CHAPTER II.

PALESTINE.

1. _Palestine generally._

It will be a useful preliminary to our study of Palestine if we give here a short list of the expeditions sent out by the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

We were already greatly indebted to many explorers--Dr Robinson, Burckhardt, Van de Velde, &c., for the geography, and M. Lartet for the geology, but there had never been any organised party in Palestine, properly equipped for a scientific survey. In 1864 Jerusalem was properly surveyed by Captain Wilson, R.E., at the expense of Lady Burdett Coutts, and an excellent map of the city was published. Then the happy idea occurred to Mr George Grove, at that time Secretary of the Crystal Palace Company, but also known for his topographical articles in Dr Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” that the time was ripe for a systematic survey of the entire country. His energy brought together an influential company at a public meeting in Willis’s Rooms, on the 22nd June 1865, the Archbishop of York being in the chair, and a Society was at once formed. The Archbishop of York was elected President, Mr George Grove, Hon. Secretary, and the first Committee included the names of the Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Shaftesbury, A. H. Layard, M.P., Walter Morrison, M.P., Dean Stanley, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Rev. H. B. Tristram, F.R.S., and others equally distinguished. The Archbishop, in his opening address, laid down the principles on which the work of the Society should be based--namely, that it should be a scientific society, carrying out its work in a scientific way, and should abstain from controversy. To these principles the Society has steadily adhered, and it has been (as it has called itself) “A Society for the accurate and systematic investigation of the archæology, topography, geology, and physical geography, natural history, manners, and customs of the Holy Land, for Biblical illustration.”

The first expedition was sent out in 1866, under Captain Wilson, R.E., and Lieutenant Anderson, R.E., and landed at Beyrout. During six months this party carefully probed the country from Damascus to Hebron, and finally made its report in favour of commencing excavations at Jerusalem.

In 1867 Lieutenant Warren, R.E., was despatched to Jerusalem, with a party of non-commissioned officers, to commence the excavations. This work was continued until 1870. In 1868 the Moabite Stone was discovered by Rev. F. Klein, and in 1870 M. Clermont Ganneau, an archæologist employed by the Society, found an inscribed stone belonging to Herod’s temple.

To the same year 1870 belongs the Survey of Sinai, conducted by Major H. S. Palmer and Captain Wilson, and to 1871 Professor E. H. Palmer’s journey through the Desert of the Tih (or Wilderness of the Wanderings).

The Survey of Western Palestine was begun in 1872; and when, in a short time, Captain Stewart came home invalided, his place was taken by Lieutenant Conder, who continued the work during a series of years. Meantime, in 1874, M. Clermont Ganneau went out on another archæological mission.

In 1877 the Survey, which had been interrupted by an attack on the party, at Safed, was resumed by Lieutenant Kitchener, who had been Conder’s chief helper, and was completed satisfactorily.

In 1880 the great map of Western Palestine was published; and in 1881 Conder commenced the Survey of Eastern Palestine, which, however, the Turks did not allow to be completed.

A geological expedition left England in October 1883, under Professor Edward Hull, F.R.S., Director of the Geological Survey of Ireland. Lieutenant-Colonel Kitchener, who accompanied him, surveyed the Wady Arabah.

In 1885 and later years, extensive tracts of country have been surveyed by Herr Schumacher, especially in the Jaulan.

Following upon these various explorations, the Society has poured out an incessant stream of publications, maps, and photographs, and its officers have published important books on their own account.

2. _Physical Features of Palestine._

“The main object of the Survey of Palestine may be said to have been to collect materials in illustration of the Bible. Few stronger confirmations of the historic and authentic character of the sacred volume can be imagined than that furnished by a comparison of the ‘Land and the Book,’ which shows clearly that they tally in every respect. Mistaken ideas and preconceived notions may be corrected; but the truth of the Bible is certainly established on a firm basis, by the criticisms of those who, familiar with the people and the country, are able to read it, not as a dead record of a former world or of an extinct race, but as a living picture of manners and of a land which can still be studied by any who will devote themselves to the task.”--_Major Conder._

Let us begin our present study of the Holy Land by fixing in our minds a clear notion of its general physiography. Two ranges of hills, running from north to south, one on either side of the river Jordan, stand out as a principal feature of the country. The western range is between 2000 and 3000 feet high, and the eastern range about 1000 feet higher. The Jordan, gathering its waters from three sources, but chiefly from a spring issuing from a cave at Banias, at the base of the Anti-Lebanon, about 1000 feet above the ocean level, descends rapidly, and at a distance of 12 miles passes through the marshy swamp called Lake Huleh, generally identified with the Scriptural Waters of Merom. “Lake Huleh” is 4 miles long, and is very nearly at the same level with the Mediterranean. The Jordan was not known to pass through this swamp as an actual stream until Mr J. Macgregor, in his _Rob Roy_ canoe, navigated his way through the reeds. Descending with the stream (“Jordan” means _the Descender_), we come, at a further distance of 10½ miles, to the Lake of Galilee, and here we are 682 feet below the Mediterranean. The lake is 12½ miles long, and nearly 8 miles wide at its broadest part. Between the Lake of Galilee and the Dead Sea the distance, as the crow flies, is 65 miles; but the stream is so tortuous that Lieutenant Lynch found it, in navigation, to be 200 miles. In the course of this distance Lynch passed down twenty-seven rapids which he considered “threatening,” besides a great many more of lesser magnitude. The Dead Sea itself is 1292 feet below the Mediterranean, though the level varies by a few feet according as Jordan overflows or runs low. Its length is 47 miles and its breadth about 10 miles. It has no outlet to the south, but gets rid, by evaporation from the surface, of all the water poured into it. Thus the Jordan occupies a gorge which is deep as well as wide, and is, together with its lake basins, the most remarkable depression of the kind on the face of the earth. As remarked by Mr Ffoulkes, it is a river that has never been navigable, flowing into a sea that has never known a port--has never been a highway to more hospitable coasts--has never possessed a fishery--a river that has never boasted of a single town of eminence upon its banks.

North of the Dead Sea the Valley of the Jordan widens out into an extensive flat called the Kikkar or the Round, the Plain of the Jordan. Northwards of this again, the low ground of the Jordan Valley extends for several miles on either side of the stream, the hills now drawing closer, now opening wider. Following the low ground northward, we by-and-bye find an opening to the left, the western range of hills being broken in two by the Valley of Jezreel and the Great Plain of Esdraelon. We may continue our journey westward, and round the promontory of Mount Carmel, where the road is close to the sea, and then southward through the Plain of Sharon into the Plain of Philistia, and onward to the desert of Sinai. Thus it is possible to travel all round without once climbing the hills: so that this central region is like an island, with plains around it instead of the ocean. It was, in fact, still more isolated, by having a second separating ring around the first; for on the west was the Mediterranean Sea, navigated by the Phœnicians, who were peaceably disposed; on the south and east were extensive deserts, and on the north were the mountains of Lebanon, sending down their roots to the sea-coast. There was, however, a way through Canaan, from Egypt to Mesopotamia, by the coast route and through the passes of the Lebanon.

The hills of Western Palestine do not afford much level table-land, for the torrents running off on either side, into the sea westward and into the river eastward, cut the ground into deep gorges; these, over-lapping at their sources, leave a central wavy ridge, and if we travel from north to south anywhere but along this ridge we may have to cross torrent-beds 1000 feet deep. The eastern range is cut by gorges even more formidable, of which the principal are the Arnon, the Jabbok, and the Hieromax.

The hills of Western Palestine consisted of grey rock, and were comparatively bare and infertile; the plains were gorgeous with flowers, and rich with corn-fields. Beyond the plain of Esdraelon was wild scenery of mountain and forest. The eastern hills were green with forest and pasture; in the central region were the forests of Gilead; north of Gilead was rich pasturage for wild herds of cattle--the “bulls of Bashan;” in the south was rich pasturage too, and the king of Moab at one time was a sheep-master, paying as tribute the wool of 100,000 lambs and 100,000 rams (2 Kings iii. 4).

From Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, the country measured only 140 miles, and from the Jordan to the sea only some forty or fifty: a small country, even when we include the eastern hills, yet sufficient for the tribes of Israel at that time; and in parts extremely fruitful, a land of milk and honey.

Dan was a natural point for a northern limit, since there the ascent of Mount Hermon begins, and there we have one of the sources of the Jordan. The city was situated on an isolated cone, and the modern name of it is Banias. On the north side of it there rises a cliff 100 feet in height, and at the foot of this is a cave, which was a sanctuary of the god Pan. Two niches in the cliff side contain inscriptions in honour of Pan. From the worship of this deity the city was called Panias or Panium. Its Biblical name was probably Baal Gad. In the time of Josephus the waters of the Jordan burst forth from the cave itself, but now they issue at the foot of a heap of rubbish in front of the cavern, in numerous tiny rills, which soon unite and form a river. The Castle of Banias is one of the most splendid ruins in Syria. It was surveyed and planned by Colonel Kitchener in 1877. Remains of columns occur in the village of Banias, and Major Conder suspects that the Crusaders who fortified the place may very probably have destroyed the heathen temple and used the pillars in their masonry.

About an hour’s distance south of Banias is a mound called _Tell el Kady_ (the heap of Dan), and here we have another source of the Jordan. Tell el Kady is one of the most romantic and picturesque spots in the country, abundantly watered, and overlooking the broad valley of the Upper Jordan, with mountain peaks and ridges to north, east, and west. A group of dolmens recently discovered at this spot may be thought to have some connection with the ancient worship.

Beersheba (the _well of swearing_, or the _well of the seven_) was one of the oldest places in Palestine, and is about as far south as a place can be without actually being in the desert. There are at present on the spot two principal wells and five smaller ones, and they are among the first objects encountered on entering Palestine from the south. Conder found the principal well to be 12 feet 3 inches in diameter, and over 45 feet deep, lined with a ring of masonry to a depth of 28 feet. The sides of all the wells are furrowed by the ropes of the water-drawers; but one discovery was made which was rather disappointing, namely, that the masonry is not very ancient. Fifteen courses down, on the south side of the large well, there is a stone with an inscription in Arabic, on a tablet dated, as well as could be made out, 505 A.H., that is 1117 A.D. The wells have no parapets, and a traveller might easily walk into them unaware. Round the two which contain water there are some rude stone water troughs, which may be of any age.

These being the limits of the country, let us return again to a consideration of its physical aspects.

The physical features of the country naturally depend upon its geological formation. The ranges of hills, east and west of Jordan, are formed almost entirely of beds of cretaceous limestone, which were once continuous. The Jordan Valley coincides with a line of fault; that is to say, the rocky strata cracked in an irregular line from north to south, and the country west of this fault sank down bodily, so that the higher strata of rocks on that side abut now against the lower strata on the eastern side. With this depression to begin with, the rains and torrents have gradually sculptured the valley into its present form.

The maritime district of Palestine, stretching from the base of Carmel southwards by Joppa and Gaza to the Desert of Beersheba, consists of a series of low hills from 300 feet to 400 feet high, separated by valleys and alluvial plains extending inland to a varying distance. The coast line is bordered by a line of sand-hills, which, when unrestrained by some physical barrier, are ever moving inland with disastrous effect. The district is largely composed of beds of sand and gravel, which have once been the bed of the outer sea; while along the line of many of the rivers and streams a deposit of rich loam of a deep brown colour covers considerable areas, and yields abundant crops of wheat and maize to the cultivators.

Professor Edward Hull, the eminent geologist, who was commissioned by the Palestine Exploration Society to investigate the geology of the Desert and the Holy Land, reported the results to the Committee, in an elaborate Memoir, in which he treats of the maritime district, the table-land of Western Palestine and the Tih Desert, the depression of the Jordan Valley and its continuation southward to the Gulf of Akabah, the elevated plateau east of Jordan, and the mountainous tract of the peninsula of Sinai. Utilising the labours of his predecessors, Russeger, Fraas, Lartet, Vignes, &c., he sometimes confirms their results, and sometimes adds to our knowledge.

By the kindness of Mr W. H. Hudleston, F.R.S., and Secretary of the Geological Society, I am able to illustrate this chapter with a geological map based chiefly on the maps of Lartet, Hull, and Zittel. To a great extent it tells its own story regarding the features of the country, and the rocks and formations of which the region is constructed. The oldest rocks occupy the greater portion of the Sinaitic peninsula, as well as the mountains bordering the Gulf of Akabah, and extending northward along the eastern side of the Wady el Arabah. They consist of granitic, gneissose and schistose rocks, amongst which have been intruded great masses of red porphyry, dark green-stone, and other igneous rocks in the form of dykes, veins, and bosses. These rocks are probably among the oldest in the world. After these ancient rocks had been consolidated they were subjected to a vast amount of erosion, and were worn into very uneven surfaces, over which the more recent formations were spread; first filling up the hollows with the lower strata, and ultimately covering even the higher elevations as the process of deposition of strata went on. The oldest of these formations is the Red Sandstone and Conglomerate, which Professor Edward Hull calls the “Desert Sandstone” formation. It forms a narrow strip along the margin of the old crystalline rocks. It is capped with the fossiliferous limestone of the Wady Nash, which shows it to belong to the Carboniferous period--in fact to be the representative of the Carboniferous Limestone of Europe and the British Isles. It is also found east of the Arabah Valley and amongst the mountains of Moab east of the Ghor. This is succeeded by another Sandstone formation, more extensively distributed than the former. It belongs to a much more recent geological period, namely, the Cretaceous; and is the representative of the “Nubian Sandstone” of Roziere, so largely developed in Africa, especially in Nubia and Upper Egypt. This is succeeded by the Cretaceous and Nummulitic Limestone formations, which occupy the greater part of the map, forming the great table-land of the Tih, from its western escarpment to the borders of the Arabah Valley, and stretching northward throughout the hill country of Judea and Samaria into Syria and the Lebanon.

On the east of the Jordan Valley the Cretaceous Limestone forms the table-lands of Edom and Moab: as far north as the Hauran and Jaulan, where the limestone passes below great sheets of basaltic lava. The Cretaceous Limestone represents the Chalk formation of Europe and the British Isles.

Although the Cretaceous Limestone belongs to the Secondary period, and the Nummulitic Limestone to the Tertiary, they are very closely connected in Palestine, as far as their mineral characters are concerned; and they both contain beds or bands of flint and chert.

The Cretaceous Limestone underlies nearly the whole of the Jordan and Arabah Valleys, although concealed by more recent deposits, and is broken off along the line of the great Jordan Valley fault against older formations. In other words, on the west we have strata of the age of the English chalk, which dip down very suddenly towards the centre of the valley. On the east we have the Nubian Sandstone, with hard limestone above it geologically coeval with our greensand. It is entirely owing to the presence of this leading line of fracture and displacement, and the subsequent denudation of strata, that this great valley exists, and that the eastern side is so mountainous and characterised by such grand features of hill and dale.

These limestones pass under a newer formation of Calcareous Sandstone in the direction of the Mediterranean, a formation probably of Upper Eocene age, and called by Hull the “Calcareous Sandstone of Philistia.”

The formations next in order consist of raised beaches and sea-beds along the coast, and of lake-beds in the Ghor and Jordan Valley; and these bring us, geologically, much nearer to our own time.

Not only do the physical features of a country depend upon its geological formation, but it cannot be questioned that the character and mode of life of the inhabitants are moulded or modified by the physical features. It is remarked by Professor Edward Hull that the mild patient character of the Egyptian cultivator befits the nature of that wide alluvial tract of fertile land which is watered by the Nile. The mountainous tracts of the Sinaitic peninsula, formed of the oldest crystalline rocks of that part of the world, have become the abode of the Bedouin Arab, the hardy child of nature, who has adapted himself to a life in keeping with his wild surroundings. The great table-land of the Tih, less rugged and inhospitable than the mountainous parts of Sinai and Serbal, supports roving tribes, partly pastoral, and gradually assimilating their habits to the Fellahin of Philistia and of Palestine, who cultivate the ground and rear large flocks and herds.

[_Authorities and Sources_:--Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible.” Survey of Western Palestine, Memoir on the Geology. Dr Edward Hull. “The Geology of Palestine.” Wilfred H. Hudleston, F.R.S. “_Rob-Roy_ on the Jordan.” John Macgregor.]

3. _The Dead Sea, Salt Sea, or Sea of Lot._

It is pointed out by Sir George Grove that the name “Dead Sea” never occurs in the Bible, and appears not to have existed until the second century after Christ. It originated in an erroneous opinion, and there can be little doubt that to the name are due in a great measure the mistakes and misrepresentations which were for so long prevalent regarding this lake, and which have not indeed yet wholly ceased to exist. In the Old Testament it is called the Salt Sea, and the Sea of the Plain (Arabah). By the Arabs it is called El Bahr Lut (the Sea of Lot).

The Salt Sea lies in the deepest part of the great Jordan-Arabah depression, and the ground rises to the south of it, as well as in all other directions. It was shown, in fact, by Colonel Kitchener’s survey of the Arabah that the bed of the valley, for the most part, is raised above the level of the Gulf of Akabah. From the border of the Dead Sea southward the ground rises but little for 10 miles, but then begins to rise rapidly, so that at a distance of about 40 miles it is as high as the sea level at Akabah; and 29 miles further south it is 660 feet above that level.

The Jordan Valley, as already stated, coincides with a great fault in the strata. This had been recognised by Lartet, Tristram, Wilson, and others; and Professor Hull has traced the continuation of this fracture, at the base of the Edomite mountains along the Arabah Valley. He agrees with Lartet in thinking that the waters of the Jordan Valley have not flowed down into the Gulf of Akabah since the land emerged from the ocean. The disconnection of the inner waters from the outer is a very ancient event, dating back to Miocene times.

The River Jordan, throughout its course, from the Sea of Tiberias to the Salt Sea, cuts its channel through alluvial terraces, consisting of sand, gravel, and calcareous marl, which sometimes contain shells, semi-fossilised, but of species still living in the lakes of Tiberias and Huleh. These terraces are continuous round the shores of the Salt Sea, and between the base of the cliffs of Jebel Karantul, near Jericho, and the fords of the Jordan, three of them may be observed,

the first being at a level of 650 to 600 feet, the second " " 520 to 250 " , the third " " 200 to 130 "

and below the last named is the alluvial flat, liable to be flooded on the rise of the waters. The upper surfaces and outer margins of these terraces indicate successive stages, at which the waters have rested in sinking down to their present level. Originally they reached a level somewhat over that of the Mediterranean, and at that time a great inland lake extended from Lake Huleh southwards into the Arabah Valley, its length being about 200 miles.

In the Jordan Valley, the upper terrace, at the foot of the hills, is called the Ghor, and it is to be distinguished from the Zor, or bottom of the valley, in which the channel of the river, cut still deeper, meanders.

The Salt Sea itself is enclosed on all sides by terraced hills, except towards the north, where it receives the waters of the Jordan. In rising gradually out of the ocean, the region appears to have rested several times at successive levels, and the sea left its mark in deposits of marl, gravel, and silt. Beyond the southern end of the Salt Sea the banks of the Ghor rise in the form of a great white sloping wall, to a height of about 600 feet above the plain, and are formed of horizontal courses of sand and gravel, resting on white marl and loam. This mural wall sweeps round in a semicircular form from side to side of the Ghor. The upper surface is nearly level (except where broken into by river channels), and from its base stretches a plain covered partly, over the western side, by a forest of small trees and shrubs, and partly by vegetation affording pasturage to the numerous flocks of the Arabs, who settle down here during the cooler months of the year. It is impossible to doubt that at no remote period the waters of the Salt Sea, though now distant some 10 miles, washed the base of these cliffs, and a rise of a few feet would submerge this verdant plain, and bring back the sea to its former more extended limits.

From this position also, the white terrace of Jebel Usdum--“the salt mountain” where the Crusaders wrongly placed Sodom--is seen projecting from the sides of the loftier limestone terraces of the Judæan hills. Towards the east, similar terraces of whitish alluvial deposits are seen clinging to the sides of the Moabite hills, or running far up the deep glens which penetrate the sides of the great table-land. In these terraces, the upper surfaces of which reach a level of about 600 feet above the waters of the Salt Sea, we behold but the remnants of an ancient sea-bed, which must originally have stretched from side to side.

Eight hundred feet higher than these terraces there are others composed of marl, gravel, and silt, through which the ravines of existing streams have been cut; and this indicates that the level of the Salt Sea stood at one time 100 feet higher than the waters of the Mediterranean stand now.

_Origin of the saltness of the Dead Sea._--It has been generally recognised that the waters of lakes which have no outlet ultimately become more or less saline. Of these the most important in the old world are the Caspian, the Sea of Aral, Lakes Balkash, Van, Urumiah, and, lastly, the Dead Sea, or as it was originally called, “the Salt Sea.” “The Caspian,” says Professor Hull, “owing to its great extent and other causes, is but slightly saline; but that with which we have here to deal is the most saline of all. It is probable that the water of the ocean itself has become salt owing to the same cause which has produced saltness in the inland lakes, as it may be regarded as a mass of water without an outlet. The cause of the saltness in such lakes I now proceed to explain.

“It has been found that the waters of rivers contain, besides matter which is in a state of mechanical suspension, carbonates of lime and magnesia, and saline ingredients in a state of solution; and as those lakes which have an outlet, such as the Sea of Galilee, part with their waters and saline ingredients as fast as they receive them, the waters of such lakes remain fresh. It is otherwise, however, with regard to lakes which have no outlet. In such cases the water is evaporated as fast as it is received; and as the vapour is in a condition of purity, the saline ingredients remain behind. Thus the waters of such a lake tend constantly to increase in saltness, until a state of saturation is attained, when the excess of salt is precipitated, and forms beds at the bottom of the lake. The contrast presented by the waters of the Sea of Galilee on the one hand, and those of the Dead Sea on the other, though both are fed by the same river, is a striking illustration of the effects resulting from opposite physical conditions. In the former case, the waters are fresh, and abound in fishes and molluscs; in the latter, they are so intensely salt that all animal life is absent.

“The increase of saltness in the waters of the Dead Sea has probably been very slow, and dates back from its earliest condition, when its waters stretched for a distance of about 200 miles from north to south....

“The excessive salinity of the waters of the Dead Sea will be recognised from a comparison with those of the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, while the waters of the ocean give six pounds of salt, &c., in a hundred pounds of water, those of the Dead Sea give 24·57 pounds in the same quantity; but in both cases the degree of salinity varies with the depth, the waters at the surface being less saline than those near the bottom....

“_As to the depth of the waters_:--The floor of the Dead Sea has been sounded on two occasions: first, by the Expedition under Lieutenant Lynch in 1848, and secondly, by that under the Duc de Luynes. In the former case the maximum depth was found to be 1278 feet; in the latter 1217 feet, being close approximations to each other. We may therefore affirm that the floor of the lake descends to nearly as great a depth below its surface as the surface itself below the level of the Mediterranean Sea.

“The section given by Lynch indicates that the place of greatest depth lies much nearer the Moabite than the Judæan shore, and the descent from the base of the Moabite escarpment below Jebel Attarus and between the outlets of the Wâdies Mojeb and Zerka Maïn, is very steep indeed. The deepest part of the trough seems to lie in a direction running north and south, at a distance of about 2 miles from the eastern bank; and while the ascent towards this bank is rapid, that towards the Judæan shore on the west is comparatively gentle. The line of this deep trough seems exactly to coincide with that of the great Jordan Valley fault. From the bottom of the deeper part, the sounding line brought up specimens of crystals of salt (sodium-chloride), and it can scarcely be doubted that a bed of this mineral, together with gypsum, is in course of formation over the central portions of the Dead Sea.”

[_Authorities and Sources_:--“Memoirs of the Survey: Geology”, Dr E. Hull. Smith’s “Dict. of Bible.” “Tent Work in Palestine.” By Major Conder, R.E.]

4. _The Cities of the Plain._

There is now a general consent that Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim were situated north of the Dead Sea, in the Kikkar or Plain of the Jordan. There are old maps which represent these cities as situated at the bottom of the Dead Sea waters, and yet enveloped in flames! Popular ignorance imagines that the bitumen which rises to the surface of the waters is a relic of the agency which effected the destruction. And until recently even the best scholars supposed the cities to lie beneath the shallow part of the sea, south of the Lisan peninsula. All such theories are disproved by the geological investigation, which shows that the Dead Sea is much older than any date which can be assigned to the destruction of the cities, and that the surface of the water has been constantly diminishing in area and sinking to lower levels.

There is nothing in the Bible which should lead us to look for the cities south of the Dead Sea, where the Crusaders placed them, or east of it, or anywhere but north and in the Kikkar. When Abraham and Lot talked together concerning the disputes between their herdsmen, and decided to go different ways with their flocks, “Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the Plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered ... until thou comest unto Zoar.” It was clearly shown by Sir George Grove, in Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” that the Plain of the Jordan here spoken of is not the Arabah, in which the Dead Sea reposes, but the Kikkar or “Round” of country north of it. The position of Abraham and Lot at the time was on a mount east of Bethel; and as the site of Bethel is known, it was not difficult to find the mount east of it. It was reasonably identified by Rev. Canon Williams, and his conclusions were confirmed in 1865 by Colonel Sir C. Wilson. It has been shown that if the cities had been south of the Dead Sea, human vision could not possibly have extended so far, to distinguish anything. But north of the sea, in the Round or Plain, Lot would be able to perceive them. Accordingly, when the friendly conference ended, he journeyed eastward from the mount near Bethel, in order to reach his new home in Sodom.

The vision of Lot had extended across the plain, to Zoar and no farther, because the plain was bounded by the high mountains of Moab. Dr Tristram believes that he has identified Zoar, the fifth city of the Plain, the “little city” to which Lot fled after the convulsion. Standing on Mount Nebo, he detected the ruins a little in front of him, almost in a line with Jericho. The ruins were on a low brow of ground, and thus correspond to the description that Lot rested in this city on his way to the mountains, and afterwards went up into the mountain and dwelt in a cave. The ruins are still called Ziara, which does not differ much from the Greek spelling Ζωαρα, nor very widely from the Hebrew.

Is it possible to discover any relics of the four larger cities? Although destroyed by fire, they may not have been utterly annihilated, any more than Pompeii; but if their remains are hiding beneath the dust, the dust keeps its secret well. Major Conder rode day by day over almost every acre of ground between Jericho and the Dead Sea, and could not detect any mound or sign of a buried city. The whole was a white desert, except near the hills, where rich herbage grows after the rains. The time of year was most favourable for such exploration, because no long grass existed to hide any ruins. But in all that plain he found no ruin, except the old monastery of St John and a little hermit’s cave.

This description leaves out of account a remarkable group of _tells_, or mounds of earth and rubbish, strewn over with ruins, existing in the neighbourhood of Jericho. They are seven in number, and one of them is not far from Elisha’s Fountain, now called _Ain es Sultan_. One would imagine that the exploration of these mounds might yield valuable results; but nobody undertakes the work. It is true that some excavations made by Sir Charles Warren only proved the existence of sun-dried bricks; and because the mounds occur generally where the soil is alluvial, Conder regards them as piles of refuse bricks, and nothing more; but Sir J. W. Dawson, on visiting the place, noticed numerous flint chips in the mound, and Sir C. Warren, when presiding at my Guildford lecture, publicly expressed the opinion that many small objects of great interest would probably be found if the stuff were sifted.

But if the ruins of the Cities of the Plain are not discoverable, their names appear to linger in the district, slightly disguised as Arabic words, and applying to portions of the ground.

Conder justly remarks that the cities would probably be situated near fresh-water springs, and the great spring of ’Ain Feshkhah, on the north-west of the Dead Sea, is a probable site for one of them. The great bluff not far south of the spring is called Tubk ’Amriyeh by the Bedawin, and the neighbouring valley Wady ’Amriyeh. This word is radically identical with the Hebrew Gomorrah, or Amorah as it is spelt in one passage (Gen. x. 19), meaning, according to some authorities, “depression,” according to others, “cultivation.”

Admah means “red earth,” a description which would hardly apply to the ground near the Dead Sea. But there is no reason why all the four cities should be close to the Dead Sea. A convulsion overthrowing cities near the Sea would probably be felt a long way up the Jordan Valley, owing to the line of fault. Conder has pointed out, too, that the term Kikkar is applied in the Bible to the Jordan Valley as far north as Succoth. A “city Adam” is noticed in the Book of Joshua as being beside Zaretan; the name Ed Damieh applies to the neighbourhood of the Jordan ford east of Kurn Surtabeh, about 23 miles up the valley; and it has always seemed possible to Conder that Adam and Admah were one and the same. I would add a suggestion of my own in support of the view that Admah was some distance up the Jordan Valley. The passage Gen. x. 19 describes the boundary of Canaan, beginning at Sidon, following the coast line to Gaza, striking thence eastward to the Plain of the Jordan, and then proceeding up the Jordan Valley to Dan or Lasha--and the passage may be freely rendered thus,--“And the border of the Canaanite was from Sidon; thence you go towards Gerar, as far as Gaza; thence you go toward Sodom; then by Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim, unto Dan.”[14] As Gerar was beyond Gaza southward, the boundary only went toward it; and as Sodom was beyond Jordan eastward, the boundary only went toward Sodom; there was no need to say it stopped at the river, for that was obvious. It then follows the course of the river from the Dead Sea to the source of the stream. And then the northern boundary is known without description. If this rendering holds good, then Gomorrah was north-west of the Dead Sea, on a line joining Gaza with Sodom; and the boundary of the Canaanites, after reaching Gomorrah, touched Admah and Zeboim, and continued northward to the grotto at Banias.

_Zeboim_ means “hyenas,” and is identical with the Arabic Dub’a. For this reason Conder asks whether it may not have been situated at the cliff just above the plain, near the site of Roman Jericho, for that is now called Shakh ed Dub’a, “lair of the Hyena.” If I am right in my reading of Gen. x. 19, Zeboim should be northward of Admah--unless two names so often coupled together may have their order transposed. Grove reminds us that the Valley of Zeboim (the name spelt a little differently) was a ravine or gorge apparently east of Michmas, described in 1 Sam. xiii. 18. It appears to be overlooked in the discussion that Zeboim is mentioned in Nehemiah xi. 34, in the same group with Hadid, Lod, and Ono, among the places occupied by the children of Benjamin, while in Neh. vii. 37, these three places are named between Jericho and Senaah. But if the Lod in this passage is to be regarded as Lydda in the Plain of Sharon, the grouping of the places affords us no guidance.

_Sodom_ alone, as Conder goes on to say, remains without a suggestion, and he finds no trace of it west of the Jordan. He notes, however, that the word Siddim is apparently the same with the Arabic _Sidd_, which is used in a peculiar sense by the Arabs of the Jordan Valley as meaning “cliffs” or banks of marl, such as exist along the southern edge of the plains of Jericho, the ordinary meaning being “dam” or obstruction. Thus the Vale of Siddim might well, so far as its name is concerned, have been situated in the vicinity of the northern shores of the Dead Sea.

Dr Selah Merrill, in his “East of the Jordan,” also discusses the site of the Cities of the Plain. He says:--“Since Zoar was one of them, a hint as to their situation may be derived from Gen. xiii. 10, where Lot and Abraham are represented as standing on a hill near Bethel, and looking down the Jordan Valley towards the Dead Sea. As this verse is rendered in our English Bible, the meaning is not clear; but it will become so when all the middle portion of the verse is read as a parenthesis, as follows: ‘And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the Plain of Jordan (that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt), until thou comest to Zoar.’ The last clause qualifies the first. Lot saw all the Plain of Jordan as far as Zoar, or ‘until you come to Zoar.’ Zoar was both the limit of the plain and the limit of vision in that direction, so far as the land was concerned.”

Dr Merrill then shows that nothing could have been distinguished at the southern end of the Dead Sea; and quotes early writers to show that Zoar existed near the northern end.

Regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, it is not sufficient to say briefly that it was a miracle, and assume that no further explanation can be given. A rain of brimstone and fire is spoken of, and it is legitimate to look for the source of it. With the instance of Pompeii in our minds it is natural to suggest volcanic agency, especially as the region north-east of the Dead Sea affords evidence of volcanic action. But Sir J. W. Dawson (a well-known American geologist), in his volume on “Egypt and Syria,” ingeniously argues for a petroleum explosion. The “slime pits” spoken of as abounding in the Vale of Siddim (Gen. xiv. 10), he regards as petroleum wells, and then traces a parallel as follows:--“Regions of bitumen, like that of the Dead Sea, are liable to eruptions of a most destructive character. Of these we have had examples in the oil regions of America. In a narrative of one of these now before me, and which occurred a few years ago, in the oil district of Petrolia, in Canada, I read that a borehole struck a reservoir of gas, which rushed upward with explosive force, carrying before it a large quantity of petroleum. The gas almost immediately took fire, and formed a tall column of flame, while the burning petroleum spread over the ground and ignited tanks of the substance in the vicinity. In this way a space of about fifteen acres was enveloped in fire, a village was burned, and several persons lost their lives. The air flowing toward the eruption caused a whirlwind, which carried the dense smoke high into the air, and threw down burning bitumen all round.

“Now, if we suppose that at the time referred to, accumulations of inflammable gas and petroleum existed below the Plain of Siddim, the escape of these through the opening of a fissure along the old line of fault might produce the effects described--namely, a pillar of smoke rising up to heaven, burning bitumen and sulphur raining on the doomed cities, and fire spreading over the ground. The attendant phenomenon of the evolution of saline waters, implied in the destruction of Lot’s wife, would be a natural accompaniment, as water is always discharged in such eruptions; and in this case it would be a brine thick with mud, and fitted to encrust and cover any object reached by it.”

An important note, with reference to the destruction of the Cities of the Plain, appears in the statement in Gen. xiv., that the Vale of Siddim had bitumen pits or wells, and that these were so abundant or important as to furnish a place of retreat to, or to impede the flight of, the defeated kings of Sodom and Gomorrah. These bitumen pits have disappeared, unless their remains are represented by the singular pits described by Dr Merrill as occurring near Wady Nimrim. Their existence in the times of Abraham would bespeak a much greater abundance of bituminous matter than that now remaining; and it is possible that the eruption which destroyed the Cities of the Plain may have, to a great extent, exhausted the supply of petroleum.

“There is no reason to think” (adds Dr Dawson) “that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was connected with any important change in the limits of the Dead Sea, though it is highly probable that some subsidence of the valley took place, and may have slightly affected its levels relatively to the Jordan and the sea; but it would appear from Deut. xxix. 23, that the eruption was followed by a permanent deterioration of the district by the saline mud with which it was covered.”

In the _Theological Monthly_ for May 1890, Rev. James Neil declares that no bitumen pits are to be found anywhere in the neighbourhood of the Jordan. The pits spoken of by Dr Selah Merrill were connected with aqueducts, and used for purposes of irrigation. But the asphalt thrown up from the bottom of the Dead Sea may have been employed to render such pits watertight, and to that extent they would be slime pits. He shows that such pits do exist in the Jordan Valley, extending across it in long lines just north of the supposed site of some of the Cities of the Plain; and it is a very curious fact that the Bedawin, who are unacquainted with their nature and purpose, have a legend connecting them with a great battle.

[_Authorities and Sources_:--Smith’s “Dict. of the Bible.” “Tent Work in Palestine.” Major Conder, R.E. “The Land of Moab.” Rev. Canon Tristram, F.R.S. “East of Jordan.” Dr Selah Merrill. “Egypt and Syria.” Sir J. W. Dawson.]

5. “_Lot’s Wife._”

In connection with the destruction of Sodom, the Bible mentions the fate which overtook Lot’s wife, who “became a pillar of salt.” In the Book of Wisdom also we read of the waste land that smoketh, and plants bearing fruit that never come to ripeness, and a standing pillar of salt--a monument of an unbelieving soul (Wisd. x. 7). Josephus also says that he had seen it (Ant. i. 11, 4). The Arabs have legends on the subject; and travellers now and again describe the pillars of salt which have been pointed out to them, and to which the legends attach. The stories are by no means modern. Major Conder, in his “Syrian Stone Lore,” brings into brief compass the notions of the Fathers of the Church on the subject. From an early period “Lot’s wife” is mentioned as standing by the western shores of the Dead Sea, and Antoninus Martyr is careful to combat the idea that the pillar of salt was destroyed through its being constantly licked by animals. Clemens Romanus had seen it; Irenæus also (IV. xxxi. 3) mentions “Lot’s wife” as a pillar still standing. (Quoted by Kitto, Cyclopæd. “Lot.”) So does Benjamin of Tudela, whose account is more than usually circumstantial; and in later times Maundrell and others. It seems possibly to be the natural pinnacle, now called Karnet Sahsul Hameid, to which these writers refer. The feminine nature of this statue was supposed to be still perceptible, in spite of petrification.

Perhaps the best account of “Lot’s wife” is to be found in E. H. Palmer’s “Desert of the Exodus,” where a coloured plate helps the realisation.

“While with the Ghawárineh” (says Palmer) “we had heard strange rumours that ‘a statue’ called ‘Lot’s wife’ existed on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, but none of them had ever seen it, or could give us a satisfactory description of it. Making cautious inquiries amongst the Beni Hamideh, we found that the statement was correct, and after some little trouble, guides were procured who offered to conduct us to the spot.... Our path led us to another plateau, about 1000 feet above the Dead Sea, and on the extreme edge of this was the object of which we were in search--Bint Sheikh Lot, or ‘Lot’s wife.’ It is a tall isolated needle of rock, which does really bear a curious resemblance to an Arab woman with a child upon her shoulder. The Arab legend of Lot’s wife differs from the Bible account only in the addition of a few frivolous details. They say that there were seven Cities of the Plain, and that they were all miraculously overwhelmed by the Dead Sea as a punishment for their crimes. The prophet Lot and his family alone escaped the general destruction; he was divinely warned to take all that he had and flee eastward, a strict injunction being given that they should not look behind them. Lot’s wife, who had on previous occasions ridiculed her husband’s prophetic office, disobeyed the command, and, turning to gaze upon the scene of the disaster, was changed into this pillar of rock.

“Travellers in all ages have discovered ‘Lot’s wife’ in the pillars which atmospheric influences are constantly detaching from the great masses of mineral salt at the southern end of the Dead Sea, but these are all accidental and transient. The rock discovered by us does not fulfil the requirements of the Scriptural story, but there can be no doubt that it is the object which has served to keep alive for so many ages the local tradition of the event.

“The sun was just setting as we reached the spot; and the reddening orb sank down behind the western hills, throwing a bridge of sheeny light across the calm surface of the mysterious lake. As we gazed on the strange statue-like outline of the rock--at first brought out into strong relief against the soft yet glowing hues of the surrounding landscape, and then mingled with the deepening shadows, and lost amid the general gloom as night came quickly on, we yielded insensibly to the influence of the wild Arab tale, and could almost believe that we had seen the form of the prophet’s wife peering sadly after her perished home in the unknown depths of that accursed sea.”

6. _The Natural History of Palestine, as dependent on its Physical Geography._

The gradual elevation of the countries of Egypt and Palestine, inferred by Professor Hull from the geological facts, appears to be borne out by a comparison of the fishes which inhabit respectively the Lake of Galilee and the lakes of south-eastern Africa.

Josephus, after describing in glowing language the beauty and fruitfulness of the country of Gennesaret, says, “For besides the good temperature of the air, it is also watered from a most fertile fountain. The people of the country call it Capharnaum. Some have thought it to be a vein of the Nile, because it produces the Coracin fish as well as that lake does which is near to Alexandria.”[15] The truth turns out to be much stranger than Josephus imagined, for the Sea of Galilee can claim affinity by its fishes with the Victoria Nyanza. Rev. Canon Tristram, who more than any other traveller has studied the natural history of the Holy Land, has made the comparison in some detail, and made out the relationship of the fishes beyond doubt. He declares that of all the forms of life in Palestine the fishes are the most interesting. There are no fishes in the Dead Sea; but there are fishes, chiefly Cyprinidæ, or of the perch tribe, in the little streams and rivers close to the Dead Sea. “I have seen the date palm absolutely dipping its fronds into the Dead Sea as it hung over--for on the east side the date palm is very luxuriant. On the eastern shores there is as wonderful an exuberance of vegetable life as will be found anywhere on the face of the earth. The plants are like hot-house plants growing wild. In the warm waters entering to the sea there are small fishes of various species. We found thirteen new kinds of fishes in the Jordan and its affluents. Dr Günther of the British Museum kindly described them in a paper in the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,’ and certainly such a discovery amply repaid our search.

“I wish now to point out the conclusions come to from these fishes, for they are really the climax of the physical geography of the Jordan Valley. The fishes found in the Sea of Galilee not only belong for the most part to species different from those found in any stream flowing into the Mediterranean, but they belong frequently to different genera. Some years before, I brought home the type specimen of a fish, the only species I could find in some salt lakes of the Sahara, and Dr Günther declared it to be not only a new species but a new genus. I remember Sir Charles Lyell observing, ‘You have got there the last living representative of the Saharan ocean.’ We found in the Sea of Galilee three more species of the same genus, but each distinct. Speke brought back two species of the same family from the Nyanza, and Dr Kirk has described several from the Zambezi and the neighbouring region.

“Now we may see what this amounts to. We have got the same genus of fishes represented in a variety of specific types from the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan that are found in the feeders of the Nile, and in the Central African lakes down to the Zambezi. The conclusion is natural that all these fishes come from a common origin, and that during the Tertiary period there was a chain of fresh-water lakes, extending to the lakes in Africa, similar to the chain of lakes in North America.

“We find in Palestine forty-three species of fishes, of which only eight belong to the ordinary ichthyological fauna of the Mediterranean rivers. But these belong to the rivers of the coast. In the Jordan system only one species out of thirty-six belongs to the ordinary Mediterranean fauna, viz., _Blennius lupulus_. Two others, _Chromis niloticus_ and _Clarias macracanthus_, are Nilotic. Seven other species occur in other rivers of South-Western Asia, the Tigris, Euphrates, &c. Ten more are found in other parts of Syria, chiefly in the Damascus lakes, and the remaining sixteen species of the families _Chromidæ_, _Cyprinodontidæ_, and _Cyprinidæ_, are peculiar to the Jordan, its affluents, and its lakes. This analysis points at once to the close affinity of the Jordan with the rivers of Tropical Africa. The affinity is not only of species, but of genera, for _Chromis_ and _Hemichromis_ are peculiarly Ethiopian forms, while the other species are identical with, or very closely allied to, the fishes from other fresh waters of Syria. But the African forms are a very large proportion of the whole, and considering the difficulty of transportation in the case of fresh water fishes, the peculiarities of this portion of the fauna are of great significance.

“The fluviatile fishes claim special attention, dating, as they probably do, from the earliest time after the elevation of the country from the Eocene ocean. In the _Foraminifera_, mentioned above as found in the Dead Sea sand, such as _Gr. capreolus_, we have the relics of the inhabitants of that early sea. But of the living inhabitants we must place the Jordanic fishes as the very earliest, and these, we have seen, form a group far more distinct and divergent from that of the surrounding region than in any other class of existing life. During the epochs subsequent to the Eocene, owing to the unbroken isolation of the basin, there have been no opportunities for the introduction of new forms, nor for the further dispersion of the old ones. These forms, as we have seen, bear a striking affinity to those of the fresh-water lakes and rivers of Eastern Africa, even as far south as the Zambezi. But the affinity is in the identity of genera, _Chromis_ and _Hemichromis_ being exclusively African, while the species are rather representative than identical.

“The solution appears to be that during the Meiocene and Pleiocene periods the Jordan basin formed the northernmost of a large system of fresh-water lakes, extending from north to south, of which, in the earlier part of the epoch, perhaps the Red Sea, and certainly the Nile Basin, the Nyanza, the Nyassa, and the Tanganyika lakes, and the feeders of the Zambezi, were members. During that warm period, a fluviatile ichthyological fauna was developed suitable to its then conditions, consisting of representative, and perhaps frequently identical species, throughout the area under consideration.

“The advent of the glacial period was, like its close, gradual. Many species must have perished under the change of conditions. The hardiest survived, and some perhaps have been gradually modified to meet those new conditions. Under this strict isolation it could hardly be otherwise; and however severe the climate may have been, that of the Lebanon, with its glaciers probably corresponding with the present temperature of the Alps at a proportional elevation (regard being had to the difference of latitude), the fissure of the Jordan being, as we certainly know, as much depressed below the level of the ocean as it is at present; there must have been an exceptionally warm temperature in its waters in which the existing ichthyological fauna could survive.”

Such facts as these tell us that Palestine is not to be regarded as a European country, but rather as an African outlier, while it has also strong affinities with Asia, as proved by others of these fishes. In fact, it stands in the midst between three continents, and is, in a very important sense, the centre of the world. Dr Tristram, our best authority in this department, shows us how Palestine contains an epitome of the life of the world, and does so just because it includes almost every variety of climate.

Linnæus said that we know more of the botany and zoology of farther India than we do of those of Palestine. It is pleasant to reflect that, to some extent, this reproach has been removed. It always entered into the plans of the Palestine Exploration Society to study the natural history of the Holy Land; and although they have not been able to equip and maintain a party of naturalists, charged with this business alone, some of their officers have gathered interesting facts incidentally. Other inquirers, like Rev. Wm. Houghton and Mr Thaddeus Mason, have been usefully engaged on the same work. Mr H. Chichester Hart, who accompanied Professor E. Hull through the Arabah and Southern Palestine, has written an interesting volume on “The Animals mentioned in the Bible.” But it is to Rev. Dr Tristram we are chiefly indebted. The Memoirs of the Survey include a magnificent volume on the “Fauna and Flora of Western Palestine,” in which he works out his valuable series of investigations, and besides giving facts and details, treats the subject in a large philosophical way, as he does also in his lectures. “You have on Lebanon and Hermon,” he says, “a climate like that of the Alps, or two-thirds of the way up Mont Blanc. You have on the tops of Lebanon and Hermon an almost arctic climate, and you have a fauna and a flora (animals and plants) corresponding to that climate. You know that when you descend a coal-pit 1300 feet deep you get into a very warm temperature indeed. Now the Dead Sea is 1300 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and the consequence is that you have around the Dead Sea a tropical or sub-tropical climate, and you have sub-tropical products.

“At the northern end of the Holy Land you find yourself at the starting point of the Jordan, which, being 1000 feet above the Mediterranean at the grotto of Banias, descends so rapidly that it is only a few feet above the sea level at Lake Huleh. Mount Hermon rises abruptly from its base near Lake Huleh (the ancient Waters of Merom). Although Hermon is only 10,000 feet high, I am not aware of any mountain which rises so suddenly or so directly from its base. Take, for instance, Chamounix. If you want to go to the top of Mont Blanc, you know that Chamounix is many hundred feet above the platform of the Mediterranean. It is true that Mont Blanc is many thousand feet higher than Mount Hermon, but from its immediate base it is not so high. When you get up to the Grand Mulets you are not so far from the summit of Mont Blanc as you are at Lake Huleh from the summit of Hermon. The consequence of this is that you have brought together in that spot a greater contrast of produce, animal and vegetable, than I have found anywhere else. You have the arctic climate of the north on the tops of the mountains, and a tropical climate in the Jordan Valley, where, in the month of January, I have been glad to sleep in the open air, the thermometer never being below 80° at midnight. At the east and south you have the dry sandy desert; so that you have four distinct climates within view of each other. I can stand on any of the hills of Judea and see the snow-capped tops of Hermon and Lebanon, and look over this vast desert eastward and down to the seething tropical valley of the Dead Sea.

“Now, with all that, there is nothing in the physical character of that country which is striking or phenomenal, as people would call it. It is about the most commonplace and ordinary country in the world that I have ever seen. There are no startling features, but there is endless variety in it, and I cannot help thinking that there is something very providential in the extraordinary variety which is brought together within a district of the Holy Land, which is not so large as the six northern counties of England; because I remember that it was chosen as the country in which was written a Book, which was to be for the teaching and guidance of all mankind in every country and in every age; and I know no spot in the world in which there could have been found brought together so many phenomena of Nature, maritime and desert, mountain and plain, hill and valley, tropical, temperate, and arctic, as are brought together there within the space of a few miles. And when I remember that that Book was to be for the teaching of all men, for all time, I feel that there is something providential in that ordering of circumstances which led to the selection of the only spot, as far as we know, in the whole world, in which there is such a great variety of objects for the illustration, comparison, and elucidation of Holy Writ as in that country of the Holy Land. Often, when I have been in that country, on one of its hills, and have noticed the variety of scenery brought into my view at one time, I have thought to myself, ‘What would the Bible have been if its pages had been written by men who had lived only in the monotonous valley of the Nile? What would they have been able to pen in the way of illustration which would have come home to the heart of the English peasant?’ Again, if that Book were written by men who were only familiar with the phenomena of Arabian deserts, how could it have come home to those who dwell on the sea? Had it been written by inhabitants of tropical India, how would it have come home to those who are familiar with ‘snow and frost and vapour, fulfilling His will?’ In fact, there are illustrations taken from every kind of natural phenomena, and yet none of them are very marked or startling.”

[_Authorities and Sources_:--“Palestine in its Physical Aspects.” Rev. Canon Tristram, F. R. S. Survey Memoirs: “The Fauna and Flora.” Rev. Canon Tristram. “The Animals mentioned in the Bible.” Henry Chichester Hart, B.A., F.L.S.]

7. _The Topographical Survey of Western Palestine._

Before we can properly understand the history of any country we must have before us an accurate map, showing its physical features of mountain, plain, and river, and the relative positions of its cities and important places. This is true in an unusual degree in the case of Palestine, a country peculiar in its physical contrasts, and for more than a thousand years the home of a peculiar people. The sacred books of other religions--consisting greatly of rhapsodies, prayers, and devotions--might have been written as well in one country as another; but the Bible contains the history of a particular people, occupying a definite district of country, fighting their battles, making their journeys, and singing psalms oft suggested by their surroundings. It is absolutely necessary for the student of Hebrew history to make himself acquainted with Palestine geography and topography. “The history assumes everywhere a knowledge of the country, and the writer never stops to explain where the scene of every episode occurs, except to name it as a spot already known.” Yet, until lately, no accurate map of the country could be obtained--because no scientific survey had been carried out. Bible towns and villages had disappeared, and their sites were not known. The visitor to Palestine, consulting Murray’s “Handbook” as his best guide, found long columns of “places mentioned in Scripture, but not yet identified”--Admah, Adullun, Debir, Edrei, Gallim, &c., &c. In going up from Jaffa to Jerusalem he was shown a brook, and told that David there selected the five smooth stones before his combat with Goliath; but the brook was in the wrong locality. Down by the Jordan he found the grave of Moses on the wrong side of the river. In Galilee he was perplexed how to decide between two rival sites for Cana, especially as the water-pots connected with the marriage feast were to be seen at both places. General uncertainty attended his footsteps throughout.

The people who did most to bring about this confusion in regard to the sacred sites were the Crusaders. Knights and priests of the twelfth century, arriving in Palestine, were strangers in the country, and although enthusiastic they were ignorant and illiterate. They used to land at Athlit, and journey thence to Nazareth or to Jerusalem, fixing as many places _en route_ as they could. Athlit itself they regarded as the ancient Tyre! Meon, the home of Nabal, they fixed close by, because Mount Carmel was not far off, and Abigail came from Carmel. They did not recognise that the Carmel of Abigail and Nabal was a city in the south of Judah. Knowing that Capernaum was a fishing town, they placed it on the Mediterranean coast and identified it with a fortress of their day, now the village called Kefr Lam. These three places, which were shown to the religious devotee as soon as he landed, are in reality many days’ journey apart. Caipha (Haifa) was shown as a place where Simon Peter used to fish. Shiloh was south of Bethel, and was in fact the mountain now called Nebi Samwil. Sychar and Shechem were one and the same place. “The Quarantania or Kuruntul mountain” (says Conder) “has, from the twelfth century down, been shown as the place where our Lord retired for the forty days of fasting in the desert. Near to it the Crusaders also looked for the ‘exceeding high mountain’ whence the Tempter showed our Lord ‘all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them’ (Matt. iv. 8). Saewulf tells us that the site of this mountain was 3 miles from Jericho. Fetellus places it north of that town and 2 miles from Quarantania. The measurements bring us to the remarkable cone called the Raven’s Nest. The story is wonderfully descriptive of the simplicity of men’s minds in the twelfth century, for the summit of the ‘exceeding high mountain,’ whence all the kingdoms of the world were to have been seen, is actually lower than the surface of the Mediterranean, and it is surrounded on every side by mountains more than double its height.”

Tradition having been shown to be untrustworthy, when unsupported by other evidence, a general uncertainty prevailed with regard to Scripture places. No traveller could believe what his guide or guide book told him, and no student could have confidence in his map. The labour of investigation was beyond the power of private individuals; and no Government and no Society had ever sent out an organized expedition. But now happily this reproach is removed. The Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund were able to send out Major Conder, R.E., and Colonel Kitchener, R.E., and these officers, with their little party, spent seven years in carrying out a triangulation survey of the entire country west of the river Jordan. As a result of their labours, followed up by much patient work at home, we are now presented with a magnificent map of Western Palestine, on the scale of one inch to the mile, as beautifully and accurately executed as the ordnance map of England, with every road and ruin marked, and every conspicuous object filled in; with the hills and mountains correctly delineated and shaded, with the rivers and brooks all running in the right directions; with every vineyard, every spring of water, and almost every clump of trees set down in its place, and with thousands of names that never appeared on a Palestine map before. Moreover, while there are six hundred and twenty-two Scripture names of places west of the Jordan, and out of these three hundred and sixty were missing, the surveyors have succeeded in finding one hundred and seventy-two of these. A reduced map, on the scale of three-eighths of an inch to the mile, has been prepared, and contains the Old Testament names and New Testament names conspicuously marked, while other forms of the map show the watershed and physical features of the country, or give the divisions of the land and the Arabic names of places in use to-day.

There could be no better aid in studying the Scriptures than to have such maps by our side; for whether we read of the marching and counter-marching of armies; of the positions taken up before a battle; of the direction taken by the retreating foe; the sites selected for places of worship; the journeys of prophets of the Old Testament, or of Jesus and his disciples in the New, so much depends upon the relative positions of places, and their distances one from another, that we necessarily lose a part of the meaning, and miss a portion of the enjoyment unless we have a correct map by our side.

The best modern map of the Holy Land, previous to that prepared by the Palestine Exploration Fund, was the work of Van de Velde, a careful and scientific traveller and scholar. Van de Velde not only took observations himself, but laid down on his map all the observations made by previous travellers. Yet, when at the annual meeting of the Palestine Exploration Fund in 1886, a portion of Van de Velde’s map was shown on an enlarged scale, side by side with the same portion of the Society’s map, similarly enlarged, the contrast was striking. The first, with its hills roughly sketched in, its valleys laid down roughly, and its inhabited places, villages, or ruins, gave all that was known of this piece of country before the Survey. It was on such a map as this, the best at the time, because the most faithful, that the geographical student had to work. There was little use, from a geographical point of view, in consulting previous books of travel, because Van de Velde had gleaned from them all their geographical facts. Yet hardly any single place was laid down correctly; none of the hill shading was accurate; the course of the rivers and valleys was not to be depended upon; the depression of the Lake of Galilee was variously stated; distances were estimated by the rough reckoning of time taken from place to place; and the number of names was only about eighteen hundred, whereas the large map of the Palestine Exploration Society contains ten thousand.[16]

[_Authorities and Sources_:--“Tent Work in Palestine.” Major Conder, R. E. “Twenty-one Years’ Work in the Holy Land.” P. E. Fund. “Quarterly Statements of the P. E. Fund.”]

8. _Israel’s Wars and Worship, considered in connection with the Physical Features of the Country._

_The Wars._

Now that we possess a detailed and accurate map of the Holy Land we are in a position to study with advantage the conquest of the country by Joshua, and to appreciate the motives of strategy and policy displayed in the successive phases of Israel’s wars and worship.

The twelve tribes, coming out of the wilderness, encamped in the Plain of the Jordan, opposite Jericho. While they rested there, Balak, king of Moab, alarmed by their numbers, and uncertain as to their intentions, sent to Mesopotamia for Balaam, to come and curse them. Balaam ascended Mount Peor (sacred to Baal Peor, _i.e._, Baal the Opener) and was constrained to bless them, and speak of them as “a people that dwell alone--not reckoned among the nations” (Num. xxiii. 9).

Under Moses the Israelites conquered the country east of Jordan. The gorge of the Arnon, 2000 feet deep, and with almost perpendicular sides, was a natural boundary for the Moabites. Sometimes, indeed, they possessed territory north of it; but since it would take a traveller several hours to cross at the easiest parts, it was a natural boundary. The district between the Arnon and the Jabbok, Moses wrested from Sihon, king of Heshbon. And then, with the aid of the Ammonites, he conquered the country north of the Jabbok, from Og, the king of Bashan. These lands were not divided among all the tribes of Israel, but were given to Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh as their portion, for it was planned and intended that the country west of the Jordan should be conquered and given to the rest.

The country west of Jordan was occupied by the Amorites and the Canaanites--that is, as some suppose, by the Highlanders of the central hills, and the Lowlanders of the plains around. But these peoples appear to have been subdivided, so that, together with the tribes of the Lebanon, we read of the Jebusite and the Girgashite, the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite, the Arvadite, the Zemarite and the Hamathite, as well as Zidon and Heth (Gen. x. 15); and, in another place, of the Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, and the Rephaim (Gen. xv. 19). Of all these “nations” we are told by St Paul that seven were eventually destroyed, and Israel received their land for an inheritance (Acts xiii. 19).

It was not the object of Joshua in the first place to conquer the “nations” in the plains, but rather those in the hills. It is true that the hills were comparatively barren and infertile, while the plains were exceedingly fruitful; but the hill country offered counter-balancing advantages. Compared with the Egyptians, who sometimes invaded Syria, the Israelites were small and weak, and their greatest security would be in the hill fastnesses. More immediately also, they have to consider that they are but a nation of foot soldiers, while the Canaanites of the plains possess chariots and horses. In any case, if they can once gain possession of the hills, it may be easier thence to conquer the plains at their leisure, than it would be for them by-and-bye to conquer the hills, with the plains as their base of operations.

They approach the river opposite Jericho, and prepare to cross. The spot is very well known, and it is where the pilgrims now go to bathe. At this part the Jordan is ordinarily a brown, rapid, swirling stream, some 20 yards across, fringed with a jungle of tamarisk, cane, and willow, in which the leopard and the wolf find their hiding place. The stream often runs low and is easily fordable in two or three places hereabout. When we remember that the spies sent by Joshua had crossed and recrossed without difficulty a few days before, we might suppose that Joshua intended to march the entire army over at the fording places, at low water, were we not told that at this season the Jordan overflowed all its banks, it being the time of barley harvest. The Jordan, it is recorded, was divided--“The waters which came down from above stood and rose up in one heap a great way off from Adam, the city which is beside Zarethan: and those that went down toward the Sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho” (Josh. iii. 16). Major Conder has discovered the name Zarethan, still in use, applied to a district 3 miles west of Bethshan; and on examining the gorge of the Jordan at this part, a good way north of “Admah” or _Damieh_, he found that the lower cliffs approach in places so close to one another that a very little would dam up the river. In that event, in place of a shallow stream some 20 yards across, a lake would be formed nearly a mile in width, and the waters would have to rise to a height of 50 feet before they overflowed the barrier and descended again to the south. But whether in this way the bed of the Jordan was rendered dry while the Israelites passed over, is a question upon which, of course, opinions will differ.

When the tribes are safely across they encamp at a place called Gilgal.

An important success in the way of identifying Scripture sites has been the recovery of Gilgal. Robinson had heard the name Jiljûlieh, but had not been able to fix the site. In 1865 a German traveller (Herr Schokke), more fortunate, was shown the place, at a mound about a mile east of the modern Jericho; and Major Conder succeeded in fixing the spot. Just west of the ruins grows a magnificent old tamarisk tree, conspicuous from a distance. South-east of the tamarisk is an oblong tank, measuring about 100 feet by 80 feet; and near this about a dozen small mounds. The mounds are called Telleilât Jiljûlieh (the little hillocks of Gilgal), and the tank is named Birket Jiljûlieh (the Pool of Gilgal). “The Bedawin of the district,” says Conder, “have a well-known tradition regarding the site of Jiljûlieh. Over the coffee and pipes in the evening, after the day’s work was done, they related it to us. By the old tamarisk once stood the City of Brass, which was inhabited by Pagans. When Mohammed’s creed began to spread, Aly, his son-in-law, ‘the lion of God,’ arrived at the city, and rode seven times round it on his horse Maimûn. The brazen walls fell down, destroyed by his breath, and the Pagans fled, pursued by the Faithful toward Kŭrŭntŭl; but the day drew to a close, and darkness threatened to shield the infidels. Then Aly, standing on the hill which lies due east of the Kŭrŭntŭl crag, called out to the sun, ‘Come back, O blessed one!’ And the sun returned in heaven, so that the hill has ever since been called ‘the Ridge of the return.’ Here stands the Mukâm, or sacred station of Aly, and here also is the place where Belâl ibn Rubâh, the Muedhen of the Prophet, called the Faithful to prayer after the victory.”

Such is the legend, in which we see the fall of Jericho mixed up with the battle of Aijalon, and assigned to Mohammedan heroes instead of to Joshua.

Quite apart from the facilities of a ford, there was a good reason why the Israelites should cross the Jordan where they did. The hill country of Western Palestine is much broken by gorges, which serve not only as torrent beds after the rains, but as passes to the central plateau. The principal pass is by that great gorge, the continuation of the Wady Kelt, which runs to the north of Jericho and up to Ai and Bethel. Joshua intends to ascend by this pass. But there is an obstacle in the way. Just at the foot of the hills--where the springs issue forth and make a beautiful oasis--is the city of Jericho, “walled up to heaven.” This is the key to the pass, and it would be bad generalship to rush past the place and leave it in the rear. So Jericho, “the city of palm trees,” was besieged and taken.

Modern Jericho is not a city of palm trees, but a very poor village, of mud huts and black tents, standing amid low vineyards. For the convenience of travellers, indeed, an excellent hotel has lately been opened--the “Jordan Hotel”--but the proprietor has been disappointed in his neighbours; the peasantry will not do a good day’s work for good wages, he cannot even get fruit and garden stuff from them, and every requisite has to be brought down from Jerusalem.

The site of Jericho has shifted considerably since Scripture times, for the Bible city was near the Sultan’s Spring--Elisha’s Fountain--at the foot of the pass, the only natural position, whereas the present village is at a distance from the spring. Some Russian excavations in the neighbourhood have brought to light shafts, columns, and lintels, lamps, jars, rings, and weapons, some indication of former splendour.

The next city in the way of the invaders was Ai. We learn from the narrative that Ai had Bethel on the west of it, and a plain in the front or on the east, while there was a valley on the north side, and low ground on the west between Ai and Bethel. With these particulars it should be possible to identify the site. Sir Charles Wilson examined the district in 1865, and confirmed the opinion of Rev. Canon Williams that there is only one spot which answers to the description. “The description applies in a very complete manner” (says Conder) “to the neighbourhood of the modern village of Deir Diwan, and there are here remains of a large ancient town, bearing the name Haiyan, which approaches closely to Aina, the form under which Ai appears in the writings of Josephus. Rock-cut tombs and ancient cisterns, with three great reservoirs cut in the hard limestone, are sufficient to show this to have been a position of importance. To the west is an open valley called ‘Valley of the City,’ which, gradually curving round eastward, runs close to the old road from Jericho by which Joshua’s army would probably advance. To the north of the site there is also a great valley, and the plain or plateau on which the modern village stands, close to the old site, expands from a narrow and rugged pass leading up towards Bethel, which is 2 miles distant on the watershed.”

Ascending from Jericho the path at one point enters upon the plain in front of Ai, so that no army on its way to Bethel could afford to leave Ai behind. Joshua took the city by stratagem, and we can see every step of the proceeding. Marching troops up the northern valley, he placed an ambush in the depression west of the city. The main body of his troops attacked in front and presently feigned a retreat, drawing the men of Ai after them till the city was empty. Then, at a given signal from Joshua--who had posted himself on the hills to the north and could be seen by both sections of his army--the ambush rose up and fired the city, the men retreating turned back to fight, and the men of Ai, caught “between two fires,” became utterly demoralised.

Bethel itself is now called Beitin. The site is known but with the exception of a church of crusading date, and a tower, there are no ruins of any importance. On a hill to the east is a stone circle, consisting of large and small boulders.

After the victory at Ai a rapid march was made to Shechem, where, upon the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, the tribes assembled to hear the reading of the Law and to pronounce their “amens” after the blessings and the curses. It has been questioned whether they could hear one another at the distance apart of these two mountain tops; but they would hardly be on the mountain summits, for there is a natural recess in the hills, with natural benches in the limestone rock, an amphitheatre which might seem to have been formed for the purpose. Modern travellers have stood in the midst of that valley and heard their companions on either side reading the Law, and they assure us that those who were reading could hear one another’s voices with sufficient distinctness to take up the verse, each where the other left off.

Shechem is now called Nablous--a corruption of the Roman Neapolis, by which name it was rebaptized--and is a considerable city. The Samaritans, now reduced in numbers to about one hundred and sixty individuals, all told, live in this city, and none are found elsewhere. In their synagogue they preserve several old copies of the Pentateuch, and one of them, which is kept in a silver case and jealously guarded, they declare to have been written by Abishua, the great-grandson of Aaron. On a stone built into a tower near the synagogue is an inscription--the oldest known in the Samaritan character--which it was formerly impossible to read, because the inscription is upside down in its place, and the investigator had to dangle on a rope and hold his head downwards. But here we see the advantage of photography: the picture was obtained in the camera, and the inscription when turned right way up was seen to be the Samaritan version of the Ten Commandments.

After the solemn ceremony of reading the Law at Shechem the Israelites under Joshua returned to the camp at Gilgal. But by this time the news of their victories had spread, the neighbouring cities became alarmed, and all the kings throughout an extensive district gathered together to fight against them. Meantime the wily Gibeonites, wearing “old shoes and clouted,” and pretending to be ambassadors from a far country, came to Joshua and succeeded in making a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive. After three days the deception was found out; but it was held that the covenant must be kept, and when the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon--“the five kings of the Amorites”--went and encamped against Gibeon, Joshua went up from Gilgal all the night to raise the siege. He came upon them suddenly, and a terrible battle took place, which deserves to rank among the decisive battles of the world. The conflict raged before Gibeon, and the defeated kings were pursued, with continued slaughter, to higher ground (the ascent of Beth-horon) and then to lower ground (the going down of Beth-horon), as they vainly sought to escape down the Valley of Aijalon into the Plain of Philistia. According to the poetical book of Jasher,[17] quoted by the historian, “the sun stood still upon Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Aijalon,” and lengthened out the day until Joshua had defeated his foes utterly. The five kings were found hidden in a cave at Makkedah, and were imprisoned there till the pursuit was over and Joshua had leisure to decide their fate.

Makkedah has been identified by Colonel Sir C. Warren as being _El Mughar_--“the cave”--a little south-west of Ekron. Conder tells us that this is a remarkable place, and one of the most conspicuous sites in the plain. A promontory of brown sandy rock juts out southwards, and at the end is the village climbing up the hill-side. The huts are of mud, and stand in many cases in front of caves; and from these caves the modern name is derived. It is worthy of notice, he says, that this is the only village in the Philistine plain at which he found such caves.

Joshua made his victory complete, by overthrowing Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and other cities in succession, “utterly destroying all that breathed,” until the centre and the south of the hill country were altogether in his power.

In the spring of 1890, a _firman_ having been obtained, Mr Flinders Petrie went to excavate at _Umm Lakis_ and _Ajlan_, the supposed sites of Lachish and Eglon, two of the five strongholds of the Amorites (Josh. x. 5). As soon as he arrived and could examine the ground, he saw, from his Egyptian experience, that the two sites named were only of Roman age and unimportant; while _Tell Hesy_ and _Nejileh_ in the same neighbourhood promised better results. _Tell Hesy_ is a mound of ruins 60 feet high and about 200 feet square, and one side of it has been washed away by the stream, so that a clear section is afforded from top to base. The generally early age of it was evident from the fact that nothing later than good Greek pottery was found at the top of it, while near the middle, and from that to three-quarters of the height, was found Phœnician ware, which is known in Egypt to date from 1100 B.C. The foundation seems to date from about 1500 B.C., agreeing nearly with the beginning of the Egyptian raids under Thothmes I.

The actual remains of _Tell Hesy_ consist of a mound which is formed of successive towns, one on the ruins of another, and an enclosure taking in an area to the south and west of it. This enclosure is nearly a quarter of a mile across in each direction, and is bounded by a clay rampart still 7 feet high in parts, and in one place by a brick wall. This area of about 30 acres would suffice to take in a large quantity of cattle in case of a sudden invasion; and such was probably its purpose, as no buildings are found in it, and there is but little depth of soil. The city mound is about 200 feet square, and rests on natural ground 45 to 58 feet above the stream in the _wady_ below. The earliest town here was of great strength and importance, the lowest wall of all being 28 feet 8 inches thick, of clay bricks, unburnt; and over this are two successive patchings of later rebuilding, altogether 21 feet of height remaining. “Such massive work” (says Mr Petrie) “was certainly not that of the oppressed Israelites during the time of the Judges; it cannot be as late as the Kings, since the pottery of about 1100 B.C. is found above its level. It must, therefore, be the Amorite city, and agrees with the account that ‘the cities were walled and very great’ (Num. xiii. 28), ‘great and walled up to heaven’ (Deut. i. 28), and also with the sculptures of the conquests of Rameses II. at Karnak, where the Amorite cities are all massively fortified.”

Mr Petrie feels little doubt that _Tell Hesy_ is Lachish and _Tell Nejileh_, 6 miles south of it, Eglon. There are no sites in the country around so suited to the importance of Lachish and Eglon as these two _tells_; they command the only springs and water-course which exist in the whole district, and it is certain that the positions must have been of first-rate importance from the time of the earliest settlements.

Above the Amorite wall at _Tell Hesy_ Mr Petrie finds 5 feet of dust and rolled stones corresponding to the barbaric period of the Judges; then a wall 13 feet thick, probably belonging to Rehoboam’s fortifications of Lachish (2 Chron. xi. 9), and above this successive rebuildings until the city is finally destroyed about 500 B. C. The mound is full of potsherds, and the good fortune of such a grand section as that of the east face from top to bottom, affords at one stroke a series of all the varieties of pottery extending through a thousand years. “We now know for certain,” Mr Petrie says, “the characteristics of Amorite pottery, of earlier Jewish, and later Jewish influenced by Greek trade, and we can trace the importation and the influence of Phœnician pottery. In future all the _tells_ and ruins of the country will at once reveal their age by the potsherds which cover them.”

Lachish, with its wall 28 feet in thickness, is a specimen of the Amorite cities which Joshua overthrew in the south.

But now the kings of the north are alarmed, and Jabin king of Hazor gathers together the tribes of the Lebanon. He calls to his assistance the kings of the Jordan Valley, the kings of the Sharon Plain, with the Jebusites and all who are willing to come. The battle takes place near the Waters of Merom. The Canaanites are furnished with chariots and horses, and the Israelites, being without such helps, are prudently posted on the hills. We read that Joshua “fell upon” the foe, down the slopes, and drove them before him, on the west as far as to Zidon, and on the east to the valley of Mizpeh: he burned their chariots, hamstrung their horses, and again “left none remaining.” So now the north as well as the south of the hill country is subdued; Joshua settles four tribes in these northern districts, and the Sea of Galilee becomes a Hebrew lake.

There is no need any more to come back all the way to Gilgal, for no foe is left to dispute their occupation anywhere, and the armies only return as far as Shiloh, in the centre of the hills, and there set up “the Tent of Meeting.” Nor is there need any longer to detain the two and a half tribes from the east of Jordan who have come across to assist in the conquest. So the soldiers of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh are sent back to their homes. “And when they came to the region about Jordan that is in the land of Canaan” they built there an altar--“a great altar to see to,” and which was afterwards called “Ed” or Witness. Their brethren were so indignant at this action--regarding it as heathen worship, and rebellion against the God of Israel--that they thought of going to war against them. However, they prudently sent envoys to demand an explanation, and the explanation was perfectly satisfactory.

Where was this altar of Ed, so conspicuous from afar? If we stand in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, and look northwards, we cannot fail to see, at a distance of 20 miles, a conical peak called _Kurn Surtabeh_, standing out like a bastion at the eastern end of a chain of blue hills. This peak is 1500 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and 2500 feet above the Jordan, near to it. From the top of it one may see the Dead Sea to the south, the Sea of Galilee to the north, the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim in the centre. According to the Jewish Talmud this mountain was a beacon station, where the fires were lighted, in connection with fires on the Mount of Olives, to signify the advent of the new moon. Conder, some years ago, pointed out that this mountain would be in the path which the two and a half tribes should naturally take in going from Shiloh to their home in Gilead, the fords of the Jordan being a little way north of it. On the top of this almost inaccessible peak he found some huge masonry work of ancient character, which he was inclined at the time to regard as remnants of the altar. And when the identification seemed to be thus nearly complete, it appeared to be confirmed by the discovery that the north side of the mountain, the only accessible side is called “the Ascent of Ed.” But the identification was disputed.

It was pointed out that Josephus says the altar was on the east side of Jordan, and that the Scripture narrative makes the tribes to cross the river at “the passage of the Children of Israel,” which is supposed to describe the Jericho ford and not the ford at Damieh. For these reasons Conder now regards his idea as “only a conjecture.”

It may be reasonably questioned, however, whether the identification should be given up. We are told in Joshua xxii. 10, that the altar, so high to look to, was in “the region about Jordan that is in the land of Canaan”--“in the forefront of the land of Canaan, in the region about Jordan, on the side that pertaineth to the Children of Israel.” The historian takes pains to distinguish between the two sides of the river, and if one side pertained to the Children of Israel more than the other, it was surely not the eastern side. Moreover, the altar was in the land of Canaan, and the eastern boundary of Canaan was the Jordan itself (see Gen. x. 19, and page 107 of this volume). The altar was “in the forefront of the land of Canaan,” at the extreme of its eastern side, and therefore close by the Jordan. The Hebrew faced the rising sun, and spoke of the south as the right hand, the north as the left, so that his forehead or forefront was to the east. It was apparently because the supposed idolatrous altar was set up on territory belonging to the western tribes that those tribes felt so insulted. The east of Jordan was unclean, but the western country was “the possession of the Lord.” “Come across”, they said, “into the Lord’s land, if you will; but if you come, do not build rebel altars” (v. 19). Further, the object of the two and a half tribes, according to their apology and explanation, was to have a memorial in that western land from which the Jordan seemed to cut them off.

Two and a half tribes being settled east of Jordan, three tribes north of the Plain of Esdraelon, and one in the Plain itself, the remainder of the country is divided between the remaining five tribes and a half.

In the Book of Joshua the boundaries of the tribes are given with the greatest minuteness, but it was impossible for us to trace them with any accuracy before the topographical survey was carried out. Many of the villages by which the border lines passed were lost, in some cases the sites were displaced; but as soon as these things were rectified the boundaries could again be drawn.

The blessing which Jacob pronounced upon his sons, according to Gen. xlix., was true to the position of the tribes in their several districts; and their position determined in some degree their conduct and their fortunes. When Joshua dismissed the two and a half tribes, they went away to their tents: living on those green hills east of Jordan, they remained for a long time a pastoral people. Reuben, bordering on Arabia, and being “unstable as water,” became hardly distinguishable from an Arab tribe. Gad, of whom Jacob said, “a troop shall press upon him,” was subject to attacks from troops of Bedouin plunderers. Divided from their brethren by the great gorge of the Jordan, the eastern tribes were separated also in their fortunes. The three northern tribes of Asher, Zebulon, and Naphtali were also partially cut off by the great plain of Esdraelon. They got into communication with the northern nations from whom they were less separated geographically, and they entered into alliance with Phœnicia. Solomon gave away twenty of their cities to Hiram, king of Tyre, apparently thinking that the allegiance which was so nearly gone, might as well be parted with altogether. These northern tribes, like those east of Jordan, seldom came to the assistance of their brethren in any great crisis. When Deborah required help from all quarters she had to complain that Asher “sat still at the haven of the sea,” and Reuben “sat among the sheep-folds, to hear the pipings for the flocks.” In the south--in a country half a desert, the lair of wild beasts--Judah “couched as a lion,” and it was dangerous to rouse him up. Ephraim, the most powerful of the tribes, secured to himself the choicest portion of the hill country. Manasseh, with territory on both sides of the Jordan, was “a fruitful bough by a fountain, whose branches run over the wall.” Little Benjamin, situated between the two powerful tribes of Ephraim and Judah, knew not which to be guided by, and was at last torn asunder in the effort to follow both. Yet Benjamin, on whose eastern border we still find a valley, called the Wolf’s Den, was “a wolf that ravineth” and often “devoured the prey.” Issachar “saw the land that it was pleasant”--namely, the fruitful plain of Esdraelon,--and “bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant under task-work,” cultivating the ground.

The tribe of Levi had no district of country assigned to it, but in place thereof forty-eight cities, scattered throughout the tribes. Of these cities two have been identified by the agents of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

The recovery of the site of _Gezer_ we owe to M. Clermont Ganneau. It is in the lowland district, and off the road to the right as one goes up from Jaffa to Jerusalem, about 8 miles past Ramleh. The modern name, _Tell Jezer_, represents the Hebrew exactly. Gezer had been a royal city of the Canaanites; and it was in a position commanding one of the important passes. The Levitical cities had around them a margin of 1000 cubits. In 1874 M. Ganneau was shown by the peasantry a rude inscription deeply cut in the flat surface of the natural rock. It appears to be in Hebrew letters, and to read “Boundary of Gezer.” He afterwards found a second, similar to it; and from their position he judges that the city lay four-square, and had its angles directed to the cardinal points of the compass. It was this city of Gezer which was reconquered from the Philistines by Pharaoh, and handed over to Solomon as a dowry with his daughter.

We owe to Major Conder the discovery of another of these Levitical cities, namely, the royal city of Debir, south-west of Hebron, together with the “upper and nether springs of water” (at a distance), which Caleb gave to his daughter, on the occasion of her marriage (Judges i. 15). The modern name is Dhâheriyeh, and the place is evidently an ancient site of importance, to which several old roads lead from all sides. Another name for this place was Kirjath-Sepher, which means Book-Town; so that it must have been noted for books or writings of some kind.

In tracing the boundaries of the tribes the surveyors found reason to look upon the Book of Joshua as “the Domesday Book of Palestine.” The towns in a district are all mentioned together, and in such consecutive topographical order that many Scripture sites could be identified from this very circumstance. The tribal boundaries are shown to be almost entirely natural, namely, rivers, ravines, ridges, and the watershed lines of the country. It is a remarkable fact, however, that while the descriptions of tribal boundaries and cities are full and minute in the territory of Judea, and scarcely less so in Galilee, they are fragmentary and meagre within the bounds of Samaria. There is no account of the conquest of Samaria, nor does the list of royal cities include the famous Samaritan towns of Shechem, Thebez, Acrabbi, and others. No list of the cities of Ephraim and Manasseh is included in the topographical chapters of the Book of Joshua, nor any description of the northern limits of Manasseh, and only a very slight one of the southern border, where that tribe marched with Ephraim.

Thus far, in our description of Joshua’s conquest, we have seen how his good generalship secured possession of the hills--the central hills only, and not the plains. The Canaanites still dwelt in the plains round about. The Philistines held the south-west. The Phœnicians were secure in the north. The outlying nations of Edom and Moab were undisturbed. In this condition things remained for a long time; and the Israelites, occupying the hills only, were not likely to become a race of sailors. Nor did they desire it, if we may judge from such notices of the sea as occur in the Bible, for they seem to show the awe with which the writers regarded its rolling waves. And besides, the coast was not suited for it. The principal harbour was Tyre; but that was in Phœnicia, which was hardly to be included in Palestine. South of Tyre we have Accho, Caipha, and Joppa; but these are by no means good and convenient as ports. Accho is the best, but has been the least used, although Napoleon considered it “the key of Palestine.” It was to Joppa that the Phœnicians brought timber in rafts for the building of Solomon’s Temple; and thence it was carried by road to Jerusalem. It was at Joppa that Jonah found a ship going to Tarshish, and took his passage.

If the sea coast was little available for the Israelites, the Jordan was still worse: a narrow, shallow, rocky stream, ending in the Dead Sea, it led to nowhere, and was useless for purposes of commerce.

Naturally the capitals of the country were inland--Jerusalem in the centre of the hills, and afterwards Shechem. The main road of the country ran from south to north, along the watershed, the backbone of highest ground. But since the hills were comparatively unfruitful, the dwellers there suffered more in times of famine than the dwellers in the plains. In times of war they had some advantage, and preferred to fight from the hillsides, as they did not possess chariots and horses, and could have found no use for them. Their enemies said of them,--“their God is a God of the hills; He is not a God of the plains!”

Accordingly, the enemies of Israel sought to entice them to fight in the plains, and sometimes partially succeeded. The Plain of Esdraelon became a great battle field. The Great Plain, as distinguished from the Plain of Acre, the Valley of Jezreel, and others which are continuous with it, measures about 14 miles by 9. It is described by Conder as one of the richest natural fields of cultivation in Palestine, or perhaps in all the world. “The elevation,” he says, “is about 200 to 250 feet above the sea, and a Y-shaped double range of hills bounds it east and west, with an average elevation of 1500 feet above the plain on the north-east. On the north-east are the two detached blocks of Neby Duhy (Little Hermon) and Tabor, and on the north-west a narrow gorge is formed by the river Kishon, which springs from beneath Tabor, and, collecting the whole drainage of this large basin, passes from the Great Plain to that of Acre. On the east of the plain the broad Valley of Jezreel gradually slopes down towards Jordan, and Jezreel itself (the modern Zerin) stands on the side of Gilboa above it. On the west are the scarcely less famous sites of Legis, Taanach, and Joknean, while the picturesque conical hill of Duhy, just north of the Jezreel Valley, has Shunem on its south slope, and Nain and Endor on the north. Thus seven places of interest lie at the foot of the hills east and west; but no important town was ever situated in the plain itself.”

The first great struggle in this plain was against Sisera, captain of the host of Jabin, king of Canaan, who came with nine hundred chariots, and threatened the Israelites near the sources of the Kishon. The topography of the Scriptural episode of the defeat and death of Sisera has been hitherto very little understood. The scene of the battle has often been placed in the south-west of the great Esdraelon plain, and the defeated general has been supposed to have fled a distance of 35 miles over the high mountains of Upper Galilee. But this is contrary to what we know of the general character of the Biblical stories, the scenes of which are always laid in a very confined area. The kings of Canaan assembled in Taanach and by the waters of Megiddo, but it was not at either of these places that the battle was fought. Sisera was drawn to the river Kishon (Judges iv. 7), and the conflict took place in the plain south-west of Mount Tabor.

The forces of the Israelites were posted on the side of Mount Tabor. At a signal from Deborah they rushed down the slope and attacked the foe. At that moment a terrible storm from the east sent sleet and hail full into the face of the enemy. They turned and fled along a line at the base of the northern hills, where a chain of pools and springs, fringed with reeds and rushes, marks, even in the dry season, the course of the Kishon. The rain converted the volcanic dust of the plain into mud, and clogged the wheels of the chariots. The water pouring down from the hills swelled the stream, and “the river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river the river Kishon.” The remainder fled to Harosheth, now only a miserable village (_El Harathiyeh_), named from the beautiful woods above the Kishon at the point where, through a narrow gorge, the stream, hidden among oleander bushes, enters the Plain of Acre.

The flight of Sisera himself was in an opposite direction--to the Plain of Zaanaim, or rather Bitzaanaim, “the marshes,” _i.e._, the marshy springs east of Tabor--the neighbourhood of _Bessum_. The Kedesh of the passage is probably a site so called south of Tiberias; and the tent of Heber the Kenite would thus have been spread on the open plateau within 10 miles of the site of the battle.

The next great struggle in this plain was one upon which the Survey of Palestine has thrown some new light, enabling us to follow the fugitives in their retreat, and to fix some sites which are named in the narrative. The fruitfulness of the Great Plain has been, in our own times and all through the ages, an irresistible attraction to the Bedouin from the east of Jordan. Pressed by war or famine, they have crossed the Jordan at the fords near Beisan, poured up the Valley of Jezreel, and covered the plain with their tents and camels. The peaceful husbandmen have laboured, only to be periodically plundered and oppressed. Thus in 1870 only about a sixth part of the beautiful corn land was tilled, and the plain was black with Arab “houses of hair.” But the Turks wrought a great and sudden change; they armed their cavalry with the Remington breech-loading rifle, and the Bedouin disappeared as if by magic. In 1872 nine-tenths of the plain was cultivated, nearly half with corn, the rest with millet, sesame, cotton, tobacco, and the castor-oil plant. It was, of course, to be expected that when external troubles had weakened the Government, the lawless Nomads would again encroach and levy toll as before. Accordingly, in 1877, Fendi el Fais and the Sukr Arabs once more invaded the plain and levied blackmail on the luckless peasantry. Thus it has ever been; for the history of Palestine seems constantly to repeat itself from the earliest period recorded, in a recurring struggle between the settled population and the Nomads.

Some time after the days of Barak and Deborah, the historian tells us, “the children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years.” These marauders from the east came across the Jordan, bringing their cattle and their camels, and pitching their black tents. They came as locusts for multitude, eating up the fruitful country and levying tribute on the villages, all the way round to Gaza. The Israelites fled in alarm, taking refuge in the mountains, and existing in dens and caves. No sustenance was left them, either for sheep, or ox, or ass; and “Israel was brought very low because of Midian.” Perhaps they might have borne the oppression longer, only that their lives were not safe from the sword, and they smarted under losses inflicted on their families. In some petty struggle, perhaps it was, in which one brother came to the assistance of another, that seven fine young men, sons of Joash of Abiezer, were put to death by Zeba and Zalmunna the Chiefs of Midian. But there was one son left, whose name was Gideon, and he was a man of valour. He felt this oppression to be insupportable: the spirit of the Lord came upon him, and after destroying the altar of Baal in his native place, he blew a trumpet, and raised a revolt. His own tribesmen (the men of Menasseh) gathered to his standard, and the men of the northern tribes also, even Asher assisting on this occasion.

Gideon “pitched beside the Spring of Harod, and the camp of Midian was on the north side of them, in the valley.” The Bible narrative appears to show that the spring was in the neighbourhood of Gilboa, being towards the south of the Valley of Jezreel. “It is very striking,” says Conder, “to find in this position a large spring with the name ’_Ain el Jem’ain_,’ or ‘fountain of the two troops’ and there seems no valid objection to the view that this is the Spring of Harod.”

Gideon went down upon the enemy in the midnight darkness, leading three hundred men, who carried concealed torches, as well as trumpets. The sudden sounding of trumpets and flashing of lights spread consternation among the Midianites; they fought suicidally, every man’s hand was against his brother, and they fled down the Valley of Jezreel. It was some 10 miles or more to the fords of the Jordan. At the fords they divided, Zeba and Zalmunna, the sheikhs, passing over, while Oreb and Zeeb, the lesser chiefs, continued their journey on the western side. Presumably they were hoping to get across at the great ford opposite Jericho; but Gideon sent word to the men of Ephraim to intercept them, and they did so. Gideon himself crossed at the northern fords, pursuing Zeba and Zalmunna, as far as Karkor, and when he had captured them he brought them back to Penuel. “Then said he to them, ‘What manner of men were they whom ye slew at Tabor?’ And they answered, ‘As thou art, so were they; each one resembled the children of a king.’ And he said, ‘They were my brethren, the sons of my mother: as the Lord liveth, if ye had saved them alive, I would not slay you.’”

The men of Ephraim “slew Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb.” These two names signify the _Raven_ and the _Wolf_--not unnatural names for the chiefs of Nomad tribes--and Conder has discovered these names in the Jordan valley, a little north of Jericho. There is a curious conical chalk hill called ’_Osh el Ghurab_, the “Raven’s Peak,” and near to it a lesser hill with a valley, known as _Tuweil edh Dhiab_, the “Wolf’s Den.” The executions, if they took place on these elevations, would be in sight of all the people in the plain; and afterwards the heads were carried across to Gideon, who was now beyond Jordan.

But victory was not always given to the Israelites in the Plain of Esdraelon. In the days of King Saul the Philistines, having been twice beaten in the hills, determined to try their fortune in the plains. Under the leadership of Achish, king of Gath, they marched northward, round the promontory of Carmel, and took up their position at Shunem, under “Little Hermon.”[18] Saul was posted on Mount Gilboa, but had no confidence in his strength. In his distress, indeed, he actually paid a night visit to the witch of Endor, although Endor was north of “Little Hermon,” and he had to go past the Philistine camp to reach it. The next morning the battle went against him: the Israelites were positively driven up the slope of Gilboa and slaughtered on the heights, which should have been their natural battle-ground. David, when he heard of it, felt the humiliation of it, or at least the depth of the misfortune, and his dirge for Saul and his son opens with the words, “Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places! How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath” (2 Sam. i.).

The head of Saul was sent round to Ashdod, to the temple of Dagon, the Philistine Fish-god. The armour of Saul was dedicated to the goddess Ashtoreth, in the city of Bethshan, not very far from the scene of the battle. We may judge that Bethshan was still in possession of the Canaanites. The bodies of Saul and his sons were fastened to the wall of Bethshan. But the men of Jabesh Gilead, east of Jordan, a city which Saul had once befriended (1 Sam. xi.), came across in the night and took them away. After burning them in Jabesh, they buried the bones under a tamarisk tree; and thence, at a later opportunity, David fetched them away and buried them in the family tomb in Benjamin.

We read in Scripture of “Bethshan and her daughter towns” as belonging to the tribe of Manasseh (1 Chron. vii. 29). A black mound at the modern Beisan represents the Bethshan or Bethshean of the text. On this natural fortress stood the citadel. The ruins have been planned by Conder; and his drawings will be found in the Memoirs of the Survey. Not far from Beisan are the ruins of a Roman bridge across the Jordan--the highway to Gadara. In the plain of Beisan, as we learn from Mr Trelawney Saunders, are twenty-four _tells_, scattered all over the upper and lower terraces. They still bear distinctive names; and Mr Saunders feels no doubt that they are the sites of former habitations, scenes of domestic happiness and abundant wealth. Moreover, he surmises that the life and happiness of the district may be restored almost as rapidly as they were obliterated, when once the civilisation and power of the West becomes conscious of the connection between Oriental prosperity and that of its own manufacturing populations. “These _tells_,” he says, “probably mark the substantial and lordly centres of villages, the latter more or less extensive, and readily levelled with the ground. They denote the populous character of the region, when a strong government restrained the plundering Ishmaelites, and protected instead of robbed people. The _tells_ are more indicative of a large population than the remains of such a ‘splendid’ and ‘noble’ city as Beisan, when it was either Jewish Bethshan or heathen Scythopolis; with its dominating citadel, temples, hippodrome, theatre, baths, monument, and bridge.” If there be any truth in this view of the matter we may expect interesting results from an exploration of these _tells_. Conder describes the locality as one of the best watered in Palestine, and (in April) literally streaming with rivulets from some fifty springs.

The death of Saul brought David to the throne. But David had previously gone through an adventurous experience, the story of which is intimately connected with localities that are mentioned, and requires a knowledge of the topography fully to appreciate. “The desert of Judah,” says Conder, “was no doubt as much a desert in David’s time as it is now. Here he wandered with his brigand companions as ‘a partridge on the mountains.’ Here he may have learned that the coney makes its dwelling in the hard rocks. Here, in earlier days, he tended the sheep, descending from Bethlehem, as the village shepherds of the present day still come down, by virtue of a compact with the lawless Nomads, and just as Nabal’s sheep came down from the highlands under agreement with the wild followers of the outlaw born to be a king. I do not know any part of the Old Testament more instinct with life than are the early chapters of Samuel which recount the wanderings of David. His life should only be written by one who has followed those wanderings on the spot; and the critic who would imbue himself with a right understanding of that ancient chronicle should first with his own eyes gaze on the ‘rocks of the wild goats’ and the ‘junipers’ of the desert.”

Conder declares that we have now so recovered the topography of David’s wanderings that the various scenes seem as vivid as if they had occurred only yesterday. First, we have the stronghold of Adullam, guarding the rich corn valley of Elah; then Keilah, a few miles south, perched on its steep hill above the same valley. The forest of Hareth lay close by, on the edge of the mountain chain where Kharas now stands, surrounded by the “thickets” which properly represent the Hebrew “Yar”--a word wrongly supposed to mean a woodland of timber trees.

Driven from all these lairs, David went yet further south to the neighbourhood of Ziph.... The treachery of the inhabitants of Ziph, like that of the men of Keilah, appears to have driven David to a yet more desolate district, that of the Jeshimon, or “Solitude,” by which is apparently intended the great desert above the western shores of the Dead Sea, on which the Ziph plateau looks down. As a shepherd-boy at Bethlehem, David may probably have been already familiar with this part of the country, and the caves, still used as sheep-cotes by the peasant herdsmen, extend all along the slopes at the edge of the desert.

East of Ziph is a prominent hill on which is the ruined town called Cain in the Bible. Hence the eye ranges over the theatre of David’s wanderings: the whole scenery of the flight of David, and of Saul’s pursuit, can be viewed from this one hill.

The stronghold chosen by the fugitive was the hill Hachilah, in the wilderness of Ziph, south of Jeshimon. “This, I would propose” (says Conder) “to recognise in the long ridge called El Kôlah.... On the north side of the hill are the ‘Caves of the Dreamers,’ perhaps the actual scene of David’s descent on Saul’s sleeping guards.”

Pursued even to Hachilah, David descended farther south, to a rock or cliff in the wilderness of Maon, which was named “Cliff of Division” (1 Sam. xxiii. 2-8). Here he is represented as being on one side of the mountain, while Saul was on the other. Now, between the ridge of El Kôlah and the neighbourhood of Maon there is a great gorge called “the Valley of Rocks,” a narrow, but deep chasm, impassable except by a detour of many miles, so that Saul might have stood within sight of David, yet quite unable to overtake his enemy; and to this “Cliff of Division” the name _Malâky_ now applies, a word closely approaching the Hebrew Mahlekoth. The neighbourhood is seamed with many torrent-beds, but there is no other place near Maon where cliffs, such as are to be inferred from the word Sela, can be found. “It seems to me pretty safe, therefore” (says Conder) “to look on this gorge as the scene of the wonderful escape of David, due to a sudden Philistine invasion, which terminated the history of his hair-breadth escapes in the South Country.”

To return to Adullam. The famous hold where David collected “every one that was in distress and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented,” was, according to Josephus, at the city called Adullam (Ant. vi. 12, 3). This city was one of the group of fifteen situated in the Shephelah or Lowlands (Josh. xv. 35). The term Shephelah is applied to the low hills of soft limestone which form a distinct district between the maritime plain and the central line of mountains. M. Clermont Ganneau was the first explorer who found the name Adullam still in use; but Major Conder also, on finding it among the names which Corporal Brophy had collected, set out to examine the site.

The great Valley of Elah (Wâdy es Sunt) is the highway from Philistia to Hebron; and divides the low hills of the Shephelah from the rocky mountains of Judah. Eight miles from the valley-head stands Shochoh, and Wâdy es Sunt is here a quarter of a mile across: just north of this ruin it turns round westward, and so runs, growing deeper and deeper, between the rocky hills covered with brushwood, becoming an open vale of rich corn land, flanked by ancient fortresses, and finally debouching at the cliff of _Tell es Safi_. About 2½ miles south of the great angle near Shochoh there is a very large and ancient terebinth--it is from _elah_ the “terebinth” tree that the valley gets its name--and near it are two ancient wells, with stone water troughs round them. South of the ravine is a high rounded hill, almost isolated by valleys, and covered with ruins, a natural fortress, not unlike the well-known _tells_ which occur lower down the valley of Elah. “This site seems to be ancient” (says Conder), “not only because of the wells, but judging from the caves, the tombs, and the rock quarryings which exist near it.”

Below the hill, and near the well, there are ruins which are called _’Aid el Ma_, and this is radically identical with the Hebrew Adullam. “But if this ruined fortress be, as there seems no good reason to doubt it is, the royal city of Adullam, where, we should naturally ask, is the famous cave? The answer is easy, for the cave is on the hill. We must not look for one of the greater caverns, such as the Crusaders fixed upon in the romantic gorge east of Bethlehem, for such caverns are never inhabited in Palestine; we should expect, rather, a moderate-sized cave, or (considering the strength of the band) a succession of ‘hollow-places.’ The site of Adullam is ruinous, but not deserted. The sides of the tributary valley are lined with rows of caves, and these we found inhabited, and full of flocks and herds. But still more interesting was the discovery of a separate cave on the hill itself, a low, smoke-blackened burrow, which was the home of a single family. We could not but suppose, as we entered this gloomy abode, that our feet were standing on the very foot-prints of the Shepherd King, who here, encamped between the Philistines and the Jews, covered the line of advance on the corn fields of Keilah, and was but 3 miles distant from the thickets of Hareth.

“The hill is about 500 feet high.... There is ample room to have accommodated David’s four hundred men in the caves, and they are, as we have seen, still inhabited.

“It is interesting to observe that the scene of David’s victory over Goliath is distant only 8 miles from the cave at _’Aid el Ma_.”

When David became king of all Israel, he made it his first great object to capture Jerusalem. There might be several reasons for this. In the first place, his capital hitherto had been Hebron, a city which was not sufficiently central. Secondly, the border line between Judah and Benjamin ran right through Jerusalem; the city was partly in the territory of one tribe, partly in the other; Saul was a man of Benjamin, while David belonged to Judah; so that there were jealousies between these two tribes, which might be healed if David could make the city his capital. Thirdly, Jerusalem had proved itself to be a strong city, well-nigh impregnable. Joshua had not taken it, as he took the other cities of the Gibeonite league--it has defied the arms of Israel for four or five centuries--and therefore, if David can capture it, he will possess a redoubtable stronghold. Jerusalem, therefore, was besieged and taken. Secure in Jerusalem, David extended his conquests on every side, subduing Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites, and Midianites; placing garrisons in the towns of Syria, and even extending his rule as far as the river Euphrates. Of all these countries Philistia alone comes into the survey of Western Palestine.

Gaza, the capital of Philistia, still exists as an inhabited city, and is very picturesquely situated, having a fine approach down a broad avenue from the north. It rises on an isolated hill, about 100 feet above the plain, and bristles with minarets. The population is given by Conder as eighteen thousand, including sixty or seventy houses of Greek Christians. The town is not walled, but the green mounds traceable round the hill are probably remains of the ancient enclosure. The new mosque, built some forty or fifty years ago, is full of marble fragments, from ancient buildings which were principally found near the sea-shore. East of the Serai is the reputed tomb of Samson; and south-east of the city is a hill called the Watch-tower, to which place, according to tradition, Samson carried the gates of Gaza. A yearly festival of the Moslems is held there.

North-east of Makkedah, Ekron still stands, on low rising ground--a mud hamlet, with gardens fenced with prickly pears. Conder says there is nothing ancient here.

At Azotus, or Ashdod, one of the Philistine cities, is a large mound, with columns cropping up out of the ground on the outskirts of it. Mr Trelawney Saunders, the geographer, has described the site in his “Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.” Ashdod, on a hillock (alt. 140 feet), at the western end of the plain of Zeita, is now separated from all that remains of its port, by sand-downs 3 miles in breadth. The site is occupied by the present village of Esdud, with eighteen hundred people, but the remains of this primeval city, once so strong and mighty, are so few and insignificant that one is tempted to suppose the greater part of the city may be buried beneath the sands. If so, they may be in a superior state of preservation, and would perhaps repay for digging out.

Gath, the birth-place of Goliath, has long been a lost city, but is now reasonably identified with _Tell es Sufi_ at the mouth of the _Wady_ or water-course which runs from near Hebron, past Adullam and Shochoh, and westward towards Ashdod. It is the site of the Crusading fortress of Blanche Garde, which was built in 1144 A.D. as an outpost for defence against the people of Ascalon. It is now a mud village with olives beneath it, standing on a cliff 300 feet high, which is burrowed with caves. The Rev. Henry George Tomkins takes _Tell es Sufi_ to be the “mound of Safi,” and regards Safi as a personal name. In a learned paper in the _Quarterly Statement_, October 1886, he argues that Safi was a brother of Goliath’s, and if so this is an additional reason for regarding _Tell es Sufi_ as Gath.

Ascalon, “the bride of Syria,” is still called Askalon. The fortifications and walls are in ruins, and the site of the city is a garden planted with fruit trees and vegetables. The walls are the ruins of battlements, erected by Richard Lionheart in 1191 A.D., in place of those destroyed by Saladin, and doubtless with the same materials. They are half buried by the great dunes of rolling sand which are ever being blown up by the sea breeze from the southward. The whole interior of the site is covered with rich soil, to a depth of about 10 feet, and the natives find fragments of fine masonry, shafts, capitals, and other remains of the old city, by digging into it. Of Herod’s beautiful colonnades nothing now remains. The Crusaders had little respect for antiquities, and the innumerable granite pillar shafts which are built horizontally into the walls are no doubt those originally brought to the town by Herod.

Conder says, “We heard a curious tradition at Ascalon. A tomb had been opened by the peasantry, near the ruin, some thirty years ago. Under a great slab, in the eastern cemetery, they found a perfectly preserved body, with a sword by its side, and a ring on its finger. The dead eyes glared so fiercely on the intruders that they let fall the slab; and as one of the party soon after died, they came to the conclusion that it was a _Nebi_ or Prophet whom they had disturbed, and the place has thus become surrounded with a mysterious sanctity.”

In the days of David’s grandson the kingdom of the Israelites divided in two, and began the new phase of its existence as the parallel monarchies of Israel and Judah. The disruption, it may be said, was owing to the fact that Ephraim envied Judah, and Judah vexed Ephraim. Naturally, the split, when it came, took place along a line between these two powerful tribes and right athwart the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin was torn asunder--Jericho and Bethel going to the northern kingdom, while other towns went to the south. Jerusalem continued to be a capital, but it was now the capital of the kingdom of Judah only; and Shechem was chosen as the capital of the northern kingdom, which was called Israel.

But these northern monarchs had their pleasant summer residences as well, corresponding to Windsor or Versailles. One of these was Samaria, another was Tirzah, a third was Jezreel.

The Samaria of the present day is a large and flourishing village of stone and mud houses, standing on the hill of the ancient Samaria. The most interesting ruins now to be seen there are those of Herod’s colonnade to the west of the modern village. The colonnade seems to have surrounded the whole city with a kind of cloister, which was 60 feet wide, and the pillars 16 feet high. The city of Samaria of the Old Testament has disappeared. But the kings of Israel were buried here, and the ancient tombs may yet perhaps come to light.

Tirzah, famous for its beauty, is the only Samaritan town mentioned among the royal cities taken by Joshua. Conder finds it in the present mud hamlet of Teiasir. It was delightfully situated on a plateau where the valleys begin to dip suddenly towards Jordan.

Conder found numerous rock-cut sepulchres burrowing under the houses; and he thinks that some of them are probably those of the early kings of Israel, before the royal family began to be buried in Samaria.

Jezreel is now called Zerin, and the site of Ahab’s palace is now a village, surrounded by heaps of rubbish. The position of Zerin is remarkable. On the south the ground slopes gently upwards towards the site, and on the west also the place is accessible. But on the north the ground is extremely rugged and falls rapidly, and on the east occurs a saddle separating the high point on which the town stands from the Gilboa chain, the road ascending from the valley and the neighbourhood of ’Ain Jalud. The top of the hill is 284 feet above this spring, which is visible beneath. Thus the site is naturally strong, except on the south-west. It is conspicuous from the plain, and it commands a view down the valley to Beisan and the trans-Jordanic ranges. Major Conder, climbing up to the village, was struck by the absence of any traces of antiquity. But the houses stand on a mound of rubbish, and in this a great number of ruined cisterns exist.

Ahab from his palace in Jezreel looked down upon Naboth’s vineyard. There seem to be no vineyards in the neighbourhood now; but on the east and south-east there are rock-cut wine-presses on the rugged hills, where no doubt the “portion of the field of Naboth” and his vineyard are to be placed. The commanding position of the place would also enable Joram’s watchmen, looking down the Valley of Jezreel, to observe the two horsemen sent forward by Jehu coming up from Bethshan--the dust raised, the gleam of their armour--and Jehu himself following and “driving furiously.” It was by “the fountain which is in Jezreel” that Saul had pitched before the fatal battle of Gilboa.

Here at Jezreel, with Mount Carmel in the distance, we are reminded that the sacrifice which Elijah offered did not take place on the point of Mount Carmel nearest the sea, as commonly imagined, but much nearer to Jezreel, on a part of the range where our explorers discovered a perennial spring, that would supply the prophet with water when the rest of the country was dry. Stationed at this spot, he might see the palace of Jezebel in the city of Jezreel. From this position he sent his servant a few minutes’ distance, to the highest point of the range, where he could overlook the sea and perceive the little cloud rising. Then said Elijah, “Get thee down, Ahab, there is a sound of abundance of rain”--get thee down Ahab, or the river of Kishon will sweep thee away! Elijah himself, amidst the rushing storm, ran before the chariot of the monarch, down the slope, and as far as the entrance of Jezreel. And soon thereafter, fearing Jezebel’s threats, he journeyed swiftly by the north and south road, nor stopped till he got to Beersheba. This is the extremity of Judah, and here he leaves his servant behind him and plunges into the wilderness, for he is going to “Horeb, the Mount of God,” to seek a revelation.

Elijah was commissioned to call Elisha to be his successor; and Elisha in his turn made frequent resort to Mount Carmel. When the Shunamite woman came to him there, her journey lay across the plain, and he could see her approaching (2 Kings iv. 24). Shunem, now called _Sulem_, stands on the southern slope of _Neby Duhy_ (Little Hermon), and is only a mud hamlet, with cactus hedges and a spring. West of the houses there is a beautiful garden, cool and shady, of lemon trees, watered by a little rivulet, and in the village is a fountain and trough. Westward the view extends as far as Carmel, 15 miles away. Thus the whole extent of the ride of the Shunamite woman, under the burning noon-tide sun of harvest-time, is visible. Conder remarks that if the houses of that time were no larger than the mud-cabins of the modern village, it was not a great architectural undertaking to build a little chamber for the prophet; and the enumeration of the simple furniture of that chamber--the bed (perhaps only a straw mat), the table, the stool, and the lamp--seems to indicate that it was only a little hut that was intended. Another point may be noted: how came it that Elisha so constantly passed by Shunem? The answer seems simple; he lived habitually on Carmel, but he was a native of Abel Meholah, “the Meadow of Circles,” a place now called _’Ain Helweh_, in the Jordan Valley, to which the direct road led past Shunem down the Valley of Jezreel.

Before we leave the Plain of Esdraelon, which is also called the Plain of Megiddo--and because of its typical character as the field of great battles, is used in the Apocalypse as the scene of the great final struggle, _Ar-Mageddon-_--let us glance at the fruitless effort of Josiah, king of Judah, to stop the march of Pharaoh Necho. It was in the last days of the Jewish monarchy, when the northern kingdom had been already destroyed, that Palestine was first exposed to the disastrous fate which involved her in so long a series of troubles from this time forward--that of being the debatable ground between Egypt and the further East; first under the Pharaohs and the rulers of Babylon; then under the Ptolemies and Seleucidae. “In the days of Josiah, Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates” (2 Kings xxiii. 29), possibly landing his army at Accho (says Dean Stanley), more probably, as the expression seems to indicate, following the track of his predecessor Psammetichus, and advancing up the maritime plain till he turned into the plain of Esdraelon, thence to penetrate into the passes of the Lebanon. King Josiah, in self-defence, and perhaps as an ally of the Assyrian king, went against him. Josiah would march by the watershed road, northward from Jerusalem, and descend into the plain, perhaps by Dothan. The engagement took place in “the Valley of Megiddo” (2 Chron. xxxv. 22). The Egyptian archers in their long array, so well known from their sculptured monuments, shot at King Josiah, as he rode in state in his royal chariot, and he was sore wounded, and placed in his reserve chariot, and carried to Jerusalem to die. Dean Stanley remarks that all other notices of the battle are absorbed in this one tragical event, and the exact scene of the encounter is not known.

The position of Megiddo is not fixed very definitely in the Bible narrative. But a broad valley (as we see above) was named from the city, and the “waters of Megiddo” are also spoken of. Major Conder believes he has found the place and the name, in the large ruined site of Mujedda, at the foot of Gilboa--a mound from which fine springs burst out, with the broad valley of the Jalud river to the north. Otherwise Megiddo has been located on the _Mukuttà_, near _Lejjun_. Mr Trelawney Saunders considers it an objection to Conder’s site that it is separated from the river Kishon and the town of Taanach, and cannot be made to fit in with the account of Ahaziah’s flight from Jezreel (2 Kings ix. 27). The king, having been smitten at “the going up to Gur,” near Ibleam, fled to Megiddo, where he died. But if Megiddo were in the Plain of Bethshean he would hardly be likely to do this, seeing that Jehu his enemy made his furious advance upon Jezreel through that plain. Besides, he fled by the way of the “garden house,” En-gannim (the modern _Jenin_); the garden-like character of which spot is still preserved--and _Jenin_ would not be on the route between _Zerin_ and _Mujedda_.

[_Authorities and Sources_:--“Tent Work in Palestine.” Major Conder. “Introduction to the Survey of Western Palestine.” By Trelawney Saunders. “Survey of Western Palestine.” P. E. Fund. “Twenty-one Years’ Work in the Holy Land.” P. E. Fund.]

9. _Sacred Sites of the Hebrews._

In order to pass in review the sites selected by the Israelites for places of worship, it will be convenient to go back to the time when we find the tribes encamped at Gilgal, on their first entrance into the country.

That Mount Sinai should remain sacred after the giving of the Law was to be expected; and we have just now seen that its sacredness could attract Elijah after many centuries. The Israelites, when they left the wilderness, and came to sojourn in the outskirts of Moab, were attracted by the shrine of Baal-Peor; but they were made to feel that this was wrong, and the ambassadors of the western tribes refer to it as a warning when they expostulate with their brethren about the altar called Ed (Joshua xxii. 17). In passing over into Canaan, they carried the Lord’s tabernacle with them; where that rested was holy ground, and it was not intended that any rival site should be tolerated.

The ark of the covenant--the chest which contained the agreement or treaty between Jehovah and his people--was set down at Gilgal, the tabernacle or holy tent was erected over it, and Gilgal became a sacred place. Afterwards, when the hill country had been conquered, the ark and tabernacle were brought to Shiloh, and then Shiloh became a sacred place. Shiloh is now called _Seilun_, and here the ruins of a modern village occupy a sort of _tell_ or mound. The position of the place is remarkably retired, shut in between high, bare mountains. A deep valley runs behind the town on the north, and in its sides are many rock-cut sepulchres. “The site being so certainly known,” says Conder, “it becomes of interest to speculate as to the exact position of the tabernacle. Below the top of the hill, on the north of the ruins, there is a sort of irregular quadrangle, sloping rather to the west, and perched above terraces made for agricultural purposes. The rock has here been rudely hewn in two parallel scarps for over 400 feet, with a court between, 77 feet wide and sunk 5 feet below the outer surface. Thus there would be sufficient room for the court of the tabernacle in this area. From the Mishna we learn that the lower part of the tabernacle erected at Shiloh was of stone, with a tent above. There are, however, two other places which demand attention as possible sites, one being, perhaps, a synagogue, the other a little building called the ‘Mosque of the Servants of God.’”

According to the Jews, the ark and tabernacle remained at Shiloh three hundred and sixty-nine years--so long that Shiloh was regarded as only second to Jerusalem in sanctity. In the disastrous days of Eli the ark was sent into the battlefield and captured by the Philistines, who carried it to Ashdod, to the temple of Dagon. When Dagon fell down before it they sent it away again, and it was, after some adventures, recovered by the men of Kirjath Jearim. Eventually David brought it to Mount Zion, and then Zion became a sacred place. Solomon said, “the places are holy whereunto the ark of the Lord hath come” (2 Chron.