings for the staves by which 
it was borne. These staves were made of shittim-wood and over- 
laid with gold. Upon this Aaron was commanded to burn in- 
cense every morning and evening when he trimmed the lamps., 
and to make an atonement on the horns of it once a year, on the 
great day of atonement, with the blood of the sin-offerings. It 
was not to be used for any burnt-sacrifice, oblation, or drink- 
offering. Exod. 30 : 7-10 ; Lev. 16 : 18, 19. 

The office of burning incense fell, in process of time, to the regular 
courses of priests, and was determined daily by lot. See on this point 
Lightfoot, on Luke 1:8, 9. 

8. The table of sJiovjhread (Exod. 25 : 23, seq.) was of shittim- 
wood overlaid with gold, a cubit and a half in height, two cubits 
in length, and one in breadth. The border or "enclosing" {mis- 
gerefJi) of a hand-breadth round about (ver. 25), is most natu- 
rally understood of a framework immediately under the leaf of 
the table, which served as a support to the legs, as in our modern 
tables. The border was ornamented with a golden crown round 
about. Whether this was the same as the golden crown to the 
table mentioned in the preceding verse, or the table and its bor- 
der had each a crown, is a point on which the Jewish rabbins are 
not agreed. Each of the feet had a ring of gold for the staves 
by which it was borne. "Over against the border" (rather near 
by the border, being directly under it) "shall the rings be for 
places of the staves to bear the table" (ver. 27). The sacred 
record mentions (ver. 29), as apparatus for the table, four kinds 
of vessels, the exact form of which is uncertain. We may, per- 
haps, render : " dishes, cups, cans, and libation-bowls." 

Upon the table were placed every Sabbath tivelve loaves (Heb., 
Jialldth, calces manifestly of a flat form), which were arranged in 
two rows (Heb., orderings), consisting each of six loaves laid one 



THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE. 553 

upon another, Tvith pure frankincense upon eacli row. When the 
new bread was brought into the sanctuary, the old was removed, 
its frankincense burned for a " a memorial, a fire-offering to Je- 
hovah," and the priests then ate it in the holy place as a most 
holy thing. See Lev. 24 : 5-9. When David and the young men 
that were with him ate of this bread (1 Sam. 21 : 3-6), they vio- 
lated the letter of the law, as the Saviour concedes. Matt.l2 : 4 ; 
Mark 2 : 25, 26. Their justification lay in the exigency of the 
case. Their Hfe was of more value than a rite. Matt. 12 : 7. 

On the Arcli of Titus is a representation of the table of showbread 
belonging to the sacred temple. It has a border ininning round it, but not 
rising above the leaf; also, apparently, the remains of another border 
around the middle of the legs. Since the table was fixed in one place, 
its legs had no rings. 

The bread is called bread of the presence, that is, of Jehovah's presence 
(Exod. 25 : 30 ; 35 : 13 ; 39 : 36 ; 1 Sam. 21 : 7— Eng. version 21 : 6 ;1 Kings 
7 :48 ; 2 Chron. 4 : 19); but in the later books more commonly bread of the 
ordering (1 Chron. 9 : 32 ; 23 : 29 ; Neh. 10 : 34— Eng. version 10:33), or the 
(yrdering of bread (2 Chron. 13 : 11). For its symboUcal meaning, see below. 

Each loaf contained two tenth deals of fine flour (in all probability un- 
leavened, according to the Jewish tradition). If, as seems natural, we 
understand here two tenth parts of an ephah (which is generally reckoned 
at about three pecks), we shall find that the loaves were of great size, and 
that no other an-angement was practicable except that given by the rab- 
bins — an arrangement in two joiles. 

9. The golden candlestick, so called (Exod. 25 : 31, seq.), was a 
lamp-stand consisting of an upright shaft (Heb., Imne), resting 
upon a pedestal (ijarehli). This shaft, with its lamp at the top, 
is the part repeatedly called the candlestick (menorah) in the de- 
scription. From it there branched out at intervals three pairs of 
shafts, which we are to conceive of as curving upward, with a 
lamp at the summit of eacli, making seven lamps in all. It is 
expressly said that three branches came out of the one side of 
the upright shaft, and three out of the other — the opposite side 
(ver. 32) ; so that the seven lamps formed a line, which we may 
assume to have been level with the horizon. Each branch was 
ornamented with three almond-like bowls, with a knob and a 
flower (ver. 33) ; where we are to understand a knob and a flower 



654: BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

for eacli bowl, since that was the arrangement in the main shaft 
(ver. 34). An ahnond-hke bowl probably means a bowl made 
Hke the flower of an almond. The knobs were ball-hke protu- 
berances. The rabbins call them apples ; Josephus, pomegranates. 
The main shaft had four bowls with their knobs and flowers. 
One knob was under each pair of branches, and the fourth ap- 
parently above them, immediately under the lamp. To the can- 
dlestick belonged two instruments, which may be rendered smff- 
fers (Eng. version tongs, for the same use) and snuff-dishes. The 
size of the candlestick was sufficiently determined by the direc- 
tion : " Of a talent of gold shall it be made with all these vessels" 
(ver. 39). "From this mass of gold a lamp-stand made hollow 
could be formed -of considerable size." Keil, on Exod. 25 : 39. 

The golden candlestick is also exhibited, though in an imperfect condi- 
tion, on' the arch of Titus. It conforms in general to the above descrip- 
tion. Surprise has been expressed at the existence on the pedestal of this 
lamp of eagles and marine monsters ; and this fact has been thought to 
cast suspicion on the accuracy of the copy. But under the auspices of 
Herod the Great, who virtually rebuilt the temple, such figures may have 
been allowed, being regarded simply as ornaments. 

10. In the court in front of the tabernacle were the hro,- 
Ken altar for sacrifice (Exod. 27 : 1, seq.) and the lave7^ (Exod. 
80:17, seq.). 

The brazen altar, called also the altar of burnt offering (Exod. 
40 : 10), was a hollow frame of shittim-wood, ^yo cubits square 
and three cubits high, with horns at the four corners. It was 
overlaid throughout with brass. The sacred record adds (Exod. 
27:4, 5) : " And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass ; 
and thou shalt make upon the network four rings of brass upon 
its four corners. And thou shalt put it under the circuit" (Heb., 
karkobJi, a margin or projecting ledge running round the altar) " of 
the altar beneath, and the network shall be unto " (shall reach 
unto) "the liaK of the altar" (that is, the liaK of the altar in 
height, or the middle of the altar). Some have supposed that 
this grate of network was placed within the altar as a receptacle 
for the wood of the sacrifice. But in this case it could not well 



THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE. 555 

have been sunk halfway down ; and besides it contained the rings 
for the staves by which the altar was borne (vers. 6, 7), a decisive 
proof that it was ivUJiout the altar. Of those who adopt *this 
latter view, some, as Jonathan (in his Targum), make the grate 
horizontal. But the more common opinion is that the projecting 
ledge around the middle of the altar was horizontal, and of a 
width sufficient to allow the priests to walk on it in their minis- 
trations ; while the network ran around the altar parallel to its 
four sides, and extended upward from the ground on wiiich it 
rested to the outer margin of the ledge, thus furnishing a sup- 
port to it. Compare the two offsets or terraces (Eng. version, 
settles) of the altar in Ezekiel's vision (chap. 43:13-17). The 
prohibition to go up by steps to God's altar was on the ground 
of decorum (Exod. 20 : 26), and did not forbid ascent by a slope. 
By such a sloping ascent the priests ascended, according to Jose- 
plius (Jewish War, 5. 5. 6), to the altar of Herod's temple, wliich 
was fifteen cubfts high. 

The interior of the altar, bemg empty in journeying, was fiUed 
with earth whenever the people encamped; and this was, as 
Jarclii remarks (on Exod. 27 : 5) the very altar of earth prescribed 
by God himself, the framework of boards serving simply to hold 
the earth on which the wood and the victim were laid. 

The apparatus for the altar consisted of pans to receive the 
ashes, shovels, basins for receiving and sprinkling the blood of the 
y iGiim.^, flesli-hooJiS, for tending the sacrifices, smd Jlre-pans ; all of 
brass. 

11. The directions for making the lavey^ (Exod. 30 : 17, seq.) 
are of the most general kind. " Thou shalt also make a laver of 
brass, and its foot " (Heb., kanno, its base) " of brass ; and thou shalt 
put it between the tabernacle of the congTegation and the altar, 
and thou shalt put water therein. And Aaron and his sons shall 
wash their feet therefrom" (that is, manifestly, with water drawn 
therefrom). "When they go into the ta\?ernacle of the congrega- 
tion, they shall wash with water that they die not ; or when they 
come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire 
unto the Lord." It has been suggested with much probability, 

■ 



556 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

that the base was itself receiver for water drawn from the laver 
above, and that here the priests washed. 

In Exod. 38 : 8 we are told that Bezaleel ' ' made the laver of brass, and 
its base of brass, with the mirrors of the assembHng women who assem- 
bled" (or, the serving women who served, as in 1 Sam. 2 :22) "at the door 
of the tabernacle of the congregation." The common understanding of 
these words, namely, that the laver and its base were made from the mir- 
rors, is preferable to that of Bahr and others : "he made the laver of brass, 
and its base of brass with the mirrors of the women ;" that is, having made 
the utensil of brass, he furnished it with "mirrors of the women." But 
to what end would this be done ? 

12. We bring our account of the furniture of the tabernacle 
to a close by a notice of the liolij anointing oil and the holy sioeet 
incense. 

For the anointing oil Moses is directed to take, according to 
the most probable rendering of the original (Exod. 30 : 23, seq.), 
"spices the most excellent, pure myrrh" (literally, myrrh that 
flows of its own accord, which was regarded as, the best) " five 
hundred [shekels] ; and fragrant cinnamon half as much, two 
hundred and fifty [shekels] ; and sweet, calamus, two hundred 
and fifty [shekels] ; and cassia" (Heb., kefsiaJi, a bark resembling 
cinnamon), "five hundred [shekels], after the shekel of the sanc- 
tuary; and of olive oil a hin" (about five quarts, the shekel being 
about half an ounce avoirdupois). Of these a holy anointing oil 
was to be made " after the art of the apothecary," to be employed 
exclusively in consecrating the sanctuary and its furniture, and 
the high priest and his sons. All compounds hke it for private 
use were forbidden on pain of death. 

13. For the composition of the sweet incense, the direction 
was (Exod. 30:34, seq.): "Take unto thee sweet spices; stacte" 
(either the gum-resin of myrrh, or a species of storax gum-resin), 
"and onycha" (the shell of a species of muscle, which, when 
burned, emits a musky odor; but some, as Jarchi, understand 
the Hebrew word to signify an aromatic root of some kind), " and 
galbanum " (a resinous substance of a strong odor, but whether 
the gum-resin called galbanum by us is doubtful) ; " these sweet 



THE TABEENACLE AND ITS FURNITURE. 557 

spices and pure frankincense" (the well-known fragrant gum- 
resin of India); "of each shall there be a like weight" (or, each 
part sliall be prepared separately). "And thou shalt make it an 
incense, a composition after the art of the apotliecary, salted, 
pure, and holy. And thou shalt beat some of it small, and put 
some of it before the testimony, in the tent of the congregation 
where I will meet with thee ; it shall be unto you most holy." 
As in the case of the holy anointing oil, the people were forbid- 
den to make any composition like it for private use, under pen- 
alty of death. This was the sweet incense burned on the golden 
altar. 

III. REMOVAL OF THE TABERNACLE AND ITS 
FURNITURE. 

14. "God is not the author. of confusion," says the apostle; 
and upon this he grounds the precept : " Let all things be done 
decently, and in order" (1 Cor. 14 : 33, 40) — a precept by which 
he carried over into the Christian congregations the great prin- 
ciple of order that pervaded the old Mosaic economy. All the 
arrcnujcmenfsfor tJie journeying of the Israelitics in the wilderness, 
and for the transfer of the tabernacle and its furniture from place 
to place, were marked by the same order and decorum that pre- 
vailed in the ritual of religious service. First, in the inner cir- 
cle, immediately around the tabernacle and its court, pitched 
the priests and Levites. Then, in the outer circle, the tribes 
pitched in a prescribed order — on the east side, Judah, Issachar, 
and Zebulun ; on the south side, Eeuben, Simeon, and Gad ; on 
the west side, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin ; on the north 
side, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali (Numb., chap. 2) ; and every un- 
clean person was removed without the Hmits of the camp (Numb. 
5 : 1-4). Two silver trumpets were provided " for the calling of 
the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps;" and the 
manner of blowing them for each of thiese purposes was pre- 
scribed. Numb. 10 : 1, seq. When the congregation journeyed 
the order was : first, the three tribes that pitched on the east 
side ; then the Levites belonging to the families of Gershon and 
Merari with the tabernacle (see below) ; next, the three tribes of 



558 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

the soutli side ; after them the Levites of the families of Kohath, 
with the sanctuary (see below) ; then the three tribes of the west 
side; and, finally, the three tribes of the north side. Numb., 
chap. 10. 

15. Every priestly function belonged to Aaron and his sons ; 
while the Levites were solemnly presented before them that they 
might minister to them and " do the service of the tabernacle." 
Numb. 3 : 5-13. The several parts of this service were distrib- 
uted among them in an orderly way, as follows : 

Before the tabernacle on the east side, which was the most 
honorable place, pitched Moses and Aaron and Ms so7is, " keeping 
the charge of the sanctuary. Numb. 3 : 38. The record adds 
(Numb. 4 : 16) that " to the office of Eleazar the son of Aaron the 
priest pertaineth the oil for the light, and the sweet incense, and 
the daily oblation" (unbloody offering), "and the anointing oil; 
the oversight of all the tabernacle, and of all that therein is, in 
the sanctuary and in its vessels." This work, as also the super- 
vision of the Kohathites, was laid upon him as chief of all the 
Levites, Numb. 3 : 32. 

The next place in dignity, as we infer from the order in which 
the tribes marched, was the south side ; and here accordingly 
were stationed the Kohathites, who had charge of the most sa- 
cred things — "the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and 
the altars" (the golden altar and the brazen altar, probably the 
laver also), " and the vessels of the sanctuary wherewith they 
minister, and the hanging" (the inner veil that separated the 
holy of holies from the outer sanctuary), " and all the service 
thereof." Numb. 3 : 31. 

Next in order were the Gershonites, behind the tabernacle on 
the west side. They had charge of all the curtains and cover- 
ings pertaining to the tabernacle and its court, with the excep- 
tion of the inner veil above specified ; and also of the cords be- 
longing to the curtain for the door of the court. Numb. 3 : 25, 26. 

The sons of Merari pitched on the north side of the taber- 
nacle, and to them was assigned the heaviest service — the boards, 
bars, pillars, and sockets of the tabernacle, with all the imple- 



THE TABEKNAOLE AND ITS FUENITURE. r^iji) 

ments pertaining to them ; also the pillars of the court, with their 
sockets, pins, and cords. Numb. 3 : 36, 37. 

To the sons of Gershon were given, for their part of the ser- 
vice, two wagons and four oxen ; to the sons of Merari, four wag- 
ons and eight oxen. The sons of Kohath had no oxen or wag- 
ons, as they bare upon their shoulders the burdens assigned to 
them. Numb. 7 : 6-9. 

16. Although the Kohathites were the bearers of the most 
holy things, the work of 2^^('pctr{ng iJiem for removal belonged to 
the priests alone. The Kohathites were not permitted to enter 
the sanctuary or to see when the holy things were covered, under 
penalty of death. Numb. 4 : 18-20. They were most beautiful 
and precious ; but they were not mere works of art made to be 
gazed upon and admired. They were shadows of good things 
to come hidden from all eyes but those of the officiating priests. 
Undoubtedly their sacredness was enhanced in the minds of the 
people by their perpetual concealment. But this can hardly 
have been the only end proposed by the divine wisdom. " The 
heavenly things themselves," of which they were "figures" (Heb. 
9 : 23, 24), w^ere as yet mysteries awaitmg their explanation in 
the fulness of time ; and it was most suitable that the types 
themselves should be covered from the eyes of the multitude. 
Of this principle we have a significant hint in the epistle to the 
Hebrews (9 : 7, 8) : " Into the second " (the inner sanctuary) " en- 
ters the high priest alone once a year, not without blood, which 
he offers for himself and for the errors of the people ; the Holy 
Ghost this signifying that the way into the most holy place is 
not yet made manifest, while the first tabernacle is yet standing." 

A solemn majesty pervades the directions given to the priests in the 
fourth chai)ter of Numbers for the jDrexDaration of these articles. AVhen the 
camp sets forward, Aaron and his sons are to cover the ark with the veil 
that hangs before it, put upon it a covering of badgers' skins, spread over 
this a cloth wholly blue, and put in its staves. Upon the table of sliow- 
bread they are to spread a cloth of blue, i)ut upon it all the vessels belong- 
ing to it with the showbread, spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, put over 
tliis a covering of badgers' skins, and put in its staves. The candlestick, 
with its oil-vessels and all the implements belonging tc it, is to be wrapped 



560 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

in a cloth of blue ; this is to be put in a covering of badgers' skins, and 
the whole put upon a bar. The golden altar is to be covered first with a 
cloth of blue, then with a covering of badgers' skins, and its staves put in 
order. "All the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in the 
sanctuary," are to be j)ut in a cloth of blue, covered with a covering of 
badgers' skins, and put on a bar. After they have cleansed the brazen 
altar of its ashes, they are to spread a purple cloth upon it, lay upon this 
all its implements, spread over the whole a covering of badgers' skins, and 
lout its staves in order. No directions are given for the removal of the 
laver. The reader will notice that every article of furniture pertaining to 
the sanctuary was covered externally with badgers' skins, except the ark of 
the covenant. This was distinguished from all the rest by a covering 
wholly of blue, perhaps as an emblem of the heavenly firmament where 
God resides, his earthly dweUing-place being between the cherubim that 
overshadoAved the ark. 

It is to be understood that u^Don encamping the Kohathites dehvered 
the holy things again to Aaron and his sons, to be by them set in order. 
No particular directions are given for the two other divisions of the Le- 
vites, the sons of Gershon and Merari. It is simply said that they are 
to act "under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the ]3riest." Vers. 
28, 33. 

IV. SYMBOLISM OF THE TABERNACLE AND ITS 
FURNITURE. 

17. The Mosaic economy in all its parts was " a shadow of 
good things to come." Heb. 10 : 1. We have in this declara- 
tion of God's word the key to the symboHcal meaning of the 
tabernacle with its various appointments. It represented not 
wliat we render to God by our services, but the good things 
which he has provided for us in the plan of redemption, and 
which he bestows upon his sincere worshippers through the ordi- 
nances of his own appointment. Radically erroneous is the view 
which regards the sacrifices, oblations, and showbread as mere 
scenic representations of the proyision which the servants of a 
monarch are accustomed to make for his table ; the sweet in- 
cense as an emblem of the homage paid to him, etc. " God is 
not worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, 
seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and aU things." He does, 
indeed, require us to worship him with reverence and godly fear 



THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FUENITURE. 561 

through the ordinances which he has appointed ; but it is that 
we may be the receivers, not the givers. 

In endeavoring to unfold the symbohsm of the tabernacle and 
its furniture, it is best to avoid minute details ; such, for exam- 
ple, as the meaning of the different colors in its curtains. "When 
we go into these particulars, without a warrant from some indi- 
cation of Scripture, we are in danger of substituting our own 
ingenious speculations for the mind of the Holy Spirit. In types, 
as in parables, the meaning often hes in a figure taken as a whole, 
not in the dissection of its parts. 

18. The tabernacle as a luliole was God's earthly dwelling- 
place. "Let them make me," said he (Exod. 25 : 8), "a sanctu- 
ary ; that I may dwell among them." But God's true residence 
is in heaven, as the Scripture affirms in hundreds of places. 
The material tabernacle, made with men's hands, was then a ty]:e 
of GocVs iahernacle ahove not made with hands. This idea is 
exhibited with much beauty and force in the epistle to the He- 
brews. The Jewish high priest went once every year into the 
earthly holy of holies with the blood of bulls and goats, which he 
sprinkled upon and before the mercy-seat to make expiation for 
the sins of the people. Heb. 9 : 7 compared with Lev. 16 : 14, 15. 
With reference to this solemn rite the sacred penman says (Heb. 
9 : 11, 12) : " Christ having come, a high priest of good things to 
come " (a high priest through whose mediation we receive those 
very "good things to come" which were shadowed forth in the 
office of the Jewish high priest), "entered, once for all, through 
the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, 
that is to say, not of this creation" (not belonging to this mate- 
rial creation); "neither through the blood of goats and calves" 
(as a medium of approach), "but through his own blood, into 
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." As 
the Jewish high priest went, year by year, through the earthly 
sanctuary into the material holy of holies with the blood of 
bulls and goats, to make there in the presence of God, who 
dwelt between the cherubim, a typical expiation for the sins of 
the people ; so Christ has gone, once for all, through the heav- 

2 * 



562 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

enly tabernacle into tlie true holy of holies, to present before liis 
Father's throne his own blood as a perfect expiation for the sins 
of his people, thus obtaining eternal redemption for them. Again ; 
the same writer, having referred to the fact that " almost all things 
are, according to the law, purified in blood" (by means of blood), 
"and without shedding of blood remission does not take place" 
(Heb. 9 : 22), goes on to say (vers. 23, 24) : " It was therefore 
necessary that the patterns" (representations or types) "of things 
in the heavens" (that is, of the heavenly tabernacle with its high 
reahties) "should be purified with these" (with the blood of 
material victims), " but the heavenly things themselves with bet- 
ter sacrifices than these. For Christ entered not into holy places 
made with hands" (such as the earthly tabernacle with its outer 
and inner sanctuary), "which are figures of the true" (the true 
heavenly tabernacle), "but into heaven itself" (which is the true 
tabernacle of God), " now to appear before God's face in our 
behalf." 

The admonition to Moses (Exod. 25:40 and elsewhere): "And look 
that thou make them after the pattern which was showed thee in the 
mount," refers, apparently, to a representation made to Moses in vision, 
after which he was to make the tabernacle with its furniture. This vision 
was an adumbration of heavenly realities in forms drawn from earthly 
things ; so that the tabernacle itself, with its appointments, being modelled 
after it, was "a shadow of heavenly things." Heb. 8:5. It is not neces- 
sary to adopt the gross Jewish idea of an actual heavenly temple or taber- 
nacle after which the earthly tabernacle was to be made. 

19. The tabernacle was God's earthly dwelling-place. We 
may call it the palace of the heavenly king. But a king's palace 
has its audience-chamber, where he receives those who are per- 
mitted to come into his presence. In the Mosaic tabernacle the 
Shekmah, that is, the dicelling-place of Jehovah, was within the 
veil in the inner sanctuary, betw^een the wings of the cherubim 
that overshadowed the mercy-seat. This we learn from the 
original direction for the construction of the ark (Exod. 25 : 21, 
22): "And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; 
and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony" (the two tables of 
stone containing the ten commandments) " that I shall give thee. 



THE TABERNACLE AND ITS EUENITUEE. 5G3 

And there will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee 
from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which 
are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give 
thee in charge unto the children of Israel." In accordance with 
these words God repeatedly promised that he would meet with 
Moses at the mercy-seat (Exod. 30 : 36 ; Lev. 16 : 2 ; Numb. 
17 : 4) ; and after the dedication of the tabernacle and altar it is 
recorded that " when Moses w^ent into the tent of the congrega- 
tion to speak with him " (that is, with God), " he heard the voice 
of one speakmg unto him from off the mercy-seat that was upon 
the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim ; and 
he spake unto him" (Numb. 7 : 89). Hence Jehovah is described 
in the Old Testament as he who dwells between the cherubim. 
1 Sam. 4 : 4; 2 Sam. 6 : 2 ; 2 Kings 19 : 15 ; Isa. 37 : 16 ; Psa. 
80 : 1 ; 99 : 1. In the ark beneath the mercy-seat were the two 
tables of the divine law, God's presence overshadowing them 
and keeping them inviolate. This signified that God is the foun- 
tain of law, and that they who approach him must come to him 
as a holy lawgiver, in a reverential and obedient spirit. 

We have retained the expression of our version, tahernade of the congre- 
gation, though the rendering, tabernacle of meeting, would be more appro- 
priate. The meaning of the words can be gathered from a passage in the 
book of Exodus (chap. 29 : 42-45), of which we give the Hteral rendering : 
"It shall be a perxDetual burnt-offering tlu*ougliout your generations at 
the door of the tent of meeting before Jehovah, where I will meet with 
you to speak unto thee there. And I will meet there with the children 
of Israel, and it [the tabernacle] shall be sanctified by my glory. And I 
will sanctify the tent of meeting, and the altar : Aaron also and his sons 
will I sanctify to minister to me as priests. And I will dwell among the 
children of Israel, and I will be to them for a God." From these words it 
is plain that, as the tabernacle itself is caUed a dwelling-place (Heb. , mish- 
kan) because God dwells in it, so also is it called the tent of meeting (some- 
times more fully, tahei^acle of the tent of meeting, Exod. 40 : 6, 29), as being 
the place where God meets and communes with his servants. 

The cherubim appear everywhere as the ministers of God's will. Gen. 
3 : 24 ; Ezek. , chaps. 1, 10 ; Rev. , chap. 4, seq. The cherubim of Ezekiel's 
vision arc tlie bearers of God's throne. They have four fronts — a repre- 
sentation of the universality of their ministrations — and thoy move instan- 
taneously in any required direction, according to the will of the divine 



561 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Spirit that iDervades tliem, going and returning like a flash of lightning. 
Their appearance is like burning coals of fire, and they have each four 
faces — the faces of the four beings that stand severally at the head of the 
four orders of hving beings, according to the HebreY>^ division — ^by which 
seems to be represented the combination in them of aU that is excellent in 
created life. The four living creatures (that is, cherubim) of John's vision 
have the four faces distributed among them ; and they, like the wheels in 
Ezekiel's vision, are- full of eyes — the symbol of intelligence. They are 
"in the midst of the throne and round about the throne," ascribing glory 
to God, and executing his purposes. Chap. 6 : 1, 3, 5, 7 ; 15 : 7. What 
now do they represent ? Are they the heavenly powers exclusively, as in 
the expression, "the Lord of hosts"? or the representation of '* all that 
has life on earth " (Hengstenberg on the Ai3ocalypse, 4:6)? or something 
more comprehensive — the representation of all created living beings in heav- 
en and on earth, as standing under God's absolute control and ministering 
to his will ? This last seems to us the preferable view. 

The cherubim that overshadow the mercy- seat have their faces looking 
towards each other, consequently towards Jehovah who dwells between 
them above the ark. Their faces are also bowed towards the mercy-seat. 
This may represent either simply the posture of adoration, or the reveren- 
tial contemplation of that w^hich the ark contains. The symbolism of the 
cherubic figures upon the inner curtains of the tabernacle (Exod. 26 : 1), 
and upon the inner veil of the sanctuary (Exod. 26 :31), is for substance 
the same as that of the cherubim upon the mercy-seat. 

20. In the outer sanctuary, before the veil that separated it 
from the holy of hoHes, stood, as we have seen, on the south 
side the golden 'candlestick with its seven lamps, and on the 
north side the table of showbread with its twelve loaves. These 
typified the light and the life that come from God's presence 
through the ordinances of his appointment; and, since the end 
of all these ordinances is the exhibition to our understanding 
and heart of Jesus Christ crucified, they typified Christ as the 
light of the world and the bread of life. Between them stood 
the golden altar, on which the priests burned sweet incense every 
morning and evening before the Lord. The burning of sweet in- 
cense is a natural symbol of prayer. In the book of Eevelation 
(chap. 5 : 8) the sweet incense (Eng. version sweet odors) is ex- 
pressly defined to be "the prayers of the saints." In accordance 
with this view, the psalmist prays (Psa. 141 : 2) : " Let my prayer 



THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITUEE. 5G5 

be set forth before lliee as iiicense ; and the liftmg up of my hands 
as the evening sacrifice;" where the ascent to heaven of both the 
incense and the sacrifice in fire and smoke is a natural symbol 
of presentation to God. But in the present instance it is the 
priest who typifies Christ, interceding by the sweet incense in 
behalf of God's people, so that the act is a solemn representation 
of Christ's intercession, by which the prayers of behevers are 
made acceptable to God. Compare Eev. 8 : 3-5, where the in- 
cense makes "the prayers of all the saints" acceptable to God, 
as is indicated by the symbolical transaction in ver. 5. There 
fire taken from the altar of SAveet incense is cast upon the earth, 
signifying that God is preparing to answer "the prayers of all 
the saints " by judgments upon their persecutors. 

The symbolism of the outer and inner veil of the sanctuar}-, 
as also of the altar and laver, will be considered in connection 
with that of the Aaronic priesthood and sacrifices. 

21. For the symbohsm of the materials employed in the con- 
struction of the tabernacle and its furniture, the reader is referred 
to what is said in the Companion to the Bible, Chap. 37, No. 8, 
under the head of ritual types. It is there shown (1) that the 
general preciousness of the materials shadowed forth the excel- 
lence of God's service, and, by necessary consequence, the sacred- 
ness of man's obhgation to give to God the best of all that he 
has ; (2) that the gradation so carefully observed in respect to 
the costliness and splendor of the materials was made upon the 
principle that God's presence constituted the glory of the taber- 
nacle ; and that the closer the relation which its parts bore to 
him, the greater was the glory with which they w^ere invested. 

22. Finally, when the tabernacle was reared up and conse- 
crated by anointing it with the holy oil (Exod. 40 : 9-11), the pillar 
of cloud, the symbol of Jehovah's presence, " covered the tent of 
the congregation, and the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle. 
And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congrega- 
tion, because the cloud dwelt upon it, and the glory of Jehovah 
filled the tabernacle." Exod. 40 : 34, 35 ; Numb. 9 : 15 ; and coni- 
l)are 1 Kings 8 : 10, 11 ; 2 Chron. 5 : 13 ; 7:2; Isa. G : 4 ; Kev. 



566 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

15 : 8. This same cloud, the symbol of God's presence, guided 
the Israehtes in their journeyings throughout their forty years' 
pilgrimage in the wilderness. " When the cloud was taken up from 
upon the tent, then after that the children of Israel journeyed ; 
and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of 
Israel encamped." "Whether it were two days or a month or a 
longer time, while the cloud prolonged its dwelling upon the tab- 
ernacle, the children of Israel abode in camp and did not jour- 
ney; but when it was taken up they journeyed " (Numb. 9:17, 
22) — a blessed symbol of the guidance which God vouchsafes to 
his church, and to every true member of it, in the journey to the 
heavenly Canaan. 

The word sTiekinali signifies simjoly dwelling-place ; but inasmuch as Je- 
hovah's visible dwelling was in a cloud amid the brightness of fire (Exod. 
19 : 9, 16, 18 ; 20 : 18, 21 ; 24 : 16-18; 40 : 38 ; etc.), the term was employed 
by the later Jews to express his manifested presence in a cloud between 
the wings of .the cherubim that overshadowed the ark. That there was such 
a manifestation in Moses' day is plain from the words of God to Moses 
(Lev. 16:2): "Speak unto Aaron, thy brother, that he come not at all 
times into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy-seat which is 
upon the ark ; that he die not ; for I wiU appear in the cloud upon the 
mercy-seat." How constant was this appearance during the continuance of. 
the ark, we will not venture to affirm. AU are agreed that it was wanting 
in the second temple which had not the ark. 



PRIESTHOOD, SACRIFICES AND OBLATIONS. 567 

CHAPTEE XXIX. 

The Priesthood, Sacrifices, and Oblations. 

1. The Aaronic priestliood, with its sacrifices and oblations, 
is considered in the Companion to the Bible, Chap. 37, and to this 
the reader is referred. We simply recapitulate the essential 
points relating to the priesthood and sacrifices. 

The Levitical priests fyjoified Christ (1) in their possession of 
of the same common human nature as those in whose behalf they 
acted (Heb. 2 : 11, 14, 17, 18 ; 4 : 15 ; 5 : 1, 2) ; (2) in the fact that 
they were ajjjjointed to their office by God (Heb. 5 : 4-6) ; (3) in 
then' being mediators letiveen God and the 2jeople, not in a general 
way, but (4) through the propitiatory sacrifices which they were 
ordained to offer. Heb. 5 : 1 ; 7 : 27 ; 8 : 3 ; 9 : 12-28 ; 10 : 10-14. 

The points of dissimilarity between the Levitical priests and 
Christ, their great Antitype, by which the superior dignity and 
efficacy of his priesthood were illustrated, are : (1) that they were 
sinners, needing to offer sacrifice first for their own sins, and 
then for the sins of the people (Heb. 5 : 3), while he was " holy, 
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than 
the heavens" (Heb. 7:26); (2) that they were many, "because 
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death," but he, 
"because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood" 
(Heb. 7 : 23, 24) ; (3) that then- offerings, being only typical, could 
not make a true expiation for sin, and therefore needed to be 
continually repeated, while Christ by his one offermg, "perfected 
for ever them that are sanctified" — perfected them in respect to 
the expiation of sin, which is the foundation on which the work 
of personal sanctification rests. Heb. 10 : 11, 12. 

Mediatorship between God and man through propitiatory 
sacrifice constitutes the essence of priestliood. It is a false and 
mischievous idea that there can be true mediating priests under 
the Christian dispensation. The very supposition of their neces- 



568 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

sity is an affront to the all-sufficient priesthood and sacrifice of 
Christ. Believers — all behevers, people as well as ministers — 
are "a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices," "the sac- 
rifice of praise to God continually" (1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 13:15), 
and these figurative sacrifices are the only ones known to the 
New Testament. 

In respect to sacrifices, the essential idea is making atonement 
for sin hy hlood. " It is the blood that maketh an atonement for 
the soul." Lev. 17 : 10, 11. The reason that the blood makes 
atonement is that "the life of the flesh is in the blood." The life 
of an innocent victim is offered to God instead of the hfe of the 
sinner, and God accepts it as a vicarious propitiation. The sac- 
rifices of the Mosaic ritual were of various classes, each class 
having its own accessory idea ; but underlying them all was the 
fundamental idea of proioitiation through hlood. In the Levitical 
sacrifices the propitiation w^as typical ; in the sacrifice of Christ 
a true atonement was made for sin. 

"We add some remarks pertaining to the Levitical priesthood, 
to the sacrifices and oblations, and to the priests and Levites 
considered as distinct parts of the Hebrew commonwealth. 

I. THE AAKONIC PKIESTHOOD. 

2. In the last terrible plague that befell Egypt, all the first- 
born of man and beast were slain ; while among the Israehtes 
they were preserved by the sprinkling of the blood of the pas- 
chal lamb. Exod. 12 : 7, 13. In view of this deliverance, God 
claimed all the fkst-born of man and beast as his own in a spe- 
cial sense. Exod. 13 : 2. Afterwards he took the Levites and 
their cattle instead of the first-born of man and beast among the 
other tribes. "Take the Levites instead of all the first-born 
among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites in- 
stead of their cattle ; and the Levites shall be mine : I am the 
Lord." Numb. 3 : 45 ; and see chap. 8. Erom the tribe of Levi, 
thus set apart for the special service of Jehovah, God took Aaron 
and his sons for the priesthood (Exod. 28 : 1), giving them the 



PEIESTHOOD, SACEiriCES, AND OBLATIONS. 5^',i) 

tiibe of Levi for their attendants. The whole arrangement is 
given in the following words (Numb. 3 : 6-10) : " Bring the tribe 
of Levi near, and present them before i^aron, the priest, that 
they may minister unto him. And they shall keep his chaige, 
and the charge of the whole congregation" (charge, in the sense 
of duties with which they are charged in behalf of Aaron and 
the congregation) " before the tent of the congregation, to do the 
service of the congregation. And they shall keep all the instru- 
ments of the tent of the congregation" (that is, the tabernacle 
itself, Avith all its furniture), " and the charge of the children of 
Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle. And thou shalt give 
the Levites unto Aaron and his sons ; they are wholly given unto 
him out of the children of Israel. And thou shalt appoint Aaron 
and his sons, and they shall wait on their priestly office ; and the 
stranger" (that is, one "not of the seed of Aaron," Numb. 16 : 40) 
"that Cometh nigh" (nigh to the sanctuary to perform any 
priestly function) "shall be put to death." "No man," says the 
writer to the Hebrews (chap. 5:4), "taketh this honor unto 
himself, but he that is called of God, as w^as Aaron." 

The office of high priest descended from Aaron in the line of Eleazar, the 
eldest of his two surviving sons. Numb. 20 : 22-28. Afterwards it was, for 
some unknown reason, transferred to the line of Ithamar ; for we find Eli 
and his descendants, who belonged to that line (1 Sam. 14 : 3, compared 
with 1 Sam. 22 : 9, 20 ; and 1 Chron. 24 : 3) executing the office of high 
priest till Solomon's time, who put Zadok, of the line of Eleazar (1 Chron. 
24 : 3), in the jolace of Abiathar, a descendant of Eli. 1 Kings 2 : 27. 

3. Aaron and his sons having been thus taken from among 
the children of Israel to minister in the priest's office, they were 
inducted iato it with great solemnity. First of all, Moses was 
directed to make for them "holy garments for glory and for 
beauty." Exod. 28 : 2, seq. Those of Aaron, the high priest, are 
very fully described. Leaving to the commentators the minute 
details of the description, we give as concisely as possible the 
general idea of the different parts of his official robes. 

4. Of these the ephod, with the breastplate attached to it, was 
the outermost. It was made of the richest materials — "gold" 



570 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

(that is, golden threads woven into its texture, Exod. 39 : 3), " and 
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen." Exod. 28 : 5, 6. 
As to form, it consisted of two pieces reaching down, according 
to Jewish writers, to the middle of the thighs ; one piece cover- 
ing the fore part of the body and the other the back. The two 
shoulder-pieces (vers.- 7, 12) appear to have been strips attached 
to the right and left border of the upper part of the ephod, and 
extending above over the shoulders, thus connecting the two 
pieces of the ephod. On each of the shoulder-pieces, directly 
over the shoulder, was an onyx-stone, set in an ouch, or socket, 
of gold. These were graven with the names of the twelve chil- 
dren of Israel, six in each stone, according to the order of their 
birth, that Aaron might " bear their names before the Lord on 
his two shoulders for a memorial" (ver. 12). The ephod had 
also a girdle of the same texture — gold, and blue, and purple, 
and scarlet, and fine twined linen ; which appears to have con- 
sisted of two lateral straps passing around the body, by which 
the two parts of the ephod were kept each in its place. 

Some writers represent that the onyx-stone ouches served also for 
clasps or buttons to fasten together the two halves of the ephod. But the 
Hebrew text ascribes to them no such office. It simply states that they 
were stones of memorial (ver. 12), leaving us at liberty to assume that the 
shoulder-pieces passed over the shoulders beyond the onyx-stones to form 
a connection with the hinder part of the ephod. As to the ouches and 
chains of gold mentioned in vers, 13, 14, they seem to be the same as those 
described in vers. 22-25. 

5. The breastplate of judgment was made of the same rich 
materials as the ephod. The direction, " Foursquare shall it be, 
being doubled; a span" (half a cubit) "shall be the length 
thereof, and a span the breadth thereof" (ver. 16), leads natu- 
rally, though not necessarily, to the idea that the breastplate 
was a bag or pouch half a cubit square. On its front were placed 
twelve preqious stones in four rows, three in each row. The 
stones were set in gold, and engraven with the names of the 
twelve children of Israel. "And Aaron," says the sacred rec- 
ord, " shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breast^ 



PRIESTHOOD, SACEIFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 571 

plate of judgment upon liis heart, when he goeth in unto the 
holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually" (ver. 
29). The size of the breastplate corresponded yery nearly with 
the open space between the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod. 
In its two upper corners were two rings of gold with golden 
chains of wreathen work, which were fastened at then- other end 
to ouches in the upper part of the shoulder-piece's. In its two 
lower corners, on the inside next to the ephod, were also two 
rings of gold mth ribbons of blue (hyacinthine purple) attached 
at then' other end to golden rings placed in the low^er margin of 
the shoulder-pieces just above the girdle of the ephod. Thus 
was the breastplate held firmly in its place. 

The following literal rendering of vers. 26-28 may help to make the 
description of the lower fastenings of the breastplate more intelligible : 
"And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and shalt put them upon the 
two ends" (lower corners) "of the breastplate, on its border which is over 
against the ephod" (faces the ephod) "on the inside. And thou shalt 
make two rings of gold, and shalt put them upon the two shoulder-pieces 
of the ei^hod below on its front part by its junction " (where the ex^hod is 
joined to the shoulder-pieces) "above the girdle of the ephod. And they 
shall bind the breastplate by its rings to the rings of the ephod by a rib- 
bon of blue, that it may be above the girdle of the ei^hod, that the breast- 
plate may not be loosened from the ephod." 

6. Then follows the direction (ver. 30) : " And thou shalt put 
in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim ; and 
they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the 
Lord : and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of 
Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually." Compare 
Lev. 8:8. "And he put upon him" (Aaron) "the breastplate, 
and he put in the breastplate the Urim and Thummim." It is 
clear from the first of these passages that the office of the Urim 
and Thummim was to obtain judgment from God — God's decis- 
ion on questions submitted to him ; and that for this reason the 
breastplate, as containing the Urim and Thummim, was called 
"the breastplate of judgment." "With this agi^ee the few histor- 
ical notices respecting the use of the breastplate in seeking coun- 



572 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

sel from God. When Joshua is appointed as Moses' successor^ 
it is directed that " he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, and 
he shall ask counsellor him through the judgment of the Urim" 
(Numb. 27 : 21) ; after Saul's apostasy, when he inquired of the 
Lord, "the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by 
Urim, nor by prophets" (1 Sam. 28 : 6) ; after the captivity, cer- 
tain priests, whose genealogy could not be found, were forbidden 
to eat of the most holy things " till there stood up a priest with 
Urim and Thummim" (Ezra 2 : 63). Besides these express noti- 
ces, we have the case of David's inquiry by means of the ephod 
which Abiathar the high priest had brought with him (1 Sam. 
23 : 6, 9-12) ; where the ephod is that containing the breastplate 
with the Urim and Thummim. Compare also 1 Sam. 23:2, 4; 
Judg. 1:2; 20 : 18, 23 ; where the inquiry was manifestly made 
in the same vray. 

The words Urim and Thummim signify Lights and Perfec- 
tions ; the light and perfection, namely, of God's judgments given 
through them ; but what they were is a question on which the 
most ancient Jewish writers are not agreed. Whatever they 
were, they were lost at the Babylonish captivity. Ezra 2 : 63. 
But that which they represented, the light and perfection of 
divine truth in the person of Jesus Christ, is the rich heritage of 
the Christian church. 

Joseplms (Antiq. 3. 8. 9) identifies the Urim and Tlmnmiim with the 
stones in the breastplate, which, he says, indicated God's wiU by a preter- 
natural sx)lendor. Philo (de vita Mosis, lib, 3, and de Monarch., lib, 2) 
describes them as two images, manifestation and truth, carried in the pouch 
of the breastplate. A favorite idea of modern scholars (Michaelis, Jahn, 
and others) is that they were a sacred lot, consisting of three precious 
stones, carried in the pouch of the breastplate, one having engraven upon 
it the Hebrew word answering to Yes, one the word answering to No, and 
the third being without engraving of any kind, so that the dramng of this 
gave no resjDonse from Jehovah. We abstain from further conjectures. 

7. The robe of the epJiod was a garment all of blue worn under 
the ephod. It was woven throughout without seam, and had 
" a hole in the top of it in the midst thereof" for the insertion of 



PKIESTHOOD, SACHIFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 573 

the head, with a strong binding around it to prevent its being 
rent. It must also have had armholes, having been apparently 
destitute of sleeves. According to Josephus (Jewish War, 5. 5. 7) 
it reached to the ankles. The remarkable ornaments on the 
lower border of it are thus described (Exod. 28 : 33-35) : " And 
thou shalt make upon its skirts pomegranates of blue, and pur- 
ple, and scarlet, upon its skhts round about ; and bells of gold 
between them romid about : a golden bell and a pomegranate, 
a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the skirts of the robe 
round about. And it shall be upon Aaron for ministering ; and 
his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the sanctuary 
before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not." 

Under the robe next to the skin was worn the tunic of check- 
ered work (ver. 39), the sleeves of which undoubtedly extended 
to the wrists. There were also linen breeches reaching " from the 
loins even unto the thighs" (ver. 42), which all the priests were 
required to wear in their ministrations. 

8. Over the whole dress was wound a girdle of embroidered 
work. On the head of the high priest was placed a mitix (Heb., 
mitsnepliefJi, turhan, distinguished from the honnets or caps, Heb., 
migbabth, of the common priests), to the forefront of which was 
fastened with a ribbon of blue a golden plate engraven with the 
words : Holiness to the Loed. 

9. The dress of the common priests was less elaborate. It 
consisted of tunics, girdles, and honnets, made " for glory and for 
beauty," mth the hnen breeches above mentioned. 

10. The general significance of these official robes is indicated 
by the words of inspiration: "for glory and for beauty." In 
the person of the Jewish high priest Christ our gi'eat high priest 
was typified. It was therefore proper that the glory and beauty 
of the divine Antitype should be shadowed forth by the splendor 
of the garments in which the human type w^as arrayed. What- 
ever may have been the material form of the Urim and Thum- 
mim, we know that they were the medium through which the 
perfect wisdom and goodness of God communicated to his peo- 
ple light, truth, and guidance ; and that thus they typified the 



574 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

office of him wlio said, " I am the way, and the truth, and the 
life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." The two 
onxy-stones on the high priest's shoulders were graven with the 
names of the children of Israel, and the twelve stones on his 
breastplate contained the same names. Thus, in the language 
of the sacred record, the high priest, when he entered the sanc- 
tuary, bare the names of the children of Israel " before the Lord 
upon his two shoulders for a memorial" (ver. 12), and "upon his 
heart before the Lord continually" (ver. 29) — a beautiful and 
most expressive symbol of Christ's almighty power and un- 
changeable love. He bears his people on his shoulders, as the 
one to whom " all power is given in heaven and in earth ;" and 
on his heart, as he who loved his people and gave his life for 
their redemption. 

The office of the bells on the high priest's robe is that "his sonnd may 
be heai'd when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when 
he cometh out, that he die not" (ver. 35). The beUs were then the sym- 
bol of announcement — announcement not to man, but to the majesty of 
heaven, that he came before Him in the way of His appointment. 

The essential j)art of the high priest's mitre was the golden plate with 
the inscription: Holiness unto the Loed. "It sljall be upon Aaron's 
forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the 
children of Israel shall hallow in all the gifts of their hallowed things ; and 
it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the 
Lord" (ver. 38). The golden plate is then the sign and seal of Aaron's 
vicarious ofice. He appears before God in behalf of the people as their 
mediator, taking upon himself and expiating the iniquity of their hallowed 
gifts in the way of God's appointment, that so the people may be accepted 
before the Lord. Some have regarded the mitre as a symbol of the ro7/al 
dignity of Christ, our great high priest. But when this truth was to be 
represented in the person of the high priest Joshua (Zech. 6 : 11, seq.), 
the prophet was directed to make crowns of silver and gold, and set them 
upon his head ; which would hardly have been necessary, had the mitre 
which the high priest wore continually represented the kingly dignity. It 
was by three distinct lines — of priests, of prophets, and of kings — that God 
shadowed forth the fulness of Christ's mediatorship. 

11. Next in order comes the solemn inauguration of Aaron and 
his sons to the priestly office. Exod., chap. 29 ; Lev., chap. 8. 



PEIESTHOOD, SACRIFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 575 

Aaron and his sons are brought into the court before the door of 
the tabernacle, and there washed with water ; a symbol of the 
putting away of all spiritual uncleanness, and of the inward 
purity required for their ministrations. They are then clothed 
with the holy garments ; the tabernacle with all its furniture is 
consecrated by anointing with the holy oil ; the altar and all its 
vessels, with the layer and its base, are in like manner consecra- 
ted by sprinkling the holy oil upon them seven times ; and the 
anointing oil is poured upon Aaron's head to sanctify him. 
Anointing with oil was the symbol of consecration (in the case 
of things without hfe, of dedication), and of the gift of the Holy 
Spirit accompanying such consecration when made according to 
di\dne appointment. Hence the Redeemer, as specially conse- 
crated by God to his office, and having the Holy Spirit without 
measure (John 3 : 34), is called by way of preeminence the 
Anointed (in Hebrew, 3IessiaJi ; in Greek, Christ). 

12. After the anointing came the sacrifices, in which Moses of 
necessity officiated as priest. These included all the three kinds 
prescribed by the law, with the accompanying oblations. See 
below. (1.) The sin-offering, consisting of a young bullock ; for 
Aaron and his sons, being sinners, must first bring a sin-offering 
in their own behalf, before they could offer sacrifices in behalf of 
the people. Heb. 5:3; 7 : 27. The blood of this sin-offering 
was not carried into the sanctuary, according to the usual law for 
the victims whose bodies were burned without the camp. Lev. 
6 : 30; Heb. 13.: 11. Instead of this Moses put some of it on the 
horns of the altar of burnt-offering, and poured the remainder at 
the bottom of the altar ; thus sanctifying and consecrating it "to 
make expiation for it." Lev. 8 : 15. (2.) The hurnt-offering, 
consisting of a ram, which signified the entire devotion to 
God of Aaron and his sons through expiatory blood. See below. 
(3.) The ram of consecration, which was a peace-offering, but con- 
nected with pecuhar rites. Moses took of its blood " and put it 
upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his 
right hand, and upon the gi^eat toe of his right foot." After- 
wards he brought Aaron's sons to the altar, and did the same to 



576 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

them. By this ceremony was signified the completeness of their 
consecration through blood. 

After this "Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood 
which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and 
upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons' gar- 
ments with him ; and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his 
sons, and his sons' garments with him." Lev. 8 : 30. 

13. AU the above transactions took place on the first day of 
the consecration, which lasted seven days. During all this time 
Aaron and his sons were commanded to abide at the door of the 
tent of the congregation day and night. On each of the six fol- 
lowing days they offered a bullock for a sin-offering ; and when 
they had thus made expiation for the altar and sanctified it seven 
days, they anointed it with the holy oil. Exod. 29 : 36, 37. Final- 
ly, on the eighth day Aaron first offered for himself a calf for a 
sin-offering and a ram for a burnt-offering : after this he offered 
in heJialf of the congregation of Israel a kid of the goats for a sin- 
offering ; a calf and a lamb of the first year, without blemish, for 
a burnt-offering ; a buUock and a ram for peace-offerings ; and a 
meat-offering (unbloody oblation) mingled with oil (Lev. 9:1, 
seq.). 

The solemnity of this inauguration was in harmony with the 
dignity of the priestly ofiice. Aaron and his sons typified the 
person of Christ; and the sacrifices and oblations which they 
offered shadowed forth Christ's sacrifice of himself on Calvary 
for man's redemption, and the perfect obedience which he ren- 
dered to the Father. The priesthood with its sacrifices was, 
therefore, the central part of the Mosaic ritual, even as Christ's 
person and propitiatory sacrifice constitute the central part of 
the gospel. 

II. THE SACKIFICES AND OBLATIONS. 

14. The question concerning the nature and classification of 
the Levitical sacrifices and the transactions connected with them 
is discussed in the Companion to the Bible (Chap. 37, Nos. 14-16), 
and to this the reader is referred. In the book of Leviticus the 



PKIESTHOOD, SACRIFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 577 

order of prescription is the burnt-offerings (cliap. 1), the oblations 
(chap. 2), the jpeace-offerings (chap. 3), the sin-offerings (chap. 4), 
the trespass-offerings (chap. 5 — chap. 6:7); various supplemen- 
tary chrections being afterwards added (chap. 6 : 8 — chap. 7 : 38). 
But the true natural order is given in the sacrifices for the sanc- 
tification and consecration of Aaron and his sons, and of the 
congregation, as aheady considered. Exod., chap. 29; Lev., 
chaps. 8, 9. 

15. The sill-offering, which was, as its name indicates, wholly 
expiatory and propitiatory, naturally came first in order, since 
the expiation of sin is the first condition for an acceptable ap- 
proach to God. On the more important occasions, as when the 
high priest or the whole congregation had sinned through igno- 
rance, the blood of the sin-offering was carried into the outer 
sanctuary and put upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense. 
On the great day of atonement (chap. 16) it was carried into the 
inner sanctuary, and sprinkled upon the mercy-seat, and before 
the mercy-seat seven times. For these cases the law was : " No 
sin-offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the taber- 
nacle of the congregation to make atonement in the sanctuary, 
shall be eaten: it shall be burnt with fire" (chap. 6 : 30) ; namely, 
without the camp in a clean place, after certam prescribed parts — 
" the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon 
the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, 
which is upon the flanks, and the caul above the liver upon the 
kidneys;" which parts comprise all the separable fat of the 
inwards, and are therefore called "all the fat" (Lev. 3 : 16; 4 : 8, 
19, 26, 31, 35 ; 7 : 3), or simply "the fat" (Lev. 3 : 9 ; 6 : 12 ; 7 : 33 ; 
8:26; 9:19; 16:25; 17:6; Numb. 18:17; etc.)— had been 
burned on the altar of bumt-offering (Lev. 4 : 8-12, 19-21, 26, 
'6l, 35 ; 16 : 25, 27). In other cases the blood of the sin-offer- 
ings was apphed' to the horns of the altar of bumt-offering; 
and then the officiating priests, after burning upon the altar the 
same prescribed parts, ate the flesh in the court of the taberna- 
cle (chap. 6 : 26, 29) ; but no offerer ^M of the flesh of the victim 
presented in his own behalf. 



578 > BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

The sacredness of this sin-offering, by the blood of which 
atonement was made, is forcibly indicated in the divine direction 
concerning it (chap. 6 : 26-29) : " The priest that offereth it for 
sin shall eat it : in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court 
of the tent of the congregation. Whoever shall touch its flesh 
shall be holy, and upon whatsoever garment its blood shall be 
sprinkled, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinlded in the 
holy place. And every earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall 
be broken: and if it be sodden in a brazen vessel, it shall be 
both scoured and rinsed in water. All the males among the 
priests shall eat of it : it is most holy." 

Some difficulty has been felt in determining the exact distinction be- 
tween the sin-offeiHng and the trespass-offering. The law itself declares (Lev. 
7 : 7) that "as the sin-offering is, so is the trespass-offering : there is one 
law for them." The trespass-offering was then a species of sin-offering. 
That it was of a subordinate character may be inferred from two facts : 
(1.) Not only was its blood never carried into the sanctuary, but it was not 
put upon the horns of the brazen altar : it was simply sprinkled round 
about upon the altar. Lev. 5 : 9 ; 7 : 2. (2.) It was never employed, like 
the sin-offering, for general expiation on public occasions, but was always 
a private offering for particular offences. A comparison of the passages in 
which trespass-offerings are prescribed (Lev. 5:1— 6; 7: 1—7; Num. 5 : 6-8) 
seems to indicate that they belonged especially to trespasses against human 
riglds, for which restitution was required. 

16. The distinguishing mark of the hurnt-offering was the 
consumption of the whole victim upon the altar ; hence the name 
wJiole hurnt-offering (Heb., halU) is sometimes apphed to it, and 
in later usage the Greek term holocaust, which means the same 
thing. After the animal had been slain, its blood was sprinkled 
round about upon the altar, it was flayed, cut in pieces, and laid 
in order upon the wood. The head, the fat, the inwards, and 
the legs, after being washed in water, were added ; and the»-^ie 
priest burned " all on the altar, to be a burnt-sacrifice, a fire- 
offering, a sweet savor unto Jehovah." Lev. 1 : 9. The hide of 
the victim was given to the officiating priest. Lev. 7 : 8. 

That the biirnt-offering signified completeness is admitted by 
all. Some refer this completeness to the offering itself, as that 



PEIESTHOOD, SACKIFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 579 

form of sacrifice which comprehends in itseM all others, and so 
concentrates in itseK all worship. But we cannot separate, in 
the intention of God, the completeness of the offering from the 
state of mind which it symbohzes in the offerer himself. Be- 
cause of the completeness and comprehensiveness of its form it 
signified the entire sdf-consecration of the offerer to God. But this 
was a consecration made tlirough the Rood of expiation. To sig- 
nify this, the blood of the burnt-offering was sprinlded by the 
priest roimd about upon the altar; or in the case of a bird, 
where the quantity was very small, was wrung out at the side of 
the altar. 

Entire self-devotion to God being the prominent idea of the 
burnt-offering, it naturally followed the sin-offering, where both 
kinds of sacrifice were employed. But because of its compre- 
hensiveness it was first in dignity. For this reason no animals 
but males without blemish were allowed for burnt-offerings. For 
the same reason also this form of sacrifice was chosen for the 
daily offerings — a lamb every morning and evening, and on the 
Sabbath-day two lambs (Numb. 28 : 3-10) ; whereby the perpet- 
ual self-devotion of the people to God through the blood of expi- 
ation was signified. 

The Hebrew term olaJi signifies ascension, going up. According to 
Gesenius it was "so called as heing carried up and laid upon 'the altar." 
But the explanation given long ago by Jerome (on Ezek., chap. 45 : 15-17) 
that it is so called "because it is all consumed by the sacred fire" — all 
ascends to God as a sweet savor (Gen. 8 : 20, 21, etc.), is preferable. 

Public burnt-offerings were prescribed by the law on various occasions ; 
but private burnt-offerings were of the worshipper's own free will. 

17. The peace-offering (rather, offering of renditions ; that is, 
offering in which the offerer rendered to God the tribute of praise 
and thanksgiving which was his due) was subdivided into three 
kinds — the thank-offering, as an expression of gratitude to God 
for favors received (Lev. 7 : 11-15) ; the votive-offering, in pursu- 
ance of a vow made to God in time of trouble, and therefore 
essentially a thank-offering for deliverance (ver. 16); the free-ivHI' 
offering (ibid.), which seems to have been a general expression of 



580 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

thankfulness to God without reference to specific favors received, 
as in tlie case of the thank-offering, or to dehverance from specific 
troubles, as in the case of the votive-offering. The peace-offer- 
ing was then, in all its varieties, essentiaUy eiicliaristic. Hence 
its social and festive character, by which it was distinguished 
from the sin-offerings and trespass-offerings. When the victim 
had been slam and its blood sprinkled upon the altar round 
about, the fat of the inwards, comprising the two kidneys and 
liver (see above, No. 15) was burned upon the altar, the breast 
and the right shoulder were given to the ofiiciating priest (Lev. 
7 : 28-34), and then the offerer and his friends feasted joyfully 
before the Lord on the remainder (Lev. 7 : 11, seq.). In the case 
of a thank-offering, the flesh was to be eaten the same day ; but 
if the sacrifice was in fulfilment of a vow, or was a free-will-offer- 
ing, the flesh might be eaten on the following day also ; but all 
that remained over was to be burnt with fire. It is manifest 
from this that the peace-offering signified joyful communion with 
God in thanksgiving and praise ; but this, too, only through the 
blood of propitiation sprinkled upon the altar. 

In the three classes of offerings we have, then, typically set 
forth : (1) in the sin-offering (of which the trespass-offering was a 
subordinate species), expiation of sin, restoring man to God's fa- 
vor; (2) in the burnt-offering, self -consecration; (3) in the peaoe- 
offering, holy communion with God and man — all three only 
through " sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,'^ the great Anti- 
type of the Levitical priests and sacrifices. 

The prohibition against eating of the flesh of the peace-offerings after 
the second day tended, indeed, to promote HberaHty on the part of the 
offerer, since he could not reserve the flesh of his sacrifice for future use. 
But the immediate ground of the prohibition seems to have been to guard 
against the danger of defiling, as well the holy flesh as the offerer, through 
an incipient process of putrefaction ; for it is well known that in hot cli- 
mates it is exceedingly difficult to preserve flesh in its soundness beyond 
the second day. 

The feasts of the Hebrews naturally took a religious form. They con- 
sisted of holy festive meals in which the flesh of peace-offerings was eaten. 
When the offerer was a king, like David, or Solomon, he gave, on great 



PEIESTHOOD, SACEIFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 581 

public occasions, a feast to the whole nation. See 2 Sam. G: 17-19 ; 1 Kings 
8 : 62-6G. In allusion to this usage, the Messiah, as the gTeat king of all 
nations, is beautifully rej)resentecl in the twenty-second Psalm (vers. 
25-31) as pajdng to God his vows— vows in the form of peace-offerings — 
for the deliverance vouchsafed to him, and summoning all nations to the 
feast. 

18. The unUooihj oUations (called in our version meat-offer^ 
iiKjs) were partly supplementary to the sacrifices. Such were 
the cakes and wafers of unleavened bread connected with the 
peace-offering at Aaron's consecration (Lev., chap. 8) ; and the 
oblations of fine flour mingled with oil, and of wine, that were 
always to accompany the bunit-offerings and peace-offerings. 
Numb., chaps. 15, 28, 29. Such, also, was the salt which, accord- 
ing to the Jewish interpretation of Lev. 2 : 13 accompanied every 
sacrifice as well as oblation. See Ezek. 43 : 24 ; Mark 9 : 49 ; and 
compare Josephus Aiitiq., 3. 9. 1. 

Other oblations, hke those prescribed in the third chapter of 
Le\dticus, were apparently independent of sacrifices. No leaven 
or honey — both the natural emblems of corruption : " leaven as 
being the fermentation of dough, and honey as from its excessive 
lusciousness naturally tending to sourness" (Fau^bairn's Bible 
Diet.) — were allowed to be burned upon God's altar ; though leav- 
ened bread, simply as an article of food, was given along with the 
other offerings in the case of an offering of thanksgiving (Lev. 
7:13), and was prescribed for the offering of firstfruits (Lev. 
23 : 17). Salt was always to be added. Frankincense is also pre- 
scribed in several cases. The priest was to burn a "memorial" 
of the oblation with aU the frankincense, and the rest fell to 
Aaron and his sons as their portion. The unbloody offerings were 
not expiatory ; but rather expressions of love, gi-atitude, and de- 
votion to God on the part of the giver. Only in the case of the 
poor man who was not able to bring so much as " two turtle 
doves or two young pigeons," was "the tenth part of an ephah 
of fine flour," without either oil or frankincense, accepted for a 
sin-offering (Lev. 5 : 11) ; and this upon the principle that God 
"will have mercy and not sacrifice." 



582 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Tliere were other sacrifices of a special character — the paschal lamb, 
those connected with the cleansing of the leper, the sacrifice of the red 
heifer for the ashes of purification, the sacrifice in the case of an unknown 
murder, etc. — which wiU be noticed each in its place. 

19. Of the typical transactions connected with tlie sacrifices 
and oblations, the following are worthy of notice. 

(1.) In all cases the offerer laid his hands on the head of 
the victim. The meaning of this transaction is given in the words 
of inspiration : " And he shall put his hands upon the head of 
the burnt-offering ; and it shall be accepted for him to make 
atonement for him." Lev. 1:4. It was, then, a solemn presen- 
tation to Jehovah of the victim to make atonement for his soul ; 
but not a formal transfer of his sins to the victim, as in the case 
of the scapegoat. See below. 

(2.) The ivaving and heaving of offerings by the priest were 
also acts of presentation and dedication to God. For the form, 
according to rabbinic tradition, see Companion to the Bible, 
Chap. 37, No. 15. 

(3.) The sprinkling of the victims blood, and the apphcation of 
it to the horns of the altar or to the persons of men, was em- 
phatically the symbol of expiation. It belonged, therefore, to 
the priest alone, who was the mediator between God and the 
offerer. Hence the New Testament speaks of the sprinkling of 
the blood of Christ, the great Antitype of the Levitical sacrifices. 
Heb. 9 : 13, 14: 10 : 22; 12 : 24; 1 Pet. 1 : 2. 

(4.) The burning of the offering, or of specified parts of it, 
upon the altar, whereby its odor ascended up to heaven, was a 
natural expression of dedication to God. See above. Chap. 28, 
No. 20, and compare Gen. 8 : 21 ; Lev. 1 : 9, etc. 

(5.) These typical transactions had their culmination on the 
great day of atonement. Lev., chap. 16. When the high priest 
had first offered a bullock as a sin-offering for himself, and 
sprinkled its blood in the inner sanctuary upon and before the 
mercy-seat seven times, he brought two goats as a sin-offering 
for the people. The two goats constituted, as we shall see, one 
offering, the office of each being determined by lot. The one 



PEIESTHOOD, SACIUFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 583 

was slain, and its blood carried by the high priest into the 
inner sanctuary and sprinkled there upon the mercy-seat and 
before the mercy-seat seven times, as an expiation for the sins 
of the people (vers. 15, 16) ; and when he came out of the 
sanctuary he put some of the blood of both the bullock and 
the goat upon the horns of the altar round about, and sprin- 
kled of the blood upon the altar with his finger seven tunes, to 
"cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness of the chil- 
dren of Israel" (vers. 18, 19). Then the live goat was pre- 
sented before the Lord with the following direction: "Aaron 
shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and con- 
fess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all 
their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head 
of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man " 
(or, a man ready at hand) "into the wilderness; and the goat 
shall bear upon him" (take upon himself and bear away) "all 
their iniquities unto a land not inhabited ; and he shall let go 
the goat into the wilderness" vers. 20-22). Thus the goat, by 
talcing iqoon himself the sins of the people, took themaivay. The 
inadequacy^ of the type made it necessary that tiuo goats should 
be employed in this one service — the first to represent expiation, 
the second the taking cacay of sin. So Christ, the lamb of God, 
takes aicay the sin of the world by expiating it with his own blood. 
John 1 : 29 ; 1 Pet. 1 : 19 ; 2 : 24. The buUock and the goat for 
the sin-ojffering, of which the blood was carried into the sanc- 
tuary, were burned without the camp according to law (Lev. 
6 : 30) ; and being typically laden with the curse of sin, they de- 
filed the man who carried them out and burned them. For the 
same reason the scapegoat, laden as it was with the sins of the 
people, defiled him who conducted it from the camp into the 
wilderness. Hence the direction for both was that they should 
wash their clothes and bathe their flesh in water before entering 
the camp. Lev. 16 : 26, 28. 

The interpretation of the Hebrew word rendered in oiir version for a 
ficaperjoat (la-azazel) we leave to the commentators. However the word may 
bo interpreted, tlie typical import of the transaction is clear. 



584 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

20. In the Mosaic ritual God kept himseK, as we have seen, 
at a distance from the congregation of Israel. The people were 
not allowed to approach him directly with their sacrifices and 
oblations. They could only come to him through the mediation 
of the priests, and that not without blood. None but the priests 
were permitted to enter the sanctuary ; and the high priest alone 
went into the holy of holies once a year, carrying always in his 
hand the blood of expiation, "the Holy Ghost this signifying, 
that the way into the hohest of all was not yet made manifest." 
Heb. 9 : 8. But when the Lord of glory offered his own blood 
on Calvary, "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the 
top to the bottom" (Matt. 27 : 51 ; Mark 15 : 38), to signify that 
the way into God's presence was now opened to all believers, 
through the blood of Christ. From that day to the end of the 
world, Christ's disciples constitute "a holy priesthood, to offer 
up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" 
(1 Peter 2:5; Rom. 12 : 1 ; Heb. 13 : 15); and he who presumes 
to thrust himself in between God and the sinner, as a mediating 
priest, treats with contempt the blood of Calvary, as if it were 
not a sufficient expiation for sin ; nay, more, he affronts the great 
Intercessor himself, who ever stands at God's right hand in be- 
half of his people. 

III. THE PRIESTS AND LEVITES AS CLASSES. 

21. We have seen (No. 2 above) that God took Aaron and 
his sons for the priestly office, giving them the tribe of Levi for 
their attendants. Thus an entire tribe was set apart for God's 
service ; the Levites holding a nearer relation to God than the 
other tribes, the priests than the Levites, and the high priest 
than the subordinate priests. The Levites alone could minister 
to the priests, but were themselves forbidden to exercise any 
priestly function. None but the priests could enter the sanctu- 
ary, and the high priest alone had access to the holy of holies. 

22. The sacredness of the priestly office was indicated by the 
regulations pertaining to it. The priests manifestly ministered 
without shoes (compare Exod 3:5; Josh. 5 : 15), and before en- 



PKIESTHOOD, SACKIFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 585 

tearing the sanctuary they were requhed to wash then- hands and 
feet. Exod. 30 : 17-21. During the thne of theu^ mmistrations 
they were forbidden to drink wine or strong drink. Lev. 10 : 9. 
The common priests were not allowed to defile themselves by 
contact with a dead body, except in the case of near relatives, 
or to disfigure their persons by any signs of mourning. Lev. 
21 : 1-6. The high priest was prohibited absolutely from defiling 
liimseK, even for his father or mother ; and if the daughter of 
a priest played the harlot she was to be burned with fire. Lev. 
21 : 9-12. The common priests were forbidden to marry a harlot 
or a divorced woman, and the high priest even a widow. Lev. 
21 : 7, 13-15. The priests, moreover, who came nigh to offer the 
offerings of the Lord made by fhe were to be without personal 
blemish. Lev. 21 : 17-23. 

The reader may see a good summary of the duties of the common priests 
in Smith's Bible Dictionary, Art. , Priests. They watched over the fire on the 
altar of burnt-offering, fed and trimmed the golden lamp, attended to the 
showbread, offered the morning and evening sacrifices and oblations, and 
did the priest's office for any private worshipper. The ordeal in the case 
of a woman suspected of adultery was in their hands (Numb. , chap. 5) ; 
lepers submitted themselves to their inspection, and they offered the gifts 
for their purification (Lev. , chaps. 13, 14) ; and, in general, all cases of un- 
cleanness that required legal purification came under their office. Their spe- 
cial duties during the journeys of the Israelites in the wilderness have 
already been considered. Chap. 28, No. 16. They were charged, moreover, 
to instruct the people in the ordinances of the Mosaic law, and thus to 
maintain the worship of God in its purity. Lev. 10 ; 11 ; Deut. 24 : 8 ; 
Mai. 2:7. 

David distributed the priests into tweniy-four courses, who did service 
in regular order at the sanctuary. 1 Chron. , chaj^. 24. 

23. The duties of the Levites in the wilderness were minutely 
specified. See above. Chap. 28, No. 15, seq. Theu^ service re- 
quired the full vigor of manhood; hence the direction (Numb. 
4 : 23) : " From thirty years old and upward until fifty years old 
shalt thou number them " (for active service) ; " all that enter in 
to perform the service, to do the work of the tent of the congre- 
gation." In Numb. 8 : 24, twenty and five years is specified as 
the time of their entering upon active service. The explanation 



586 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

given by Keil (on Numb. 8 : 24) is the following : The rule for 
twenty-five years and upward to fifty years was general and 
valid for all time ; that from thirty years to fifty had reference 
to the transportation of the tabernacle and its furniture, a ser- 
vice which required the full strength of a man. After fifty years 
they were discharged from active service, but ministered to their 
brethren in the tent of the tabernacle to keep the charge (Numb. 
8:26); that is, they had a general superintendence there. The 
result of the numbering of the Levites in the wilderness (Numb., 
chap. 4) gave for the Kohathites from thirty years old to fifty, 
2,750 persons; for the Gershonites, 2,630; for the Merarites, 
3,200. 

After the settlement of the Israelites in the land of Canaan, 
the notices of the place occupied by the Levites, and tlie services 
performed by them during the time of the Judges are very scanty. 
We only learn from the irregular transaction recorded in the 
seventeenth chapter of the book of Judges, that a special sanc- 
tity attached to their persons in the eyes of the common people ; 
for when Micah has consecrated a Levite as his priest, he says : 
" Now I know that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a 
Levite to my priest." But under David a complete reorganiza- 
tion of the Levites was made. He numbered them (according to 
1 Chron. 23 : 3, "from the age of thirty years and upward," accord- 
ing to ver. 27 of the same chapter, "from twenty years old and 
above"), divided them into courses, and assigned to them their 
offices, according to the original idea of the Mosaic constitution. 

The offices of the Levites are, under this organization, clearly given in 
two passages. The first is 1 Chron. 23 : 4, 5, where we are told that of the 
38,000 Levites, 24,000 were to preside over the work of the house of the 
Lord, 6,000 were judges and officers, 4,000 porters, and 4,000 singers and 
players on instruments. The office of judging fell very naturally to the 
Levites, and the example of David was imitated by his successors on 
the throne. 2 Chron. 19:8. The other passage is 1 Chron. 23:28-32, 
where the various services connected with the sanctuary are specified in 
detail — the service of the Lord's house in the courts and in the chambers, 
the purifying of all holy things, the preparation of tlie flour for the 
various oblations, the keex^ing of the holy measures of all kinds, the morn- 



PRIESTHOOD, SACRIFICES, AND OBLATIONS. 587 

ing and evening service of song in the sanctuary, all the offering of burnt- 
offerings for the stated seasons, etc. The Levites did not usurp the fimc- 
tions of the priests in offering sacrifices ; but they waited ui3on them, pro- 
cured the victims for the public sacrifices, slew them, flayed them, and 
rendered whatever other services the officiating priests needed. 

From the nature of theu' office it devolved upon the Levites to see that 
the Mosaic institutions were maintained in their purity ; but we do not 
find them acting as formal teachers of the people till a later period. Je- 
hoshaphat sent with his princes Levites to instruct the people in the law ; 
* ' And they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the Lord with 
them, and went about through all the cities of Judah, and taught the peo- 
ple." 2 Chron. 17 : 9. "We see them performing the same spiritual work 
under Hezekiah (2 Chron. 30 : 22) and Josiah (2 Chron. 35 : 3). They as- 
sisted Jehoiada the high priest in dethroning Athaliah (2 Chron., chap. 23), 
and were also employed, in connection mth the priests, to cleanse the 
sanctuaiy which Ahaz had polluted (2 Chron. 29 : 15, 16), and repeated 
mention is made oi their service as singers and players on instruments 
(2 Chron. 29 : 25-30 ; 35 : 15 ; Neh. 9:5). 

24. The tribe of Levi received no inlieritance with the other 
tribes in the land of Canaan. It was necessary, therefore, that 
an adequate provision should be made for their maintenance. 
This was included in the declaration : " Levi hath no part nor 
inheritance with his brethren ; the Lord is his inheritance, ac- 
cording as the Lord thy God hath promised him" (Dent. 10 : 9j, 
which is several times repeated for substance (Numb. 18 : 20, 24 ; 
Deut. 18 : 1, 2 ; Ezek. 44 : 28) ; for when God gives an inheritance 
to his serv^ants, it meets all their wants, temporal as well as spir- 
itual. Accordingly, God ordained that the other tribes should 
give the tenth j^art or tithe of all the increase of their fields and of 
their flocks and herds : " Behold, I have given the children of 
Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service 
which they serve, even the service of the tent of the congrega- 
tion." Numb. 18 : 21. The Levites, in turn, were commanded 
to give a tenth of this tenth for the maintenance of the priests 
(vers. 26-32). The priests had, moreover, as we have seen, the 
skin of the burnt-offerings, a portion of the sin-offerings (except 
in certain prescribed cases), and of the peace-offerings, and all 
the unbloody oblations of the people, after a memorial of them, 
with all the frankincense, had been burned upon the altar. 



588 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

All the tithes of the land might be redeemed by adding a fifth part of 
their value. Lev. 27 : 30, 31. The tithes of the flocks and herds could 
neither be redeemed nor exchanged. Whoever attempted an exchange 
lost both the animals. Lev. 27 : 32, 33. Animals were tithed by being 
passed under the rod ; that is, they passed out of an enclosure, one by one, 
and every tenth animal was designated — according to the rabbins, marked 
with a rod dipped in vermilion. 

25. The tithes that have been considered, commonly called 
first tithes, were given for the maintenance of the priests and Le- 
vites. Besides these there was a second tithe, applied to festal 
.purposes. For two successive tyears this tithe was to be carried 
to the sanctuary (or its value in money), like the other conse- 
crated offerings, with the direction: "thou must eat them" (the 
tithes, firstlings of the herd and flock, votive and free-will offer- 
ings) "before the Lord thy God, in the place which the Lord thy 
God shall choose, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy 
man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within 
thy gates." Deut. 12 : 18. Every third year this same second 
tithe (not probably a third tithe, as some have supposed) was 
to be eaten at home within the gates of the several cities and 
towns; "and the Levite," it is added, "because he hath no part 
nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger, and the fatherless, 
and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shaU 
eat, and be satisfied ; that the Lord thy God may bless thee 
in all the work of thy hand which thou doest." Deut. 14 : 28, 29. 
It is probable that the seventh Sabbatical year, in which ag- 

.riculture was intermitted, was left out of the account in this 
arrangement for the second tithes. 

The practice of giving tithes was very ancient (Gen. 14:20; 28:22), 
and existed among other nations as well as the Hebrews. See the refer- 
ences in Smith's Bible Diet. , Art. , Tithe. The sjnrit of the Mosaic law is 
recognized in the New Testament (1 Cor. , chap. 9) ; and its form also wiU 
be found good, in all ordinary cases, as nfreeivill offering. 

26. Besides the tithes that have been considered, there were 
other sources of maintenance. All the firstborn of men and ani- 
mals were consecrated to God. The firstborn of man was to be 



l>rvIESTHOOD, SACRIFICES, AND GELATIONS. 589 

redeemed, according to the estimation of the priest, for a sum 
not exceeding ^Ye shekels, the avails going to the priests. Exod. 
13 : 13 ; Numb. 18 : 14-16. The firstborn of unclean animals 
might also be redeemed by the substitution of a lamb in their 
stead, or by the payment of their value as estimated by the 
priest, in which case a fifth part was to be added to it. If not 
redeemed, they were to be destroyed. The firstborn of clean 
animals w^ere offered in sacrifice ; and the designated parts hav- 
ing been burnt, the remainder went to the priests. Lev. 27 : 26 ; 
Numb. 18: 17, 18. Devoted things wdll be considered in the 
chapter on vow^s and devoted tlimgs. 

27. All offering of jirsffruits was also required by the law. 
The public offerings of firstfruits will be noticed in connection 
with the feasts to which they belonged. Individuals w^ere also 
bound to offer to the Lord the firstfruits of their land. The 
first of ripe fruits and liquors, and a cake of the first dough 
made from the new harvest are specified. Exod. 22 : 29 ; 23 : 19 ; 

34 : 26 ; Lev. 2 : 14 ; Numb. 18 : 11-13 ; Deut. 26 : 1-11. The law 
included the firstfruits of fruit-trees, of the vine, of grain, oil, 
honey, wool, etc. These also w^ere given to the priests. 

For a summary of the revenues of the loriests and Levites the reader 
is referred to the eighteenth chapter of the book of Numbers ; and for the 
solemn profession which the Hebrew was required to make of his obedience 
to the*law in connection with the presentation of the tithes, to the twenty- 
sixth chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. 

28. As the Levites had no territorial possessions, /b7^^?/-ei'[///^ 
cities Avere assigned to them by lot out of the inheritance of the 
other tribes, with ample suburbs for their cattle. Numb., chap. 

35 ; Josh., chap. 21. Of the above-named fort^^-eight cities, the 
priestly order had thirteen, all in the tribes of Judah, Simeon, 
and Benjamin; and six of them were also cities of refuge, three 
on either side of the Jordan. By this arrangement the Levites 
Avere distributed throughout the whole Hebrew commonwealth, 
and thus enabled, if faithful to their ofiice, to exert the widest 
influence for the maintenance of the Mosaic institutions in their 
purity. 



590 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES, 



CHAPTEE XXX. 

The Distinctions of Clean and Unclean. 

1. The disUnctions of clean and unclean entered very deeply into 
tlie life of the Hebrews, continually meeting tliem in their public 
as well as in their private and social relations. The ultimate end 
of these distinctions was moral and religious. By teaching the 
covenant people to "put difference between holy and unholy, 
and between unclean and clean" (Lev. 10:10) in the lower 
sphere of physical hfe, God prepared the way for transferring 
the idea of "holy and unholy," "unclean and clean," to the 
higher sphere of spiritual life. Between the outward and the 
inward there is a natural and close connection, a constant action 
and reaction. All the terms for expressing inward moral purity 
or defilement are drawn from the outward material world. 
"Purge me with hyssop," says the psalmist, "and I shall be 
clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow;" "create in 
me a clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit within me." 
" Then wd!l I sprinkle clean water upon j^ou," says God by the 
prophet, " and ye shall be clean ; from all your filthiness, and 
from all your idols will I cleanse you." The philosophy of the 
relation is given in a very striking way by Moffat (Southern Af- 
rica, chap. 29): "It w^ould appear a strange anomaly to see a 
Christian professor lying at full length on the ground, covered 
with filth and dirt, and in a state of comparative nudity, talking 
about Christian diligence, circumspection, purification and white 
robes." It is true that the culture of physical purity, like every 
other good thing, may be perverted, as in the case of the ancient 
Pharisees, who strained their liquor to avoid the contamination 
of an unclean insect, but could swallow a camel in the shape of 
"extortion and excess." The same perversion is strildngly mani- 
fested in the Hindu distinctions of caste. Nevertheless, it re- 



DISTINCTIONS OF CLEAN AND UNCLEAN. 591 

mains true that the natural tendency of inward purity is to out- 
ward cleanhness, and that the reverse also holds good. 

I. DISTINCTIONS OF CLEAN AND UNCLEAN IN 
BESPECT TO FOOD. 

2. These are given, with many specifications, in the eleventh 
chapter of Leviticus and the fourteenth of Deuteronomy. For 
the larger animals the rule was very simple : " Whatsoever part- 
eth the hoof and is cloven-footed" (that is, as explained in Deut. 
14 : 6, " cleaveth the cleft into two parts"), " and cheweth the cud 
among the cattle, that shall ye eat." Here belong all animals of 
the ox kind, sheep, goats, deer, and antelopes — all of them exclu- 
sively herbivorous. 

For the fishes (using the term in a comprehensive sense) the 
rule was : " Whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the 
seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat." " Whatsoever hath 
no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination 
unto you." 

The unclean birds are enumerated. Some of the Hebrew 
names are of difficult determination ; but most, if not all of them, 
are birds of prey or such as feed on carrion, or they are marsh- 
fowls that obtain their food from the mud and slime. To this 
Hst the bat, as one of the mongrel "fowls that creep, going upon 
all fours," is added. 

Of the insects, they were allowed to eat the different species 
of locusts and grasshoppers, "which have legs above their feet, 
to leap withal upon the earth." 

Of "the creeping things that creep upon the earth" — small 
animals moving with a low creeping motion — a list of unclean 
animals is added (Lev. 11 : 29, 30), includmg, among others, wea- 
sels, mice, and various species of lizards. It is afterwards added 
(vers. 41, 42) : " Every creeping thing that creepeth upon the 
earth shall be an abomination ; it shall not be eaten. Whatso- 
ever goeth upon the belly, and Avhatsoever goeth upon all four" 
(creeps upon all four) " or whatsoever hath more feet among all 
creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat, 



592 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

for they are an abomination." Hence we learn tliat all " creep- 
ing tilings that creep upon the earth," of which examples had 
been given before (vers. 29, 30), were unclean, as also serpents 
that go upon the belly. 

3. The question now arises : Upon ivliat principle were these 
distinctions made ? According to some they were dietetic, look- 
ing simply to the health of the covenant people. Thus much 
must be admitted, that all the species allowed as clean furnished 
wholesome food, and that by these distinctions of the Mosaic 
law they were guarded against every hurtful article of animal 
diet. But we are not, for this reason, warranted to affirm that 
the principle of admission or exclusion was purely dietetic, or 
that the flesh of all the species forbidden as unclean, that of the 
camel, for example, is unwholesome. The abolition of the Mo- 
saic distinctions upon the introduction of the Christian dispen- 
sation seems to imply that they rested rather on typical grounds — 
typical, but not necessarily arbitrary ; for the wisdom of God 
might avail itself of the natural instincts and antipathies of the 
human family in respect to the animal kingdom, as well as of he- 
reditary aversions having their foundation in education, to shadow 
forth what is unclean and abominable in the spiritual world ; and 
this seems to have been the actual principle of procedure. The 
ruminant and cloven-footed animals allowed are all exclusively 
herbivorous, w^hile the animals that feed on living prey or on 
carrion, to the flesh of which we have a natural aversion, are 
excluded; also animals that are both carnivorous and herbiv- 
orous, like the swine, so gross and filthy in its habits. The 
distinction among birds rests on the same general foundation. 
Among fishes (in the comprehensive Hebrew sense of the word, 
all that move in the icaters) the species that have not fins and 
scales are snake-like or reptilian in their character, and to such 
animals we have a natural antipathy, as also to mice, lizards, and 
the like ; though it is an antipathy that can be overcome by edu- 
cation. Finally, the prohibition may have rested, in some cases, 
on an aversion arising fi*om ancestral usage and training. Noth- 
ing that was to the Hebrew mind unclean was to be eaten. They 



DISTINCTIONS OF CLEAN AND UNCLEAN. r>93 

were to keep themselves holy in respect to their food : " Ye shall 
not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that 
creepeth ; and ye shall not defile yourselves with them, so as to 
be made unclean by them. For I am Jehovah your God : ye 
shall, therefore, sanctify yourselves and be holy ; for I am holy." 
And this holiness in the sphere of food typified the holiness of 
heart and life that Jehovah required of them. 

The dead bodies of unclean animals defiled everything wliicli came in 
contact with them- — not only the persons of men, but vessels, raiment, 
sldns, sacks, food, and drink, making necessary either their purification or 
their destruction, as we shall see hereafter. 



II. UNCijEANNESS FROM CONDITIONS OF THE 

BODY. 

4. The scriptural view of disease, and all the weaknesses inci- 
dent to man's mortal state, is deep and fundamental. It traces 
them all to sin as their ultimate source. Not all maladies, how- 
ever, produced ceremonial uncleanness. Here, also, as in the 
distinctions of food, men's natural instincts were followed. All 
diseases that produced corruption in the body, or running sores, 
or a flow of blood, made the sufferer unclean ; and the culmina- 
tion of uncleanness was in death. 

5. Leprosy, as a corruption of the living body manifesting 
itself on its surface and tending towards death (Chap. 20, No. 21), 
is an image of the coriiiption and death which sin brings to the 
soul ; and is regarded in Scripture as emphatically the unclean 
disease. The priests were the judges concerning both the pres- 
ence and the removal of leprosy. The prescription of the law 
concerning him w^ho has been pronounced a leper is : " And the 
leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his 
head shall be bare, and he shall cover his upper lip" (as a sign 
of mourning, Micah 3:7; Ezek. 24 : 17, 22), "and shall cry" (to 
passers by, that they may avoid defilement by touching him), 
" Unclean, unclean ! All the days wherein the plague shall be in 
him he shall be unclean : he is unclean ; he shall dwell by him- 



594 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

seK; without the camp shall his habitation be." These rules 
mark him as an unclean person under the frown of God. 

The so-called leprosy in houses and garments (Lev. 13 : 47-59; 14 : 33-53) 
was a species of decay, which made them unclean in the view of the Mosaic 
law, and necessitated their purification whenever the plague could be 
arrested, and their destruction in all other cases. 

Other sources of uncleanness, from issues, the flow of blood, 
etc., are mentioned in the fifteenth chapter of Leviticus. These 
defiled not only the persons in whose bodies they had their seat, 
but every person or thing with which they came in contact. Un- 
cleanness from childbirth had two stages, both of which, with the 
requisite purifications, are specified in the twelfth chapter of 
Leviticus. 

6. The culmination of uncleanness was in deatJc — the curse 
denounced upon man for sin, and the emblem chosen by the 
Holy Ghost to represent the state of perdition into which sin 
brings the soul. The flesh of clean animals slain for food re- 
mained clean as long as it was in a sound condition ; but natural 
death made the carcasses of clean beasts, as well as of unclean, 
impure and abominable. Lev. 11 : 39, 40. For the same reason 
the human corpse was unclean, and defiled aU who touched it. 
Numb. 19 : 11, seq. 

III. PUEIFICATONS FKOM UNCLEANNESS. 

7. The rites of purification varied in different cases, accord- 
ing to the nature of the defilement. In the less important cases — 
uncleanness arising from contact with the carcass of a dead ani- 
mal (Lev. 11 : 24, 25, 28, 31, 39), from eating of the flesh of a 
clean animal that had died a natural death (Lev. 11 : 40), from 
entering an infected house (Lev. 14 : 46, 47), from_ touching the 
bed of an unclean person (Lev. 15 : 5, seq.), and from various 
other causes that need not be specified — the defiled person was 
required to wash himself and his clothes, and was unclean until 
the evening. Eaiment, skins, and sacks defiled in the same way 
must be washed, and remain unclean until the evening. So also 



DISTINCTIONS OF CLEAN AND UNCLEAN. 595 

vessels of liouseliold furniture, unless they were made of earth ; 
in which case they were to be broken. Lev. 11 : 32, seq. 

8. For purification after childbirth (Lev. 12 : 6-8) the mother 
brought a lamb of the first year for a burnt-offering, and a turtle 
dove or a young pigeon for a sin-offering : or, in the case of pov- 
erty, "a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons" (the very 
offering presented after the Saviour's birth, Luke 2 : 24). The 
latter offeiing was also prescribed in another case. Lev. 15 : 28, 
seq. 

9. For uncleanness arising from the touch of a human corpse, 
or a bone of a man, or a grave, purification was 'made by the 
icater of uncleanness (Eng. version, zvater of separation), for the 
preparation of which dhections are given in the nineteenth chap- 
ter of the book of Numbers. A red heifer without blemish, and 
that had never borne the yoke, was to be taken by the high priest 
without the camp, slain, and her blood sprinkled seven times 
towards the front of the tabernacle. Then her entire body was 
to be burned, along with cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and 
the ashes gathered and laid up without the camp for future use. 
As the ashes were typically laden with the uncleanness arising 
from the touch of dead persons or their bones or graves (in the 
sense that the uncleanness was to be transferred to them), the 
priest, the man who burned the heifer, and he who gathered up 
the ashes, were all rendered ceremonially unclean; and were 
required each to wnrh his clothes, and to be unclean until the 
evening. " It might seem strange," says Bush (on Numb. 19 : 7), 
" that the same thing should pollute those that were clean, and 
yet purify those that were unclean. But in fact -all the sacrifices 
that were offered for sin were looked upon as unclean, for the 
reason that the sins of men were putatively laid upon them, as 
our sins were upon Christ, who is therefore said to be 'made sin 
for us.' " In confirmation of this view we refer to the fact that 
both the man who, on the great day of atonement, conducted 
the scapegoat into the wilderness, typically laden with the sins 
of the congregation, and he who burned the sin-offerings without 
the camp, were required to wash their clothes, bathe theii' flesh 



596 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

in water, and afterwards come into the camp. Lev. 16 : 26, 27. 
For purification with the abovementioned ashes a clean person 
took some of them, mingled them with living water, and sprink- 
led with a bunch of hyssop the defiled person, tent, or vessel on 
the first, third, and seventh days. On the seventh day the de- 
filed person washed his clothes and his person, and was clean 
when the eveiiing arrived. 

10. The rites of purification in the case of a person recovered 
from the plague of leprosy were the most numerous. No direc- 
tions are given for the use of remedies to remove this malady. 
It is regarded as a visitation from God, incurable by human 
means. Numb. 12 : 10, seq. ; 2 Kings 5 : 27 ; 15 : 5 ; 2 Chron. 
26 : 19-21. At the same time it is assumed that it may be re- 
moved ; and in this case minute directions are given (Lev., chap. 
14) for the purification of the man whose leprosy has been 
healed. 

The ceremonies connected with the cleansing of the leper were unique, 
and had two distinct stages ; the first removing his uncleanness and resto- 
ring him to the camp, but without permission to leave his tent, the second 
conferring upon him all the privileges of other Israelites, The transac- 
tions of the first stage were of necessity without the camp. The priest 
took two living birds, with cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop ; slew one bird 
over an earthen vessel containing living water — water from a fountain or 
running stream — thus producing a mixture of blood and water ; dipped the 
living bird with the other articles in this mixture ; sprinkled the late leper 
with the blood and water seven times ; pronounced him clean, and let the 
Hving bird loose into the open field. The man then returned to his tent, 
after washing his garments and his body, and shaving off all his hair, that 
he might thus remove all vestiges of his late defilement. Expositors differ 
as to the meaning- of these very j)eculiar rites. But beyond doubt the 
blood and water denote expiation and purification. With these the late 
leper is cleansed by a seven-fold sprinkling. The living bird, first dipped 
in the mixture of blood and water, and then set free, is probably a sym- 
bolic representation of the leper himself, cleansed by blood and water, and 
thus released alike from defilement and constraint. 

After a week's interval the second stage of purification began. The 
ceremony of washing the clothes and body and shaving off every particle 
of hair was repeated. The man who had been healed then brought two 
lie-lambs, the one for a trespass-offering, the other for a sin-offering, and 
also one ewe -lamb for a burnt-offering, with an accompixnying oblation of 



DISTINCTIONS OF CLEAN AND UNCLEAN. 597 

fine flour and oil, each of wliicli Avas sacrificed in order. The blood of the 
trespass-offering, which was first slain, was applied by the priest to the right 
ear of the man to be cleansed, to the thumb of his right hand, and to the 
great toe of his right foot. See above, Chap. 29, No. 12. He then iDoured 
some of the oil into the palm of his left hand, sprinkled of it seven times 
before the Lord, and then applied it to the extremities of the late leper, as 
he had done the blood. This signified that with prirification from the 
defilement of le]orosy he received afresh the gift of Divine grace, of which 
oil was the symbol. The poor man was allowed to bring one lamb for a 
trespass-offering, and two turtle doves or two young pigeons. The nature 
and multipHcity of these rites shadowed forth the depth and universaUty 
of the defilement of leprosy — the best type which the physical world fur- 
nishes of sin with its all-j^ervading and corrupting power, of which the 
subject can truly say : 

' ' No outward forms can make me clean ; 
The leprosy lies deep within. 

"No bleeding bird, nor bleeding beast, 
Nor hyssop branch, nor sprinkling priest, 
Nor running brook, nor flood, nor sea, 
Can wash the dismal stain away. 

"Jesus, my God, thy blood alone 
Hath power sufficient to atone : 
Thy blood can make me white as snow ; 
No Jewish types can cleanse mo so." • 

11. We bring this subject to a close by a brief reference to 
the expiation required in the case of a murder by an unknown 
person. Deut. 21 : 1-9. When a man was found slain in the 
field, and the murderer was not known, it was directed that the 
elders and judges should measure from the body to the neigh- 
boring cities ; and the nearest city was required to clear itself 
before God of the guilt of shedding blood. The elders of that 
city were to take a heifer that had never borne the yoke, bring 
her down to a valley of flowing water (where water constantly 
runs, as the original Hebrew signifies), which was neither tilled 
nor sown, to break her neck there in the valley, and wash their 
hands over her Avith a solemn appeal to God of their innocence 
and ignorance of the guilty person, and a prayer that God would 
not lay to their charge innocent blood. 



598 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTEE XXXI. 

Saci\ed Seasons of the Hebrews. 

I. SABBATHS, SABBATICAL YEAKS, AND NEW 

MOONS. 

1. The words of Moses concerning the institution of the Sab- 
bath are these : " And God blessed the seventh day, and sancti- 
fied it ; because that in it he had rested from all his work which 
God created to make." Gen. 2 : 3. The ground for the institu- 
tion of the Sabbath existed from the creation of the world, and 
the fair interpretation of the passage teaches us that the institu- 
tion itself was given from the beginning — given in its essential 
form as a day of lioly rest, the appointment of one day in seven 
having reference to the manner of creation. This view is con- 
firmed by the occurrence of the period of seven days in the 
very concise history of the world before Moses. Gen. 7:4, 10 ; 
8 : 10, 12. Such a period must, indeed, have existed to give rise 
to the term week. Gen. 29 : 27, 28. It is further confirmed by 
the manner in which the Sabbath-day is mentioned in the deca- 
logue : "Kemember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy," which 
assumes that the Israelites are aheady famihar with its existence 
as a day holy to the Lord. 

2. In the institution of the Sabbath God claimed all time as 
his own. As the sovereign Lord of time he gave to men six days 
to labor and do all their work, reserving the seventh day as holy 
to himself, making it, at the same time, commemorative of the 
work of creation. So long as we keep this idea of the Sabbath, 
that it is a day of holy rest from our worldly employments, that 
we may give ourselves more immediately to God's service, we 
have a true Sabbath. But when we substitute for this the idea 
of a day of merely secular rest, the Sabbath perishes in its very 
essence, and with it the hold of the institutions of reHgion upon 
the masses of the people. 



SACKED SEASONS OF THE HEBKEWS. 599 

3. We are to distinguish between the Sahhatli itself in its 
essence, as it existed from the beginning, and the ordinances en- 
grafted ttjjon it by the Mosaic law — the sacrifice of two lambs 
every Sabbath morning and evening instead of one, the prohi- 
bition to kindle a fire (Exod. 35 : 3), etc. These laws were local 
and temporary. The spirit of them alone remains, that we should 
esteem the Lord's Sabbath as honorable, and devote it, as far as 
practicable, to spiritual duties. We are also to distinguish be- 
tween the essence of the Sabbath — one day of holy rest in sev- 
en — and the change of the day from the seventh to the first, to 
commemorate our Lord's resurrection, which completed the work 
of redemption, a change which can be shown to have been made 
in apostolic times. 

4. The Mosaic law prescribed also a Sabbath of years, one 
year in seven during which no debts could be exacted, and the 
husbandman was required to rest from the labor of tilling the 
soil, while its spontaneous products belonged to the poor. Exod. 
23 : 10, 11 ; Lev. 25 : 1-7 ; Deut. 15 : 1, 2. In this institution God 
claimed not only all time as his own, but all the labor of man 
with its products; allowing the covenant people through the 
period of six years to appropriate to themselves, under the re- 
strictions of the law, the produce of the soil, but giving it the 
seventh year to the indigent as a common possession. See fur- 
ther in Chap. 14, No. 2. 

5. Then followed the great Sabbath of sabbatical years, called 
the year of jubilee, when God further asserted his sovereign do- 
minion over the soil itseK and all the relations of hfe ; restoring 
to every poor Hebrew his possessions, and letting servants go 
free. The particular enactments connected with the sabbatical 
year and the year of jubilee have been already considered. 
Chap. 14, No. 2. They are noticed here simply in their religious 
aspect. "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; the 
world, and they that dwell therein" — this is the lesson which 
they practically inculcated upon the covenant people, and through 
them upon us. 



600 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

The word Sabbath (Heb., sliabballi) signifies rest, day of rest. Hence it 
is sometimes used in a more general sense of days or periods of time when 
the covenant people were required to rest from labor. Thus it is applied 
to the great day of atonement ; ' ' from even unto even shall ye celebrate 
your Sabbath" (Lev. 23 : 32); and the sabbatical year is called "a Sabbath 
to Jehovah" (Lev. 25:2, 4); "the Sabbath of the land" (ver. 6), and a 
' ' Sabbath of years " (ver. 8). The Hebrew word sliabbathon, rest, day of rest, 
never signifies of itself the Sabbath-day ; but is used in connection with 
the word sabbath for the Sabbath-day (Exod. 16 : 23 ; 31 : 15 ; 35 : 2 ;. Lev. 
23 : 3), for the sabbatical year (Lev. 25 : 4), and for the great day of atone- 
ment (Lev. 16:31). 

6. It was commanded tliat on the neio moons, in addition to 
the daily sacrifices, two bullocks, a ram, and seven sheep of a 
year old should be offered to God as a burnt-offering, along with 
a meal-offering and hbation ; also one kid of the goats for a sin- 
offering. Numb. 28 : 11-14. Thus God claimed a proprietor- 
ship in the months, as well as in the days and years. 

The blowing with trumpets on the days of the new moon, to which the 
psalmist alludes (Psa. 81 : 3), was not pecuHar to these occasions, as we 
learn from the words of the law (Numb. 10 : 1-10) ; where, in addition to 
the use of the silver trumpets for convening the congregation, the priests 
are directed to blow with the trumpets when the people encounter the 
enemy in war, in the days of their festivals and new moons, and over their 
burnt-offerings and peace-offerings — in all these special cases as a memo- 
rial to bring themselves into remembrance before God, that whether in 
prosperity or adversity they may have his presence and blessing. 

II. THE ORIGINAL NATIONAL FESTIVALS. 

7. The original national festivals established by the Mosaic 
law were three in number : " Three times in the year all thy 
males shall appear before the Lord thy God in the place which 
he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the 
feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles : and they shall 
not appear before the Lord empty ; every man shall give as he 
is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God which he 
hath given thee." Deut. 16 : 16, 17. The same three festivals 
are elsewhere prescribed. Exod. 23:14-17; 34:18, 22, 23; 
Lev., chap. 23. Other festivals were added in later times. The 



SACRED SEASONS OF THE HEBREWS. GOl 

salutary influence of these feasts in fostering the spirit of national 
■unity has already been considered. Chap. 22, No. 13. We now 
look at them in their rehgious character. 

8. The first of the great national festivals was the passover 
(Hebrew, pesah, of which the Greek form is pascha), so called 
because when the Lord smote the firstborn of Egypt he passed 
over the houses of the Israelites, on whose door-posts and Hntels 
the blood of the paschal lamb had been sprinkled, and did not 
destroy their firstborn. Exod. 12 : 13, 23-27. With this was 
connected sl feast of unleavened hr'ead of seven days' continuance. 
Exod. 12 : 15 ; 13 : 6, 7 ; 23 : 15 ; etc. Hence the passover itself 
is included in the ievm, feast of unleavened bread. Exod. 23 : 15 ; 
34:18; Deut. 16:16; etc. 

9. The festival of the passover was estabhshed in immediate 
connection with the deliverance of the Israelites from the bond- 
age of Eg^-pt, and was a commemoration of that great event. 
The ordinances for its first celebration are given at length in the 
twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus. On the tenth day of 
the month Nisan, the first month of the year, each household (or 
two neighboring households when small) took a male lamb or 
goat of the first year without blemish, and kept it till the four- 
teenth day of the same month at evening ; when they were direct- 
ed to slay it, sprinkle its blood on the two side-posts and lintel 
of their doors. It was then to be eaten roasted whole with fire, 
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and a bone of it was not 
to be broken. The further direction was : " Ye shall let nothing 
remain of it until the morning : and that which remaineth of it 
until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat 
it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your 
stajff in your hand : and ye shall eat it in haste : it is the Lord's 
passover" (vers. 10, 11). In future years several modifications 
were made in the manner of celebration. The directions in ver. 
11 related obviously to that particular occasion alone. After 
the erection of the tabernacle the paschal lamb was slain at the 
sanctuary (Deut. 16 : 6), and its blood, which at the institution of 
the festival was sprinkled on the side-posts and lintel of the 

(tkos. & AnUq. 26 



602 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

doors to defend them against the entrance of the destroying an- 
gel, was sprinkled by the priests at the altar (2 Chron. 30 : 16 ; 
35 : 11). The other ordinances — the roasting with fire, the eat- 
ing with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, the injunctions to 
break no bone, and leave none of the flesh till the morning — 
remained valid for all time. 

All circumcised males, if clean, were allowed to eat the pass- 
over ; but not foreigners or hired servants. Exod. 12 : 43-45. If 
ceremonial defilement .prevented any circumcised persons from 
observing the festival at the fegular time, they were required 
to celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month. 
Numb. 9 : 6, seq. The irregularity of Hezekiah's passover con- 
sisted in the fact that some ate who were not ceremonially pure. 
2 Chron. 30 : 17-20. According to the Eabbins women were 
allowed but not required to eat the passover ; and that they did 
partake of it is implied in the words of Josephus. Jewish War, 
6. 9. 3, end. 

10. The feast of unleavened bread, which included in itself the 
paschal sacrifice, lasted seven days; the first and seventh of 
these being days of holy convocation, in which no manner of 
servile work was allowed. On each of these seven days, more- 
over, the priests ofi'ered, in addition to the daily burnt-offerings, 
two young bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs, for a burnt-offer- 
mg, with an accompanying oblation of flour mingled with oil; 
and one goat for a sin-offering. Exod. 12 : 15-20 ; 13 : 6, 7 ; 
23 : 15 ; 34 : 18 ; Lev. 23 : 5-8 ; Numb. 28 : 16-25 ; Deut. 16 : 3-8. 
That it was customary to counect voluntary peace-offerings with 
the feast of unleavened bread may be inferred from 2 Chron. 
35 : 13, where the holy offerings, sod in pots, caldrons, and pans, 
and divided among the people, must be understood to have been 
peace-offerings. 

11. The sacrificial character of the passover appears in the 
original sprinkling of the blood on the door-posts and hntels, 
and in the subsequent requirement that it should be slain at the 
sanctuary, and its blood sprinkled at the altar. In this respect 
it approached very nearly to the character of a peace-offering. 



SACRED SEASONS OF THE HEBEEWS. 603 

The feast was both commemorative and ty]ncal. It was a joyous 
festival commemoratiTe of the dehverance of the Israehtes from 
Egyptian bondage. But this dehverance typified the higher re- 
demption of God's people from the bondage of sin ; and thus the 
paschal lamb typified Christ, through whose blood that redemp- 
tion is effected. As the blood of the paschal lamb protected those 
on whose doors it was sprinkled from the destroyer of the first- 
bom, so does the blood of Christ protect all who through faith 
receive its expiatory power from the wrath to come. As the 
Israehtes feasted joyfuUy on the paschal lamb, so does the church 
of God feed by faith on " the Lamb of God who taketh away the 
sin of the world." The New Testament distinctly recognizes the 
typical character of the passover. In noticing the fact that our 
Saviour's legs were not broken, the evangehst John adds the 
remark : " These things were done that the Scripture should be 
fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken" (John 19 : 36) ; and 
the apostle Paul says : " Christ our passover is sacrificed for us : 
therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with 
the leaven of mahce and^ wickedness ; but Tvdth the unleavened 
bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Cor. 5 : 7, 8). 

The use of unleavened bread in the feast of the passover had beyond 
doubt the significance ascribed to it by the apostle. 1 Cor. 5:8. It 
represented the sincerity and truth required by the new relation into 
which the people now entered with God, of which the passover festival 
was a sign and a seal, leaven being in the natui'al world the principle of 
coiTuption, and thus the symbol of sin in the moral Avorld. Some have 
supposed that the pecuhar prominence given to the requirement in this 
particular case was commemorative of the haste -vsith which the Israelites 
left the land of their bondage, which prevented the regular prei^aration of 
bread (Exod. 12 : 39) ; but this is doubtful. The hitler herbs (which abound 
in Egypt) seem to have been commemorative of the hard bondage to which 
they had been subjected. Roasting with fire seems, to have been enjoined 
as the purest, and, therefore, the most appropriate mode of preparing the 
paschal lamb for food ; since thus it was preserved from all waste and all 
admixture with a foreign substance. The direction that no bone should 
be broken represented the unity of God's people, which has its centre in 
Christ's person. His natural body represented mystically his spiritual 
person, which includes in itself all behevers as members. John 15 : 1 -7 ; 



604 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

17 : 23 ; 1 John 3 : 24 ; Eom. 12 : 5 ; 1 Cor. 12 : 12, seq. It might be 
pierced, but not mangled by the breaking of its bones. 

12. On the second day of the passover a sheaf of the first- 
fruits of the harvest was presented before the Lord, with a 
lamb for a bnrnt-offering, and an accompanying meal-offering 
and drink-offering. Lev. 23 : 9-14. This was the legal intro- 
duction to the harvest of that year, and before its presentation 
the people were not allowed to eat of anything pertaining to it. 
The sheaf was of barley, as being the grain first ripe (Josephus, 
Antiq., 3. 10. 5) ; and by this rite alone was the passover spe- 
cially connected with the season of the year. 

13. The Jews of later times observed the festival of the pass- 
over with great scrupulosity ; carefully searching every corner of 
their houses for any fragment of leavened bread the evening be- 
fore the fourteenth of Nisan ; roasting the lamb whole in an oven 
made of earthenware, so arranged on a spit that it should not 
touch the oven at any point ; eating it with bitter herbs ; etc. 
They used a sauce into which they dipped the flesh, bread, and 
bitter herbs ; and this is the sop of t^ich the evangelist John 
speaks. Chap. 13 : 26. The rabbins also enjoined that there 
should never be less than four cups of wine. All these and many 
more particulars are given in the treatise of the Talmud called 
Pesaliim. The reader wiU find them stated at length in the Bible 
dictionaries of Smith and Kitto. 

14. The passover was, as we have seen (No. 11, above), pre- 
eminently a type of Christ and his redemption, received by feed- 
ing upon him through faith. He, therefore, connected immedi- 
ately with it the institution of the Lord's supper ; using the un- 
leavened bread of the passover to represent his flesh, and one of 
the cups of wine to represent his blood — both given for the life 
of the world. Thus the passover, which had for so many ages 
foreshadowed his sacrifice for the sin of the world, gave place to 
the Christian ordinance which commemorates that great event. 

15. The second of the gTeat national festivals was that known 
to us by the name of the feast of Pentecost. In the law of Moses 






SACRED SEASONS OF THE HEBREWS. 605 

it is called ^' the feast of the harvest, the first-fruits of thy labors" 
(Exod. 23 : IG), for a reason that will presently appear; also the 
feast of lueeJcs ; that is, the feast celebrated the day after the 
completion of seven weeks from the second day of the passover, 
when the sheaf of the first-fruits of the harvest was presented 
before the Lord (Lev. 23 : 15, seq.) ; in other words, the feast 
occurring y^)^^/ days after the second day of the passover. Hence 
its later Hebrew name, day of fifty, which becomes in Greek, day 
of the Pentecost (Greek, 'pentecoste, fifty). See Exod. 23 : 16; Lev. 
23 : 15-21 ; Numb. 28 : 26-31 ; Deut. 16 : 9-12. 

16. The day of Pentecost was properly the celebration of the 
close of the harvest of wheat and barley. As a sheaf of the 
ripening harvest had been presented at the sanctuary on the 
second day of the passover, as an acknowledgment that it was 
God's gift, and as such belonged to him, so now two ivave-loaves 
of fine flour, made from the gathered harvest and baken with 
leaven, were presented before Jehovah. This was the distin- 
guishing rite of the feast. The loaves were made with leaven 
because they were not intended for the altar, but were a thanks- 
giving offering for God's bounty in furnishing food for his peo- 
ple. At the same time the priests were commanded to offer 
seven lambs of the first year, one bullock, and two rams, as a 
burnt-offering, with the customary meat and drink offerings ; also 
one kid of the goats for a sin-offering, and two lambs of the first 
year as a peace-offering. On the same day was a holy convo- 
cation, and all servile labor was forbidden. Lev. 23 : 15-21. It 
was a joyous festival to the Lord, every one being enjoined to 
bring with hmi a freewill offering, according as God had blessed 
him, and to eat it at the sanctuary with his children, his servants, 
the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Deut. 
16 : 9-12. 

17. The day of Pentecost coincided, according to later Jew- 
ish tradition, with the gi\dng of the law on Siaai ; but it must be 
acknowledged that this cannot be clearly made out from the 
sacred record (Exod. 19 : 1, seq.), nor is there any reference to 
such coincidence in the Old Testament. God, however, honored 



606 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

tlie day in a preeminent manner by choosing it as the time for 
the gift of the Holy Spirit in his plenary influences, and thus for 
the inauguration of the Christian dispensation. 

18. The third great national festival of the Hebrews began 
on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (Tisliri, reckoned 
from the new moon of October), and lasted seven days, with a 
solemn assembly and sacrifices on the eighth day. See Exod. 
23:16; Lev. 23:34-43; Deut, 16:13-15; Neh. 8:14^17; and 
especially Numb., chap. 29. This was at the close of the agri- 
cultural labors of the year, when not only the 'harvest of wheat 
and barley, but also the produce of the fruit-trees, vineyards, 
and olive-yards, had been gathered in — ^in the language of Scrip- 
ture : " When thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field.'* 
Exod. 23 : 16. As a joyful recognition of God's bounty to the 
husbandman it was called ihe feast of ingathering. As an histor- 
ical commemoration of the sojourning of the Israehtes in booths 
on their journey from Egypt to Canaan, it was called i\ie feast of 
tabernacles, and in both these aspects it was a pecuharly joyous 
festival. Josephus, Antiq., 8. 4. 1 ; 11. 5. 5. 

19. The points to be noticed in the feast of tabernacles are 
the dwelling in booths, the numerous sacrifices with their 
meat-offerings and drink-offerings, and the solemn convoca- 
tions. 

(1.) The directions in respect to the hootlis are as follows 
(Lev. 23 : 40^3) : " And ye shall take to yourselves on the first 
day the fruit of goodly trees" (see below), "branches of palm- 
trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the valley, 
and rejoice before Jehovah your God seven days. And ye shall 
celebrate it as a feast to Jehovah seven days in the year : it shall 
be a statute for ever for your generations ; in the seventh month 
shall ye celebrate it. Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all 
that are Israehtes born shall dwell in booths : that your genera- 
tions may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in 
booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am 
Jehovah your God." 



SACRED SEASONS OF THE HEBREWS. 607 

The Rabbinists of later times interpreted the fortieth verse to mean 
that they should take literally the fruil of goodly trees (they understood 
citrons), and should make of the branches of the trees specified a sort of 
thyrsus called lulab, to be borne about in their hands with the fruit. See 
Josephus, Antiq. , 3. 10. 4 ; 13. 13. 5 ; and the references in Keil on Lev. 
23 : 40, seq. , and in Bahr, Symbohk, 4. 3. 3. But the Karaite Jews held 
correctly that the boughs here specified were to be used in the construc- 
tion of booths ; for sijch was the interpretation of the words by Nehemiah 
and his associates (chap. 8 : 15), who could not have been mistaken as to 
the usage of their forefathers. "The fruit of goodly trees" may mean 
literally fruit for the embellishment of the booths ; or, the word '-fruit" 
may be used in the general sense of growth, that is branches, as in our ver- 
sion ; the fruit of goodly trees being a general statement put in apposition 
with what follows. So Keil and others. 

(2.) The sacrifices and oblations, whicli were on a very mag- 
nificent scale, are all specified in order in the twenty-ninth chap- 
ter of the book of Numbers. In addition to the daily sacrifices 
and oblations, there were to be offered on the first day, as a 
burnt-offering, thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fourteen 
lambs, with the accompanying meal-offering and drink-offering ; 
also one kid of the goats for a sin-offering. The same offerings 
were prescribed for the six following days, except that the num- 
ber of bullocks was to be diminished by one each day. On the 
eighth day, after the termination of the proper feast of taberna- 
cles, they offered, as a burnt-offering, one bullock, one ram, and 
seven lambs, with the accompanying meal-offering and drinli- 
offering, and one goat for a sin-offering. 

(3.) The first and eighth days were observed as holy convo- 
cations, in which no servile work was to be performed by Jews 
or any in their households. 

There were some rites observed by the later Jews which are not pre- 
scribed in the Pentateuch. Among these was the drawing of water every 
morning by the j)riests during the continuance of the feast (whether on the 
eighth day is doubtful), and pouring it out on the altar together with wine, 
while the Hallel (Psa. 113-118) was sung. It is commonly supposed that 
our Saviour alluded to this rite when he stood and cried ' ' in the last day, 
that great day of the feast," which was certainly the eighth day : '* If any 
man thirst let him come unto me and drink." 



608 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

20. Thus the year of agricultural labor ended (they began 
their ploughing and sowing for the ensuing year after the fall of 
the autumnal rains, Chap. 7, Nos. 2-4) with a double recognition 
of God's wonderful dealings in the past, and his bounty in the 
present. 

The seventh month was preeminently the month of solemn convoca- 
tions. On the first day was a holy convocation with 'the blowing of trum- 
pets, and the prescribed burnt-offerings and sin-offering : on the tenth was 
the great day of atonement (Chap. 29, No. 19. 5) : and two such days were 
connected with the feast of tabernacles — each of them a sabbatical day (see 
above, No. 5) on which no servile labor might be performed. 

III. LATER JEWISH FESTIVALS. 

21. The feast of Purim (that is, lots, Esther 9 : 24, 26) was 
ordained by Mordecai to be kept on the fourteenth and fifteenth 
days of the twelfth month, called Adar, in commemoration of the 
dehverance of the Jews from the machinations of Haman. For 
the account of its estabhshment the reader is referred to the 
ninth chapter of the book of Esther. It became with the Jews 
of later ages a favorite festival, and so it continues to the pres- 
ent time. The roll of the book of Esther is read over in the 
synagogue, and as often as the name of Haman occurs, the con- 
gregation make noisy demonstrations of abhorrence by stamping, 
clapping the hands, etc. When the synagogue services are over 
they give themselves up very freely to festivities. 

22. Tlhe feast of dedication was held in commemoration of the 
purification of the temple after it had been profaned by Anti- 
ochus Epiphanes. The profanation took place 167, and the 
purification 164 years before Christ. The festival commenced 
on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month, called Kislev, and 
lasted eight days, accompanied by many sacrifices. See 1 Mace. 
4 : 52-59; 2 Mace. 10 : 1-8; Josephus, Antiq., 12. 7. 6 and 7. 

The month Kislev began with the new moon of December. Hence the 
feast of dedication fell in the depths of winter, as intimated by the evan- 
geUst (John 10 : 22, 23) : "And it was the feast of dedication at Jerusalem, 
and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch." 
He walked there in a sheltered place because of the wintry weather. 



SACRED SEASONS OF THE HEBREWS. 609 

23. Besides tlie days of fasting connected with the Mosaic 
ritual (Lev. 16:29, 31; 23:27, 29, 32; Numb. 29:7), the Jews 
during and after the captivity had certain anniversary fasts, 
which are enumerated in the book of Zechariah. 

We give these according to Jahn. Archaeology, | 358. They were 
(1) the 17th day of the fourth month, in memory of the capture of Jerusa- 
lem ( Jer. 52 : 6, 7 ; Zech. 8 : 19) ; (2) the 9th day of the fifth month, in 
memory of the burning of the temple (Zech. 7:3; 8 : 19 compared with 
Jer. 52 : 12, 13) ; (3) the 3d day of the seventh month, in memory of tha 
murder of Gedaliah (Jer. 41 : 2, 3 ; Zech. 7:5; 8 : 19) ; (4) the 10th day 
of the tenth month, in memoiy of the commencement of the attack on 
Jerusalem (Jer. 52 : 4 ; Zech. 8 : 19). 



m 



610 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



CHAPTEE XXXII. 

Vows AND Devoted Things. 

1. The devotion of persons or things as accursed and doomed 
to destruction was not allowed according to the arbitrary will of 
individuals or communities. The Canaanites were thus devoted 
by God himseH. Numb. 33 : 50-56; Deut. 20: 16-18. Special 
cases, in which both the accursed persons and all the possessions 
belonging to them were, by God's immediate direction, to be 
destroyed, or devoted to the uses of the sanctuary, are the case 
of Jericho (Josh. 6:17-19); of Achan (Josh. 7: 24-26); of the 
Amalekites (Exod. 17 : 14; 1 Sam. 15 : 2, 3). Here belongs also 
the case recorded in Numb. 21 : 1-3, for king Arad and his peo- 
ple, as Canaanites, were included within the general curse (Heb., 
her em). In other cases the devotion to destruction was for the 
sin of idolatry, and took place after regular investigation. Deut., 
chap. 13. Jephthah's devotion of his daughter to death as a 
burnt-offering, in accordance with his interpretation of a previ- 
ous vow (if that be the true meaning of the passage) was an act 
of blind superstition, not warranted by either the letter or the 
spirit of the Mosaic law. 

2. Affirmative voivs were a very ancient usage. The earliest 
example is recorded in the book of Genesis (chap. 28 : 20-22), 
where Jacob solemnly engaged, upon specified conditions, to 
give the tenth of all his substance to the Lord. Of the same 
character were the votive sacrifices. They were sacrifices offered 
to God in fulfilment of a vow made in time of trouble. To these 
there is frequent allusion in the Old Testament : " I will go into 
thy house with burnt-offerings : I will pay thee my vows, which 
my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in 
trouble" (Psa. 66:13, 14); "Thy vows are upon me, O God; I 
will render praises unto thee ; for thou hast delivered my soul 
from death" (Psa. 56 : 12, loj. 



vows AND DEVOTED THINGS. 611 

Besides sacrifices, the Hebrews might devote to God by a 
solemn vow anything of which the right of possession was vested 
in themselves — their own persons or the persons of their chil- 
dren and bond-servants, their beasts clean and unclean, their 
houses and fields, etc. See Lev., chap. 27, where by making " a 
singular vow" (as our version renders) is meant separating some- 
thing as consecrated to God by a vow. All persons thus devo- 
ted were to be redeemed according to a prescribed law of valua- 
tion (vers. 3-8) ; clean beasts thus devoted were to be offered in 
sacrifice (vers. 9, 10). Unclean beasts might be redeemed by 
adding a fifth part to their estimated value (vers, 11-13). The 
same law prevailed for houses and lands, the worth of the latter 
being determined by reference to the nearness or remoteness of 
the year of jubilee (vers. 14r-25). Nothing that already belonged 
to Jehovah, as for example the firstlings of beasts and tithes, 
could be devoted to liim by such a vow, nor any base gain. 
Deut. 23 : 18. No devoted tiling (Heb., Jierem, the same word that 
is rendered accursed thing, Josh. 6:18; 7:1, 11) could be re- 
deemed or sold, but, if it were a living thing, must be put to 
death (vers. 28, 29). Here we are undoubtedly to understand 
things devoted as accursed, hke the persons and spoils of an 
idolatrous city. No. 1, above. We may not for a moment 
assume that the IsraeHtes had the right thus to devote to death 
persons over whom they had control, as children or bond-ser- 
vants, by their own arbitrary will. The cases were prescribed 
by the Mosaic law, and they were required to proceed in an 
orderly way upon satisfactory evidence. 

3. The persons or things thus devoted to God are the corlan 
{offering, gift to God) of the New Testament. In their original 
unperverted form, such affirmative vows were expressions of love 
and devotion to God. Although no man could give to God more 
than He required in the form of inward love, the command being : 
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," he could 
■mdk.e freeiuill offerings of outward possessions over and above 
those requned by the Mosaic statutes ; and these, if given in the 
spirit of humihty and faith, were acceptable to God. But when 



612 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

they degenerated into acts of self-righteousness, and were made 
at the expense of the duties which men owed to their parents 
and other persons dependent upon them, as in the case of the 
Pharisees (Mark 7 : 9-13), they became an abomination in the 
sight of God. 

4. The Mosaic law neither enjoined nor encouraged vows, but 
it regulated them with great exactness. They were transactions 
with God, in which no levity or unfaithfuhiess was allowable. 
The cases in which vows were disallowed or permitted to stand 
as vahd are fully described in the thirtieth chapter of the book 
of Numbers. When valid they mast be faithfully kept. "When 
thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not 
delay to pay it : for the Lord thy God will surely require it of 
thee ; and it would be sin in thee. .But if thou shalt forbear to 
vow, it shall be no sm in thee. That which is gone out of thy 
Hps thou shalt keep and perform according as thou hast vowed 
unto the Lord thy God, as a freewill offering which thou hast 
spoken with thy lips. Deut. 23 : 21-23. See also Eccl. 5 : 4-6. 

5. Of negative voivs, vows of abstinence, the most important 
class, for which alone rules were prescribed by the Mosaic law, 
was that of Nazarite vows. Samson (Judg. 13 : 2-7) and John 
the Baptist (Luke 1 : 15) were Nazarites from their birth by God's 
app(t)intment. So also apparently Samuel by the vow of his 
mother. 1 Sam. 1 : 11. But the rules of the Mosaic law (Numb., 
chap. 6) have respect to the vow by which men or women made 
themselves Nazarites unto the Lord for a temporary period. 
During the continuance of this period the observance of three 
rules was strictly enjoined upon them : (1) They were to drink 
no Avine or strong drink, and to abstain from every product of 
the vine in whatever form (vers. 3, 4) ; (2) they were to leave 
their hair unshorn (ver. 5) ; (3) they were not to defile themselves 
by the touch of any dead body, though it were one of their 
nearest kin. In case of an accidental defilement, all the past 
days of their separation as Nazarites were counted as nothing 
They were to shave their head, undergo a prescribed purification 
of eight days, and begin the days of their separation anew. 



YOWS AND DEVOTED THINGS. 013 

• 

Wlien the days of liis vow were fulfilled, tlie Nazarite offered a 
he-lamb of the first year as a burnt-offering, a ewe-lamb of the 
first year as a sin-offering, and a ram as a peace-offering, with 
prescribed unbloody oblations. An additional peculiar rite was 
that he should shave the hair of his head, " and put it in the fire 
which is under the sacrifice of peace-offerings," thus consecra- 
ting it to God (vers. 13-21). 

That there were other particnkr vows of abstinence appears from the 
thirtieth chapter of the book of Numbers, where the vow [nedher) is affirm- 
ative, and the bond [issdr) is negative; namely, "an oath of a bond to 
afflict the soul" (ver. 13), probably by fasting and other forms of absti- 
nence. But the Mosaic law gives no special rules respecting them. A 
notable example of the pei-version of the principle contained in such vows 
occurs in the history of the apostle Paul. On one occasion more than forty 
Jews bound themselves with an oath that they would neither eat nor drink 
till they had slain Paul, and they were willing to employ falsehood and 
hypocrisy for the accomplishment of their oath. Acts 23 : 12, seq. 

6. The underlying idea of the Nazarite vow was the special 
devotion of one's self to God in the way of ](^irify and abstinence 
from things in themselves lawful. It had its ground in the deep 
consciousness of bondage to the flesh and the contamination of 
the soul by worldly intercourse. It was thus an attempt to ex- 
press the deske of coming into a nearer relation to God, wdth 
that self-abnegation, purity, and entire consecration requh'ed by 
such a relation. The requirement of abstinence from wine, 
strong drink, and every product of the vine, even fresh grapes 
and raisins, is to be imderstood in a representative way. It sig- 
nified the abstaining from all the delights of flesh and sense that 
war against the spiritual man. The prohibition against defile- 
ment by the touch of a dead body (in which respect the Nazarite 
was placed on a level with the high priest himself, Lev. 21 : 11), 
represented the purity required of those who come near to God. 
The prohibition to shave the hair of the head had, of course, a 
symboHc meaning; but what the meaning was is a question that 
has been variously answered. The clue to the true significance 
of the Nazarite's unshorn hair is, as it seems to us, found in the 
fact that;, upon the expiration of the period of his consecration, 



614 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

he was required to sliave it off and devote it to the Lord by 
burning it on the altar (ver. 18). Abstinence from the use of the 
razor during the days of his consecration was, then, a sign of 
the entireness of his consecration. His person was wholly devo- 
ted to the Lord, and was to be abridged of nothing that belonged 
to it. 

The term Nazariie (Heb. . nazir) signifies separated, set apart by separa- 
tion. It is applied figuratively to the undressed vine of the sabbatical 
year. Lev. 25 : 5, 11. According to some it has in certain passages (Gen. 
49 : 26 ; Deut. 33 : 16 ; Lam. 4 : 7) the sense of separated as a prince. 

Among the Jews of later times it was esteemed an act of piety to pay 
the expenses which poor Nazarites incurred upon the fulfilment of their 
time of consecration. Upon this usage was founded, apparently, the sug- 
gestion made to the apostle Paul (Acts 21 : 23, 24): "We have four men 
among us who have a vow on them ; them take, and purify thyself with 
them " (by entering into the vow with them), " and be at charges for them, 
that they may shave their heads. " 

7. The common formula of swearing : " God do so to me and 
more also, if," etc.,*is not a vow but an imprecation upon one's 
own person of the evil in question, if he do not fulfil what his 
oath engages him to do. See Euth 1 : 17 ; 2 Sam. 3:9, 35 ; 
1 Kings 2 : 23 ; 2 Kings 6 : 31. 



THE FIEST AND SECOND TEMPLE. 615 



CHAPTEE XXXIII. 

The First and jSecond Temple. 

1. Theke is much architectural interest connected with the 
two Jewish temples, especially with the second as renewed, or 
rather rebuilt, by Herod. But in religions interest neither of 
them can compare with the tabernacle. The plan of that, with 
all its appointments, was received from God ; and the two tem- 
ples were modelled after it, with only those modifications that 
were appropriate to the altered circumstances of the Israehtes. 
They were now settled in the land of Canaan, and no longer 
needed a movable sanctuary. In Solomon's time they had be- 
come rich and strong, and it was proper that the Lord's house 
should have an outward magnificence corresponding with the 
material prosperity which he had bestow^ed upon them. Such 
was the view taken by David when he suggested to Nathan, for 
the first time, the idea of building a temple. " See now," said 
he, "I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth 
within curtains." 2 Sam. 7:2. And, again, he says of the prep- 
arations which he and the princes of Israel had made : " O Lord 
our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee a 

• house for thy holy name cometh of thy hand, and is all thine 
own." 1 Chron. 29 : 16. The brevity of the present work ex- 
cludes elaborate discussions respecting the architecture of the 
Jewish temples. We shall restrict ourselves mainly to an eluci- 
dation of those points which had more immediate reference to 
their rehgious uses. 

I. THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. 

2. The temple of Solomon was built on Moriah, a rocky emi- 
nence in the southeastern part of Jerusalem. In order to obtain 
a sufficient area, the summit was levelled, immense walls were 
built up on the four sides, and the intervening space between 



616 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

them and the levelled top was filled in with earth, or built up in 
vaults. See above, Chap. 2, No. 32, seq. For a description of 
the temple itseK see 1 Kings, chap. 6; 2 Chron., chap. 3; and 
for the furniture and adornments, 1 Kings, chap. 7; 2 Chron., 
chap. 4. The walls of the temple were built of white marble, 
taken apparently from a quarry near the Damascus gate (Bar- 
clay, pp. 459-469), the stones being all prepared beforehand, "so 
that there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron 
heard in the house while it was in building." 1 Kings 6 : 7. 
Within, the walls and ceihng overhead were lined with cedar, on 
which were carved knops (or egg-shaped gourds), opening flow- 
ers, figures of cherubim, and palm-trees. 1 Kings 6 : 18, 29. 
The floor was made of planks of fir (or cypress) ; and the floor, 
waUs, and ceiling were overlaid with gold. 

3. The interior arrangements of the temple were modelled 
after those of the tabernacle, but were of double dimensions. 
Thus, the length of the house was sixty cubits, and its breadth 
twenty cubits. It was divided, hke the tabernacle, into the inner 
and the outer sanctuary. The inner sanctuary (called in the 
description the oracle, Heb., dehliir) was an exact cube twenty 
cubits in length, breadth, and height. The outer sanctuary was 
forty cubits long by twenty in width. Its height is not stated. 
Since the height of the temple as a whole was thirty cubits 
(1 Kings 6 : 2) there must have been a space over the inner sanc- 
tuary, occupied apparently by the "upper chambers" mentioned 
in 2 Chron. 3 : 9. If the outer sanctuary was of the same height 
as the inner, then there were chambers over that also. 

4. The oracle, that is, the inner sanctuary, was separated from 
the outer by a partition, in which — evidently at an equal distance 
from the two sides — was a doorway, occupying with the frame in 
which it was set a fifth part of the wall, that is, four cubits. This 
was its width. The height must have been proportional. The 
two leaves of the door were single, and made of olive-wood carved 
with cherubim, palm-trees, and opening flowers, the whole over- 
laid with gold. The inner sanctuary had also a veil of blue, and 
purple, and crimson, and fine linen, with figm^es of cherubim in- 



THE FIEST AND SECOND TEMPLE. 617 

wrought. 2 Chron. 3 : 14. " The doors," says Keil (on 1 Kings 
6 : 32), " did not make the veil mentioned in 2 Chron. 3 : 14 unne- 
cessary, as many suppose. It may well have hung within the 
doors ; so that even when their folds were opened without, the 
veil furnished a second covering, in order that thus every ghmpse 
into the most holy place might be cut off from the priests who 
ministered in the outer sanctuary and court." The doorway of 
the outer sanctuary occupied a fourth part of the wall, that is, 
five cubits ; and it had two double leaves made of cypress wood, 
ornamented like the leaves of the inner door, and overlaid witli 
gold. Both the inner and outer doors turned on hinges of gold. 
1 Kings 7 : 50. 

5. In respect to the furniture of the temple, we notice some 
additions to that of the tabernacle. (1.) The addition in the 
oracle or inner sanctuary of tico cherubim made of olive-wood, 
each ten cubits high. Th<ese stood against the western or hinder 
wall of the sanctuary, with their faces directed inward (2 Chron. 
3: 13), and their wings outspread, "so that the wing of the one 
touched the one wall, and the whig of the other cherub touched 
the other wall; and their wings" (their inner wings) "touched 
one another in the midst of the house." 1 Kings 6 : 27. Their 
symbohsm was the same as that of the cherubim upon the mercy- 
seat. (2.) The introduction into the outer sanctuary of ten can- 
dlesticks of gold, and teji tables also, instead of the one candlestick 
and the one table of showbread that belonged to the taberna- 
cle. 2 Chron. 4 : 7, 8. The ten candlesticks were made " accord- 
ing to thek manner," that is, according to the pattern of the 
golden candlestick of the tabernacle ; and the tables were for 
the showbread. 2 Chron. 4 : 7, 19, 20. Of these candlesticks 
and tables five were set on the right side of the outer sanctuary, 
and five on the left. In 1 Kings 7 : 48 only one table is men- 
tioned ; that, namely, on which the twelve loaves were placed ; 
for the loaves were cei'tainly not divided among the tables. 
(3.) The addition to the temple of loindoivs of closed laftice-icork 
(the true rendering of 1 Kings 6:4); that is, lattice-work that 
could not be opened and closed mt pleasure, and which served 



618 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

for ventilation. These windows seem to liave been in tlie upper 
part of the wall above the three stories of chambers that were 
built around the temple. See below, No. 7. 

6. In front of the temple was a porch extending across its 
whole width, twenty cubits, and ten cubits deep. The height of 
this porch is not given in the first book of Kings, but in the sec- 
ond book of Chronicles (3 : 4) it is said to have been one hundred 
and twenty cubits high, a measure which is "so entirely out of 
proportion to the other dimensions of the porch and the general 
height of the building, that it is commonly supposed there is 
some error in the text." Imperial Bible Diet., Art., Temple. In 
the porch in front of the temple (1 Kings 7 : 21 ; 2 Chron. 3 : 17) 
were placed two pillars of brass " eighteen cubits high apiece, 
and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about." 
The ornamental work on these pillars is described at length. 
1 Kings 7 : 15-22. The name of the pillar on the right side was 
Jacliin, lie establishes ; that of the pillar on the left side, Boaz, in 
him is strength. The temple was the dweUing-place of Jehovah ; 
and these pillars were symbols of the great truth that he estab- 
lishes his people, and that their strength is in him. 

7. Around the temple on three sides — the north and south 
sides and the west end — were built three stories of chambers one 
above another, each story being five cubits in height (1 Kings 
6 : 10) ; making, with an allowance for the thickness of the floors, 
some eighteen cubits of elevation, above which the temple itseK 
rose to the height of thirty cubits from its foundation. The 
cedar beams on which the successive stories rested were not let 
into the wall of the temple (which would have made them seem 
to constitute a part of it, and would have been derogatory to its 
sacred character) ; but they rested on offsets produced by suc- 
cessive diminutions in the thickness of the wall. Hence it hap- 
pened that the breadth of the lower story of chambers was %Ne 
cubits ; that of the middle story, six cubits ; and that of the up- 
per story, seven cubits. That they were let into the wall which 
supported them on the outside, we may infer from the descrip- 
tion of the temple seen in vision by Ezekiel, where this is express- 




PLAN OF THE TEMPLE IN TH:: TIME OP CHEIST. 



A. The Holy of Holies. 

B. The Holy Place. 

(;. The Altar of Biirnt-oflferir.gs. 

D. The brazen Laver. 

E. The court of the Priests. 

F. The court of Israel. 

G. The gate Nicanor. 

H. The court of the Woino: . 



I. The gat3 Eeautiful. 

J. The court of the Gentiles. 

K. The Eastern or Shushau gate. 

L. Solomon's Porch, or colonnade. 

M. The Eoyal Porch. 

N. The Outer Wall. 

O. Apartments for various uses. 




j--n....ri 



risijij\.^ui.r}Ji!nJt^rLnj*Jijiji.nJiin 



_joir; 



A^ L-i 







SIDE \IEW OF THE TEMPL::, FllOM THE SOUTH ; IN PAUT AFTi B DK. BARCLAY. 



THE FIRST AND SECOND TEMPLE. 619 

ly stated. Ezek. 41 : 6. The ascent to the chambers was by 
winding stairs from the lower story to the middle, and from that 
to the upper story. 1 Kings 6 : 8. 

Josephus (Antiq., 8. 3. 2) says that the chambers were thirty in number; 
tliat is, thirty for each story, and that the mode of entrance was from one 
into another. He further says that the chambers of the lower story were 
five cubits in length, and the same in breadth, and twenty cubits high, 
which last dimension is manifestly incorrect, as are some other of his meas- 
ures. These chambers were for the use of the priests, the officers who had 
the supervision of the temple, etc. 

8. The temple had two courts ; the inner (1 Kings 6 : 36) called 
also the court of the priests (2 Chron. 4:9), and the upper court 
( Jer. 36 : 10), as being elevated above the other ; and the outer 
or great court (2 Chron. 4:9). The walls of the inner court were 
built with tliree rows of hewn stone, and a row of cedar beams, 
and both courts were furnished with doors overlaid with brass. 
With the courts were connected chambers or cells for the use of 
the porters and other attendants, and for storerooms in which 
were kept the treasures of the temple, and everything necessary 
for its service. 2 Kings 23 : 11 ; 1 Chron. 9 : 26 ; 28 : 12 ; 2 Chron. 
31:5,11; Jer. 36 : 10 ; etc. 

9. In the furniture of the inner court we notice changes cor- 
responding to those made in the sanctuary. The brazen altar 
of the tabernacle, five cubits square and three in height, was 
superseded by an altar of brass twenty cubits square and 
ten cubits in height (2 Chron. 4:1), the ascent to which must 
have been by an inclined plane (Exod. 20 : 26). In place of the 
laver belonging to the tabernacle, Solomon made a molten sea 
of " ten cubits from one brim to the other, round all about, with 
a height of five cubits, and a hne of tliirty cubits did compass it 
about." 1 Kings 7:23; 2 Chron. 4:2. The capacity of this 
sea was, according to 1 Kings 7 : 26 ; two thousand baths (ac- 
cording to 2 Chron. 4 : 5, three thousand baths, which is appa- 
rently an error in the text) ; that is, reckoning the bath as does 
Kobinson, at 8| gallons, 17,750 gallons; or, according to the old 



620 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

reckoning of 7J gallons, to a bath, 15,000 gallons. It was orna- 
mented around the brim with knops (gourd like figures) and flow- 
ers of hlies ; and it stood on twelve brazen oxen with their faces 
turned outward, looking three in a group towards each of the 
four quarters of the earth. Solomon also made, in correspond- 
ence with the ten candlesticks and ten tables of the sanctuary, 
ten bases or stands of brass four cubits square with a height of 
three cubits, on each of which he placed a laver containing forty 
baths. The bases were ornamented with figures of lions, oxen, 
and cherubim, and had each four wheels, for the convenience of 
moving them from place to place. They were arranged in the 
court five on the right side of the house and ^Ye on the left. See 
1 Kings 7 : 27-39. 

For the service of tlie sanctuary a great quantity of water was required. 
The use of the layers, as distinguished from that of the sea, is thus given 
(2 Chron. 4:6): "He made also ten layers, and put five on the right hand 
and five on the left, to wash in them ; such things as they offered for the 
burnt-offering they washed in them ; but the sea was for the priests to 
wash ui." At the time of the captivity, this sea, with the bases and brazen 
pillars, fell into the hands of the Chaldeans, when they were broken in 
pieces, and the brass of them carried to Babylon. The movable furniture 
of the temple was transported without injury. 2 Kings, chap. 25 ; Ezra 
I : 7-11. 

II. THE TEMPLE OF ZERUBBABEL. 

10. The temple of Solomon stood, according to the com- 
monly received chronology, about 417 years from the time of its 
completion to that of its destruction by the Chaldeans, b. c. 588 
years. The foundation of the second temple was laid by Zerub- 
babel and his associates B. c. 535 years, and, after a long 
interruption, was finished B. c. 515 years, or seventy-three years 
after the destruction of Solomon's temple. Concerning the 
plan of this temple we have but little information. The de- 
cree of Darius (Ezra 6 : 3) directs that it shall be sixty cubits 
high and sixty in breadth. Both these dimensions are reckoned 
externally. The inner and outer sanctuary did not certainly ex- 
ceed twenty cubits in their interior width; for this was their 



THE EIEST AND SECOND TEMPLE. 621 

width in Solomon's temple, and in the temple as renewed by 
Herod. The width of sixty cubits was made up according to 
Keil (on Ezra 6:3) as follows : twenty cubits for the interior 
width of the sanctuary ; five cubits on each side for the width of 
the temple walls at their foimdation ; ten cubits on each side for 
the width of the chambers built around the temple ; five cubits 
on each side for the width of the outer walls of the chambers ; 
that is : 5 + 10 + 5 + 20 + 5 + 10 + 5 cubits = 60 cubits. How much 
of the height of sixty cubits was occupied by the sanctuary 
proper we have no means of deciding. According to Josephus, 
(Jewish "War, 5. 5. 5) the height of the two sanctuaries, as 
renewed by Herod, was sixty cubits; but this may have had 
its ground in the Jewish interpretation of this very passage in 
Ezra. 

11. When the foundation of this temple was laid by Zerub- 
babel, "all the people shouted with a great shout when they 
praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the 
Lord was laid." But the old men who had seen the first house 
in its glory, "wept with a loud voice." To this scene the prophet 
Haggai refers (chap. 2:3): " Who is left among you that saw 
this house in her first glory? And how do ye see it now ? Is it 
not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?" But God's 
promise was (ver. 9): "The glory of this latter house shall be 
greater than of the former, saith the Lord of hosts ; and in this 
place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts" — a promise that 
was fulfilled in the lower sense when Herod renewed Zerubba- 
bel's temple with a magnificence surpassing that of Solomon's 
temple ; and in the higher sense when this temple was honored 
by the presence of the Son of God, the great Peacemaker be- 
tween God and man. 



The second temple wanted the ark of the covenant and the Urim and 
Thummim. Of the cloud which was a token of God's presence when the 
first temple Avas dedicated (1 Kings 8 : 10, 11), wo have no notice in the 
history of the second temple. It had but one candlestick and table of 
showbread (1 Mace. 4:49), according to the primitive order of the taber- 
nacle. According to Jewish authorities (Joma, 5. 2), a stone was set in the 



G22 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

inner sanctuary in place of the ark of the covenant, and on this the blood 
of the sin-offerings was sprinkled. This accords with the report of Pom- 
pey's visit to the sanctuary (b. c. 63): '^ A sanctuary/ wWi no image of the 
gods, and empty sJirines" (Tacitus, Hist., 5. 9). 

III. THE TEMPLE OF HEROD. 

12. Herod was not satisfied witli the quality of the second 
temple, and, in an oration addressed to the Jews (Joseplius, An- 
tiq., 15. 11. 1), lie proposed to replace it by one of surpassing 
magnificence; "thinking," says Josephus, "that tlie accomplish- 
ment of this would be, as it was, the most famous of all the works 
undertaken by him, and would serve for an everlasting memorial 
of him." The Jews very naturally regarded liis proposal with 
coldness and distrust ; being apprehensive that if lie should pull 
down the existing temple, he would not find means to accomplish 
his plan for the erection of a new house on a scale so vast as 
that proposed by him. To allay their fears Herod promised that 
he would not take down their temple till he had prepared all 
things necessary for rebuilding it. This promise he faithfully 
kept, replacing the several parts of the temple in succession, so 
that its identity was not destroyed, but it continued to be called, 
as it reaUy was, the second temple, though renewed in a form 
more magnificent than that of even Solomon's temple, and with 
grander dimensions. 

13. We add a brief account of Herod's temple as it appeared 
to a visitor entering its several parts from without. The enthe 
enclosure of the temple occupied, according to Josephus, a sta- 
dium square ; according to the Talmud, ^ye hundred cubits 
square, its successive courts lying in the form of terraces, one 
above another, and the temple proper occupying the highest 
place. The outermost enclosure, called the court of the Gentiles^ 
was surrounded on all sides by a high wall. It had on three 
sides a double line of porches, and on the fourth, or south side, 
a triple line. These porches were of surpassing magnificence. 
Their roofs were of cedar, adorned with carved work. Each 
double porch rested on a triple row of columns, and the triple 



THE FIKST AND SECOND TEMPLE. 623 

porch on a quadruple row. The columns were of the Corinthian 
order of architecture, and consisted each of a single piece of 
white marble twenty-five cubits in height ; an altitude which was 
doubled by the addition of pedestal, capital, cornice, and roof. 
Thus the entire height of the porches was fifty cubits, with a 
breadth of thirty cubits. From these measures is to be excepted 
the middle porch on the south side, which was forty-five cubits 
broad and a hundred high. All the porches were paved with 
marble of various colors. The outer porch on the eastern side 
was called Solomons porch. 

It was in the court of the Gentiles that the money-changers were found, 
and those who sold animal* and doves for sacrifice. Matt. 21 : 12, 13 ; 
Mark 11 : 15-17 ; Luke 19 : 45, 46 ; John 2 : 13-17. ''In this court," says 
Jahn (Archaeology, |343), "appear to have been repositories, of which we 
are informed by Josephus (Jewish War, 6. 5. 2), in which the treasures, 
utensils, supplies, etc., of the temple were kept. But these repositories 
are to be distinguished from the treasury mentioned in Mark 12 : 41, into 
which the gifts of the temple were cast." The latter was, according to the 
Talmudists, in the court of the women. 

14. Passing through the court of the Gentiles, the visitor 
came to the inner court, which was encompassed by a double en- 
closure. First, there was an elegant stone wall, three cubits in 
height, on aU four sides. On this stood at equal distances pillars 
with inscriptions in Greek and Latin, forbidding to strangers 
any further approach under penalty of death. Passing through 
this, one came, by an ascent of fourteen steps, to a level plat- 
form, ten cubits broad ; and then, by an ascent of five more 
steps, to the proper gate and waU of the inner court. This wall, 
which encompassed it on all sides, was forty cubits high without, 
but within only twenty-five cubits high, the whole interior plat- 
form being elevated fifteen cubits. The inner court was fm-ther 
subdivided by a low wall into the court of the women on the easi 
side, and the coicrt of the Israelites, which was four-square, sur- 
rounding the temple on all sides. Between the gates of tliia 
court were single porches, which, says Josephus, were no way 
inferior to the porches of the lower court, except in size. Pass- 



624 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

ing through the court of the IsraeHtes, one came to the inner- 
most area, called the court of the priests, surrounded by a low 
wall, in the midst of which the temple itself was placed. None 
but the priests were permitted to enter this court, not even Herod 
himself (Pompey's visit to the sanctuary was simply in the exer- 
cise of his mihtary power as a conqueror) ; but, according to the 
express statement of Josephus (Antiq., 15. 11. 6), the temple 
proper was rebuilt by the priests in a year and six months, 
while Herod superintended the construction of the porches and 
the outward enclosures, a work which occupied his time for eight 
years. 

15. The gates of the courts leading up to the sanctuary corre- 
sponded in magnificence with the general splendor of the temple. 
The outer wall of the temple area had on the west side four gates 
(Josephus, Antiq., 15. 11. 5), the southernmost leading over the 
bridge that connected the temple with Zion (Eobinson's Bib. Ees., 
1, pp. 287, 288). On the north side there was no proper gate, but 
a secret subterranean passage communicating with the fortress 
Antonia (Chap. 2, No. 34), designed for the use of Herod and 
his officers, that he might at all times have command of the 
temple. According to Josephus (Antiq., 15. 11. 5), the south side 
"had gates about the middle." At the present day, about thirty 
feet in front of the Mosk-el-Aksa (Chap. 2, No. 36), a passage 
leads down by steps under the mosk to a noble ancient gateway, 
described by Catherwood as forty-two feet in breadth by fifty or 
sixty feet in length from south to north. It is a double gateway, 
with a middle row of columns extending through the whole pas- 
sage, and it served for access to the subterranean vaults of the 
temple area, and thus to the temple itself ; but it was no gate- 
way for common use. The celebrated golden gate on the eastern 
side, which is similar in its structure, is referred by Eobinson 
(Bib. Ees., vol. 1, p. 296) to a later age. Both this and the gate- 
way on the south side are now closed up. 

The inner enclosure about the court of the Israelites and that 
of the women had nine gates, four on the north side, four on thg 
south, and one in front on the east. Of the side gates the 



THE FIRST AND SECOND TEMPLE. 625 

two easternmost led into the court of tlie women, and tlie re- 
maining six into the court of the Israehtes. These gates Y/ere 
all adorned with gold and silver, but the eastern gate, called the 
gate of Nicanor, surpassed all the rest in splendor. It was of 
Corinthian brass, fifty cubits in height, with folds of forty cubits, 
profusely adorned with thick plates of silver and gold. This is 
supposed to have been "the gate called Beautiful." Acts 3 : 2. 
All the gates had large spaces within, with side rooms built like 
towers. See Josephus, Jemsli War, 5. 5. 3. 

16. To the temple proper there was an ascent from the court 
of the priests of twelve steps. The porch in front of the sane- 
tuary was, according to Josephus (Jewish War, 5. 5. 4), one hun- 
dred cubits high and as many broad, having shoulders which 
projected on each side twenty cubits beyond the breadth of the 
house. It was entered by an open gateway, destitute of folds, 
that was seventy cubits high and twenty-five broad. Passing 
through the porch, one arrived at the entrance which opened 
into the outer sanctuary fifty-five cubits high and and sixteen 
broad. The gate, as well as its adjacent wall, was all covered 
with golck " It had also above golden vines, from which clusters 
of grapes hung of the length of a man." The inner sanctuary 
was separated from the outer by a gateway, with golden doors of 
the same dimensions as those of the gateway belonging to the 
outer sanctuary. Before each hung a richly embroidered veil of 
equal size with the doors. The size of both the inner and outer 
sanctuaries remained the same as in Solomon's temple; but the 
chambers built around gave to the temple an entire width of 
sixty cubits, with an exterior extent of one hundred cubits from 
east to west, the porch and walls included. 

17. According to Josephus (Jewish War, 5. 5. 6), the altar of 
burnt-offering that stood in the court of the priests was fifty cu- 
bits square with a height of fifteen cubits, the ascent to it being 
by an inclined plane. The Talmud reduces its dimensions to 
thirty-two cubits. 'Middoth, 3. 1. 

For the magnificent api^earance of the temple as seen from a distance, 
and for the size of tlie foundation-stones of the temple area, see Chap. 

Oeos. A AiiUq. 27 



626 



BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 



2, Nos. 32, 33. The material splendor of the temple was valuable only as 
a symbol of the spiritual excellence and glory which belonged to the Lord 
of the temple and to his service. When He who gave to it all its true glory 
was rejected and crucified, it became only an abomination in God's sight, 
which he speedily put out of the way for ever *' with tumult, with shouting, 
and with the sound of a trumpet." 



THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE. 627 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

The Jewish Synagogue. 

1. The desolation of Judsea by the Chaldeans, the burning of 
the city and temple, and the captivity of the people had a gloomy 
aspect. But these, like all God's judgments upon his cove- 
nant people, had a purifying, not a destroying efficacy. They 
learned, by bitter experience, what they might have known from 
the testimony of Moses and the prophets, that idolatry, with the 
profligacy in public and private life that it brought in its train, 
would end in national ruin. The pious remnant of Jews, upon 
their return to Palestine, were anxious above all things that the 
masses of the people should be thoroughly instructed in the law 
of Moses ; and out of this feeling came the institution of the Jew- 
ish synagogue. But it grew up in such a silent way that it is im- 
possible to give an exact account of its origin. The germ of the 
institution was probably brought by the returning exiles from 
the land of their capti^dty. But the synagogue, in its mature 
form, is of later date than the restoration. It was the conflict 
of the Maccabees with Antiochus, who aimed at the destruction 
of the Mosaic institutions, that gave to the Jewish synagogue, 
not indeed its existence, but its high position in tlie national esti- 
mation. Before this eventful crisis it seems to have held but a 
suboi'dinate place. See Keil, Archaologie, 1. § 30 ; and Leyrer, 
in Herzog, Encyclopadie. 

Before the captivity it was the custom of pious Israelites to resort to 
the prophets for instruction at stated seasons (2 Kings 4 : 23) ; but there 
was no esiahlished system for the weekly instruction of the whole people in 
their several cities and villages. ' ' The special mission of the priests and 
Levites under Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 17 : 7-9) shows that there was no 
regular provision for reading ' the book of the law of the Lord ' to the 
people, and makes it probable that even the rule which prescribed that it 
should be read once every seven years at the feast of tabernacles (Deut. 



628 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

31 : 10) had fallen into disuse," Smith's Bible Diet. , Art., Synagogue. The 
attempt of the Jews to trace this institution back to the days of the early 
patriarchs wants even the shadow of evidence. 

2. The term synagogue is applied both to the entire religious 
system and to the building in which the worshippers assembled. 
The building, however, was not essential to the system. Un- 
doubtedly the people assembled originally in private houses, or 
in the open air, just as was the case with the primitive Christians. 
But when the system was once established, the erection of build- 
ings for the accommodation of the people followed as a matter 
of course. We find them, in our Saviour's day, in every city of 
Palestine, and in all the villages except the very smallest ; also, 
out of Palestine, wherever the Jews were found in any consider- 
able number. 

Ten men, at least, were required to constitute a legitimate congregation 
for the performance of public worship ; and such a number might, if able, 
have a synagogue-building. 

There is no mention made of synagogue-buildings in the Hebrew of the 
Old Testament. Whatever may be the meaning of the Psalmist's words 
(Psa. 74 : 8) : "They have burned up all the assemblies of God " (places of 
assembly for the worship of God) "in the land," it is generally agreed 
that the reference is not to synagogues in the later sense of the word. 
See, on this passage, the commentators. 

3. The structure of the synagogue was in general modelled 
after that of the sanctuary. The site was chosen, if possible, 
on the highest ground in the place, in order that no house might 
overlook it. Where this was not practicable, a tall pole was raised 
from the roof, to make it a conspicuous object. According to 
Yitringa (de Synag., pp. 178, 457), the direction of the synagogue 
was such that the worshippers upon entering always looked tow- 
ards Jerusalem. At the wall opposite the entrance — that is, at 
the end towards Jerusalem — stood the chest containing the sa- 
cred scrolls. It was placed on an elevated base, to which there 
was an ascent by several steps, and had, in imitation of the sanc- 
tuary, a veil hanging before it. In many synagogues there is an 
additional chest for the rolls of the Haphtaroth, or selections 
from the prophetical books. In front of this chest was the eight- 



THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE. 629 

branched lamp, lighted only on great festivals, and also a pend- 
ent lamp kept ever burning. Other lamps, brought by the wor- 
shippers, were lighted at the beginning of the Sabbath ; that is, 
on Friday evening. 

Farther towards the middle of the building was a raised 
platform capable of containing several persons, and in the mid- 
dle of this a pulpit, on which the holy books were laid, and 
where the reader stood. For teaching a sitting posture was 
taken. Luke 4 : 20 ; John 8:2; Matt. 5:1; 26 : 55. The lower 
part, in front of the pulpit, occupied by the congregation, was 
originally divided into right and left by a low partition, the men 
occupying one side and the women the other; but in modern 
usage the women are placed in low side-galleries with screens of 
lattice-work. Almsboxes were placed near the door, after the 
pattern of the temple. There was also a chest for the trumpets 
and other musical instruments used on festival days. The sacred 
books are always in the form of rolls, the rollers being elabo- 
rately decorated, with embroidered or enamelled cases. 

The chief seats in the synagogue (Matt. 23 : 6) were those near the pul- 
pit, on the raised platform noticed above. They were occuj^ied by the 
elders of the synagogue, and other persons of distinction. 

The oralories (Greek, proseucliai) were not altogether identical with the 
synagogues, though they might be sometimes used as such. They were 
places for social prayer and devotion, mostly without the walls of cities, 
and generally by the side of rivers, or on the seashore, for the convenience of 
ablution. " But often the oratory" (says Kobinson, Lex. New Test.) "ap- 
pears not to have been a building, and was probably some retired place in 
the open air or in a grove." The oratoiy at Tiberias, which Josephus de- 
scribes as ''a very large building, able to contain a great multitude " (Life, 
chap. 54), is generally thought to have been a true synagogue. In Acts 
16 : 13 is a reference to one of these oratories. Perhaps also in Luke 6 : 12. 

4. The ancient, like the modern synagogue, had a regular or- 
ganization. 

First of all there was the college of elders, who constituted 

the local council, and managed the affairs of the synagogue in 

subordination to the sanhedrim, or grand council of the nation. 

There were the rulers of the synagogue (Acts 13 : 15), called also 



630 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

pastors and rulers, terms that naturally passed over to the Chris- 
tian congregations. Their presiding officer was called by way of 
eminence, the rider of the synagogue. Mark 5 : 35 ; Luke 8 : 49 j etc. 

The elders liad the right of excommunication. John 9 : 22 ; 12 : 42 ; 
16 : 2. That scourging in the synagogues was customary is put beyond 
doubt by the Scriptural notices in Matt. 10 : 17 ; 23 : 34 ; Mark 13 : 9 ; Acts 
22 : 19 ; 26 : 11. 

The legate of the congregation was, as a rule, the leader of the 
people in divine worship. He recited the prayers in their name, 
proclaimed the festivals, and performed various other services 
pertaining to the order of divine service. It was required that 
he should be a ready man, of blameless hfe, versed in the Scrip- 
tures, practised in prayer, of ripe years, of pleasant voice, not 
wealthy, the father of a numerous family. Compare the qualifi- 
cations for the office of a bishop enumerated by the apoStle, 
ITim. 3:1-7; Titus 1:6-9. 

The angels of the apocalyplic churches are by many supposed to be their 
presiding oilficers, so-called in allusion to the legate of the congregation in 
the Jewish synagogue, whose office we have been considering. Others un- 
derstand the term of their guardian angels in accordance with the system 
of angelic powers that prevails in the book of Revelation. 

When, soon after the captivity, the Hebrew had ceased to be 
the vernacular of the people, it became necessary to have an in- 
terpreter, who stood by the side of the reader, and rendered into 
the vernacular of the country, a verse at a time, the lesson of the 
day It does not appear that this office was permanently in- 
vested in any one person. Any member of the synagogue, who 
had the requisite qualifications, could act as interpreter. 

A lower office was that of the minister or servant (Jiazzan), who 
who had the charge of opening and shutting the synagogue, 
cleansing it, fighting the lamps, handing the sacred rolls to the 
reader and replacing them, etc. This is the person referred to 
in the account of our Lord's visit to Nazareth (Luke 4 : 20): "And 
he closed the book and gave it again to the minister." In prog- 
ress of time the minister had also the office of schoolmaster, and 
thus his position became one of much influence. 



THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE. 631 

There were also ten men caUed batkmim, men of leisure, whose exact po- 
sition has been a matter of controversy. "By some (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., 
in Matt. 4 : 23; and, in part, Vitringa, p. 532) they have been identified 
with the above officials, with the addition of the alms collectors. Rhen- 
ferd, however (Ugolini, TJies., vol. 21), sees in them simply a body of men 
permanently on duty, making up a congregation (ten being the minimum 
number), so that there might be no delay in beginning the service at the 
proper hours, and that no single worshipper might go away disappointed." 
Smith's Bible Diet. , Art. , Synagogues. 

5. Whatever freedom there may have been in the synagogue- 
services at the beginning, they soon settled into a fixed order, 
consisting of devotional exercises, the reading of Scripture, and 
oral instruction. The devotional exercises were embodied in an 
elaborate liturgy. This comprised anciently the chanting of cer- 
tain psalms ; the recitation of the so-called sJiema, consisting of 
Deut. 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Numb. 15 : 37-41 ; with benedictions 
and prayers, among which is the collection called sJiemoneh esreh, 
that is, eighteen, because it consists of eighteen so-called bless- 
ings. It is to be understood that the devotional services w^ere 
varied, in part, according to the various occasions on which they 
were used. 

' ' The congregation, having previously washed their hands outside the 
synagogue, and, being properly assembled, delegated one of their number 
to go before the ark and conduct public worship. This legate of the congre- 
gation, who, like the rest of the congregation, was arrayed in his fringed 
garment, and with the phylacteries on his head and left arm, began with 
reciting the prayer called kaddish, holy, the people responding to certain 
parts." Kitto's Bible Diet., Art., Synagogue, where see a full account of 
this and other prayers. 

After the prayers were ended came the reading of the Scriptures. 
The minister of the synagogue brought from the chest the scroll 
of the Law, and a section of it was read to the congregation. 
It is said that originally the books of Moses were read through 
in the synagogue once in three years. But afterwards the ar- 
rangement which now prevails was made, namely, the division 
of the Pentateuch into fifty-four sections (allowance being made 
for intercalary months), so that it could be read through once 



632 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

every year. Selections from the writings of tlie prophetical 
books were then read as a second lesson. 

The sections of the law which are all indicated in the common edi- 
tions of the Hebrew bible, are called Parshiyotli; the sections of the 
Prophets, Haptharoth. See Companion to the Bible, Chap. 13, No. 6. The 
custom of reading selections from the prophets is said to have had its ori- 
gin during the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes, when the 
Jews were forbidden to read the books of Moses. But this is an uncertain 
tradition. ' ' The transition from the reading of the law to that of the 
prophets is made by benedictions and responsive doxologies." Leyrer. 

With the reading of the prophetical sections the oral dis- 
course which followed was naturally connected, as we see in our 
Saviour's case. Luke 4: 20, seq. In. this department of the syn- 
agogue service much freedom seems to have been allowed. Any 
priest, elder, or other person skilful in the law, had liberty to 
speak, and strangers of distinction were also invited to address 
the congregation. Matt. 4:23; 9:35; Mark 1 : 39 ; Luke 4 : 20, 
seq.; John 6:59; 18:20; Acts 13:5, and especially ver. 15; 
14:1; 17:10; 18:19. 

The services were closed by a benediction pronounced by the 
priest, or, in his absence, by the reader, with uplifted hands, to 
which the congregation added their amen. 

The great work of Yitringa on the ancient Jewish Synagogue is a store- 
house of information. Besides this there are many copious treatises by 
German authors, among whom may be named Zunz, Herzfeld, and Jost. 
A very carefully prepared summary from the pen of Leyi'er, with full ref- 
erences to authorities, may be found in Herzog's Encyclopadie. There 
are also valuable articles in all the large Bible Dictionaries. 

6. The influence of the Jewish synagogue on the reHgious 
character and history of the Jews was immense. To the sys- 
tematic instruction in Moses and the prophets w^hich it provided 
for the masses of the people must be ascribed, under God, their 
steadfast adherence to the Mosaic institutions amidst all the se- 
ductive influences on the one hand, and bloody persecutions on 
the other, to which they were exposed. If this steadfastness de- 
generated, as we know it did, into bigotry and formalism, this was 
the fault of fallen human nature, not of the system itself. Lender 



THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE. 633 

the training of the Mosaic economy, so powerfully supplemented 
by the synagogue services, a whole nation was at length purged 
from every vestige of idolatry, so far as its outward form is con- 
cerned, and immovably fixed in its adhesion to the fundamental 
piinciple of the Mosaic law: "Hear, O Israel! the Lord our 
God is one Lord;" and thus, as well as by the education which 
the types of the Old Testament furnished, the way was prepared 
for the advent of the Son of God. 

7. The influence of the Jewish synagogue was not confined to 
the covenant people. It passed over to the Christian Church, 
the true heir of all the promises made to the Jews. It was not, 
like the tabernacle, and afterwards the temple, a single centre 
for the whole nation, with rites that could be observed nowhere 
else ; but w^as distributed, like our Christian sanctuaries, through 
the whole land, each city and village having its ow^n particular 
synagogue. It agreed, also, with our Christian sanctuaries in the 
simphcity of its forms of worship, and in the prominence which 
it gave to the spiritual services of prayer, praise, and instruction. 
From the nature of the case, it had neither altar nor priesthood; 
and thus, in God's providence, the way was prepared for the 
Christian system of worship, which can have no altar, because 
the one offering of Christ, the Lamb of God, has expiated the 
sins of the world once for all ; nor any earthly priesthood, be- 
cause Christ, the great High-priest of the new dispensation, is in 
heaven at the right hand of God, making intercession there for 
the sins of his people. Finally, each synagogue had its regularly 
organized congregation, with duly appointed officers, and a regu- 
lar order of divine service. In this respect it served as a model 
to the primitive Christian congregations — a model to be followed 
not superstitiously but intelhgently, in accordance with the free 
spirit of the gospel. 

8. But the worship of the Christian church contains more 
than either the ritual of the tabernacle, or the order of tlie syna- 
gogue; more than either of them separately, or both combined. 
It has the substance of all that the types of the tabernacle ser- 



634 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

vice foreshadowed ; and it adds, to tlie instructions of Moses and 
tlie prophets, which the synagogues enjoyed, the teachmgs of 
Christ and Ids apostles. Thus, the Christian sanctuary, with its 
congregation of behevers, is the heir to both the ancient taber- 
nacle and the Jewish synagogue; having the whole worship of 
God, and m it all that is needful for the believer's edification 
here, and his preparation for glory, honor, and immortahty here- 
after. 

9. We add a brief notice of the so-called great synagogue. 

This was, according to rabbinic tradition, a grand council of 120 men, 
appointed to reorganize the religious life of the people. To it is ascrib- 
ed the revision of the sacred text, and the completion of the canon of 
the Old Testament. ■ Of this body Ezra is said to have been the first 
president. According to Leyrer (in Herzog), "the rabbinic tradition 
has for an historic foundation so much truth, at least, as this: that in the 
time between the cessation of prophecy and the Greek period, there stood 
at the head of the people, especially in reference to their religious life, 
which had its centre in Jerusalem, a body of men by whom the traditions 
were handed down ; and permanent ordinances were established, for the 
purpose not only of preserving the law in an incorrupt form and restoring 
the knowledge of it among the people, but also of introducing it into all 
parts of the national hfe." Neither the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, 
Josephus, nor Philo makes mention of this body, nor any rabbinic writing 
earlier than Pirke avoth (a division of the Talmud) about the second cen- 
tury after Christ. 



THE JEWISH SECTS OF LATEE TIMES. 635 

CHAPTEE XXXV. 

The Jewish Sects of Later Times. 

1. The sources of information respecting the Jewisli parties 
aud sects, noticed in the New Testament, are chiefly the three 
following : the New Testament itself, the writings of Josephus, 
and the Talmud. The Talmud, being the work of Pharisees, 
may be taken as a full delineation of their religious system, but 
it does not inform us concerning their position and influence as 
a pohtical party in the Jewish commonwealth. For this we are 
dependent on Josephus, who also gives, in several passages, the 
outlines of their system. It is remarkable that no writings have 
come down to us from any one of the Sadducees. Aside fi om 
the New Testament, we are dependent upon the statements of 
Pharisees for our knowledge of their principles and practices. 
The New Testament has to do more immediately with the reli- 
gious and moral character of the two systems and their advo- 
cates, and here its judgment is infallible. The Fssenes, of whom 
Josephus gives an extended account, are not noticed in the New 
Testament. 

I. THE PHARISEES. 

2. A writer in Herzog's Encyclopaedia objects to the term 
sect as applied to the Pharisees, regarding them rather as a pa?-/?/ 
than as a sect. But, as will presently appear, they were both a 
party, always the leading party in the state, and a sect in reli- 
gion. Their power, moreover, as a party, rested upon their 
religious tenets as a sect. Their name, according to the received 
derivation {perishin, the sejjarated), denoted originally a body of 
men separated in a religious, not in a pohtical respect. They 
were the men who separated themselves from all Levitical impu- 
rity, and devoted themselves with peculiar strictness to the ob- 
servance of the Mosaic law. It is thought, with good reason. 



636 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

that the germ of this party is to be found in the Asidceans (that is, 
the godly), who appear in the books of the Maccabees as the 
followers of Judas Maccabseus, and zealous for the law (1 Mace. 
2 : 42 ; 7 : 13 ; 2 Mace. 14 : 6) ; but its full development was after 
that period, and undoubtedly by a slow process. In considering 
the character and position of the Pharisees, it is important to 
distinguish between what was essential to them as a party, and 
what was only secondary. 

3. The essential character of Pharisaism was zeal for the insti- 
tutions of the fathers, religious and political — zeal for the law of 
Moses in all its strictness, and zeal for the independence and 
glory of the Jewish nation. Their zeal, whether religious or po- 
litical, had one end, the restoration of the Hebrew common- 
wealth in. its ancient glory and with its ancient institutions un- 
impaired. Hence they were the popular party, always exerting 
a predominating influence among their countrymen in the sphere 
of rehgious instruction, as well as of political hfe. They were 
the acknowledged religious teachers, "being esteemed," says Jo- 
sephus (Jewish War, 2. 8. 14j, "the accurate expounders of the 
law," words which are in harmony with our Saviour's declaration 
(Matt. 23 : 2) : " The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' 
seat." In respect to their political influence, Josephus says (An- 
tiq. 13. 10. 5) : " They possess such power with the multitude that 
if they utter anything against a Idng or a high-priest they are at 
once believed." Of this he gives many examples in his writings. 
As leaders of the people it was necessary that they should have 
influence not only with the multitude, but also at the courts of 
the rulers whom the Romans imposed upon them. Hence they 
were versed in all the intrigues and artifices of political life, and 
knew well how to change their line of policy to suit circum- 
stances. 

4. It may appear strangely inconsistent that a body of men 
who affected such extraordinary zeal for the preservation of the 
Mosaic institutions in their purity, should have overlaid them 
with a mass of traditions for which no authority could be found 
in the written word. But when the religion of a body of men 



THE JEWISH SECTS OF LATER TIMES. 637 

bas taken the direction of rituaUsm, as it did in the case of the 
Pharisees, they are urged forward by a strong impulse to multi- 
ply rites and ceremonies; for in the observance of these their 
rehgious hfe consists, and the more they multiply outward forms, 
the more devout do they seem in their own eyes. The result is 
the bringing in, one by one, of rites for which no warrant can 
be found in God's word. Some ground for the justification of 
these must be found, and the readiest that offers itself is the 
alleged "tradition of the elders." In the case of the Pharisees, 
a plausible pretext was at hand in the fact that some acknowl- 
edged duties, daily prayer for example, are not insisted on in the 
Pentateuch. Moses, they might argue, could not have omitted 
these; but he gave them to the jDrimitive body of elders in an 
unwritten form, and from them they Avere handed down from 
generation to generation. 

The declarations of the New Testament concerning the traditions of the 
elders (Matt. 15:2; Mark 7 : 3, seq. ) are fuUy sustained by the testimony 
of Josephus (Antiq., 13. 10. 6): "The Pharisees have delivered to the peo- 
ple from the tradition of the fathers many observances which are not -v\Tit- 
ten in the law ;" and the Talmud is a pei-petual illustration of them. They 
made them of equal authority with the written word. Thus their own 
attention and that of the people was fatally diverted from the weightier 
matters of the law to these frivolities, and the result was a sham-sanctity 
consistent with extreme worldliness, falsehood, and the indulgence of the 
vilest passions. Matt. , chap. 23. 

5. Although the essence of Pharisaism did not lie in the 
theological and j)Mlosophical tenets of the party, it is yet interest- 
ing to notice the harmony of these with the general spirit by 
which it was animated. It was natural tliat the nien who were 
so strenuous for the letter of the law and the prophets should 
receive and interpret the scriptural notices of angelic beings good 
and bad historically, and not allegoricaUy or symbolically ; and 
it is highly creditable to the early leaders of the sect that they 
were able to develop so fully and correctly the doctrine of the 
immortality of the soul, and of a future resurrection, from the 
germs of these great truths contained in the Old Testament. 



638 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

"The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor 
spirit ; but the Pharisees confess both." Acts 23 : 8. In accordance with 
this distinction the apostle Paul declared before the Jewish Sanhedrim, 
which consisted partly of Pharisees and partly of Sadducees: *'I am a 
Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee ; concerning the hope and resurrection of 
the dead am I arraigned " (Acts 23 : 6) ; and again he said before Felix 
(Acts 24:15): "I have hope towards God which they themselves" (the 
Pharisees) "also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both 
of the just and unjust." These words certainly affirm, by implication, a 
substantial agreement with the Pharisees in respect to this article of their 
rehgious faith ; nor does the Saviour anywhere intimate that they held it 
in a perverted form. The representation of Josephus (Jewish War, 2. 8. 
14) is this : "They say that every soul is imperishable, but that the soul of 
the good alone passes into another body, while the soul of the wicked is 
subjected to eternal punishment." And again, when urged by his associ- 
ates to commit' suicide, he says, speaking as a Pharisee, of the souls of 
those who die in a lawful way (Jewish War, 3. 8. 5): "The souls remain 
pure and obedient, having obtained the most holy place of heaven, whence, 
after the revolution of ages, they again make their abode in pure bodies ; 
but the darker abode of Hades receives those who have perished by their 
own hands." Either Josephus means by "another body" the new resur- 
rection body ; or, as seems probable, he glosses over the true doctrine of 
his countrymen, that he may assimilate it to the heathen doctrine of the 
transmigration of souls. The question of the disciples to our Lord (John 
9:2): " Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind ?" 
has been thought by some to imply the idea of such a transmigration. 
But more probably the supposition was that he might have sinned before 
birth. See Lightfoot on John 9 : 2. 

The doctrine of the immortality of the soul and future retribution is 
contained in a germinal way in such passages of the Old Testament as the 
following: "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are 

pleasures for evermore" (Psa. 16 : 11); "Deliver my soul from the 

men of the world who have their portion in this life As for me 

I shall behold thy face in righteousness : I shall be satisfied, upon awa- 
king, with thy likeness" (Psa. 17:15). "Thou shalt guide me with thy 
counsel, and afterwards take me to glory" (Psa, 73 :24); "The wicked is 
driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death " 
(Prov. 14 : 32) ; to which might be added many more of Hke import. It is 
stated more explicitly, along with that of the resurrection, in the well- 
known words of the angel to Daniel : ' ' Many of them that sleep in the 
dust of the earth shall awake ; some to everlasting hfe, and some to shame 
and everlasting contempt." 

It is manifest from the above that we need not betake ourselves, after 



THE JEWISH SECTS OE LATEE TIMES, G39 

the manner of some, to Parslsm, for an explanation of the theological 
tenets of the Pharisees. See Reuss in Herzog's Encyclopadie, Article. 
Pharisaer. 

• The statements of Josephus respecting the Pharisaical doc- 
trine in respect to the.^ divine decrees, on the one hand, and 
human freedom on the other (Antiq., 13. 5. 9 ; 18. 1. 3 ; Jewish 
War, 2. 8. 14), are loose and confused. This only is manifest, 
that they believed in the cooperation of the divine wiU (for which 
lie commonly substitutes the Greek term fate) with man's free 
agency. They probably held, as does a large part of Christen- 
dom, that God did from eternity " ordain whatsoever comes to 
pass ; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin ; nor is 
violence offered to the wiU of the creatures, nor is the liberty or 
contingency of second causes taken away, but rather estab- 
lished." 

6. The severity with which our Lord denounced the scribes 
and Pharisees seems at first view surprising, when contrasted 
with the general mildness of his deahngs with sinners. But we 
must remember that they sat in Moses' seat, and were the ac- 
knowledged leaders and guides of the people in religion. It was, 
therefore, of supreme importance that the hoUowness of their 
system and the hypocrisy of their lives should be fully exposed 
by the omniscient Saviour for the benefit of aU coming ages. 
Though there were among them honest and good men, Hke Nico- 
demus and Joseph of Arimathea, they were as a body the repre- 
sentatives oi formalism and hypocrisy, two twin vices that are 
always found locked in each other's arms. In them was illustra- 
ted the union, so often witnessed since their day, of great punc- 
tiliousness in religious rites and great profligacy of heart and 
life. The history of Christ's church for eighteen centuries shows 
how needful it was that the great Master himself should lift the 
veil, once for all, from such a system, and exhibit it in its naked 
deformity, that all future generations might see it and abhor it. 

The scribes, so ofteji mentioned in the New Testament, were the learned 
men of the nation who had been trained up in the knowledge of the Holy 



640 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

Scriptures, and were their recognized expositors. They appear often in 
connection with the Pharisees and chief priests ; and, as "Winer remarks 
(Eealworterbuch, Art., Schriftgelehrte), "the chief priest and scribes 
(Matt. 2:4; 20 : 18 ; Mark 14 : 1 ; Luke 22 : 2 ; 23 : 10), or the scribes and 
elders (Matt. 26 : 57), or the elders, chief priest, and scribes (Luke 22 : 66 ; 
Mark 14 : 43 ; 15 : 1, compared with Acts 4:5), is obviously a designation 
of the Sanhedrim." The Sanhedrim embraced both Pharisees and Saddu- 
cees, and so apj)arently did the body of scribes (Acts 23 : 6-9), though un- 
doubtedly the- larger part of them were Pharisees. It is generally thought 
that the lawyers, that is, teachers of Cue law (terms used in the gospels only 
by Luke, with the exception of Matt. 22 : 35), were identical with the 
scribes. See Winer, as above. 

II. THE SADDUCEES. 

7. The origin of the name Sadclucee is uncertain. Some de- 
rive it from a word signifying y?/5^ (Heb., tsaddik), supposing that 
the. party took to themselves this name in opposition to the Phar- 
isees, as being the men who held the written law in its purity 
and simplicity. The Talmudists refer it to one Sadoc or Zadoc, 
who is said to have lived about three centuries before Christ. 
The Sadducees, like their opponents the Pharisees, were both a 
party in the state and a sect in religion. 

8. The essential frature of Sadduceeism was the rejection of all 
unwritten tradition. " The Pharisees," says Josephus (Antiq., 
13. 10. 6), " have delivered to the people many ordinances from 
the tradition of the fathers which are not written in the laws of 
Moses; and for this reason the sect of the Sadducees rejects 
them, saying that we ought to observe as ordinances those things 
which are written, but not to keep those which come from the 
tradition of the fathers." See also Antiq., 18. 1. 4. Herein they 
had truth on their side, and thus the authority of the Saviour 
himself. But there is ground for believing that the principle 
which actuated the mass of them was not zeal for the truth, but 
rather a worldly spirit, which felt the Mosaic law itseK to be a 
burden, and to which all human additions were therefore dis- 
tasteful. According to Josephus (Antiq., 13. 10. 6 ; 18. 1. 4) the 
adherents of the Sadducees were few, in comparison with those 
of the Pharisees, but foremost in dignity ; " the Sadducees draw- 



THE JEWISH SECTS OE LATEK TIMES. 641 

ing to their party the wealthy alone, and not enjoying the favor 
of the multitude whom the Pharisees had as their ahies." 

It is incorrect to affirm, as some have done, that the Sadducees received 
only the Pentateuch. This is confounding them with the Samaritans. It 
is the express testimony of Josephus (Against Apion, 1. 8) that aU the Jews 
receive from their very birth the books of the Old Testament which he 
enumerates, without addition, diminution, or change ; and are ready, if 
necessary, to die in their behalf. See further in "Winer. According to 
Josephus (Antiq., 18. 1. 4), when they held offices they yielded a forced 
compliance to the maxims of the Pharisees, because otherwise they would 
not have been tolerated by the multitude. This only proves that they 
were influenced by a worldly temporizing spirit. 

9. It was natural that the Sadducees should carry their 
antagonism to the Pharisees into the sphere of theology and phi- 
losophy. Hence (1) they maintained that the soul perishes with 
the body, and, by necessary consequence, denied the doctrine of 
future rewards and punishments ; (2) they denied the existence 
of angels or spirits, evidently on the ground that created spirits 
cannot exist except in bodies; (3) they denied the doctrine of 
foreordination, as applied to human actions. See Matt. 22 : 23 ; 
Mark 12 : 18 ; Luke 20 : 27 ; Acts 23 : 8 ; Josephus, Antiq., 18. 1. 
4; 13. 5. 9; Jewish War, 2. 8. U, 

Oar Saviour's argument from the Pentateuch : " God is not the God of 
the dead, but of the living" (Matt. 22 : 32), was directed against the Sad- 
ducean doctrine that the soul perishes with the body, so that death is the 
annihilation of the whole man. If the soul lives after the death of the 
body, the man himself lives, God can be his God, and he can be clothed 
upon with a resurrection body ; otherwise not. Thus by destroying the 
ground on which their denial of the resurrection rested, he destroyed the 
error itself. 

As to the numerous angelic appearances noticed in the Old Testament, 
the Sadducees probably explained them as manifestations of God himself 
in human form ; or as simply visions, and not true manifestations of real 
beings. 

III. THE ESSENES. 

10. For our knowledge of the Essenes we are mainly indebted 
to Philo {Quod omnis prohus liher, § 12, seq.) and Josephus, who 
has given (Jewish War, 2. 8. 2, seq.) a long and highly eulogistic 



642 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

account of tliem, with various shorter notices. They represented 
the ascetic tendency of the human mind, which has so often ap- 
peared in the history of the world. Though they were strict in 
their observance of the Mosaic law, particularly of the Sabbath, 
they did not, hke the Pharisees, multiply outward rites, court the 
favor of the multitude, and aspire to be their leaders. Like the 
monks of later ages, they sought to gain preeminent holiness and 
purity by seclusion from the world, meditation, prayer, the mor- 
tification of the flesh, and the quiet practice of the social vntues. 
They lived in communities under strict regulations, disparaged 
the married state (though one section of them allowed it under 
certain restrictions), and replenished their community by adopt- 
ing the children of others. An entire community of goods was 
an essential feature of their system. For admission to their 
number a long ancTsevere probation was required ; and then they 
bound themselves by awful oaths to observe all the rules of the 
system, which, according to Josephus, related not to outward 
ceremonies, but to the substance of religion and Virtue — the 
pious worship of God; the maintenance of justice, faith, and 
truth in their intercourse with men; obedience to rulers, on the 
one hand, and the moderate exercise of authority, on the other ; 
plainness of dress; abstinence from theft and unjust gain, etc. 
They took an oath, among other things, " to preserve the books 
of their sect and the names of the angels," with apparent refer- 
ence to some kind of angel-worship. 

11. In respect to their theological and j^Mlosophical tenets, they 
held, according to Josephus, that all things are determined by 
fate ; and that the soul is immortal, attaining to its highest state 
of perfection by its liberation from the body. Josephus further 
says that they assigned to pious souls an Elysium like that of the 
Greeks, and to the souls of the wicked a Tartarus, consisting of 
a murky and tempestuous cave full of eternal punishments. But 
here he is with reason suspected of having assimilated his rep- 
resentations to the ideas of his heathen readers. 



THE JEWISH SECTS OF LATER TIMES. 6i3 

IV. THE HERODIANS. 

12. The Herodians (Matt. 22:16; Mark 3:6; 12:13) were 
apparently the partisans of Herod, that is, Herod Antipas ; and 
thus the supporters of the Roman dominion in Palestine, in op- 
position to the Pharisees, who held that it was a profane usur- 
pation of power over God's covenant people, to be resisted as far 
as possible. "The leaven of Herod" (Mark 8:15) is the cor- 
rupt worldly principles of Herod and of his followers, the Hero- 
dians. The question propounded to our Lord, at the instigation 
of the Pharisees, by a company of Pharisees and Herodians 
banded together to ensnare him in his words : " Is it lawful to 
give tribute to Caesar, or not .^" (Matt. 22 : 17), brought out the 
essential point of antagonism between the two parties, and they 
felt confident of bringing the Saviour into difficulty on one side 
or the other. He decided the question against the Pharisees, 
but in such a way that they could make no use of his answer to 
his disadvantage. 



APPENDIX TO THE THIRD DIVISION. 

On the Idolatry of the Hebrews. 
i. remaeks on the ancient systems of idolatry. 

1. The doctrine of one personal God, wlio is before nature, above natui'e, 
and the free author of nature ; whose eternal power and Godhead are 
revealed without the soul by his works, and to whose holiness and supreme 
authority the conscience within the soul bears witness — this scriptural doc- 
trine is in such perfect harmony with unperverted human reason and un- 
corrupted human character, that nothing but sin can account for the loss 
of it, as it was originally revealed to man. '' They are without excuse," 
says the apostle, "because that when they knew God, they glorified him 
not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imagina- 
tion, and their foohsh heart was darkened." But their apostasy from God 
did not give them independence of God, outward peace, or inward tran- 
quillity of mind. They found themselves surrounded by mighty super- 
human forces, which they could not control, and whose crushing power 
they were often compelled to feel ; while a guilty conscience filled their 
souls with fear and dark forebodings of wrath to come. They had forsa- 
ken the true God, but they could not live without gods of some kind. 
They needed, first of all, superhuman help in the stern conflict of life : 
they needed, also, expiation of sin to quiet their consciences, and this could 
only come from deity : they needed, finally, to wring, if possible, from the 
dark future its awful secrets. Then commenced the process, not in a con- 
scious, but in a blind, unconscious way, of making for themselves gods in 
accordance with their own darkened understandings and corrupt affections. 

2. The first thing that we notice in this formative process of idolatry 
is the confounding of God with nature. The forces that surrounded men all 
lay in nature, and they were not able to rise from them to the free author 
of nature. The result was the deifying of the powers of nature. When 
the ancient philosophers attained to the idea of the unity of God, it was 
either by making him the soul of the universe (Yirgil, ^neid, 6. 724, seq., 
who represents the highest results of western heathen, philosophy) ; or, in 
the way of impersonal pantheism, by which the universe itself was made 
God. No one of them regained, without the help of revelation, the true 
idea of a God who is the free author of nature, and therefore before nature 



APPENDIX TO THE THIKD DIVISION. G4.0 

and distinct from nature, though continua,lly active in nature. Much less 
did such a subhme conception enter the mind of the masses. 

3. With the deification of the powers of nature came the loss of the idea 
of God's unity. Though some of the heathen philosophers regained it in 
the false ways that have been indicated, the multitude divided the deity 
into parts, according to the multiplicity in which the forces of nature 
manifest themselves. In this process of multiplying gods, the more cul- 
tivated among the heathen deified the heavenly bodies, the elements, 
and the generative powers of nature. Their gods were mostly in pairs, 
male and female. "Every god," says Rawlinson of the Assyrian deities 
(Herodotus, vol. 1, Essay 10), "is associated with a goddess." They also 
exhibit a gradation from higher to lower ; and they have charge of par- 
ticular nations ; also of particular departments of nature, and particular 
employments — the heavens, the sea, the underworld, the generation of the 
races, the harvests, the vineyards, war, hunting, trade, and so on. The 
rude and barbarous tribes took a low and fragmentary view, deifying any 
little parcel of nature or art that came to hand — a tiger, a serpent, a beetle, 
a stone, a pan, a horseshoe, etc. Of this kind are the fetishes of the Af- 
rican tribes, and to a great extent the gods of the ancient Egyptians also. 

To these nature-gods must be added among many tribes the worship of 
the spirits of the dead, and of demons conceived of as like spirits. The idea 
here is that the separation of the soul from the body advances it to a higher 
sphere of action, and confers upon it mysterious powers over the affairs 
of men. With this form of idolatry is often associated the doctrine of 
the transmigration of souls. Thus the African will reverence a serpent 
that haunts his hut, under the idea that the spirit of one of his ancestors 
is embodied in it. With this branch of idolatry are intimately connected, 
as we shall see, the rites of witchcraft and magic. 

4. By the process of nature-worship which we have been considering, 
the idea of deity was degraded beyond measure. The gods of the heathen 
nations were, as we have seen, not before nature and above nature, but ex- 
isted only in nature; and each of them, moreover, represented only a frag- 
ment of the whole force of nature. Thus the deity was robbed of inde- 
pendence, omnipresence, and omnipotence. The gods of the heathen 
were local, and therefore joartial in their interests, as weU as hmited in 
power. They were the tutelary deities of particular nations, and in the 
wars of men they were found ranged on different sides, opposing and cir- 
cumventing each other ; for heathen gods had not the attribute of omnis- 
cience, any more than of omnipotence. Even Jupiter, "the father of 
men and gods," was deceived in a notable instance by the artifice of Juno 
his wife. IHad, Book 14. But, worse than all, the deity was robbed of 
the attributes of holiness and tinith, and made as vile as the hearts of the 
worshippers could desire. The assemblage of heathen deities comprised, 



6i6 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

as aU know who have even a superficial acquaintance with mythology, adul- 
terers and adulteresses, Hars and thieves. They were destitute of the attri- 
bute of impartial justice, and respecters of persons. They had their favorite 
cities, the aggrandizement of which they sought at the expense of bloody and 
unrighteous wars. In one word, a heathen pantheon was a pandemonium. 
5. Image-worship, which is idolatry in the strict sense of the word, has 
always gone hand in hand with polytheism. The devotee, who can think 
of his god only as inhering in some part of material nature, must embody 
him in a material form. In the case of low nature-worship, he has the 
form already at hand in his fetish. He presents to this, though it be but 
a stone, a pan, or a horseshoe, his daily offering, a"ad seeks from it protec- 
tion and success in all his undertakings. The higher forms of nature-wor- 
ship, though they may begin with the controlling powers of nature — the 
heavenly bodies, the elements, the generative forces of nature — have a 
sure tendency towards the representation of these in images, as we see in 
the history of the Greeks and Romans, as well as of the Assyrians and other 
eastern nations. These images varied, according to the culture of the 
worshippers, from the Apollo and Venus of the Greeks, down to the hide- 
ous and disgusting idols of barbarous tribes. But in all cases they were an 
infinite affront to God's majesty and glory. "Forasmuch then," argues 
the apostle (Acts 17 : 29), "as we are the offspring of God, we ought not 
to think that the Godhead is like unto silver, or gold, or stone, graven by 
art and man's device." The apology for image-worship offered by the phi- 
losophers, that they did not consider the idol itself as the abode of the deity, 
but simply as a sensible medium for elevating the worshipper's thoughts 
to the deity, is only a confession that they saw the absurdity of image-wor- 
ship, and wished to explain it away. With the mass of the people the 
very office of the idol, whether a living animal like the bull Apis or a dead 
statue, was to localize their god. They wished to have him at hand in a 
visible form, to which they could pray and offer their sacrifices and obla- 
tions. This is everywhere the scriptural view of idolatry : "He burnetii 
part thereof in the fire ; with part thereof he eateth flesh ; he roasteth 
roast and is satisfied : yea, he warmeth himself, and saith. Alia, I am 
warm, I have seen the fire : and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even 
his graven image : he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and pray- 
eth unto it, and saith, DeHver me, for thou art my god." Isa. 44 : 16, 17. 
Such representations as this are drawn from the reality, not from what cer- 
tain men, more enlightened than the multitude, think ought to be the real- 
ity. Rachel, upon her departure from Mesopotamia, stole her father's 
gods [teraphim, household gods, answering to the Penates of the Romans), 
that she might have gods always with her (Gen. 31 : 30-35) ; gods, namely, 
which made their abode in these little images. Such, beyond doubt, was 
the Roman's conception when he worshipped his Penates. 



APPENDIX TO THE THIED DIVISION. 647 

6. Of the rites of idolatrous worship we cannot speak at length. They 
consisted mainly in oblations of bread, fruit, wine, etc. ; in bloody sacrifi- 
ces, in the burning of incense, and in the recitation of forms of prayer. 
The temples of the gods were rei^lenished by the gifts of the devotees. 
The forms of service varied according to the character and office of the 
gods worshipped. The worship of Astarte and of the Grecian Venus and 
Bacchus was connected with horrible impurities and drunken revels. Mo- 
lech was appeased with the blood of human victims. Such sacrifices seem 
to have been generally made in gi'eat emergencies for the purpose of expi- 
ating the wrath of an offended deity. Thus the king of Moab, in his 
extremity, offered his eldest son upon the wall of the city as a burnt-offer- 
ing to Chemosh his tutelary god, whose character seems to have been sub- 
stantially the same as that of Molech, the god of the Ammonites. See 
2 Kings 3 : 21-27. The Chinese worship the spirits of their departed 
ancestors, represented by ancestral tablets, by burning before them tapers 
and sticks of incense, and offering before them bowls of soup, various 
kinds of flesh, cakes, etc. 

7. The worship that we have been considering had for its end to obtain 
needed good or avert threatened evils. But the desire to unlock the 
secrets of the future is one of the strongest impulses of humanity. Divine 
revelation satisfies this desire in a reasonable way and to a reasonable 
extent. It reveals to us as much of the future as concerns our duty and 
our salvation, and teaches us to exercise implicit faith in the all-wise dis- 
posal of God's providence. Thus it brings peace and tranquilhty to the 
believer's soul, as it is written: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace 
whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." But when 
men have forsaken the living God, they will substitute other means of jpen- 
etrating, if possible, the darkness of llie future ; means which are essentially 
idolatrous in their sj^irit, and are forbidden as such in God's word. These 
means naturally divide themselves into the following classes : 

(1.) The responses of persons supposed to be inspired with a knowledge 
of the future. There were famous oracles in ancient times, hke that of 
Apollo at Deli)hi, where the priestess, sitting upon a tripod, fell into a 
state of frenzy, and made utterances which were beHeved to proceed 
from the deity that had taken possession of her. There were also persons 
not confined to any particular places, who professed to foretell the future 
by virtue of a superhuman spirit dwelling within them. Such was "the 
damsel possessed with a spii-it of divination, who brought her masters 
much gain by soothsaying." The responses of these persons, like those of 
•the priestesses, were generally delivered in a state of frenzy, with foaming 
at the mouth, gnashing of the teeth, trembling, and various distortions of 
the body, ^neid, 6. 46, seq. 

^2.) Dreams and visions, supposed to be revelations made by the gods. 



648 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

and which were actually employed by tlie true God on many occasions. 
Dreams did not, as a rule, interpret themselves ; but there was a class of 
men who made it their business to explain their import, as we see in the 
case of the wise men at the courts of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. 

(3.) Divination, that is, the foretelling of future events by means of 
certain outward signs. The idea here was that the deity gives indications 
of the future, through these signs according to certain fixed laws, which 
must be learned by obsei-vation and experience. Hence divination was an 
art, studied by men called diviners, who were subdivided into various 
classes. The astrologers had rules for discovering future events from 
the position of the heavenly bodies ; the haruspices, from the inspection of 
the entrails of the victims ; the augurs, from the singing, feeding, and 
flight of birds. Then there were omens, good or evil, from chance utter- 
ances or chance passages upon the opening of books, from stumbling, 
from sneezing, etc. It is vain to ask for the reason of these signs. The 
whole system is one of unreason ; as much so as our modern supersti- 
tions — that to see the new moon for the first time over the right shoulder 
betokens good luck, the breaking of a mirror the death of a near friend, 
etc. Underlying all these arts of presaging the future is unbelief, and this 
is the main element of their criminality. He who practises them looks 
away from the living God for help to unwarranted human devices. They 
are owls of darkness which the rising sun of faith will banish to their 
appropriate dens. 

8. Closely connected with divination is sorcery in aU its forms. The 
essential idea of sorcery is intercourse with spirits by means of certain 
magic incantations and rites ; that is, incantations and rites that operate 
in an unknown way, and by means of which supernatural help is supposed 
to be obtained from these spirits, or supernatural knowledge of the future. 
Commerce with the spirits of the dead is necromancy ; commerce with 
demons, witclicraft in the strict sense of the word. So far as the moral 
character of sorcery is concerned, it is not necessary to determine whether 
this commerce with spirits is a reahty or a cheat, or a mixture of both. It 
is turning away our faith and expectation from the living God to creatures 
from which he has not authorized us to seek help. It aims a deadly blow 
at the very heart of true religion ; and whether it does or does not begin 
in jugglery and lies, it opens a flood-gate to their entrance. With eveiy 
system of sorcery there intertwines itself a system of imposture. The 
rain-makers, medicine-men, and other managers of this black art exercise 
a cruel tyranny over the benighted people, and multitudes of innocent 
victims perish under their accusations of witchcraft. In aU its varieties 
sorcery is a vine of Sodom, whose clusters are wormwood and gall. It ill 
becomes believers, who sit at God's table and eat of the bread that came 
down from heaven, to taste, under any pretext, of its poisonous fruit. 



APPENDIX TO THE THIKD DIVISION. 649 

II. THE PRINCIPAL IDOLS WORSHIPPED BY THE HEBREWS. 

9. Fii'st in order of time was the worship of the golden calf in the wil- 
derness, which was in a later age imitated by Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. 
That this fonn of idolatry was derived from Egypt, the country which the 
Israelites had just left, is admitted on aU hands. The Egyptians worshipped 
the bull Apis, as the abode of deity ; and with his worship, as with that of 
their other gods, they connected a festival like that instituted by Aaron. 
See Herodotus, Book 3. 27-29. It is worthy of notice that Jeroboam, 
who more than five centuries afterwards established the worship of golden 
calves in his kingdom (1 Kings, chap. 12), had just returned from a resi- 
dence with Shishak at the court of Egypt. 1 Kings 11 : 40. The question 
has been raised vv'hether these golden calves were intended to be represen- 
tations of an Egyptian god or of Jehovah the God of Israel. The narra- 
tive in Exodus (chap. 32) imphes that Aaron, at least, intended the gold- 
en calf to be a representation of the God of Israel ; for he said to the 
people (ver. 5): "To-morrow is a feast to Jehovah." His apology to 
Moses (vers. 22, 24) shows that he made the idol against his better judg- 
ment to pacify the people. How the multitude understood the worship of 
the calf, when they sacrificed to it and feasted and danced before it, is 
more doubtful. But, taken either way, the act was a horrible affront to 
the majesty of Jehovah, and in express violation of the second command- 
ment, which forbids alike the worship by images of the true God or of false 
gods. As for Jeroboam, it is not probable that he cared how the people 
of his kingdom understood the worship of his two calves, his object being 
to withdraw them from the worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem. 1 Kings 
12 : 26-28. To this end he established a feast in the eighth month in imi- 
tation of the feast of tabernacles held at Jerusalem in the seventh month 
(vers. 32, 33). Satan, says an ancient church father, is the ape of God; his 
object being to imitate the true worship of God, and true miracles and 
prophecies, by a delusive show of the same. 

10. The next and most prominent form of idolatry among the Hebrews 
was the worship of Baal and Asldoreih, two deities that form a couplet 
male and female universally worshipped in Phoenicia and among the Ca- 
naanitish tribes. The plural form Baalim often occurs, and in the case of 
Ashtoreth, the plural Asldaroth is universally employed except in the books 
of Kings, where occurs the singular, Asliiorelh, the goddess of the Zidoyiians 
(1 Kings 11 : 5, 33), and Ashtm^eth, the abomination of the Zidonians (2 Kings 
23 : 13). These plurals have been commonly understood to mean images of 
Baal and Ashtoreth ; but this hardly accounts for the universality of the 
plural form Ashtaroth. Perhai^s they are examples of the so-called plural 
of eminence, as in the case of the Hebrew names for God, Lord, etc. 

11. Baal (always with the article) signifies the Lord, as being the high- 
est of the Phoenician and Canaanitish gods. Whether he originally repre- 

Oeog. k AiiUq. 28 



650 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

sented the sun or the planet Jupiter is a question that has been much dis- 
cussed. It is certain that the Baal hamman of the Phoenician inscriptions 
is Baal the sun-god. The Hebrew word hammanlm (Lev. 26 : 30 ; 2 Chron. 
14 : 4— Eng. version 14 : 5 ; 34 : 4, 7 ; Isa. 17 : 8 ; 27 : 9 ; Ezek. 6 : 4, 6) sig- 
nifies sun-images. It is several times joined with Asheroth, images of Ash- 
toreth (2 Chron. 34:4, 7; Isa. 17:8; 27:9), and from 2 Chron. 34:4 it 
appears that the sun-images stood above the altars of Baal. All this goes 
far to show that Baal originally represented the sun, as the great generative 
power of nature. The word Baal occurs frequently in composition with 
another word. This denotes sometimes an attribute of the god ; as Baal' 
zebuh, Fly -lord, averter of files; Baal-herith, Covenant-lord, as the god in- 
voked in covenants ; Baal-liammdn, Sun-lord. In other cases the compound 
word has passed into the name of a place ; as Baal-gad, Lord of good for- 
tune, the name of a place at the foot of Mount Hermon ; Baal-hermon, 
Lord of Hermon, a town adjacent to Mount Hermon, etc. The number of 
these names shows the universaUty of the worship paid to him by the 
Canaanitish tribes. 

12. AshtoretJi, in the plural form Aslitarotli, is the corresponding female 
deity, representing the productive power of nature ; that is, either the planet 
Venus or the moon, according to the meaning assumed for Baal. The 
Greek form of her name is Asiarte. She is the queen of heaven to whom 
the idolatrous Hebrew women burned incense, poured out libations, and 
offered cakes (Jer. 44 : 17-19), and corresponds, not specifically, but in a 
general way, to the Venus of the Greeks and Romans. Ashlaroth-karnaim, 
that is, the two-Jwrned Aslitaroth, with reference to the horns of the cres- 
cent on her head, was a city of Bashan, so called from the worship of 
Astarte practised there. 

13. The word Asherah, in the plural AsherotJi, occurs in close connec- 
tion with the worship of Baal. Our translators, following the authority of 
the Septuagint and Vulgate, have everywhere rendered grove and groves ; 
but the incorrectness of this translation is now generally admitted. It is 
not, however, perfectly clear whether AsTierah is identical with Ashtoreth ; 
or a different, but closely related goddess ; or a wooden statue or pillar of 
Ashtoreth planted in the ground, and so called from its upright form. The 
latter is the more probable view, and it accords with the fact that the 
destruction of these statues or pillars was effected by cutting them down 
and burning them. Exod. 34 : 13 ; Deut. 12 : 3 ; Judg. 6 : 25, seq. ; 
2 Kings 18 : 4 ; etc. 

14. Of the forms of idolatrous worship offered to Baal and Ashtoreth 
we have no very definite information. Their worshippers offered sacrifices 
to them, burned incense, made libations, and in extreme cases cut them- 
selves wiTh swords and lances, in the vain hope of thus securing an answer 
from their god. 1 Kings 18 : 28. The chosen places of worship were high 



APPENDIX TO THE THIRD DIVISION. 651 

liills and sliady trees, as we leaiii from abundant notices of Scripture. 
1 Kings 14 : 23 ; 2 Kings 17 : 10 ; Jer. 2 : 20 ; Ezek. 20 : 28 ; etc. This idol- 
atrous worship on the high places must be carefuUy distinguished from the 
sacrifices to the true God which were offered on the high places by an 
irregularity tolerated by even the prophets, and sometimes commanded by 
God himself. 1 Sam. 9 : 12 ; 16:2-5. 1 Kings 18 : 31, seq. ; etc. 

15. We notice next the worship of Molech, "horrid king, besmeared 
with blood of human sacrifice." Molech (in the Greek form Moloch, called 
also Milcom, 1 Kings 11 : 5, 33 ; 2 Kings 23 : 13 ; and Malcom, Jer. 49 : 1, 3) 
signifies king. He was especially the god of the Ammonites (1 Kings 
11 : 5, 7, 33), for whom Solomon, in compliance with the wishes of his 
Ammonitish wives, built a high place "in the hill that is before Jerusa- 
lem." 1 Kings 11 : 7. Molech is generally understood to have represented 
the element of fire. In some passages of the Old Testament his worship, 
if not confounded with that of Baal, is closely associated with it. Jer. 
19 : 5 compared with chap. 32 : 35. The scriptural testimony to the fact 
that human victims were sacrificed to Molech is decisive: "They have 
built the high places of Tophet in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn 
their sons* and their daughters in the fire." Jer. 7 : 31 ; and compare Jer. 
19 : 5 ; 32 : 35 ; Psa. 106 : 37, 38. This agrees with the statement of pro- 
fane writers, that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians offered human sacri- 
fices to a god Avhom they compare to Saturn. The seat of this horrid wor- 
ship among the Jews was Tophet in the valley of Hinnom. 2 Kings 23 : 10 ; 
Jer. 7 : 31, where the high places are artificial mounds or altars ; 19 : 6, 13, 
14. For this reason Josiah defiled the place, and it became a type of helL 
The rabbins tell us that the statue of Molech was a hollow brazen figure of 
human form, but with the head of an ox. Being heated within hke an 
oven, the babe was placed in its aTms, and its cries drowned by the noise 
of drums and cymbals. Diodorus Siculus (book 20, chap. 14) describes the 
statue of a Carthaginian god, whom he calls Saturn, thus : "They had a 
brazen statue of Saturn with his hands extended and inclining downward 
towards the earth" (that is, manifestly downward in the direction of his 
body) ; " so that the child being i^laced upon them rolled off from them and 
fell into the chasm " (the hoUow body of the image) "that was full of fire." 
He tells us that on one occasion the Carthaginians, being hard pressed by 
their enemies, offered to this god at a public sacrifice no less than two 
hundred of their most noble boys, besides thirty voluntary victims. 

16. The remaining false deities worshipped by the Hebrews requii'e 
only a brief notice. We give them in alphabetical order. 

Bel (Isa. 46 : 1 ; Jer. 50 : 2 ; 51 : 44), the chief god of the Babylonians, 
was substantially identical with the Baal of Phoenicia and the Canaanites. 

Chemosh (Numb. 21 : 29 ; Judg. 11 : 24 ; 1 Kings 11 : 7, 33 ; 2 Kings 
23 : 13 ; Jer. 48 : 7, 13, 46) was the abomination of the Moabites. It was to 



652 BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 

this god that the king of Moab offered his son (2 Kings 3 : 27). He is once 
called the god of the Ammonites (Judg. 11 : 24), and seems to have been 
worshipped with the same rites as Molech. His name appears on the 
Moabitish stone recently discovered. 

Dagon (Judg. 16 : 23 ; 1 Sam., chap. 5 ; 1 Chron. 10 : 10), that is, Fisli- 
god, was an idol worshipped in the Philistine cities tinder the form of a 
fish with the head and arms of a man. There are at Kouyiinjik like fig- 
ures, for which see Layard's Babylon and Nineveh, p. 343. Such a figure 
corresponds weU with the account of the mutilation of Dagon in the pres- 
ence of the ark of God (1 Sam. 5:4): "The head of Dagon and both the 
palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold ; only Dagon (that is, 
the fishy part of the idol) "was left to him." According to Diodorus 
Siculus (2. 4), the city of Ascalon worshipped under the name of Derceto 
a female deity with the face of a woman, but the body of a fish. 

Gad and Meni are mentioned by Isaiah (chap. 65 : 11) as deities for 
whom the apostate Jews spread a table, after the fashion of heathen wor- 
ship : "But ye who forsake Jehovah, who forget the mountain of my holi- 
ness, who spread a table for Gad" (that is. Fortune), "and who fill a drink- 
offering to Meni" (that is, Allotment), "I will even allot you to the sword," 
etc. Gesenius regards them as representatives of the planets Jupiter and 
Venus, both of them stars of good fortune. 

Nebo (Isa. 46 : 1) is supposed to have been the planet Mercury, wor- 
shipped in Assyria and elsewhere. Several places bear the name of Nebo, 
probably from the worship of the god there celebrated ; as Deut. 32 : 49 ; 
34 : 1 ; Numb. 32 : 3 ; Ezra 2 : 29, etc. It also enters into the composition 
of several proper names ; as Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, etc. 

Remphan occurs in Acts 7 : 43 as the name of a heathen deity. But 
this is taken from the Septuagint version. The original (Amos 5 : 26) may 
be translated : "Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of your king, the pedestal 
of your images, the star of your god which ye made for yourselves ;" so 
that the particular god, who is apparently Molech, is not named. Those 
who retain the rendering of our version, Chiun your images, understand by 
Chiun (transformed by the Septuagint into Eemphan) the planet Saturn. 

Tammuz in Ezekiel 8 : 14 is supposed to represent Adonis, the favorite 
of Venus, whose premature death and subsequent resurrection the women 
celebrated with a yearly festival beginning with lamentations, and ending 
with revelling and licentious orgies. 

17. For further information on this dark and perplexed subject the 
reader must be referred to the commentaries. It is a dark domain where 
unreason rules ; "a land of darkness, as darkness itself ; and of the shadow 
of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness." 



GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX 



OP 



MODERN ARABIC NAMES. 



THE CORRESPONDING SYNONYMS (HEBREW, GREEK, ROMAN, 
ETC.) ARE GIVEN IN ITALICS. 



Abil, Ahel-heth-maachah - page 283 

AinFaluj - -134, 137 

Ain el-Hndherali, Ilazeroih 252 

Ain Jalud, fountain of Jezreel 44 

Ain Jidy, En-gedi 39, 167 

Ain el-Mudauwarah, Capernaum ? 144, 223 

Ain Shems, Beih-shemesh 12(5, 132 

Ain Sliems, On, Ileliopolis 241 

Ain es-Sultan 152, 153 

Ain et-Tabighah 144 

Ainet-Tin ■ 143 

Ain el-Weibeh 33, 253 

Ajlan, Bjlon 128 

Akabah, sea of, ^laniticgulf---S6, 134, 

135, 248 

Akir, Ekron 125 

Akka, Accho, Ftolemais 116, 124 

Akka, plain of-- 37, 41, IIG 

Akrabeh, Acrabaita 204 

El-Aksa, mosque 82, 86, 87 

El-Al, Elealeh 187 

Amman, Bahhah, Philadelphia 268 

Amwas, Emmaus ? 133 

Anab, Anab 114 

Anata, Anathoth 102 

An j ar 283 

Arabah 33, 146, 161, 248, 260 

Arair, Aro'er - 188 

Arsuf, Apollonia? - 121 

Asknlan, Askelon 126 

Asiian, Syene 244 

El-Asy, Orontes 282 

Awaj, Fharpar 285, 286, 288 

El-Azariyeh, Bethany - 102 



B. 
Bahr Lut, Sea of Lot, i. e.. Dead Sea 166 

Banias, Faneas 35, 135, 136 

Barada, AImjig 286, 288 

Bathanyeh- 174 

Batihah 144 

Beirut, Berytus- 298 

Beisan, Bet'h-shan 44, 149, 156, 213 

Beitin, Belh-el 64, 106 

Beit Jibrin, Eleutheropolis --67, 129, 130 

Beit Lahm, Beth-lehem 10!) 

BeittJr -- --39, 108 

El-Belka 182 

Bir Eyub, En-rogel 91 

Bir es-Seba, Beer-sheba 114 

Birket el Hammam 91 

Birket el-Mamilla - - - 92 

Birket er-Ram, Fhiala 138 

Birket es-Sultan 92 

El-Buka'a, Cwle-Syria 278, 280 

El-Bureij 137 

Busaireh, Bozrah of Edom 262 

Busrah, Bozrah of Bashan, Bostra- 179 

D. 

Dahar el-Kudib 277 

Debbet cr-Ramleh 249 

Deb firieli, Baberath 49 

Ed-Deir, Jabesh-gilead 185 

Deir Dubban 130 

Dcir Duwiln 107 

Deir el-Ghuzril 284 

Dera --- 180 

Derdarab 137 

Dhiban- - - 188 



654 



GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX, 



Diarbekr -- - 276 

Dimeh, Daphne 135 

Ed-Duhy 42, 44, 51 

Edhra, Edrei - 180 

Endor, Endor 52 

Esdud, Ashdod, Azotus 126 

Esfieh 53 

E. 
Fusail, Phasaelis 155 

G. 
El-Ghab 282 

El-Ghor 146, 147, 159, 161 

Ghuzzeh, Gaza ..,..- 128 

H. 

Haifa, Sycaminum 116, 117 

Haleb, Aleppo - 290 

Hamah, Hamath 284 

El-Haram, of Jerusalem 76, 81-83 

El-Haram, of Hebron - 112 

Harran, Haran 274 

Hasbeiva 137, 283 

Hattin- 50 

Hauran 42, 174 

Hesban, Heshhon 187 

El-Huleh, waters of Merom 50 

El-Huleh, plain of 138 

Hums, Emesa 34, 282, 284 

Hunin 35, 136 

I. 
Iskanderun, gulf of, Issus 29, 276 

J. 

Jaulan, Gaulonitis 42, 173 

Jeba, Geha 104 

Jebeil, Gehal, Byhlus 298 

Jebel Ajlun --- 181 

Jebel Attarus^ 188, 205 

Jebel ed-Deruz - 174 

Jebel Fureidis, Frank mountain — 210 

Jebel Hauran 175, 183 

Jebel Heish •- - 174 

-Jebel Jelad, Mount Gilead 181 

Jebel Jermuk 41 

Jebel Musa 251 

Jebel en-Nusairiyeb, Bargylus - 281, 282 

Jebel esh-Sheikh, Sermon 279, 280 

Jebel esh-Shurky, Anti-Lebanon- ^1, 278 

Jebel Sunnin - 277 

Jebel et-Tur, Tahor 42 

Jenin, Gincea 46, 51 

Jerash, Gerasa ■• 185 

Jezireh 276 

El-Jib. Giheon- 107, 198 



Jiljilia, Gilgal, of Ephraim 65 

Jiljuleh, Gilgal, of the Mediterrane- 
an plain--- .---66, 122 

Jisr Benat Yakob, 139, 140 

Jisr el-Mejamia- 149 

K. 

El-K^'a 249 

Kabul, Cahul 117 

Kaisariyeb, Ccesarea — - 119 

Kalah Shergbat - 312 

Kana el-Jelil, Cana of Galilee 35, 49 

Karun, Pasitigris 318 

Kedes, Kedesh 50 

Kefr Kenna 49 

Kefr Saba, Antipatris 120, 124 

Kefr Selwan 88 

Kerak 213, 266 

Keramles 312 

Kerkhab, Ghoaspes-- 318 

Kersa - 145 

Khabur, Chehar - 274 

Khan Minyeh 143 

Khasm Usdum 162, 163 

Khorsabad 312 

Khuzneh 261 

Kovunjik - - - 312 

Kubbet es-Sukhrah -82, 86 

El-Kuds, the Holy, i. e., Jerusalem- 70 

Kunawat, Kenath -- -- 180 

Kureiyat, Kiriathaim ?-- 188 

Kurmul, Carmel of Judah 113 

Kurnah 274 

KurnSurtabeh 68, 147, 149 

Kuryet el-Enab, Kirjath-jearim 109 

L. 

Lebban, Zebonah - 65 

Leddan - 135,137 

El-Lejah, Argob, Trachoniiis- -\1A, 175, 
176, 178, 214 

Lejjiin, Megiddo 45, 51, 124 

El-Lisan 161 

Litany, Leontes 41, 280 

Ludd, Lod, Lydda 122, 124 

M. 

Main, Maon 188 

El-Makhrud 147 

Mardin 276 

Mar Saba 168, 221 

Mejdel, in Galilee, Magdala-- 143 

Mejdel, in Syria-- 283 

Merj Ayim 137, 283 

Merj el-Buttauf 36, 43, 50 

Merj el-Ghuruk 55 

Merj Ibn Amir, plain of Esdrae- 

lon 43 

Merj Ibn Omeir 109, 133 



GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX. 



655 



Mosul- 27G, 312 

Miigheir 275 

El-Muhrakah 54 

Mukhmas, Mlchmash 105 

El-Muklma - - -55, 5« 

El-Mukutta, Kishon 45 

N. 

Nabnlus, Shechem 55 

Nahr el-Akhdar 199 

Nahr el-Auwaly, Bostrenus 291 

Nahr el-Hasbany 337 

Nahr el-Jalud 150 

Nahr el-Kasimiyeh 281 

Nahr el-Kebir, Eleutherus 277 

Nahr Niunau, Belus 110 

Nahr Eubin 128 

Nahr ez-Zerka, Jahbolc 150, 184 

En-Nasirah, Nazareih • 48 

Neby HrirCin, Mount Hor 202 

Neby Ismail 49 

Neby Samwil, Mizpeh ? 107 

Neby Yunus 312 

Nein, Nain 52 

Nimrud - 312 

O. 
Oorfa 276 

R. 

Er-Rahah 249, 250 

Er-Iiam, Barnah 103 

Er-Eamleh 122, 124, 1^5 

Rasheiya--- 283 

Rasel-Abyad 35, 116, 294 

Ras el-Feshkhah 39, 07, 160 

Rasel-Mersed 39, 100, 104 

Ras en-Nakurah 41, 116 

Ras Sasafeh 252 

Ribleh, Biblah 34, 284 

Riha, Jericho 152 

Ruiid, Arvad, Aradus 298 

Ruhaibeh, Behobolh ? 133 

Rummaneh, Iladad-rimmon? 51 

S. 

Sabkhah, plain of - 161 

Safed -.41, 50 

Saida, Sidon 297 

Sakut, Succoih? ■ 147, 150 

Salim, Shalem ? 58, 64 

Es-Salt, Ramoth-gilead 182, 186 

San, Zoan, Tunis 240 

Sebustieh, Samaria 02 

Sefiurieh, Scpphoris 49 

Seilun, SJdloh 04 

Selwan, Silnam 87 

Semua, EsMemoa - • - 114 

Serbal--- • 252 



Esh-Sherif, the Noble, i. e., llaram- 82 

Esh-Shukif .- 281 

Esh-Shurkiyeh, Goshen 235 

Shuweikeh, Shochoh 114 

Es-Sik 261 

Soba 104 

Solam, Shunem 51 

Subeibeh -- 130 

Es-Sufah, Ilormah? 197 

Snkkot, Succoih ? 150 

Sullvhad, Salcah 173, 179 

Siir, Tyre - 294 

Surafend, Zarephath, Sarepta 298 

Surah, Zorah 132 

T. 

Taannuk, Tannach 45, 50 

Taiyibeh, Ophrah ? - - -08, 105 

Tantura, Dor 121 

Tarabulus, Tripolis 298 

Teima, Tema ■ 271 

Tekua, Tekoa 110 

Tell Basta, Fi-beseth, Bubastis 241 

Tell Dothan, Doihan '- 48, 04 

Tell Dibbin, Ijon - 283 

Tell Hum 144 

Tell el-Kady, Dan 135, 206 

Tell Kaimon, Jokneam 200 

Tell Khuraibeh 50 

Tell Main, Maon 69, 113 

Tell Mutsellim - 51 

Tell es-Safioh, Gaih? 126 

TellZif, Ziph 113 

El-Tellul - 285 

Tibneh, Timnath-serah 06 

Tibneh, of Dan, Timnath 132 

Tibnin 35 

Et-Tih 249, 252 

Tubakat Fahil, Bella- - 186 

Tubariyeh, Tiberias - 142 

Tubas, Ihebez 64 

Tul'ileh, Tophel 262 

Tuleil el-Ful, Gibeah - 103 

Tulluzah, Tirzah? 64 

U. 

Um el-Gemal, Beih-gamul - 180 

Urn Keis, Gadara - - -145, 184, 185 

Um Lakis, Lachish - 128 

Umgheir 275 

W. 

Wady Beit Hanina - r 74 

Wady Feiran 256 

Wadv Farah - - 68 

Wady Faria 147, 149 

Wady Ghurundel 250, 256 

Wadv Hamam 145 

Wady Hesban - - - 794 



656 



GEOGKAPHICAL INDEX. 



Wady Jehoshafat, valley of Jehosha- 

phat 73 

Wady el-Jeib 260 

WadyKadisha 278 

Wady el-Kelt, hrook Cherith? 39, 68, 

152 155 

Wady Kerak 168', 265 

Wady Khureitun 68 

Wadyel-Leja 250 

Wady Leimun 222 

Wady Mahauwat 164 

WadyMojib, Arnon-~-dS, 160, 167, 184 

Wady el-Mukatteb 254 

WadyMusa, Petra 261 

Wady en-Nar 68, 168 

Wady es-Safieh 168 

Wady es-Seba - 114 

WadySebayeh 252 

Wady esh-Sheikh 251, 256 

Wady es-Sumpt, valley of Elah--&7, 131 

WadySurar - 67, 132 

Wady et-Teim 134, 137, 280 



Wady el-Ward 101 

Wady Zurka Main 164, 167, 184 

Wady Zuweirah 162 

Y. 

Y^bes, Jahesh 185 

Yafa, Japhia ~ 49 

Yafa, Japho, Joppa 121 

Yalo, Ajalon 109, 133 

Yarmuk, Jarmuth — 132 

Yarmuk, river Ilieromax --150, 173, 184 

Yebna, Jabneh 128 

Yehennam, Gehenna 73 

Yeshua, :Eshtaol 132 

Yutta, Juttah 114 

Z. 

Zanua, Zanoah --- 132 

Zekweh 283 

Zerin, Jezreel 44, 47, 51 

Zib, Achzib, Ecdippa 117 



INDEX OF PLAGES AND SUBJECTS. 



N. B, In this Alphabetical Index the titles of the several chapters are given. 
For an analysis of their contents the reader is referred to the Table of Contents 
at the beginning of the volume. 



A. 

Abana page 286 

Abarim - 183 

Abel-beth-maachah 283 

Abib, month of- - - - - 448 

Abilene 290 

Abrahamic covenant --469, 535 

Absalom, so-called tomb of 96 

Acacia. See Shittim-wood. 

Accho, Acre, Akka — 116 

Accursed thing 611 

Aceldama • - - 99 

Achzib, Gr. Ecdippa 117 

Adoraim -- 114 

Adramyttium 307 

AduUam 132 

Adultery - 427 

iEgean sea 300 

iEnon 157 

iElanitic gulf 248 

Agriculture - -335, seq, 

" animals used in 342 

' ' implements of 340 

' ' laws concerning 335 

Ai -^ 107 

Ajalon, valley of 109 

Akabah, gulf of 248 

Akka, plam of 116 

Akra 77 

Akrabbim. See Scorpion Cliffs. 

Aleppo --- 290 

Alexander the Great 494 

Alexandria - 239 

Almond - - 363 

Alphabet, origin of 293 

Altar of burnt-offering 554, 025 

'* of incense 552 

Amanus, mount 270, 282 

Amalek 25(5 

Ambuscades 523 

Amnion 267 



Ammonitis 

Amorites 2G7, 

Amphipolis 

Anab 

Anathoth - 

Ancient divisions of Israel 191, 

Animals, domestic 

wild - 

Ankle-bands and chains 

Anointing 

Anti-Lebanon - 

Antioch in Syria - 

' ' in Pisidia 

Antipatris -- 

Antonia, fortress of - - 

Anysis- - 

Appendix on Arabic names — 322, 

" the Canaanitish tribes-325, 

" Grecian and Eoman 

games — 443, 

" Koman citizenship 531, 

Apples of Scripture 

" of Sodom 

ApoUonia -- 

Arabah --146, 161, 192, 248, 

Arabian Peninsula 247, 

Arabia Petraea. See Arabian Pe- 
ninsula. 

Arabic feast - 

Aradus. See Arvad. 

Aram 29, 

Ararat - - — 

Araxes 

Arbela. See Beth-arbel. 
Argob. See Trachonitis. 

Arimathea • • 

Ark of the covenant 

Armenia --297, 309, 317, 

Armor, defensive 520, 

Arms, offensive 516, 

Army - - - - - 



204 
327 
305 
114 
102 
seq. 
220 
221 
404 
575 
278 
284 
303 
120 
85 
240 
seq. 
seq. 

seq. 

seq. 
217 
218 
305 
260 

seq. 



415 

273 
321 
320 



104 
549 
320 

seq. 

seq. 
515 



28* 



658 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



Ar Moab 2(55 

Arnon 167, 184, 265, 267 

Aroer - 188 

Arpad 313 

Arrow - 519 

Arts, domestic and mechanical 541 

Arvad 298 

AsMod-- ---- 126 

Asher, tribe of - 201 

Aslierah - - - 650 

Ashes, in mourning 441 

Ashkenaz 321 

Ashtaroth Karnaim 180 

Ashtoreth and Ashtaroth 649 

Asia Minor and Greece 299, seq. 

Asia, province of 299 

Asia, seven churches of 301, seq. 

Asidseans - • — 636 

Askelon 126 

Asphaltic lake. See Dead Sea. 

Ass ■ 379 

Assos 306 

Assyria 309 

Assyrian empire 309, seq. 

Astrologers 648 

Atbara 235 

Athens - - 305 

Atonement, great day of 582 

Atropatene -• - 317 

Attalia ■--' 303 

Augur - 648 

Anion 146 

Auranitis 173 

Aveh 313 

Aven, plain of 284 

Avenger of blood - 509 

Avi m 383 

Azekah 131 

Azotus. See Ashdod. 
Azzah. See Gaza. 

B. 

Baal 649 

Baalbec 283 

Baal-gad 191 

Baal-meon -- - 187 

Baal-peor - 184 

Babylon 315 

Babylonia 314 

Badger of Scripture - - 223, 546 

B^tis 296 

Bakeries 411 

Balm. See Balsam. 

Ballista 525 

Balsam 154, 365 

Bargylus, mount 281 

Baris - -- 85 

Barley --- 341, 344 

Bashan 38, 173, seq., 204 



Bashan, deserted cities of 177 

Batanaea. See Bashan. 

Bath - 467 

Battering-ram - -- 526 

Battle, order of- 523 

Battle-axe 518 

Battlements of roofs 391 

Beans 343 

Bear 221 

Beard, usages respecting 402 

Beasts, exposure to -- 445 

Beating to death 511 

Beer-sheba -- -- 114 

Bees 224 

Beheading 511 

Behemoth - - - 226 

Bel - 651 

Belka 182 

Bells 573 

Belus -- 116 

Benjamin, tribe of 197 

Berytus 298 

Bethany - 101 

Beth-arbel 145 

Beth-barah- - 157 

Beth-el 106 

Bethesda, so-called pool of 85 

Beth-gamul - 181 

Beth-horon 108 

Beth-lehem -- 109 

Bethphage 102 

Beth-rehob 282 

Bethsaida 144 

Beth-shan 156 

Beth-shemesh 132 

Beth-shemesh, of Egypt- 241 

Betogabra. See Eleutheropolis. 
Betrothal. See Espousal. 

Bezetha--- - 79, 86 

Birds of Palestine 222 

Bithynia - 304 

Bitumen 165 

Blue 407 

Blue Nile 235 

Boards of the tabernacle 543 

Bonnets - - - 404, 573 

Books, ancient - -- 455 

Booths- 606 

Bostrenus 291 

Bottle- - 352, 373 

Bottle in the smoke 352 

Bow - 518 

Bozrah of Bashan- 179 

" ofEdom 262 

Bracelets- - - 404 

Bread - 410 

Breastplate of judgment 570 

" military 521 

Breeches 400, 573 



INDEX 0¥ PLACES AND SUBJECTS, 



659 



Bricks - 393 

Bubastis. See Pi-besetk 

Buffalo 220 

Bulls of Bashan - 225 

Burial --- 439 

Burning at funerals 440 

" as a penalty 508 

" on the altar- 582 

Butter- - 376 

Byblus. See Gebal. 

C. 
Cabul - 117 

Caesarea of Palestine 118 

" Philippi 136,279 

Cakes baked in the embers 411 

Calf-worship - 649 

Callirrhoe- - - - - 107 

Calneh or Calno 317 

Camel • 370 

Canaan, laud of 30 

Canaanites 327 

' ' extirpation of the - 529 

Cana of Galilee 49 

Candlestick, golden — 553, 564 

Cauneh. See Calneh. 

Capernaum 143 

Capital punishment - 506 

Caravan 464 

Caravanserai -^ — 466 

Carchemish 274 

Carmel, mount 52 

" of Judah 113 

Carob-tree 218 

Casius, mount-- - 281 

Catapult - 525 

Cauls- - 404 

Caves - 69, 383 

Cedar of Lebanon 278 

Cenchrea 305 

Cereal and leguminous plants -342, seq. 
Chaboras. See Chebar. 
Chain. See Necklace. 

Chakkca 314 

Chaldsean empire 315 

Chambers of houses 388 

of the temple 618, 62 1 

Chamberlain - 490 

Changes of raiment 407, 416 

Chariot - 519 

Chebar 274, 318 

Cheese - 377 

Cheesemongers' valley. See Tyro- 
poeon. 

Cherith, brook of 152, 155 

Cherubim - 550, 563 

Chief priest - - - 497 

Chiefs of tribes 473 

Chimneys, absence of 392 



Chinneroth. See Sea of Galilee. 

Chittim, isles of 300 

Chiun - 652 

Choaspes 318 

Chorazin — — 144 

Chr5^sorrhoas. See Abana. 

Churning - 377 

Cilicia - 304 

Circesium. See Carchemish. 

Cisterns 66, 91, 378 

Cities of the Plain, overthrow of- 168, seq. 

' ' of refuge — - 509 

" oriental 394 

Clauda -- 307 

Clean and unclean, distinctions 

of 590, seq. 

Clean animals- 591 

Climate - 206 

Climate, soil, and productions of 

Palestine 206, seq. 

Clothing, materials of 406 

Cloud of God's presence- - - 565 

Cnidos - 307 

Coat of many colors 397 

Coele-Syria - - 280 

Colosse - 303 

Commanders, military 488 

Commerce, routes of 464 

Compensation in kind- 503 

Concubine - 41 9 

Congregation 474 

Consanguinity, laws of 425 

Cony of Scripture -• - 221 

Coos 306 

Corban 611 

Corinth 305 

Corporal punishment 503 

Council. See Sanhedrim. 
Countries north and northeast of 

Palestine 273, seq. 

Countries southeast and east of Pal- 
estine 259, seq. 

Countries southwest and south of 

Palestine • 228, seq. 

Court of the tabernacle 549 

Courts of houses 385 

" of the temple 619, seq. 

Crete 307 

Crisping-pins. See Purses. 

Crocodile 238 

Crucilixion 511 

Cubit 466, 468 

Curtains of the tabernacle 545 

Cush 246 

" of Gen. 2:13 318 

Cushan-rishathaim 274 

Cymbal 459 

Cyprus - 303 

Cyrus, river 317, 320 



660 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



D. 
Dabareh 49 

Dagger. See Sword. 

Dagon - 652 

Dalmanutha- - 143 

Dalmatia - 306 

Damascus --279, 285 

Dan, city of -- 136 

" tribe of- - - 198 

Daphne. See Tahpanhes. 

David, tomb of 81 

Day, Hebrew 450 

Dead Sea 36, 134, 157, seq., 265 

Dead body, uncleanness from 594 

Death-penalty 505 

Dedan, Cushite- - --- 297 

Dedan, Jokshanite 262, 297 

Dedication, feast of - 608 

Delta of Egypt - - 233 

Demoniacal possessions 462 

Demon-worship 645 

Derbe - 303 

Dial 



451 

Dibon or Dimon- 188 

Dichotomy — 511 

Divan ---'- - - - 388, 394 

Divination - 648 

Divorce 426 



Dog 



222 



Domestic relations and usages -419, seq. 

Dor - 120 

Dothan ---48, 64 

Dreams — 647 

Dress and personal ornaments -396, seq. 

Dulcimer - 459 

Dumah - - - 271 

E. 

Ear-drops 404 

Ear-rings — 405 

Eastern emi:)ires - — 309, seq. 

East Sea. See Dead Sea. 

Ebal, mount 56, 58 

Eboda - 256 

Ecbatana --- 317 

Eden, garden of 314 

Edom, land of 259, seq. 

Edrei 180 

Eglon -- - 128 

Egypt and Ethiopia -228, seq. 

Ekron 125 

Elah, valley of 131 

Elam 318 

Elders 473, 497 

Eleutheropolis 129 

Eleutherus - 277 

Elim - 250 

Elishah, isles of 296, 300 

Eloth- 248 



Elusa- - 256 

Embalming - - -244, 460 

Embroidery - - 452 

Emesa 284 

'' plain of -282 

Emmaus -- 133 

En-gedi - 167 

Endor - 52 

En-rogel -- 91 

Ephah 467 

Ephesus 301 

Ephod- - 569 

Ephraim, city of- - 105 

*' mount-- 55 

tribe of- 199 

Ephratah 109 

Epiphania. See Hamath. 

Epistle 456 

Erech -- - - 317 

Esdraelon, plain of 43 

Eshtaol 132 

Eshtemoa- 114 

Espousal - - - 422 

Essenes 641 

Etam or Etham 94 

Ethiopia - 246 

Ethnarch -- - — 495 

Eulaeus. See Ulai. 

Euphrates - 274, 276, 314, 320 

Excision — --,- .- 508 

Ezion-geber 248 

F. 

Fair Havens 307 

Families of a tribe 473 

Family relations 419, seq. 

Fasts, national - 609 

Fathers' houses 472 

Feast of harvest. See Pentecost. 

" of ingathering. See Taber- 
nacles, feast of. 

" of the passover. See Pass- 
over. 

" marriage 423 

" oriental-- - 416 

Fennel 343 

Ferguson's plan of the tabernacle- 548 

Fetishes - 645 

Fig 216, 361 

Fines - 503 

Firstborn 429, 589 

First-fruits -589 

Fishes - - 223 

Fishing- - 382 

Flocks and herds 367, seq. 

Flowers of Palestine 219 

Flute - 459 

Food and menis 408, seq. 

Fountain of Elisha 152 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



GGl 



Fountain of the viro;in 88 

Fountains of Palestine - 215 

" sealed 9-1 

Freedom, loss of- --• 505 

Fringes - 407 

Fruit-trees - -216, 359, seq. 

Fryingpan — - 412 

Fuller's field 100 

Funeral rites 440 

Furlong 467 

G. 

Gad, tribe of- 194 

" a deity G52 

Gadara - 185 

Gadarenes 145 

Galatia 804 

Galeadites 204 

Galilee, mountainous region of- 41, seq. 

" sea of 140, seq. 

Gumes, Grecian and Koman --443, seq. 

Gardens and orchards 217, 364 

Garments, modern Arabic - 400 

Gate, Beautiful- 625 

" Golden --- 624 

Gates of cities 499, 524 

" of houses-- - 384 

Gath 126 

Gaulonitis - - 173 

Gaza 40, 127 

Geba - 104 

Gebal 298 

Gennath, gate 78, 80 

Gehenna 73, 94, seq. 

Gennesareth, land of 141 

Gennesareth, sea of. See Sea of 
Galilee. 

Gerar -- 133 

Gerasa 185 

Gerasenes. See Gadarenes. 

Gergesenes - 145 

Gerizim, mount 56, 58 

Girshonites, charge of the 558 

Gibbeting 507 

Gibeah of Benjamin- - 103, 105 

" of Phinehas 103 

Gibeon 107 

Gifts - --- 439 

Gihon, pools of - 92 

Gilboa 51 

Gilead 38, 181, seq. 

Gilgal of Ephraim 65 

" of the Jordan valley - - 155 

" of the Mediterranean plain- 122 

Ginaea 51 

Girdle ---- 397 

" military - 521 

" priestly 573 

Girgashites 328 



Glasses - - 405 

Gleaning - 348 

Glorious land - 31 

Goad - - 342 

Goats 373 

Goats-hair curtains -- 545 

Goat-skin bottles 373 

Gog and Magog 321 

Gomer - - - 321 

Goshen, land of-- -- - 234 

Government after the captivity -492, seq. 

Granaries 347 

Grapes, treading of 351 

Greaves - 521 

Greece - - 299 

Guitar, See Lute. 

H. 

Habor 275, 313 

Hagarenes or Hagarites 271 

Hair, plucking off, in mourning — 441 

Halah 275, 313 

Halak, mount - 191 

Hamath, entering in of 33, 277, 281 

cityof - 284 

Hanes - 240 

Hanging 507, 511 

Haram of Jerusalem 82 

" of Hebron - 112 

Haran 274 

Harem, royal - 491 

Harod, fountain of - -- 45 

Harosheth of the Gentiles — 50 

Harp-- 457 

Harrow --- 341 

Haruspices - 648 

Harvest, times of- 212 

Hauran 174 

Havilah 250, 257 

Hazeroth - -- - 252 

Hazezon-tamar 167 

Head-dress 402 

Heads of tribes 473 

Heave-offering - -- 582 

Hebrew divisions of time 447, seq. 

Hebrews, division by tribes — 193, seq. 

land of the 31 

Hebron -- Ill 

Helbon --- - 290 

Helena, tomb of 96 

Heliopolis of Egjq:)t. See On. 

' ' of. Syria. See Baalbec. 

Hellas - 296 

Helmet--- - 520 

Heptanomis 233 

Haracleopolis 240 

Hermon 134, 174, 279 

Herodians 643 

Ileroopolitan gulf. Sec Suez, gulf of. 



6G2 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



Heshbon - 187 

Hierapolis --- - 303 

Hieromax 149, 184 

Highlands west of the Jordan- -41, seq. 

High places - 650 

Hinnom, valley of 73, 94, seq. 

Hippiciis, tower of 78 

Hippopotamus --- 238 

Historical survey 534, seq. 

Hittites -- - 327 

Hivites - 328 

Holy Land-- 31 

" ofholies - 549 

" sepulchre 82 

Homer 467 

Honey of grapes 350 

" ofbees---- 366 

Hor, mount 253, 262 

" of the north 34 

Horeb 251 

Horites - ' 383 

Hormah 197 

Horn-" --- 459 

Horns as ornaments 406 

Horse - 380 

Hospitality, oriental 417 

Hours 451 

House, oriental, plan of 384 

Houses and their appointments, 383, seq. 

Huleh, lake - 138 

Hundred, military - 516 

Hunting - - - 381 

Huts of the poor 383 

Hyena 221 

Hyssop - 218 

I. 
Iconium 303 

Idolatrous rites 647 

Idolatry of the Hebrews 644, 652 

Idumsea, province of 204 

Ijon - 283 

lilyricum 306 

Image-worship -- 646 

Imprisonment — 502, 510 

Inauguration, kingly 487 1 

" priestly 574, seq.- 

Incense, sweet 556 

" symbolism of 564 

India 322 

Ink 454 

Inns 465 

Insects of Palestine 224 

lonians. See Javan. 

Irrigation- - 338 

Ir-shemesh - 133 

Issachar, tribe of --- 200 

Issus, gulf and plain of 282 

Israel, land of 31 



Italy 320 

Ituraea -173, 204 

Iveh 313 

J. 

Jabbok 150, 184, 267 

Jabesh-gilead 185 

Jabneel or Jabneh 128 

Jackal - 221 

Jacob's well 61 

James, tomb of 96 

Jamnia. See Jabneel. 

Japhia - - 49 

Japho. See Joppa. 

Jarmuth 132 

Javan - 297, 300 

Javelin 517 

Jebusites -- - 328 

Jehoshaphat, tomb of - ■ 96 

valley of 73 

Jericho --- 152, seq. 

Jerusalem, history of 70 

' ' position of- - - 72, seq. 

Jezreel, valley of 44 

Jokneam -• 200 

Joppa 121 

Jordan and Dead Sea, valley of-134,seq. 

" circuitof --146,170 

" river 148, 151 

" sources of 135, seq. 

Joseph's tomb 62 

Joshua, office of — -- 478 

Journeyings of the Israelites 557 

Jubilee, year of 337, 450, 599 

Judah, tribe of 196 

Judea, mountainous section of- -66, seq. 

' ' Boman province of 204 

Judges, extraordinary -- 477 

" ordinary — 475 

tombs of the 96 

Justice, administration of 498, seq, 

Juttah 114 

K. 

Kadesh and Kadesh-barnea 253 

Kanah, torrent of - 199 

Kedar - 271 

Kedesh of Naphtah - 50, 258 

Kenath- 180 

Kenites - - - 257 

Kerak -- -- 266 

Kidron, valley of 72 

Kingly form of government --482, seq. 

King's councillor - — 490 

" friend 490 

Kings, tombs of the 96 

Kir-heres or Kir-hareseth. See Ke- 

Kiriathaim- 188 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



663 



Kirjath-arba 113 

Kirjath-jeiu'im 109 

Kir Moab. See Kerak. 
Kneacling-troughs -- 410 

Kohathites, charge of the 558 

Km-. See Cyrus, river. 

L. 

Lachish - 128 

Ladder of Tyre 116 

Land of promise 31 

Laodicea 303 

Laver 555 

Leaven, as a symbol - - 603 

Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon 276 

chain of-- --277 

Lechoeum — 305 

Lentiles -. 342 

Leontes 41 

" chasm of the 134, 277, 280 

Leopard -- 221 

Leprosy - 461, 593, 596 

" in houses and garments ' — 462 

Levi, tribe of 201 

Leviathan 226 

Levirate — 424 

Levites, as a class - - 585, seq. 

' ' organization of 586 

" provision for the 587 

Levitical cities 589 

Levy of men 48!) 

" of troops -- 514 

Libya - - -- 2f)6 

Lion - 221 

Lip, covering of the - 441 

Loaves of showbread 552 

Locusts-- 224 

" asfood 413 

Lod. See Lydda. 

Lord's Supper, relation of the, to 

the Passover -- (*04 

Ludand Ludim - 29G 

Lunacy -- -- 4()2 

Lute - 458 

Luz. See Beth-el. 

Lycaonia 303 

Lydda- - 122 

Lyre - 45 8 

Lystra 303 

M. 
Maachah. See Abel-beth-Maachah. 

Mace- 518 

Macedonia - 304 

Macha^rus, fortress of 205 

Magdala 143 

Mahanaim -- 18(5 

Malta 307 

Mamre-- -- • 113 



Manasseh, half tribe east 195 

" half tribe west 199 

Manna- 256 

Mantle - 399 

Maon 69, 113 

Mareshah - - - 131 

Marriage dowry 422 

" consummation of - 423 

" institution of - - 534 

Mars' hill 305 

Masius, mount - 274 

Masters and servants 430, seq. 

Mattock -- 341 

Meals 413, seq. 

Medeba 188 

Medes and Persians 317, seq. 

Media -- 317 

Medical art •■ 460, seq. 

Mediterranean plain 37, 116, seq. 

Megiddo - 45, 51 

Melita. See Malta. 
Memphis. See Noph. 

Meni 652 

Menzil or public lodging-place 418 

Merantes, charge of the 558 

Mercy-seat 550 

Meroe - 247 

Merom. See Huleh. 

Meshech -297, 321 

Mesopotamia — - 273 

Metempsychosis 244 

Michmash 105 

Midianites and other Arabian 

tribes 269, seq. 

Migdol 240 

Miletus 302 

Military affairs -- 514, seq. 

Milk -- 376 

" of goats -- 373 

Mill 408 

Millet - 343 

Mines, military 526 

Minni 321 

Mishor 181, 193 

Mitre - - - - - 573 

Mitylene 306 

Mixed garments 406 

Mizpah and Mizj)eh 107 

Moab 264, seq. 

Moabitis 204 

Molech - 651 

Months, Hebrew ---447, seq. 

Moph. See Noph. 

Moresheth-gath - 132 

Moriah 77, 82 

Mortar -- 408 

Mosaic covenant 469 

Mosaic economy 536, seq. 

Moschi. See Meshech. 



664 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



Moses, offices of -- 477 

Mosque el Aksa - 86 

" of Omar 86 

Mountainous belt of Palestine 36 

Mount, military 525 

Mourning, forms of- 441 

Mourners, professional 442 

Mufflers 404 

Mummies 244 

Murder, primitive law against 535 

Music and musical instruments-457,seq. 

Must - 352 

Myra 307 

Mysia 304 

N. 
Nabatliseans. See Nebaioth, 

Nain - - 52 

Naming of children 428 

Naphtali, mount 41 

tribe of 201 

Natural history of Palestine — 215, seq. 

Navigation, ancient — 464 

Nazareth - - 46, 48 

Nazarite 612, seq. 

Neapolis 304 

Neat cattle 376 

Nebaioth 271 

Nebo, a deity (i52 

" mount •■-- 183 

Necklace - 403 

Necromancy — 648 

Nile 235 

Nineveh - 312 

No-Amon. See Thebes. 

Nomadic life 367, seq. 

Noph- 242 

Nose-jewels - 405 

Nuts 217 

Nyanza lake 235 

O. 

Oak- 218 

Oblation 581 

Officers, Hebrew 474 

" of the king 488, seq. 

« ' of the Sanhedrim 497 

Oil- 357, 358 

" holy anointing - 556 

" ritual use of- - 487 

" mill 358 

" cistern 359 

Olive, culture of the 216, 356, seq. 

Olives, mount of 100 

Omer 4S7 

On - 241 

Ono - 216 

Ophel - 77, 86 

Ophir - 248, 296 



Ophrah -- 105 

Oracles, responses of 647 

Oratorios - 629 

Orchoe. See Erech. 

Organ 459 

Ornaments, female 404 

Orontes- 280, 282 

Ovens, forms of-- -- 412 

" public -- 411 

Oxen for the tabernacle service 559 

P. 
Padan-aram 273 

Painting the eyebrows -- 405 

Pal^tyrus 294 

Palestine, different uses of the term 

30, seq. 

' ' general view of 29, seq. 

" boundaries ideal and ac- 
tual - 31, seq. 

' ' form and dimensions — 35 

" general divisions 36, seq. 

" • direction of the valleys-- 38 

' ' routes of travel - 3S 

' ' peculiar situation 40 

' ' military strength - - 40 

Palm-tree 359, seq. 

Palmyra -- 465 

desertof 276 

ruins of -291 

Pamphylia, bay of — 303 

Paneas - - - 136 

Pantheism -- 644 

Paphos - 303 

Papyrus 218, 238, 454 

Parental power-- - 429 

Parthia 317 

Paschal lamb. See Passover. 

Passover 601, seq. 

Patara ■ 306 

Pathros and Pathrusim 233 

Patriarchal form of government, 469, seq. 

' ' its chief element 471 

" its advantages and de- 
fects- 471 

" bond of union under it 480 

Paul's three missionary tours- -303, seq. 

Peace-offerings 575, 579 

Pella - 186, 205 

Pen 454 

Penalties, Hebrew 502, seq. 

" foreign 510, seq. 

Pentecost - 601 

Peor 183 

Peraea •- - --37, 205 

Perfume-boxes 404 

Perga 303 

Pergamos - 302 

Perizzites 328 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



665 



Persia 318 

Petra 260 

Pharisees 635, seq. 

Pharpar 285 

Phasaelis - 155 

Phenice in Crete 307 

Phiala, lake 137 

Philadelphia of Amnion 268 

' ' of Asia Minor 302 

Philoe, island of 233 

Phihppi 304 

Philistines 124 

Phoenicia - 291, seq. 

Phoenicians, arts and sciences -293, seq. 

" relations to Israel 294 

Phrj'gia • 303 

Phut 296 

Phylacteries - 407 

Physicians 460 

Pi-beseth - -- 240 

Pigeons 222 

Pillars of Hercules -- 292 

*' of the court 549 

" of the tabernacle 542 

Pins of the tabernacle 548 

Pipe. See Flute. 

Pisgah 183 

Pistacia 218 

Pithom 241 

Pits used in hunting 381 

Plants, cereal and leguminous 342 

" furnishing clothing 216 

" odoriferous 218 

Plough and ploughing 340 

Poetry of the Hebrews 539 

Polygamy 419, 426 

Polytheism 645 

Pomegranate 217, 362 

Pomegranates, artificial 217, 274 

Pool of Hezekiah 91 

" of Siloam 87 

Pools of Gihon - - 92 

'' of Hebron Ill 

** of Solomon 93 

Poor, provisions for the 347 

Porch 385 

Pottage 343 

Potter's field 99 

Presbytery. See Sanhedrim. 

Priest, idea of- 567 

Priests, as a class 584 

" marriage of 425 

Priesthood, sacrifices, and obla- 
tions 567, seq. 

Priestly garments 569, seq. 

Princes 473 

Procurator 495 

Prophets, tombs of the 96 

Provinces, Roman 495 I 



Psaltery - 458 

Psephinos, tower of 78 

Ptolemais 116 

Purifications 594, seq. 

Purim, feast of 608 

Purple, Tyrian -* 293 

Purses 405 

Puteoli 308 

Pyramids 245 

Q. 

Quails - 222 

Quarries in Jerusalem 89 

Quicksands 307 

Quiver ^ - 519 

E. 

Raamses or Eameses 241 

Kabbah of Ammon 268 

" ofMoab- 265 

Eachel's tomb - -- 110 

Eains of Palestine 207, seq. 

Eamah of Benjamin 103 

" of Samuel 104 

Ramathaim-zophim -- 104 

Eamath-mizpeh 104 

Eamoth-gilead - 182, 1 86 

Eamoth-negeb - 104 

Eeception-room - 387 

Eecorder - 489 

Red Sea 247 

" passage of the - 249 

Regions east of the Jordan 173, seq. 

" remote from Palestine -320, seq. 

Rehoboth - 133 

Eemphan 652 

Eending of garments 441 

Rephaim , valley of - - 101 

Resurrection — - - 637 

Eetaliation 504 

Eeuben, tribe of 194 

Revenues, royal — 491 

Riblah 284 

River of Egypt 31 

Roads of Palestine 38 

Robe 398 

Robe of the ephod 572 

RoU - 455 

Roman 'citizenship 531, seq. 

" divisions of Palestine-203, seq. 

Rome 320 

Roofs 389, seq. ' 

Rosh 321 

S. 

Sabbath 534, 598 

Sabbath day's journey 467 

Sabbatical year ■ 330, 599 

Sabeans. See Sheba. 



6G6 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



Sackbut 459 

Sackcloth 407, 441 

Sacrifice, idea of 568 

Sacriiaces, different kinds of - - 577, seq. 

Sadducees 640, seq. 

Salamis - - -'- - - - 303 

Salcah-" - 179 

Salmone 306 

Salt as a symbol 413 

" mountain 163 

" Sea. See Dead Sea. 

" valley of -- 163 

Salutations, oriental - 434 

Samaria, city of — 62, seq. 

" mountains of — 52, seq. 

*' Koman province of - 204 

Samaritans 59, seq., 492 

Samaritan temple 60 

Samos - 306 

Samotlirace - 304 

Sanctuary, inner and outer - - 542 

Sandals - 400 

" loosing of 401,424 

Sanhedrim •-- 496 

Sarepta. See Zarephath. 

Sardis 302 

Satrap - 494 

Scape-goat -- 583 

Scarlet 407 

Sciences and arts 447, seq. 

Scopus — 100 

Scorpion cliffs - 191 

Scourging 503 

Scribes of New Testament 497 

" royal .- 489 

Scythopolis. See Beth-shan. 
Sea of Galilee and Lower Jor- 
dan — - 140, seq. 

Seal. See Signet. 

Seasons of Palestine --206, seq. 

" sacred 598, seq, 

Seba - 247 

Sects, Jewish 635, seq. 

Seed-time 343 

Seir, mount-- 253, 259 

Sela. See Petra. 

Seleucia - 285 

Semechonitis, lake 50 

Senir "--- 296 

Sepharvaim 317 

. Sepphoris - 49 

Serpents 222, seq. 

Servants, bond and hired 430, seq. 

' ' rights of 431 

Servitude, Hebrew -431, seq. 

" foreign - - - 434 

Shaduf 339 

Shalem 58, 64 

Sharon 117, seq. 



Sheath 517 

Sheba 271 

Shechem 56, seq. 

Sheep 371 

*' care of 372, seq. 

Shekinah 562, 566 

Shekel _ -- 466 

Shenir. See Senir. 

Shephelah 123, 191 

Shepherds 367 

Shield -- 521 

Shiloh 64 

Shinar 314 

Ships of the ancients - 464 

Shipwreck of St. Paul 448 

Shittim- wood 543 

Shochoh 114, 131 

Shoe. See Sandals. 

' ' military 521 

Shovel 342 

Showbread 552, 564 

Shunem 51 

Shur 257 

Shushan 318 

Siddim, vale of 170 

Sidon ---_- 297 

Siege of cities — ----524, seq. 

Sieges, remarkable --527, seq. 

Signet - 402, 456 

Siloam 87 

Silk -- 406 

Simeon, tribe of 197 

Simoom 238 

Sin, Egyptian city of 240 

Sin-offering 575, 577 

Sin, wilderness of 250 

Sinai 251 

Sinim, landof - 322 

Sirocco - 212 

Slaves, fugitive 434 

Sling 519 

Smyrna 302 

Sockets 542, 549 

Social intercourse, forms of — 434, seq. 

Soil of Palestine 212, seq. 

Sorcery - 648 

South country 133, 192 

Spear 517 

Spirit- w^orship 645 

Sprinkling of blood 582 

Staff - 402 

Stairs 388 

Stomacher 405 

Stoning -- - 506 

Strangulation - 511 

Straw for bricks--- 393 

Streets, oriental - 394 

Strong drink 352 

Succoth 156 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



667 



Suez, gulf of 248 

Susiana. See Elam. 

Summer-house ■ 392 

Swearing, form of 614 

Swine, wild- 221 

Sword 517 

Sycaminum — 117 

Sycamore 217, 362 

Syene- - - 243 

Symbolism of the tabernacle- -560, seq. 

Synagogue, Jewish 627, seq. 

buildings 628 

" ojBficers of 629, seq. 

" services — 631 

" the great 634 

Syria, ancient ---- 29 

" proper 276, seq. 

Syria-Cilicia, gates of . 282 

T. 
Taanach - 45, 51 

Tabernacle, Mosaic - 542, seq. 

' ' materials of 565 

" removal of 557, seq. 

" symbolism of 560, seq. 

Tabernacles, feast of 606 

Table of showbread - 552 

Table-land east of the Jordan- -181, 193 
Tablets. See Perfume-boxes. 

Tablets for writing 454 

Tabor - 42 

Tadmor. See Palmyra. 

Tahpanhes 240 

Talent 466 

Tammuz -- 652 

Tanis. See Zoan. 

Tappuah 114 

Tares 348 

Tarshish or Tartessus - 296 

Task-masters - 430, seq. 

Taurus 276 

Tekoa- 110 

Tema - 271 

Teman 262 

Temperature of Palestine 210, seq. 

Temple 84, 540, 615 

" of Herod 622, seq. 

*' of Solomon 615, seq. 

" of Zerubbabel 620, seq. 

Ten tribes -- 493 

Tents- - 368 

Terraces 340 

Thebais - 233 

Thebes - 242 

Thebez 04 

Thessalonica 305 

Thousands - 473, 516 

Threshing and threshing-floors -342, seq. 
Thyatira- 302 



Tiberias 142 

' ' Sea of. See Sea of Galilee. 
Tibareni. See Tubal. 

Tigris - -- 274, 314, 320 

Timbrel 459 

Time, Hebrew divisions of 447 

Timnath - 132 

Timnath-heres -- 66 

Tires 404 

Tirshatha 494 

Tithes - 588 

Trade and commerce- 463, seq. 

Togarmah --297, 321 

Tombs around Jerusalem 96, seq. 

" Egyptian- 245 

Tophel - - -- - 262 

Tophet - - 94 

Torrent of Egypt - 32 

Tower of a vineyard 349 

Trachonitis 173, seq., 204 

Trees of Palestine 216, seq. 

Tripolis 298 

Troas 304, 306 

Trogyllium- - - 306 

Tubal - 297, 321 

Tunic 396 

" priestly 572 

Tyre 294 

" old. See Palgetyrus. 

Tyropoeon 75 

** ancient bridge over 83 

U. 

Ulai - 318 

Undergirders - 464 

Unicorn 225 

Unleavened bread, feast of - - 601 

Urim and Thummim - 571 

Up.per Jordan and Huleh 135, seq. 

Urof the Chaldees 275, 314 

Uz, land of --- 272 

V. 
Valley of the Jordan and Dead 

Sea -- - 36, 134, seq. 

Veil of the sanctuary. See Cur- 
tains. 

Veil of the temple, rending of 584 

Veils - - 403 

Verandah 386 

Vetches - 343 

Victors, rights of- 528, seq. 

Vines, culture of 216, 348, seq. 

Vineyards and their api)ointments- 349 

Vintage 350 

Visits, oriental 438 

Vows and devoted things 610, seq. 

" affirmative - 610 

" negative 612 



G68 



INDEX OF PLACES AND SUBJECTS. 



Walls of cities 524 

Watches, military 451 

Wave-offering - - 582 

Week 450 

" of weeks 450 

" of years 450 

" of Sabbatical years 450 

Weights and measures 466, seq. 

WellofHarod --- 45 

" ofNehemiah 91 

Wells 377 

" at Beer-sheba, 115 

* ' in and around Jerusalem 90 

Wheat - 215, 341 

Wheat harvest 344 

White as a symbol 407 

Wife, choice of 420 

Wildei-ness of Judah 69, 192 

of Paran 252 

of Sin 250 

of Sinai- - -248, 252 

of Zin 253 

Wimples. See Mantle. 

Windows 388 

Windows of Palestine - 208, seq. 

Wine 350 

" bottles for • 352, 374 

*♦ on the lees ---- 355 



Wine, vinegar of 350 

" various terms for 353, seq. 

Winepress 350 

Winnowing 346 

Winter-house- - 392 

Witchcraft - 648 

Woman, her relation to man 437 

Writing, art of- 453, seq. 

Y. 
Year, Hebrew - - 447, 449 

Z. 

Zagros, mountains 309, 317 

Zanoah - - 132 

Zarephath -- • 298 

Zebulun, tribe of 200 

Zechariah, tojnb of 96 

Zephath. See Hormah. 
Zidon. See Sidon. 

Zion 81 

Ziph - 113 

Ziz, cliff- - 167" 

Zoan --- 240 

Zoar, site of - — 169 

Zobah - 290 

Zophim, field of- 183 

Zorah 132 

Zurka Main - 167 



INDEX OF SCRIPTURAL TEXTS 



REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME. 



GENESIS. 

Ch. 1 : 5, seq. page 450 

1:26, 27 --- 437 

2:2, 3- 450,598 

2:8-14 314 

2:11 250 

2:13 - 318 

3:20 428 

3:21 406 

3:24 563 

4:1-- 428 

4:3,4 534 

4:19 419 

4:21- 459 

4:26 534 

7:4, 10 450, 598 

7:11,24 448 

8:3, 6-13 448 

8:4- 321 

8:10, 12 450, 598 

8:20,21 -- -579,582 

8:22 -206, seq. 

9:5, 6- 505 

9:20-27 --- 429 

10:2 - 297 

10:5 300 

10:6 296 

10:7 271,297 

10:10 314, 317 

10:11,12 312 

10:13, 14 125, 233 

10:15-19 325 

10:16 328 

10:19 -- 30 

10:21 --- 273 

10:28 271 

Ch. 11-- --274, 314 

11:3 394 

11:15-26-- 273 

11:31- 274, seq. 

12:3 472 

12:6 56, 58, 325 

12:G-10- 367 



12:8- 106 

12:9- 69 

12:10-20 232 

12:14 403 

12:16 379 

13:1 69 

13:1-4,18 --- 367 

13:3 106, 170 

13:7 --- 325 

13:10 170, seq. 

13:10-12 146 

14:1,9 315 

14:3, 10 166, 169, seq. 

14:5 180 

U:6 -130,383 

14:7 167, 257 

14:13 273 

14:14 ----- 432 

14:15 289 

14:20-- 588 

15:2 289 

15:8-21 470 

15:16 327, 530 

15:18 31, 195 

15:19-21 326, 328 

16:1, seq.-- 420, 428 

16:7 250 

17:7,8 469 

17:12 -- 428 

17:23- 432 

18:1-8 417 

18:2 - 434 

18:4 ----- 400 

18:6 410, 466 

18:8 376 

18:12 428 

18:19 - 469 

1-9:1--- -- 439 

19:1-11 - 417 

19:2 400 

19:17, seq. 146 

19:28 113 

19:30-38 - 266 



20:1 367 

21:6 - 428 

21:10 432 

21:14 114, 374 

21:19 377 

21:21 252,421 

21:22-34 125 

21:30, 31 378 

21:31 114, seq., 367 

22.3 379 

22:15-18---- --- 470 

Ch. 23 Ill, 327 

23:2 113, 441 

23:7-12 434 

23:16 466 

23:17,19 113 

Ch. 24-- 421, seq. 

24:3 30 

24:3, 37 - 325 

M:4 275 

24:10 273 

24:16 403 

24:20 378 

24:22 466 

24:31-33 417 

24:62 69 

24:65--- -- 403 

25:2 269 

25:3 271, 297 

25:4, 13,15 --- 271 

25:18-- 250 

25:20 273, 274 

25:21, 26 *- 428 

25:23 --- 430 

25:25 399 

25:31-34 429 

25:34---- -- 343 

26:7 403 

26:18--- 115 

26:15-22 378 

26:22 --■•- 133 

26:. 32, 33 ---114, seq., 378 
26:34, 35 419, seq. 



670 



INDEX or SCEIPTURAL TEXTS. 



Ch. 27 - 429 

27:3, seq. 381 

27:9-14 373 

27:29 430 

27:36 - 428 

27:40 264 

28:1 421 

28:2-5, seq. 273, seq. 

28:6-9 325,419, seq. 

28:10-22 106,114 

28:20-22 588, 610 

Ch. 29 419, 422 

29:2, seq. 378 

29:6 375 

29:13 434 

29:24,29 420, 423 

29:25 423 

29:27, 28 450, 598 

29:31 428 

Ch. 30, seq. 428 

30:1 428, 438 

30:3, 4, 9- 420 

30:37-42 374 

30:43 379 

31:18-- 274 

31:20, 24----' 373 

31:27 - 456 

31:30-35 - -- 646 

32:2 186 

32:10 402 

32:22-32 150 

32:28 428 

33:1-7 435 

33:16, 17 156, seq. 

33:18, 19 58, seq., 149, 

274, 368 

Ch. 34 58 

34:2 327, seq. 

34:4, 8 421 

34:12 422 

34:20,27 58 

35:1_7 106 

35:1, 27 368 

35:4 - 58 

35:9, 26 274 

35:16, 19 109 

35:27 Ill 

36:6-9 259, 263 

36:12* ^ 256 

36:24 220, 279 

37.3 397 

37:12-17 58, 111,368 

3'7.25. . 3g5 

37:25-28, 36-269, 465, 488 

37:29, 34 407,441 

38:6 421 

38:8 424 

38:14 403 

38:18, 25 402 



38:24 -- 429 

39:20 378 

40:1, seq.. 411 

40:15 31, 378 

Ch. 41 239 

41:14-- .-- 402 

41:22,23 - 342 

41:42- 403, seq. 

41:45 341, 422 

42:6-- 435 

42:27 465 

43:11 363, 365 

43:13 241 

43:21 - 465 

43:24 400 

43:28- 435 

43:33 - 413 

44:13- 441 

45:22 407, 416 

46:4 - - 440 

46:15 274 

46:29 - 234 

46:34-- 230 

47:3 367 

47:17 380 

47:22 230 

48:5, 6 471 

48:7 109,273, 274 

48:14, 18-20 429 

48:22 327 

Ch. 49- 4^9 

49:3, seq. 195-202 

49:3, 4 429 

49:8 430 

49:11 349 

49:14 -- 379 

49:17 223 

49:24 - 375 

49:26 " 614 

49:30, 31 112, seq. 

50:1 440 

50:2, 26 460 

EXODUS. 

Ch. 1:11. 241 

2:10 -- 428 

2:15, 16 378 

2:16 375 

2:20---- 417 

2:21 422 

3:1 269, 422 

3:5 401, 584 

3:8, 17 325, seq. 

3:9, 10 -- 477 

3:21, 22- -- 232 

4:6 - -- 461 

4:18-- 435 

4:22 430 

4:24 465 



Ch. 5- 474 

5:7 393 

7:18, 21 382 

8:3---'- 410 

8:22. seq.-- 235, seq. 

8:26 230 

9:32 343 

11:5 - - 409 

12:2 448, seq. 

12:3 473 

12:6 451 

12:7, 13 568 

12:11 398, 402 

12:13, seq. 601, seq. 

12:35 235 

12:35, 36 - 232 

12:37 234 

12:39 603 

13:2 568 

13:4 448, seq. 

13:5 326 

13:6, 7 601, seq. 

13:9, 16 407 

13:13- 589 

13:20 - 234 

14:2 234,240 

14:7 520 

14:9, 23, seq. 516 

14:24-- 451 

15:1, 20 456 

15:14 30 

15:20, 21 437 

15:22-- 250 

16:1 250 

16:12 - 451 

16:23- 600 

17:8-16 257 

17:14 453, 610 

Ch. 18 508 

18:13 472 

18:21-26 476 

19:1, seq. 250, 605 

19:5-9 469 

19:9, seq. - 566 

Ch. 20 508 

20:10 431 

20:18,21 566 

20:19 477 

20:26 555, 619 

Ch. 21-419, seq., 431, seq. 

21:15, 17 506 

21:20, seq. 503, seq. 

22:1, seq. 503 

22:3 505 

22:9, seq. --500, seq. 

22:13- - 432 

22:26, 27- 399 

22:29- --- 589 

23:5 379 



INDEX OF SCEIPTUr.AL TEXTS. 



G71 



23:10, 11 336,599 

23:14-17 480, GOO 

23:15 601, seq. 

23:16 605, seq. 

23:19 413, 588 

23:23 326 

23:31 32 

24:4 -453, 471 

24:16-18 5ii6 

Ch. 25 -- 542 

25:4 373 

25:8 536, 542, 561 

25 : 10, seq. 541), seq. 

25:21 562 

25:23, seq. -- 552 

25:31, seq. 553, seq. 

25:33 363 

25:40 562 

Ch. 26 407 

26:1-14 545, seq. 

26:3, seq. 425 

26:15-30 543, seq. 

26:7 373 

Ch. 27 407 

27:1-8-- 554, seq. 

27:16 -- 549 

27:19---! - 548 

27:20 358 

Ch. 28 407 

28 : 1, seq. 568, seq. 

28:8 3i)7 

28:11, 21 453 

28:21 471 

2y-3i .. 399 

28:33, seq.- -217, 363, 573 

28:36 453 

Ch. 29 574, seq. 

29:36,37-- 576 

29:39, 41 451 

29:40 - 358 

29:42-45 563 

30:1 552 

30:7-10 552 

30:8 451 

30:17 554, seq. 

30:17-21 -- 585 

30:22-33 487 

30:23, seq. .556 

30:34, seq. 556 

30:36 563 

31:14, 15 506, 508 

31:15 600 

31:18 453 

Ch. 32 437, 649 

32:15, 16 4.53 

32:27-29 506 

33:2 325, seq. 

34:11 32.5, seq. 

34:13 651 



34:16 425 

34:18, seq. 600, seq. 

34:22, 23 480 

34:26 413, 589 

34:27 453 

35:2, seq. 599, seq. 

35:13 553 

35:18 - 548 

36:8, 14 545 

38:8 - 556 

38:19 549 

38:27 544 

39:3--v 570 

39:24-26 217 

39:36 553 

40:2, 17 447 

40:6, 29 563 

40:9-11, 34, 35 565 

40:22-26 551 

40:36 566 

LEVITICUS. 

Chs. 1-7 -- 577, seq. 

1:4, 9 -- 582 

1:9 - 578 

2:4, 5,7 412 

2:13 581 

2:14 589 

3:9, 16 221, 577 

Ch. 4 -- 502 

4:8, seq. 577 

5:1 - 501 

5:1-6, 9 578 

5:11 581 

6:10 400 

12:13 538 

6:12, 26-30 577, seq. 

Ch. 7 577, seq. 

7:3- 221 

7:20, seq. 508, seq. 

Ch. 8 581 

8:8 - 571 

8:8, 9 574, seq. 

8:15 575 

8:25 221 

8:26 577 

9:1- 576 

9:19 221, 577 

10:1-3, 10, 11 538 

10:9, 11 352, 585 

10:10 -- 590 

Ch. 11 591, seq. 

11:5 -- 221 

11:21,22 225, 366, 413 

11: 24, seq., 39,40- -594, seq. 

Ch. 12 428 

12:6-8 595 

Ch. 13 461, 585 

13:45 441 



13:47-59 462, 594 

Ch. 14 585 

14:33-53 462, 594 

15:5. 594 

15:28 595 

Ch. 16 577, 582, seq. 

16:2 ^ 563, 566 

16:4 400 

16:14-16 550, 561 

16:18, 19 552 

16:25 577 

16:29, 31 - 609 

17:4, 9 508 

17:6 - 577 

17:10 508, 509 

17:10, 11 568 

Ch. 18 508 

18:18 - 425 

18:22, 23 407 

18:29 - 508 

19:8 -- 508 

19:9, 10 348 

19:19 220, 406 

19:20-22-- 427, 504 

19:28 442 

Ch. 20 - - 508 

20:2-6 509 

20:2, 27 506 

20:3, 5 508 

20:9 429, 506 

20:10 427 

20:10-21 - 506 

20:14 - 508 

21:1-6 442, 585 

21:11 613 

21:7, 13, 14 425, seq 

21:17, 23 585 

Ch. 23- 600 

23:3 600 

23:5 - 451 

23:5-8 602 

23:15, 16, 32 450 

23:15-21 -- 605 

23:27, seq.--- 609 

23:32 600 

23:34, seq. 606 

24:2 358 

24:5-9 - 553 

24:10, 12 502 

24:14, seq. 506 

25:1-7 599, seq. 

25:5, 17 614 

25:8, seq. 337 

25:9 449 

25:10 - 434 

25:20-22 449 

25:39, seq. --432, seq., 505 

26:30 650 

26:33, 34 188 



672 



INDEX OF SCRIPTUEAL TEXTS. 



Ch. 27 611 

27:26 -- 589 

27:30, seq. 588 

NUMBEKS. 

Ch. 1 - 514 

1:2, 4 472 

1:16 473, seq. 

1:44 471 

Ch. 2 557 

Ch. 3 472, 558, seq. 

3:6-10 569 

3:24, 30, seq. 472, seq. 

3:41 - 430 

3:45 568 

4:8-- 550 

4:18,20-- 559 

4:23-- 585 

4:28, 33^ 560 

4:31, 32-- 543 

Ch. 5 585 

5:1-4 - -- 557 

Ch. 6 612, seq. 

6:3 352, 355, 356 

6:4-9-- 631 

7:6-9 559 

7:8 544 

7:89 563 

Ch. 8 568 

8:24 585, 586 

9:3, 5, 11 451 

9:6, seq. 602 

9:15-- - -- 565 

9:17,22 --- 566 

Ch. 10 --558 

10:1 ---- 557 

10:1-10 600 

10:3, 4 473, seq. 

10:10 447 

10:11 250 

10:12, 33 252 

10:29 257 

Ch. 11 496 

11:3, 34, 35 252 

11:5 238,382 

11:8 408 

11:13-21 - 631 

11:16, 17 496 

11:26 497 

12:10 461, 596 

12:16 252, seq. 

13:3, 21, 26 252, seq. 

13:22 - Ill 

13:23- ---216,349 

13:29 ---30, 257, 325, 327 

14:43, 45 257, 325 

Ch. 15 581 

15:32-36 502, 506 

15:37-41 407, 631 



16:2 473, seq. 

16:40- 569 

Ch. 17 363 

17:2 472 

17:4 - 563 

18:11, seq. 589 

18:17 577 

18:19 413 

18:20 202 

18:20, seq. 587 

19:2 - 342 

19:7 595 

19:11, seq. -*-- 594 

20:1, 13, seq. 253 

20:14-21 --- 263 

20:22-29---- 262, 569 

21:1-3 610 

21:4---. 259, 263 

21:4, 11- --- 254 

21:6, 8 .- 223 

21:21-35 327 

21:24 194, 267 

21:26-- 180, 183, 187, 327 

21:32 - 181 

21:33-35 ----- 180 

Ch 22 266 

22:21 379 

22:24-26 350 

22:36 265 

Ch. 23 266 

23:9-- 40 

23:13,14 183, seq. 

23:28 183 

Ch. 24 266 

24:2, seq. 184 

24:20 257, seq. 

24:21-- 258 

24:24 300 

25:3, 5 184 

25:4, seq. 506, seq. 

Ch. 26 472, 514 

26:38, 41 472 

26:62 202 

27:14- 253 

27:18-23 478 

27:21 572 

Ch. 28 581 

28:3-10 ---- 579 

28:4, 8 - 451 

28:7- -- 352 

28:11 - 447 

28:11-14 - 600 

28:16-25 602 

Ch. 29 581, 606 

29:7 609 

Ch. 31 - 270 

31:8 269 

31:25-47 270 

Ch. 32- 32, 335, 367 



32:1 180 

32:1, 4 183 

32:3 652 

32:8 253 

32:33 193 

32:33-42 267 

32:38 187 

32:42 180 

33:2 453 

33:8, seq., 36 -- 250 

33:36, 37 253 

33:41-44- -- 254 

33:50-56 32, 610 

34:1-12 32, 33 

34:3,4 253 

34:3, 12 166 

34:8- 284 

34:11 141 

34:27 453 

Ch. 35- -470, 471, 509, 589 

35:1-8 202 

35:30 --- 500 

35:31, 33 505 

DEUTERONOMY. 

Ch. 1:1 123, 252 

1:1, 2, 19, 46---- 253 

1:4 180 

1:7 - 37, 69 

1:15 475, 476 

1:16, 17 499 

1:44 --- 259 

2:4, seq. 259 

2:8 - 248 

2:9 265 

2:12, 20---- 325 

2:12, 22 - 130 

2:14 - 253 

2:19 194,327 

2:22, 23-125, 127, 325, 383 

2:36 - 180 

3:4, 5, 14 177 

3:4-10, 12, 13" -193, seq. 
3:9 296 

3 i 10-- -173, 180, seq., 327 

3:13 -- 173 

3:17- --141, 166, 183, 193 

4:13 453 

4:43 181, 186,193 

4:46 187 

4:48- 188 

4:49 --166, 183, 193 

5:14 -- 431 

5:28 477 

6:8, 9 407 

7:1 325-328 

7:1-6 - 529 

7:3, 4--- 425 

7:12-26 32 



INDEX OF SCPvIPTUKAL TEXTS. 



673 



7:12, 13 354 

8:7 215 

8:15 223 

9:10 327 

9:23 253 

10:9 - 202, 587 

11:10 237,339 

11:11 215, 338 

11:16 475 

11:29,30 - 58 

12:3 650 

12:17, 18 431,588 

12:29-31 529 

Ch. 13 499, 506, 610 

13:0-18 507 

13:9, 10. -- 506 

Ch. 14 591, seq. 

14:1 442 

14:21 413 

14:28,29 588 

15:1-11 336, 599 

15:7, 8 -- 439 

15:12 - 505 

15:12-18 432, 433 

16:1 448, seq. 

16:1-17 431 

16:3-8 601, 602 

16:9-12 605 

16:13-15 450, 600 

16:16,17 480, 600, seq. 

16:18- 475, seq., 470 

16:19 499 

17:5, 7 506 

17:0 - 500 

17:8-13 477 

17:12 -- --- 502 

17:14-20-220,380,486,491 

Ch. 18:1, 2 202, 587 

18:17-20 477, 488 

19:3-13 509, seq. 

19:15-21 500 

20:5, 8,9 475 

20:10-14- 432, 528 

20:16-18 529, 610 

20:17 326 

20:19, 20- 527, 529 

21:1-9 506, 515, 597 

21:3 342 

21:10-- 420 

21:10-14 432 

21:12 441 

21:15-17 ---419, 429 

21:18-21 506 

21:19 439 

21:22, 23 507 

22:5 407 

22:8 391 

22:10 342 

22:11 406 



22:15 -- 500 

22:18 - 504 

22:19, 28, 29 503 

22:21, 24 506 

22:22 427 

23:4 268, 273 

23:15, 16 434 

23:17, 18 222, 611 

23:21-23 612 

23:24, 25- 348 

24:1 453 

24:1-4- 420 

24:6 410 

24:7 432, 506 

24:8 585 

24:13 - 399 

24:19-22 348 

25:1-3 500, 502, 504 

25:4 -- 345 

25:5-10 401, 424, 470 

26:1-11 -- 589 

26:5 273 

Ch. 27 58 

27:2-8 453 

28:26 - 440 

31:10-13 ---431, 538, 627 

31:12 474 

31:22 453 

31:28, 30 - 474 

32:13- 356 

32:14 215, 376 

32:33- - 223 

32:49 183, 652 

32:51 .-- 253 

Ch. 33 197 

33:2 252 

33:13, 17 199 

33:16 614 

33:17- 225 

33:18---- 201 

33:20, 21- 195 

33:22 198 

33:23, 24 - 201 

33:28 354 

34:1 181, 183, 652 

34:3 146, 154, 359 

34:10-12 478 

JOSHUA. 

Ch. 1:4 327 

1:10 475 

3:2 475 

3:10 325-328 

3:15 --- 148 

3:16- 151,166 

Ch. 5 - 155 

5:15 401 

6:17-19 610, seq. 

6:26- 153 

29 



Ch. 7 ----502 508 

7:1, 11 -- 611 

7:6- 441 

7:16-18 472 

7:21-23 399 

7:24-26-- 155, 610 

Ch. 8- 523 

8:29 507 

8:30-35 58 

Ch. 9 108 

9:1 37, 123, 325, seq. 

9:4- 374 

9:7, 17 327, seq. 

9:10- - 180 

10:2 108 

10:3 132 

10:5 128 

10:5, 6 327 

10:7 39 

10:11---- 109 

10:12 108 

10:40- -----37, 123 

10:40,41 191, 192 

11:2, 16 37 

11:2 123, 141 

11:3 30, 325, 326, 328 

11:5 50 

11:8 - 107 

11:16, 17- ---123, 191, 192 

11:17- -34, 137, 283 

11:19 327, 328 

11:21 69 

Chs. 12-19 32 

12:1-5 173 

12:2, 5 181 

12:3 183 

12:4- 180 

12:7---- 34, 137, 283 

12:7, 8-- ---- 191 

12:8 — -37, 123, 326 

12:11--. 132 

12:21 51 

12:23 66, 120, 122 

Ch. 13, seq. 478 

13:1, 5 34 

13:5 41, 284 

23-9 193 

13:9-11, 16, seq. -180, 181 

13:10, 15-31 194, 267 

13:17, 26,30 187 

13:21 - 269 

13:25 188, 268, 327 

13:26 104, 107 

13:27 156 

14:6 253 

14:15 113 

Chs. 15-17 124, 196 

15:1,3 253 

15:2, 5 166 



674 



INDEX OF SCEIPTURAL TEXTS. 



15:2, 3- 33 

15:4,47 - 32 

15:5-11 102,196 

15:7 156 

15:7, 8 - 91 

15:8 r- 73 

15:9, 63 70 

15:11 128 

15:11-15,22, 23 198 

15:13 113 

15:33,34 37, 123, 133 

15:38 107 

15:44 117 

15:57 ■• -- 103 

15:62 - 163 

15:63 70, 328 

Chs. 16, 17 - 199 

17:7,10, 11 199 

17:11 - 51 

17:15 55,328 

17:16 220 

17:16, 18 516,520 

18:1,8-10 65 

18:1-9 196 

18:7 202 

18:11-15- 198 

18:13, 22 106 

18:16 101 

18:15-19 91, 102 

18:19 166 

18:23- 105 

18:26 107 

18:1-9 197 

19:8, 29, 36 104 

19:10-16 200 

19:12 - 49 

19:17-23- 200 

19:18 52 

19:21 51 

19:24-39 ---34,201 

19:26 -199, 201 

19:27 117 

19:33 128 

19:40^7 198 

19:41 133 

19:46 121 

19:50 66 

20:5, 7 - 41 

20:7 50, 55, 58 

20, 7,8 510 

20:8 180, 181,186 

Ch. 21- 202, 589 

21:11 113 

21:18 103 

21:21-- 58 

21:28 - 49 

21:29 51 

21:32 -- 50 

22:9 --- 181 



22:14-- 472 

23:11-13 32, 425 

Ch. 24 58 

24:2 275 

24:11 325-328 

24:30 66 

24:32 58, 62 

24:33 103 



JUDGES. 



Ch. 1:2- 



572 



1:3, 17, 22-25 479 

1:4, 5 325 

1:8,21 70 

1:9 37, 123 

1:10 - 113, 325 

1:12 - 422 

1:14, 15 423 

1:16 154,258,359 

1:19 327,516,520 

1:23-- 106 

1:27 - 51 

1:27-36 32 

1:31, 32 ----116, seq., 201 

1:34, 35 198 

Ch. 2 --- 530 

2:1-5, 20-23 32 

2:9 55, 66 

3:1, 5 326 

3:3 284, 326, 328 

3:7 425 

3:8 - 273 

3:8-10 276 

3:12-30 ---266, 268 

3:13 154, 359 

3:16 517 

3:20, 24 392 

3:27 514 

3:31 ■ 342 

4:2,6,7 50 

4:3 220, 520 

4:5-- 103, 500 

4:5-10 514 

4:11 - 258 

4:19 374 

5:1 456 

5:10 379 

5:14 257 

5:14-18 479 

5:15,16 200 

5:19-21 .---45,48,51 

5:25 376 

5:28 388 

Ch. 6 270 

6:2 383 

6:4 257 

6:5 270, 369 

6:25, seq. 650 

6:33-35 257, 479, 515 



Ch. 7 47, 270 

7:1 45 

7:3 515 

7:12 177, 368 

7:19 451 

7:24 55, 157 

Ch. 8 47, 270 

1-3 - 479 

4, 5 156, 157 

18 47 

24-27 270 

8:26 407 

Ch. 9 --58, 484 

9:9 - 354 

9:27 - 350 

9:53 64 

10:3, 4 379 

10:26 507 

Ch. 11 515 

11:4 268 

11:11, 29, 34- -.- 107 

11:12-28 195, 267, 327 

11:17 253 

11:24-- 651, 652 

11:33 267 

11:34 437, 456 

12:1-6-- 484 

12:13, 14 379 

12:15 - 257 

13:2-7 612 

13:4 - 352 

13:25 133 

Ch. 14 421 

14:8 366 

14:12,13 407,416 

15:3-5 132 

15:4 221 

15:8 101 

16:3 127 

16:21 - 409 

16:23 652 

16:31 133 

17:6 480 

Ch. 18 136 

18:28, 29 282 

Chs. 19-21- -103, 479,484, 
499 

19:11-15 103 

19:16 417 

20:1 181 

20:16 519 

20:18, 23 - 572 

21:8-12- 186 

21:19-23 64, 65 

21:21 437 



KUTH. 



Ch. 1:17. 
2:4 ■ 



614 
435 



I 



INDEX OF SCRIPTURAL TEXTS. 



675 



2:4, 7, U 348 

2:14 356 

3:3 358 

3:7 348 

3:15 399 

4:1, 11 439,499 

4:7 401, 424 

4:11 --- 109 

4:13-15 428 

4:18-22 266 

I. SAMUEL. 

Ch. 1 428 

1:1 104 

1:2 420 

1:7- 441 

1:11 - 612 

Ch. 2 65 

2:1 -- 406 

2:11 104 

2:19 399 

2:22 556 

4:4 - 563 

4:12 441 

12:18 (55 

4:13 - 499 

Ch. 5 --126,652 

Ch. 6 125, seq., 132 

6:4,17 125 

6:7-- 342 

7:1,2 109 

7:5-12, 16 107 

7:17 - 104 

8:2 --- 114 

8:4 104 

8:10-18 482, 485 

8:12 516 

8:13 411 

8:15, 17 491 

9:2 - 483 

9:12 651 

9:15-17 491 

9:16 - 487 

10:1, seq. 482,487 

10:2 104 

10:5 456,459 

10:17-25 107, 482, 487 

10:19 472, seq. 

10:25 486 

10:26 103 

10:27 491 

Ch. 11 186,515 

11:1-11 268 

11:4 103 

11:11- ---451,516 

12:17 341 

13:2, 15, seq. 103 

13:6 383 

13:13.14 482 



13: 
13: 
13: 
Ch. 
14: 
14: 
14: 
14: 
14: 

Ch 
15: 
15: 
15: 
15: 
15: 
15: 
15: 
Ch. 
16: 
16: 
16: 
16: 
16: 
16: 
Ch. 
17: 
17: 
17: 
17: 
17: 
17: 
18: 
18: 
18: 
18: 
18: 
18: 
18: 
19: 
19: 
19: 
19: 
19: 
20: 
20: 
20: 
20: 
20: 
21: 
Ch. 
22: 
22: 
22: 
22: 
23: 
23: 
23: 
Ch, 



17... 

20--- 
22--- 
14-- 
1-18- 
3--- 
14--- 



105 i 

342 

517' 

524 

105 

- 569 

- 342 

25-27 224, 366 

47-52 ---263, 266, 268, 
483, 488 

15 482 

2-3 -- 610 

6 258 

7 250, 257 

12 113 

27 399 

33 506 

34- ---103, seq. 

16 487 

1-13 482 

2-5 651 

10 473 

13 104 

16, 23 456, 458 

20 491 

, 17 126, 131, 524 

5-7 522 

18 377, 516 

28 109, 372 

34-36 381 

40 - 402 

44, 46- 438 

4 397, 399 

6- 460 

6, 7 437 

10 - 458 

11- 517 

13 516 

22-25 422 

9 458 

10 517 

13 - 373 

18 104 

24 402 

1 104 

3 - 517 

5 448 

5-18 413 

41, 42 435 

3-6 - 553 

, 22 484 

3, 4 107,260 

6 - 103 

7- --- 516 

9, 20 569 

2, 4, 6, 9-12 572 

19 113 

24-27 69, 113 

,24 69 



24:1, 3 167 

24:4 399 

24:8 435 

Ch. 25 113,372,373 

25:1 -- 104 

25:2 ■ 69 

25:6,41 400,435 

26:7, seq. 517 

26:20 381 

Ch. 27- 126 

27:8 - 250 

Ch. 28 52 

28:3 104 

28:6 572 

28:14 - 399 

Ch. 29 45, 47 

29:2-- - 516 

Ch. 30- - 369 

30:1 69,257 

30:4 441 

30:14 - 488 

30:27 104 

31:1-6 47 

31:8-10 ---439, 440 

31:8-13- 47, 156, 186 

II. SAMUEL. 

Ch. 1:2 435 

1:6 517 

1:21 51 

Ch. 2 Ill 

2:4 487 

2:5 --- 521 

2:8, 9 - 186 

2:13 - 108 

2:23 518 

Ch. 3 Ill 

3:9, 35 - - 614 

3:31 407 

4:12-- 112,439,507 

5:1-3 487 

5:7 -- 70 

5:11 294 

5:18, 22 101 

Ch. 6 70, 109 

6:2 563 

6:5 458, 460 

6:14 437 

6:16 388 

6:17-19 581 

Ch. 7 483 

7:2 540, 615 

8:2 266 

8:3, seq.-- 289, 290 

8:13 163 

8:13, 14 - 263 

8:16-18 488-490 

9:6 - 435 

Ch. 10 269 



676 



INDEX OF SCRIPTUKAL TEXTS. 



10:4, 10 402, 441 

10:6 282 

10:9-14- 516 

11:1 268 

11:2--- 390 

11:14, 15 - 456 

12:5- -- 484 

12:20 358 

12 :26-31-268,seq., 507,529 

13:18 397, 399 

13:19 441 

13:23-- - 105 

J3:29 220, 379 

14:2-- -111,358,441 

14:4 500 

14:4, 22- 435 

14:8-11 485 

15:1--- 40 

15:2-- 500 

15:7-12 111 

15:12 488 

15:12, 37 490 

15:18-22 489 

15:30, 32 --100, 441 

16:16, 17 490 

17:17 91 

17:18 386 

17:19 408 

17:23 379 

17:24, 27 186 

17:27---- --- 268 

17:28 343 

17:29 376 

18:2 516 

18:3, 6-9,24, 33 187 

18:9 -- 379 

18:11 397 

18:23 146, 187 

19:24 402 

20:8,10 108, 398 

20:9 -402, 436 

20:14, seq.- -- 283 

20:15 527 

20:23-26 488-490 

Oh. 21 507 

21:2 327 

21:6- 103 

21:18-22 126 

Ch. 23 524 

23:4 486 

23:13- 101 

23:20 381 

24:17- - 375 

I. KINGS. 

Ch. 1 430 

1:3- 52 

1:9, seq. 91, 488 

1:33 379 



1:39 487, 488 

1:40 459 

Ch. 2---- 506 

2:5 -108, 521 

2:23 614 

2:27 569 

2:28-34 108 

2:32 488 

3:1 232 

3:4-15 108 

3:16- - 500 

4:3, seq., 21 488-491 

4:12 --- 51 

4:22, 23 485 

4:24 127, 483 

5:1 - 294 

5:6 293, 452 

5:11 357, seq. 

5:13-15 --485, 489 

5:18- 298 

Ch. 6 ---616, seq. 

6:1, 37 - 449 

6:7--- 90 

6:23, 31,33 357 

6:27 -- 551 

6:38- 450 

Ch. 7 616, seq. 

7:7 - 46, 500 

7:13, 14 - 293 

7:18, 20, 42 217, 363 

7:46 --157, 170 

7:48 553 

8:2 - 450 

8:10, 11 ---565, 621 

8:62-66 581 

8:65 32 

8:11-13 117 

8:18 291, 465 

8:26-28 248, 297 

Ch. 10 491 

10:11 297 

10:15 --- -- 491 

10:22- 296, 297 

10:25 379 

10:26 220, 516 

10:27 37, 123, 362 

10:28, 29--- 232, 380 

11:1, seq. ---419, 420, 425 

11:5, 33--- 649, 651 

11:7 100, 651 

11:13 269 

11:15, 16 - 263 

11:18 252, 270 

11:23, 24 --- 290 

11:29 - 65 

11:40 649 

Chs. 12 58, 649 

12:11,14 504 

12:15 ---- 65 



12:21-- 515 

12:26-30-106, 136,480, 649 

Ch. 13 106 

14:1-17 64, 65 

14:10 - 508 

14:11 222, 440 

14:23 --- 651 

14:25, 26 70, 232 

15:17-22 103 

15:18-20 -- 289 

15:20-- 141, 283 

15:21,33 --- 64 

16:4 222,440 

16:8, seq., 32 64 

16:9 516 

16:31-- 425 

16:34 153 

17:3, 6 155 

17:8-24 298 

18:5 379 

18:28 650 

18:31, seq.- 651 

18:41-46 --208, 398 

18:44 46 

19:19 340, 399 

Ch. 20 289 

20:21,25- 40 

20:31 407 

21:8----r - 456 

21:21 508 

21:24 222, 440 

Ch. 22 63, 186, 289 

22:10 439, 499 

22:11 406 

22:31-34, 37, 38 40 

22:34 521 

22:47 263 

22:48 296 

11. KINGS. 

Ch. 1:1 266 

1:2 389 

1:8 397 

1:9 - ••- 516 

Ch. 2 65,66, 484 

2:4, 5, 18-22- 153 

2:8, 13, 14 151,339 

2:19-22 152 

3:4, 5, 21-27 266, 4!)1, 

647, 652 

3:9 - 263 

3:11 415 

3:15 458 

3:25 -- 266 

Ch. 4 52 

4:1 432,505 

4:23 448, G27 

4:29 398, 402, 436 

Ch. 5 -- 63 



INDEX OF SCKIPTUEAL TEXTS. 



677 



5:5--- 

5:9, 21 

5:12-. 

5:22-- 

5:27-- 

Ch. 6-- 

6:5-7-- 

6:8-12 

6:17-- 

6:31--- 

Ch. 7 



■401, 



63, 



398, 



7:6 

8:13, 14 

8:20, 22 

8:28, 29 186, 289, 

Ch. 9----- 

9:1, seq, 

9:8 ■ 

9:10, 36- 

9:13 

9:16 

9:17 

9:24 

9:25 

Ch. 10-- 
10:1-14-- 
10:15, 16 
10:16, 26 
10:22---- 
10:32, 33 
11:4-12- 
12:17---- 

13:7 

13:20-- 
13:24, 25 
14:7---- 

14:25 -- 

14:22 

14:27, 28 

15:5-- 

15:16 310, 

15:29 59, 

15:37 

Ch. 16 - 

16:5-6 --248, 

16:7-9 289, 

16:9 

Ch. 17, passim 59, 

313, 

17:4 

17:6 - 

17:10 - -- 

18:4 

18:9-12 - 

18:11 -- 

18:13, seq. 

18:17 

18:18, 37 - 

19:2 



--59, 

-487, 



-262, 



407 
40 
286 
416 
596 
289 
152 
63 
64 
614 
289 
327 
263 
264 
460 
186 
487 
508 
222 
388 
40 
44 
519 
520 
63 
507 
40 
516 
417 
289 
488 
126 
346 
266 
289 
264 
:iQQ 
248 
289 
596 
529 
283 
289 
487 
289 
310 
516 
60, 
492 
232 
275 
651 
650 
310 
275 
310 
100 
489 
490 



19:9- 246 

19:12, 13 313 

19:15 563 

19:32 527 

19:35 - 70 

19:37- 321 

20:9-11 - - 451 

20:12 315 

20:20 --- 92 

Ch. 21 487 

Ch. 22 539 

22:3 489 

22:14 491 

23:3 -- 100 

23:10---- 73, 95, 651 

23:11 619 

23:12 -- 391 

23:13 649, 651 

23:29 - - 48 

23:30 40 

23:33 284 

24:7 32 

24:12 502 

24:14 - 315 

24:17 -- 428 

Ch. 25 527, 620 

25:1 • --- 527 

25:6, 7 284 

25:8 488 

25:9 70 

25:11 315 

25:12 492 

25:19 -- 489 

25:23-26 107 

I. CHRONICLES. 

Ch. 1:8- 296 

2:23 180 

4:27, 39-43 197 

5:8 - 187 

•5:10, seq. 271 

5:11, 16 195 

5:18-23 173, 195, 369 

5:23- - 296 

5:26 276 

6:31 539 

6:33-38 473 

6:73 104 

8:12 122 

9:26 619 

9:32 553 

10:10 652 

11:4-7--- 328 

11:15 - 101 

11:22 --- 381 

12:8-15 195 

12:14 516 

12:18 435 

12:32-40 201 



14:9 101 

15:27 399 

15:28 459 

16:4-6, 41, 42 456 

16:39-42.- 108 

18:3, 5, 6, 10 ----289, 290 

18:12 - 163 

18:12, 13 263 

18:15-17 490 

18:17-- 488 

19:3-5 402 

19:6 273, 276, 283 

20:1 --- 268 

20:3 529 

Ch. 23- -.-- 487 

23:3, seq. 586 

23:28-32 586 

23:29 - 553 

23:31 448 

Ch. 24 497, 585 

24:3 569 

24:6 489 

Ch. 25 --. 456 

27:25-31-- 491 

27:28 37,123, 217, 362 

27:29-- 118 

27:32, 33--- 490 

28:12 619 

29:16 615 

II. CHRONICLES. 

Ch. 1:14 220 

1:15 37, 123, 362 

2:4 - 448 

2:7 452 

2:10 357 

2:16 -- 363 

Ch. 3 616, seq. 

3:3 468 

3:16 363 

Ch. 4 ---616, seq. 

4:17 146 

4:19 553 

5:12-13 407, 457 

5:13- 565 

7:2 565 

8:4 291, 465 

8:17, 18 248, 297 

9:10, 21 296, 297 

9:27 37, 123, 362 

11:6- - Ill 

11:8 126 

11:18-23 419 

13:3 515 

13:5 413 

13:11 - 553 

13:13-15 523 

13:19 105 

13:21 Jin 



678 



INDEX OF SCRIPTUEAL TEXTS. 



14:5 650 

14:8 515 

14:9-15 131, 232, 246 

15:9-- 202 

15:14 459 

16:2-4 289 

16:4 283 

16:8 246 

16:12- 460 

16:14 -- 440 

Ch. 17-- 310 

17:7-9- 587, 627 

19:8-- - 586 

19:11 475 

20:1, 2, 20 ---39, 111, 167 

20:16 167 

20:36 297 

21:8-10 264 

21:11 69 

21:19 - 440 

Ch. 23 587 

25:11, 12-- 264, 529 

25:23 80 

26:6 126, 128 

26:10 37, 123 

26:15 525, 527 

26:16-21 --487, 596 

27:4 - 69 

28:3-- 73 

28:15 154, 359 

28:16-21 289, 310 

28:18 37, 123 

29:15, 16 587 

29:25-30 540, 587 

Ch. 30 492 

30:6 493 

30:16-20 -- 602 

30:22, 25-30 587 

31:5, 11 619 

32:3, 4, 30- -90, 92, 94, 525 

32:6 73 

33:11---.-- - 502 

34:4-7- -60,95,202,492,650 

34:8-- - 489 

35:3, 15 587 

35:11, 13 602 

35:22 43 

35:23, 24 40, 48 

EZRA. 

Ch. 1 319 

1:7-11 620 

2:26 103 

2:29- 652 

2:33 122 

2:41- ---• 540 

2:63 -494, 572 

3:7 121 

4:2, 10 59, 60, 310 



5:14---- 494 

6:1, 2 318, 455 

6:3 620, 621 

6:7 494 

6:11 508 

7:6 489 

7:7 540 

7:25, 26 498 

9:3-- 402, 441 

9:3, 5 399 

NEHEMIAH. 

Ch. 1 318, 450 

2:1 448, 449 

Ch. 3 80 

3:15 81, 87 

3:22 146 

5:4, 5 - 432 

6:2-- --- - 122 

6:15 450 

7:1 540 

7:30 103 

7:37 122 

7:65, 70 494 

8:7 474 

8:9 - 494 

8:14-17 606 

8:15- - 101 

8:16 390 

9:5 587 

10:1 494 

10:33 553 

11:22, 23 540 

11:29 132 

11:33 -- 103 

13:35 122 

12:.30-- -80, 81 

13:28 - 60 

ESTHER. 

Ch. 1:1 322 

1:2, 5- 318 

2:16 - 450 

3:7 448, seq. 

3:10, 12 403, 456 

4:1, 3 441 

7:10 508 

8:2 403 

8:8, 10 456 

8:9 -322, 449 

8:15 -403, 407 

9:24, 26 -- 608 

10:1-- 490 

JOB. 

Ch. 1:4 428 

1:15 271 

1:20 399. 441 

2:8 -- 441 



2:12 - 399 

3:8 227 

3:13,14 98 

5:4 439, 499 

6:15-20 ---377, 465 

12:18 398 

13:4 460 

13:26 501 

15:33-- - 357 

16:15- 406 

18:8-10 381 

19:6 381 

19:24 453 

20:14, 16-- 222,223 

20:17 376 

21:18 - 347 

24:5 -- 380 

29:7 - 499 

29:14 399,402 

30:1 222 

31:36 402 

37:17 213 

38:3 398 

39:5-8 380 

39:9-12 225 

39:10 341 

40:15-24 226 

Ch. 41 227 

41:1, 7 382 

41:24 410 

PSALMS. 

Psa. 1:3 365 

1:4-- 347 

Psa. 5, title 459 

9:15 381 

10:9-- 381 

16:11 638 

17:15 -- 638 

19:10 366 

22:12,13, 16, 20,21-- 225 

22:16 -- - 222 

22:25-31 -332, 581 

23:1, 2- 375 

23:4 374 

29:6 - 225 

32:2 459 

35:5 347 

35:7 381 

45:8, 13, 14 423 

52:8 357, 386 

56:12,13 610 

58:4 223 

59:6, 14, 15 222 

Psa. 60, title 163, 263, 

273, 290 

60:8-- 30, 401 

Psa. 63, title 69 

63:10 221 



INDEX OF SCRIPTUKAL TEXTS. 



679 



65:9, 10 -- 207 

66:13, 14 610 

68:15, 16- 175 

69:12 - 439 

72:10 300 

73:6 403 

73:24 638 

74:8 628 

74:13, 14 227 

75:4, 10 406 

75:9 353 

78:24 354 

78:47 362 

78:51 228 

78:67 - 202 

79:1, 4 189 

80:1 376, 563 

81:3 448, 600 

81:16- 215 

83:6 - 271 

83:7 - 30 

83:9 270 

87:4 30 

89:27 430 

91:3 - 381 

91:13 223 

92:3 - 459 

92:10 -- 225 

92:12 - 360 

92:13 386 

95:7 376 

97:1 - 300 

98:6 459 

99:1 5G3 

100:3 376 

101:8--- 500 

104:11 380 

104:26 227 

105:23 -- 228 

105:29 382 

106:22 228 

106:37, 38 651 

108:9 30, 401 

109:29 399 

Psa. 113-118 607 

119:83 352 

124:7--- 381 

125:2 74 

126:4 70 

129:6, 7 390 

129:8 - 435 

132:6 109 

137:7 264 

140:3 222 

140:5 381 

141:2 564 

142:3 381 

144:9 459 

147:14 215 



PROVEKBS. 

Ch. 1:9 403 

3:22 - - 403 

4:9 - 402 

5:3 366 

6:5 381 

6:6, 7 475 

7:23 381 

8:3 499 

9:2 353 

10:13 - 504 

12:4 402 

12:27 381 

14:32 638 

16:31 402 

17:19 - -- 384 

19:13 389 

19:24 - 415 

20:4 341 

21:1 339 

22:22 439, 499 

23:30 - 353 

23:32- 223 

24:7 - 499 

25:11 217 

26:15 - 415 

27:15 389 

27:22 408 

27:27 373 

30:26 221 

30:33 376 

31:22 406 

31:23, 31 439 

ECCLESIASTES. 

Ch. 2:4-6 364 

9:8 407 

9:12 381, 382 

11:1 344 

11:4 - 341 

12:1-7 363, 410 

CANTICLES. 

Ch. 1:5 369 

1:14 154,167, 349, 364 

2:3, 5 217 

2:10-13 209 

2:14 - 145 

3:11 423 

4:3 217, 363 

4:8 : 296 

4:10, 11 423 

4:12 94 

4:12-16 364 

5:3- 397 

5:7 403 

6:2, 11 304 

6:7 363 

7:1 400 



7, 8- 360 

8 - 217 

2 ...354, 363 

5 217 

6-- ---- 402 



ISAIAH. 

Ch. 1:13 448 

2:7 516 

2:19-21-- -.- 383 

3:18-24 404, 405 

3:22 399 

5:1, seq.- --349, seq. 

5:6---- 

5:10 

5:11 

5:12 

5:24-- 

6:4 

6:11, 12 -- 

6:13-- 

7:1-9-- 



341 
342 
416 
459 
347 
565 
188 
493 
289 

7:3 92, 100, 428 

7:14-- 



429 

7:15, 22 376 

7:19 

7:25 



366 

- 341 

1, 3 428, 455 



8:6--- 
8:7, 8- 
8:10-- 
9:1--- 
9:4--- 
9:6--- 



87 

289 

429 

203 

--- 270 

429 

9:10 362, 393 

Ch. 10 313 

10:1-- 501 

10:9 317 

10:22 493 

10:26 270 

10:28, 29-- --103,105, 107 

11:8 ---- 223 

11:11 233 

14:29, 31 30, 129, 223 

Ch. 15 267 

15:1 --265, 266 

15:9 188 

Ch. 16 267 

16:1 r 262 

16:7, 11 266 

16:8, 9 - 349 

16:10 350, 351 

17:5 102 

17:8 650 

19:5 --- 32 

19:8 382 

19:13 242 

20:1 126 

20:2-4 397 



680 



INDEX OF SCRIPTUEAL TEXTS. 



20:4 441 

21:11, 16, 17 - 271 

22:1 391 

22:9 92 

22:16 98 

22:21 398, 403 

23:1, 12 300 

23:11 295 

23:16 458 

24:1, 12-- 189 

24:15 300 

25:6 - • 416 

27:9- 650 

27:12 - 32 

27:23 317 

28:1,7 56 

28:4 -- 861 

28:5 402 

28:24 --- 341 

28:25, 27- ---343, 345, 346 

29:11 456 

30:1-7 --- 232 

30:4 • 240 

30:6 222, 223 

30:14 -- 374 

30:24 -342, 346 

80:33 95 

81:1-3- 232 

31:4 --- 381 

82:13-18 189 

32:14 380 

32:20 - 343 

33:9 176 

34:6, 7 225 

35:2-- 118 

36:2 100 

36:3 489 

37:16 563 

87:33 527 

38:8 451 

38:12 --- 369 

40:11 - 376 

40:24 347 

41:5 300 

41:15 - 346 

41:19 543 

42:11 271 

43:3 247 

44:16, 17---, 646 

45:14 - 247,271 

46:1 652 

47:1- 409 

47:2 441 

47:14 347 

49:12 322 

49:18 423 

49:26 - 355 

50:1 -- 432 

51:1 505 



51:20 381 

51:22,23 353 

53:7- 351 

56:10 222 

58:5 441 

58:7 439 

58:11 -- 365 

59:5 222, 223 

59:17 399 

Chs. 60-62 429 

60:6, 7 270 

61:10 899,423 

62:3 -402, 405 

63:1 351 

65:3 95 

65:11 - 652 

66:15-17,23,24 95 

66:19 300 

66:23 448 

JEKEMIAH. 

Ch. 1:1 -- 103 

1:11, 12- ----- 363 

2:10 271, 300 

2:13 379 

2:16 240, 242 

2:20 651 

2:21 349 

2:24 - 380 

3:19 31 

4:26, 27 189 

4:30 --- 405 

5:26, 27 381 

6:9 350 

6:26 -- 441 

7:12, 14 65 

7:29 -- 441 

7:31 94, 95, 651 

7:33 - - 440 

8:17- 223 

8:22-- '.-365, 460 

9:17, 18 442 

10:5 360 

10:9 --297, 407 

11:16 356 

12:5 149 

13:1 397 

13:18 -- 402 

13:22, 26 441 

14:4 441 

14:3-6 209 

14:6 - 380 

15:3 ----222, 440 

16:4 440 

16:6 441 

17:8 339, 365 

17:26 37, 123 

19:1, 10, 11 374 

19:2,6 73 



19:5 - 94, 651 

19:6, 7 95 

19:13 - 391 

20:2 503 

20:15 428 

21:12 500 

22:19 439 

22:24 403 

25:10 - 410 

25:20 127, 129 

25:27 - 353 

25:30 350, 351 

25:34 441 

26:6, 9 65 

29:22 511 

31:4, 13 437 

31:5 --- 55 

31:15 -103,104 

32:2 - 503 

32:7-9 - 103 

32:24 527 

32:35 73, 651 

32:44 37, 69, 123 

33:4 527 

33:13 37, 69, 123 

34:5, 20 440 

36:2 455 

36:22 --- 392 

37:13 80 

37:21 411 

Ch. 38--- 503 

38:6 91, 378, 386 

Ch. 40 107 

40:1 103 

40:4 503 

Ch. 41 107 

41:2, 3 609 

41:12 --108, 198 

43:7-9--. — -- 240 

44:1, 15 233, 240 

44:17-19-- 650 

46:9 296 

46:11 --- 365 

46:14, 19, 25 240, 242 

46:18 42 

Ch. 47 - 129 

47:4 125 

Ch. 48 187, 267 

48:7, 13, 46 651 

48:11 - 355 

48:21 181 

48:23, 24- 179 

48:31, 36- 266 

48:32 349 

48:33 350, 351 

48:36 - 459 

48:47 --- -- 267 

49:1, 3 195, 651 

49:2, 3 268 



INDEX OF SCRIPTUKAL TEXTS. 



681 



49:6 267 

49:7, 8, 16, 20 262 

49:28 271 

50:2 651 

50:15 523 

50:19 177 

50:44 149 

51:14 523 

51:20- 518 

51:27 321 

51:31-- 316 

51:33 346 

51:44 G51 

52:4, 6, 7, 12,13 609 

LAMENTATIONS. 

Ch. 1:15 --- 351 

3:53 378 

5:13 409 

EZEKIEL. 

Ch. 1 551, 563 

1:1,3 - ---- 274 

1:9, 23 425 

2:9, 10 455 

3:13 425 

4:1,2 527 

4:9 343 

4:9-17 411 

4:10 551 

6:4, 6 -- 650 

8:14 652 

9:2 398 

9:4 343 

Ch. 10 - 563 

10:14 551 

16:10-13 ---216, 397, 400, 
404, 406 

16:38-40 427 

Ch. 17 232 

17:15 232 

17:17- 527 

18:7, 16 439 

19:4, 8 381 

20:6,15-- --- 31 

20:28 651 

21:12 441 

21:17 - 366 

21:22-- 527 

21:26 402 

21:28 - 268 

23:32, seq. 353 

23:40 405 

23:42 - 271 

24:17-22 441, 593 

25:5 268, 269 

25:8-11 267 

25:12, 13 262 

25:15-17 129 



25:16 125, 488 

Ch. 26 129, 187, 527 

26:4, 5, 14 295 

26:6 - 543 

26:8 527 

26:16 399 

27:6, 7, 13 294, 300 

27:6-20 296, 297 

27:9-- --- 298 

27: 17- --216,297, 357, 365 

27:18 290 

27:21 271 

27:23 317 

27:30 441 

29:4, 5 382, 440 

29:10 240, 244 

29:14 233 

29:18 295 

30:5 296 

30:6 240, 244 

30:13-16 242 

30:15, 17, 18- 240 

30:17- -- 241 

31:16- --- 313 

32:4- 440 

32:26 297 

Ch. 34- -- 376 

34:2-4 376 

34:25 372 

35:5, 11,15 263, 296 

36:35 - 190 

37:16-19- 202 

38:2, 3, 6 297, 321 

38:5 296 

38:15 321 

39:17-20 - 440 

40:5 -- 468 

40:16 - 361 

43:13-17 - 555 

43:24- 581 

44:18 400 

44:23 538 

44:28 - 587 

45:15-17- - 579 

46:1 448 

Ch. 47- 365 

47:1-11-- 161 

47:16, 18 166, 174 

48:28- -- 32 

DANIEL. 

Ch. 1:6, 7 428 

2:2, 4 ■ 314 

2:5 511 

Ch. 3 459, 511 

3:6,15- 451 

5:21 380 

5:29 -403, 407 

Ch. 6 - 511 



-- 388 

318 

31 

300 

10:3- 358,441 

10:5- 397 

11:16 31 

11:30 - 300 

11:41 - 257 

HOSEA. 

Ch. 1 - 428 

4:15---- 155 

4:11 355 

5:1 42 

5:8-- 103 

7:4, 6-- 411 

7:8 410 

8:9 ■ 380 

9:6 242 

9:8 -- -- 381 

9:10 361 

10:11 341 

10:14- 145 

12:1 232, 357 

12:12 - 273 

13:3 347 

14:6- 356 

JOEL. 

Ch. 1:5 355 

1:17-30 225 

2:3 224 

2:20 166 

2:23 225 

3-2 12 73 

3:2' 4, 6 30, 129, 294 

Q.Q 271 

3:18 190, 385, 543 

3:19 263 

AMOS. 

Ch. 1:1 110 

1:6-8 129 

1:9 294 

1:11 263 

1:12 262 

1:14 - 268 

2:1-3 267 

2:13 40, 344 

3:9 55 

3:15 392 

4:1- 55 

4:4 155 

5:5 ----107, 115, 155, 284 

5:10, 15 499 

5:12 499 

5:16 - 442 

5:26 652 



682 



INDEX OF SCKIPTUKAL TEXTS. 



6:2 126 

6:4-6 394, 416 

6:6 - 257 

6:10 - 440 

8:5 448 

8:10 441 

8:14 115 

9:3 53 

9:7 125 

9:9, 10- 347 

9:13 355 

OBADIAH. 

Vs. 3-9 262 

10-14- 263 

16 353 

18 --- 347 

19 37, 123 

JONAH. 

Ch. 1:3 - - 121 

3:3 312 

3:6- 399 

4:8 213 

MICAH. 

Ch. 1:8 397 

1:11 441 

1:14 117, 132 

3:7-- 441, 593 

4:4 361 

4:13- 346 

5:1 527 

5:2-- 109, 473 

5:8 381 

6:15 -- 354 

7:1 361 

7:14 177,372, 374 

NAHUM. 

Ch. 1:4 277 

1:10 347 

2:7- - 442 

3:5 -- 441 

3:8 227, 242 

3:9 - 296 

HABAKKUK. 

Ch. 1:10 527 

1:15 382 

2:16 353 

2:18 56 

3:3 252 

3:12 346 

ZEPHANIAH. 

Ch. 1:5 391 

2:4-7 129 

2:5 125, 488 



2:8-11 267 

2:13-15 313 



HAGGAI. 
Ch. 2:3, 9 



621 



ZECHAKIAH. 

Ch. 1:7 450 

2:12 31 

3:5 405 

5:1-3 455 

6:11 - 574 

Ch. 7 - 609 

7:1 450 

7:7 69, 123 

8:4 402 

8:19-- 609 

9:5, 6 127, 129 

9:9 380 

9:13- - 300 

9:17 354 

10:6, 7 202 

11:3 - 149 

12:11 43, 51 

13:4 399 

13:7 ---- 376 



MALACHI. 



Ch. 2:7- 



JUDITH. 



Ch. 10:4- 
16:9 



538 



400 
400 



I. MACCABEES. 

Ch. 1:8 299 

1:14 443 

2:42 636 

4:15 128 

4:49-- 621 

4:52-59 - 608 

5:15,17-22 203 

5:24 179 

5:43 180 

5:58 128 

7:13 ' 636 

10:69 128 

10:75 121 

12:39 299 

13:32 299 

13:51------ 360 

14:5, 34 121 

II. MACCABEES. 

Ch. 1:10 - 496 

2:3 299 

4:12-14 443 

4:44 496 



6:10, 19, 28, 30 511 

10:1-8 608 

11:27 496 

12:8, 9 128 

14:6 636 

MATTHEW. 

Ch. 1:19 427 

1:21 428 

2:4 640 

2:16-18 104, 495 

3:1 -- 69- 

3:4 225,366, 397 

3:11 400 

3:12--'. 347 

3:13-17- 152 

4:13,18-22- 140 

4:18-- 382 

4:23 631, 632 

4:24 462 

5:1 629 

5:25 510 

5:38 505 

6:1-4 -- 439 

6:17-- 358 

6:28, 29 -- 219 

6:30 230, 412 

7:6-- 222 

7:24-27 393 

8:11, 12 414, 416 

8:23-27 140 

8:28 -98, 185 

8:28-34 145, 462 

9:12 460 

9:15 423 

9:17 - 352 

9:23, 24 442 

9:35-- 632 

10:17 504, 630 

10:27 392 

10:28 94 

11:16,17 - 442 

11:20-24 140, 144 

12:1 - 348 

12:4, 7--- --- 553 

12:42 271 

13:1, 2 ■-- 140 

13:24, seq. 343 

14:3 510 

14:15-21 - 140 

14:25 140, 451 

14:34 141 

15:1 --- 415 

15:2 ------ 637 

15:4-6 429 

15:32, seq. 140, 143 

16:13 137 

17:1 43 



INDEX OF SCRIPTUKAL TEXTS. 



683 



17:15 462 

17:27 382 

18:6 409 

18:25 432 

19:9 427 

20:3, 5, 6 - 451 

20:18 ()40 

20:29-34 153 

21:1-9 379 

21:12, 13- G23 

21:33 349 

22:1-13 416, 423 

'22:16, 17 643 

22:23, 32 --- 641 

22:35 640 

Ch. 23-- 637 

23:2 636 

23:5 - 407 

23:6 414, 629 

23:34 504, 630 

24:17 - 392 

24:41 409 

24:51-- 511 

25:10 ---- 414 

25:1-10 423 

25:30 416 

26:23 415 

26:30,36 98 

26:57, 58, 69-75 387 

26:47, 57, 59 496,497 

26:55 629 

26:57 - 640 

26:71 385 

27:32 -- 511 

27:*34, 48-- 512 

27:51 ---- 584 

MAKK. 

Ch. 1:6--- 366, 397 

1:7 - 400 

1:9-11 152 

1:17 382 

1:39 632 

2:3 390 

2:22 352, 374 

2:25, 26 553 

3.:6 643 

4:1, 37-41 140 

5:1-5 98, 185 

5:1-17 140, 145, 462 

5:22-43 -- 140 

5:26 4fi0 

5:34 435 

5:35---. 630 

5:38. 39 442 

6:8 402 

6:45 144 

6:48 140, 451 

6:53 141 



7:1 415 

7:3 637 

7:9-13 429, 612 

8:1-13 143 

8:15 643 

8:27 137 

9:2 - 43 

9:43-48 •• 95 

9:43-48 95 

9:49 581 

10:46-52 153 

11:1-10 - 379 

11:12-14 361 

11:15-17 623 

12:13 643 

12:18 641 

12:39 414 

12:41 623 

13:1,2 84 

13:9 630 

13:35 451 

14:1, 43-- 497, 640 

14:8 358, 440 

14:15, 68 385, 387 

14:26, 32 98 

14:55 496 

15:1------ 497, 640 

15:21 - 511 

15:23, 36, 44 512 

15:38 -- 584 

15:46 - - 440 

16:1 440 



LUKE. 



Ch. 1:13- 

1:15 

1:39, 65- 

1:59 

2:7 

2:21 

2:24---- 

2:36 

3:1 

3:16 

3:21, 22- 



428 

612 

- 69 

428 

466 

428 

595 

493 

290 

400 

- 152 

4:17-20 455 

4:20 629,630, 632 

4:23 - 640 

4:26 298 

4:29 49 

5:1 141 

5:18-- 390 

6:12- 629 

6:47-49- 393 

7:11-16 52 

7:38 414 

7:46 358 

8:23-25 140 

8:26-37 98 145, 185 



9:10 144 

10:4 436 

10:13-15 140, 144 

10:30-37 153 

10:34 466 

11:38 415 

12:3 -- 392 

12:35 398 

12:38--- 451 

12:46 511 

12:54- 208 

12:55 213 

12:58 -- 510 

13:25 414 

14:7 414 

14:8 423 

14:16, 17 416 

15:16 218 

16:21- 222 

16:22, 23-- 414 

17:6 - 362 

18:13 442 

18:35, seq. 153 

19:29-38 379 

19:45, 46 623 

20:27 641 

20:46 414 

21:24 71 

22:2, 66 640 

22:12, 55, 61 387 

22:39, 40 98 

22:55 --- 392 

22:63, 66 496, 497 

23:10- 640 

23:26 511 

23:36 512 

23:48 442 

23:56--- 540 

24:1 440 

24:13-- -- 133 

24:40--- - 512 

24:50,51 101 

JOHN. 

Ch. 1:28 157 

1:29 351, 583 

2:1-10 423 

2:9 * 416 

2:13-17-- - 623 

3:23 157 

3:29 422 

3:34 575 

4:5 56 

4:20, 35- 61 

4:21,23 541 

6:1- 141 

6:19 140 

6:59 632 

7:32 497 



684 



INDEX OF SCKIPTUKAL TEXTS. 



7:35 463 

8:2 629 

8:5 427 

9:2 638 

9:22 630 

10:1, seq. 376 

10:22, 23 385,608 

11:9--- - 451 

11:18-- 102 

11:44 440 

11:47 496 

11:54 105 

12:13 361 

12:14-16 380 

12:42-- 630 

13:4, seq. 401 

13:25 414 

13:26 415, 604 

14:27 435 

15:1-7 603 

16:2 630 

16:21 428 

17:23 604 

18:1, 2 72, 98 

18:3,22 497 

18:20 632 

19:17 -- 511 

19:23, 24, 29-31 512 

19:34-36 513 

19:39, 40 - 440 

20:20, 25, 27 512 

21:1 141 

21:7 397 

ACTS. 

Ch. 1:12 101 

2:9 299 

2:9-11 463 

2:10 228 

2:13 355 

3:2--- 85, 625 

3:11 385 

4:1 - 497 

4:5 640 

5:12- 385 

5:17-40 510 

5:21-- 496 

5:40 *- 504 

7:16 56 

7:43- 652 

7:58 506 

8:5-25 - 63 

8:26 - 127 

«:27 247 

8:40 ---119, 126 

Ch. 9 290 

9:2 497 

0:30 119 

9:32-35 122 



9:36-42 121 

9:37 440 

Ch. 10 119 

10:9-18, 23 - 121 

10:25, 26 436 

11:25, 26 285 

12:4, 6 510 

12:21-23 - 119 

13:1, seq. 303 

13:1-4-- 285 

13:5 632 

13:15 - 629, 632 

14:1 --- 632 

14:1, seq. 303, 304 

14:16-- 535 

Ch. 15 304 

15:23-29 456 

15:35, 36 285 

15:36, seq. 303, 304 

16:1, seq. --302, 304 

16:6 299 

16:13 629 

16:15--- 417 

16:19-40 305, 531 

17:10 632 

17:16 305 

17:29 -- 646 

18:19 632 

18:19-21 305 

18:22, 23 119, 285 

18:23, seq.- 305 

19:9 - 306 

19:24 301 

20:2 299 

20:3-6, 9, 10, 13, seq. 306 

20:9 389 

20:16, 17 302 

20:24-- - 444 

20:28 376 

21:7 116 

21:8 - 119 

21:23, 24 614 

21:32,40 86 

22:5 496 

22:19 - 630 

22:24-30 510, 531, 532 

23: 6-9- -497, 638, 640, 641 

23:12 613 

23:23 119 

23:26-30 456 

23:31-- 120 

Ch. 24-- 119 

24:15 ---- 638 

24:27 510 

Ch. 25 119 

25:9-12 497, 533 

Ch. 26 - 119 

26:7 471 

26:11 630 



Ch. 27 307 

27:2, seq. 307 

27:17 308, 464 

27:37, 38 464 

Ch. 28 - 307 

28:16, 30, 31 510 

KOMANS. 

Ch. 8:29 430 

12:1 584 

12:5 - 604 

15:19 -- 306 

I. COEINTHIANS. 

Ch. 1:5-7 305 

4:9 445 

Ch. 5 305 

5:7, 8 603 

Ch. 6 305 

9:9, 10 345 

9:24-27 445 

9:25 - 402 

10:7, 8 305 

11:21 305 

12:12 604 

13:1-3 --- 439 

14:33, 40 -- 557 

15:32 .-- 446 

II. COEINTHIANS. 

Ch. 11:24 504 

11:25- 510 

12:21 305 

GALATIANS. ' 

Ch. 3:13 513 

3:16- 469 

4:1-5 ---- 537 

EPHESIANS. 

Ch. 6:12 445 

6:13-17 522 

6:14 398 

PHILIPPIANS. 

Ch. 1:30 444 

3:2- - 222 

3:13, 14 444 

COLOSSIANS. 

Ch. 1:15 430 

4:13, 16- 303 

4:14- 460 

I. TIMOTHY. 

Ch. 3:1-7 .- 630 

5:1-9 426 

5:10 401 

5:17, 18 345 

6:12 444 



INDEX OF SCKIPTUKAL TEXTS, 



685 



II. TIMOTHY. 

Ch. 2:5 - 444 

4:7, 8 - 402, 444 

4:10- 306 

TITUS. 
Ch. 1:6-9 630 

HEBKEWS. 

Ch. 2:11 507 

4.15 - 567 

5:1, seq. 567 

5:3 575 

7:23, seq. 567 

7:27 - 375 

8:3- 5()7 

9:7, seq. 559, 561 

9:12, seq. 567, 582 

9:22-24 562 

10:1 560 

11:9 31 

11:35 511 

11:38 - 383 

12:1 - - 444 

12:23 430 

12:24 582 

1311 575 



13:15 568, 584 

13:20 376 

JAMES. 

Ch. 1:1 4G3, 471 

1:12 402 

I. PETEE. 

Ch. 1:1 - 463 

1:2 582 

1:13 398 

1:19 -- 583 

2:5 568, 584 

2:24 352, 583 

5:4- - 402 

IT. PETEK. 
Ch. 2:5 - 534 

I. JOHN. 
Ch. 3:24 604 

JUDE. 
Vs. 14-15 --- 534 

EEVELATION. 
Ch. 1:5 352 



1:6 430 

1:13 - 397 

2:5 301 

2:10 -- 402 

2:13 302 

3:1 ^ 302 

3:4, 18 --- 407 

3:12 -. 303 

Ch. 4, seq. 563 

4:6 564 

5:1 -- 455 

6:1, seq. 564 

7:9, 13 361, 407 

8:3-5 565 

14:10 353 

14:19, 20 351 

15:6 397, 407 

15:7- 564 

15:8 565 

18:12 216 

18-22 410 

ly.7-9- 416, 423 

19:8-14--- 407 

19:17, 18 440 

21:2 423 

Ch. 22 - 365 

22:15 222 



IN THE TIME OF THE /v> i^|^^M.RrTE-<^>s^— L^' 



^' 'f l^Uui^^'"';^'''^" 



PATRIARCHS ^; ,) 



/^^.„''' 



a/ 






\ Jm^f^ 




r 




/.•.n?/Ar.,v.j-.jw 



