CHAPTER IX.

SAMSON’S COUNTRY.

On the 24th of September we left our pleasant camp at Bludân, and on the 29th we started southwards from Beirût, reaching Jaffa on the afternoon of the 3rd of October.

Thus, in a continuous march of five days along the sea coast, with pack-animals, we had come 144 miles--a distance equal to the total length of Palestine--and not one of our beasts was laid up, or refused its feed in the evening. Although I have, subsequently, ridden farther at a stretch than the distance we rode on any one day in this march, we never undertook another journey so trying to our animals.

Arriving at Jaffa on Friday, we rested until Monday, and then rode up to Jerusalem, where we remained until Friday, the 10th of October, and thence marched out, to re-commence the Survey from a camp at Beit ’Atâb, a village in the hills some twelve miles south-west of Jerusalem.

The new district is one of considerable interest from a Biblical point of view. It is called the ’Arkûb, or “ridge,” and consists of a long spur, about 2000 feet above the sea, with numerous smaller ridges branching off, and two important valleys to the north and south--the first the Valley of Sorek, the second that of Elah. Our camp was a place of considerable interest, if I am correct in identifying it with the Rock Etam, _in_ which Samson took refuge from the Philistines. West of us were Sorek, Zoreah, Eshtaol, and Bethshemesh; and east of us Bether, the scene of the great destruction of the partisans of Barcocheba, and Beth Zacharias, the theatre of the battle in which Eleazar, the Hasmonean, perished under the elephant.

Another site of yet greater interest was also perhaps recovered during this campaign, namely, the Emmaus of St Luke’s Gospel, sixty stadia from Jerusalem. This village has been variously identified with Kolonia, or with Kuriet el ’Anab; with ’Amwâs (in the fourth century) and with el Kubeibeh (since the 15th); but its name has never been found as yet at any site sixty stadia from Jerusalem--a distance which Josephus mentions, as well as the Evangelist, as that of the village Emmaus. (Luke xxiv. 13; B. J. vii. 6, 6.)

South-west of Beit ’Atâb will be found marked on the Survey the ruin of Khamasa, at a distance of about sixty stadia from the Holy City. The site is close to the village of Wâd Fukîn (Pekiin of the Talmud), with rock-cut tombs and other indications of antiquity.

The name Khamasa seems a natural corruption of Khammath, “a hot bath,” whence Emmaus is derived. The valley, with its abundant springs and gardens shady with dark orange foliage, seems an appropriate scene for the meeting of the unrecognised Master with His sad disciples; and one of the ancient Roman highways from Jerusalem passes close to the ruin. Here also a delightful retreat would have been found for the colony of Roman pensioners settled at Emmaus.

The reading of the Sinaitic MS. (160 stadia), mentioned in the first chapter of this volume, is abandoned, it may be noted, by most scholars as not agreeing with the words of Josephus, and as making the distance from Jerusalem to Emmaus too great to have been twice traversed by the disciples within the time specified in the Gospel.

Three places called Etam are noticed in the Old Testament. One a town of the south country (1 Chron. iv. 32), probably the place which we discovered in 1874, called ’Aitûn; the second, a city fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chron. xi. 6), near Bethlehem and Tekoa, and which has probably left its name in the spring called ’Ain ’Atân, near the so-called Solomon’s Pools. The third Etam does not seem to have been a town at all, but “a strong rock,” as Josephus calls it, in the territory of Judah, and is to be sought in that part of the country to which most of Samson’s exploits are confined. (Judg. xv. 8.)

About two miles west of Beit ’Atâb, a valley, running north and south, separates the high rugged mountains of the ’Arkûb from the low rolling hills of the Shephelah district, beyond which is the Philistine plain. This valley joins the great gorge which bounded Judah on the north, and forms a broad vale, half a mile across, filled with luxuriant corn, with a pebbly torrent-bed in the middle, and low white hills on either side. The vale is called Wâdy Sŭrâr (a Hebrew word, meaning “pebbles”), and is the ancient Valley of Sorek. The ruins of Bethshemesh lie on a knoll surrounded by olive-groves, near the junction of the two valleys above mentioned. On the south is Timnah, where Samson slew the lion; and on the north are the little mud villages, Sŭr’a and Eshû’a--the ancient Zoreah and Eshtaol--the hero’s home. The scene, looking up the great corn valley to the high and rugged hills above, is extremely picturesque, and is that which was spread before the eyes of the five lords of the Philistines, as they followed the lowing oxen, which bore the ark on the “straight way” from Ekron to Bethshemesh.

Here also, at the edge of the mountains, is the village of Deir Abân, supposed, by the early Christians, to mark the site of Ebenezer, the boundary of Samuel’s pursuit of the Philistines, and of the land held by the Jews at that period. On the north brink of the Vale of Sorek (in which also Delilah lived) there is a conspicuous white chapel on the hill, dedicated to Neby Samit, and close to the village of Zoreah. Confused traditions--which are, however, probably of Christian origin--connect this prophet with Samson, whose name is recognisable in other parts of this district Under the forms Shemshûn, Sanasîn, and ’Aly (as at Gaza), and also a little farther south as Shemsîn and Samat. It appears probable that the tomb now shown at Zoreah, is that known, to the Jews, in the fourteenth century as Samson’s; and the tradition, thus traced to other than monkish origin, is very possibly as genuine as that which fixes the tombs of Joseph and Phinehas near Shechem. Here, then, we are in Samson’s country, and close to Zoreah we should naturally look for the Rock Etam.

The substitution of B for M is so common (as in Tibneh for Timnah), that the name “’Atâb” may very properly represent the Hebrew Etam (or “eagle’s nest”); and there are other indications of the identity of the site. It is pre-eminently a “rock”--a knoll of hard limestone, without a handful of arable soil, standing, above deep ravines, by three small springs. The place is also one which has long been a hiding-place, and the requirements of the Bible story are met in a remarkable way; for the word rendered “top of the Rock Etam” is in reality “cleft” or “chasm;” and such a chasm exists here--a long, narrow cavern, such as Samson might well have “gone down” into, and which bears the suggestive name Hasûta, meaning “refuge” in Hebrew, but having in modern Arabic no signification at all.

This remarkable “cave of refuge” is two hundred and fifty feet long, eighteen feet wide, and five to eight feet high; its south-west end is under the centre of the modern village; its north-east extremity, where is a rock shaft, ten feet deep, leading down from the surface of the hill, is within sixty yards of the principal spring.

The identification thus proposed for the Rock Etam is, I believe, quite a new one; and it cannot, I think, fail to be considered satisfactory, if we consider the modern name, the position, and the existence of this remarkable chasm. Ramath Lehi, where the Philistines assembled when searching for Samson (Judg. xv. 9, 10), is naturally to be sought in the vicinity of Zoreah--Samson’s home, and of the Rock Etam where he took refuge.

A little way north-west of Zoreah, seven miles from Beit ’Atâb, is a low hill, on the slope of which are springs called ’Ayûn Abu Mehârib, or the “fountains of the place of battles.” Close by is a little Moslem chapel, dedicated to Sheikh Nedhîr, or “the Nazarite chief;” and, higher up, a ruin with the extraordinary title Ism Allah--“the name of God.” The Nazarite chief is probably Samson, whose memory is so well preserved in this small district, and the place is perhaps connected with a tradition of one of his exploits. The Ism Allah is possibly a corruption of Esm’a Allah--“God heard”--in which case the incident intended might be the battle of Ramath Lehi. Finally, we were informed by a native of the place that the springs were sometimes called ’Ayûn Kâra, in which name we should recognise easily the En Hak-Kore, or “fountain of the crier.” (Judg. xv. 19.)

To say that this spot certainly represents Ramath Lehi--“the hill of the jaw-bone”--would be too bold. It seems, however, clear that a tradition, of one of Samson’s exploits lingers here; the position is appropriate for the scene of the slaughter with the jaw-bone, and we have not succeeded in finding any other likely site.

Next in interest to the scenery of Samson’s life comes the site of Bether, the scene of the final overthrow of the Jewish power in Palestine by the Romans.

Bar Choseba, the Jewish leader, possibly took his name from the town Choseba, which is perhaps the modern Kueizîba. Claiming to be the long-expected King-Messiah, he assumed the title Bar Cocheba--“Son of the Star”--and it is remarkable that near Kueizîba, not far south-east of Bether, is the sacred tomb of Abu Nujeim, which in the vulgar dialect means “Son of the Star.” His last retreat was Bether, a strong fortress, near Jerusalem, and forty Jewish miles from the sea. For three years and a half the fanatical party here held out, and are said to have been finally betrayed by a Samaritan.

Dion Cassius relates that 580,000 Jews were massacred when the fortress fell. Rabbi Akiba, the friend and banner-bearer of Bar Choseba, was flayed alive, repeating with his last breath the noble words of the Shema, or morning prayer of the Temple: “Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord.” (Deut. vi. 4.) The valley below Bether is said, in the Talmud, to have run blood to the sea, and the Romans lost a great number of troops in the siege. The power of the Jews was broken for ever by a destruction which must have decimated the nation, and the seat of the Sanhedrim was withdrawn finally to Galilee, having been situated at Jamnia up to this date since the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.

The only site which seems really suited for the important fortress of Bether is the village Bittîr, on the south side of the valley of the same name, thirty-five English miles from the sea, and about five from Jerusalem. On every side, except the south, it is surrounded by deep and rugged gorges, and it is supplied with fresh water from a spring above the village. On the north the position would have been impregnable, as steep cliffs rise from the bottom of the ravine, upon which the houses are perched. The name exactly represents the Hebrew, and the distances agree with those noticed by Eusebius and in the Talmud. Nor must the curious title be forgotten, which is applied to a shapeless mass of ruin on the hill, immediately west of Bittîr, for the name, Khŭrbet el Yehûd--“ruin of the Jews”--may be well thought to hand down traditionally, among the natives of the neighbourhood, the memory of the great catastrophe of Bether.

The lofty but narrow ridge of the watershed which runs out south from Bittîr is the scene of another great tragedy in Jewish history. It is a bare and rocky hill, the summit of which, 3260 feet above the sea, is called Râs Sherifeh, and it extends to a lower saddle, upon which stand the ruins of Beit Skâria, the ancient Beth Zachariah. The ridge commands a fine view both east and west, being the very backbone of Judea. On the one side are the bare white hills round Bethlehem, and the fantastic peaks of the Judean Desert, with the great wall of the Moab mountains far beyond; on the other, the long spurs of the ’Arkûb, resembling waves, with gleams of white chalk, like the surf, on their sides.

From a military point of view, the position is a fine one. The great western road from the plain ran beneath the hill-top, gradually ascending, and was joined by a second main Roman highway from the south-west; while the Hebron road was also commanded on the other side. The very steep slopes on the east, and the precipices and deep valleys on the west, rendered the position impregnable on its flanks, and in rear the retreat to Jerusalem was easy, while abundant water was obtainable from neighbouring springs.

Such was the position in which Judas Maccabeus, with true military instinct, awaited the attack of Antiochus, emerging from the difficult defiles between Bethzur and Beth Zacharias, into the more open ground near the so-called Solomon’s Pools. The Jews were apparently not expert horsemen at this period of their history, any more than at the present day; and the superiority of the Greeks in cavalry and elephants must have been almost neutralised by the character of the ground. Few scenes have been more vividly described in history than the impetuous advance of the Greek army, the shining of their brazen helmets, and the ponderous wooden towers upon their elephants, the devotion of Eleazar, and the timely retreat of Judas.