XLIII. mountains all around it. Remains of ancient buildings, tombs, and quarries CHAPTER indicate a large and important city, though it is now a miserable hamlet, occupied by a few hundred sour and stupid Moslem peasants. We of course drank of the famous fountain, deep under the perpendicular rock in the vale to the south-east of the village. eonites. Those old Gibeonites did indeed "work wilily" with Joshua. Nothing Devices of could be better calculated to deceive than their devices. I have often thought the Gib that their ambassadors, as described in the narrative, furnish one of the finest groups imaginable for a painter; with their old sacks on their poor asses; their wine-bottles of goat-skin, patched and shrivelled up in the sun, old, rent, and bound up; old shoes and clouted upon their feet; old garments, ragged and bedraggled, with bread dry and mouldy-the very picture of an over-travelled and wearied caravan from a great distance. It is impossible to transfer to paper the ludicrous appearance of such a company. No wonder that, having tasted their mouldy victuals, and looked upon their soiled and travel-worn costume, Joshua and the elders were deceived, especially as they did not wait to ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord.1 This El Jib was 66 a great city; as one of the royal cities, greater than Ai, Greatress and all the men thereof were mighty." Their treaty, therefore, with Israel of Gibeon. very naturally struck terror into their neighbours, and hence that combination of kings against them which brought up Joshua in all haste to their relief. It must have been somewhere in those open plains east of Jib that the great battle took place, and the memorable rout and flight of the Canaanitish host down Wady Yalo (Ajalon), when Joshua said, in the sight of Israel, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon,"2-an event fit to immortalize any site on earth! Jîb is well supplied with water, not only by the fountain you mentioned, but in the wet season there is also a considerable pond in the plain below the village. It was probably on this account, in part at least, .that the Tabernacle The Tawas established there for many years; and in part, I suppose, because the plains around Jîb afforded suitable camping-ground for the vast multitudes who came thither to keep the great feasts of the Lord. bernacle at Gibeon The existence of this little lake, I suppose, is referred to in Joshua xviii. 14, in drawing the north-west border of Benjamin from near Beth-horon to Kirjath-jearim. Thus it reads: "And the border was drawn from thence, and compassed the corner of the sea southward, from the hill that lieth before Beth-horon southward." It has always appeared to me impossible that the line should have made a grand sweep from Beth-horon, without an intervening point, clear down to the sea, and back again to Kirjath-jearim. But if we suppose that this little lake near El Jîb is the yam, or sea, in this passage, all difficulty vanishes. This explanation is confirmed, as I think, by two other Waters of passages. In Jeremiah xli. 12 we read, "Then they took all the men, and Gibeon. PART IV. Beit Ur. Wady went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon." And in 2 Sam. ii. 13 it is stated that " Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met together [with Abner's army] by the pool of Gibeon, and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool." It is clear that this pool, which separated the two companies, must have been a pond or small lake. The Hebrew sometimes has that meaning, and the identical word in Arabic is now applied to Lakes IIûleh and Tiberias, and even to the Dead Sea. I suppose, therefore, that this was actually the sea at the corner of which the border of Benjamin passed, and thus a curious obscurity is cleared away from the face of our good old Bible. From El Jîb the road to Beth-horon, now called Beit Ur, winds round the head of the great Wady Yalo, the Ajalon where the moon stood still. The village of Beit Ur occupies a conical hill just at the top of the ascent from Bethhoron the lower, which is one hour below it toward the north-west. Both these places abound in marks of antiquity, and were celebrated, particularly in the wars of the Maccabees. The ascent between them is very rocky, and along it were fought by those leaders of Israel some of their bloody battles with the great armies of the kings of Antioch, The profound Wady Sûleyman, which passes on the north of Gibeon, may Saleyman. have derived its name from the fact, that Solomon was in the habit of going to Gibeon to sacrifice before the Tabernacle, which was there until after he had completed the Temple. "That was the great high place: a thousand burntofferings did Solomon offer upon that altar."1 There the Lord appeared unto him in a dream by night, and God said, "Ask what I shall give thee." His petition was for wisdom. And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing; and because he neither asked for long life, nor for riches, nor for the life of his enemies, therefore he gave him not only a wise and understanding heart, so that there was none like him, neither before nor after, but also added what he had not asked, both riches and honour. Alas! that such a glorious beginning should have ended in foul disgrace and apostasy! Solomon loved many strange women, and when he was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, Moloch, the abomination of the children of Ammon, and Chemosh, the abomination of Moab,2 whose temples he reared "On that opprobrious hill Right against the temple of God— After lunching at the fountain of Gibeon, we struck over the country to the east, sometimes without any road, and always along most rocky paths, leaving Ramah on our left, and also Jîb'a, the ancient Gibeah, which we could see Anathoth from different points, and descended to "poor Anathoth," the city of Jere ANATHOTH, MICHMASH, AND OTHER SITES, 671 miah There is no reason to question the identity, and I am always pleased to CHAPTER find certainty when I am groping about among these ancient ruins. The prospect east and south-east toward the Dead Sea and the Lower Jordan is one of the most dreary that my eye ever rested on, and again and again it reminded me of the author of "Lamentations," who gazed upon it with tearful eyes two thousand five hundred years ago. 'Anātā is a small, half-ruined hamlet, but was once much larger, and appears to have had a wall around it, a few fragments of which are still to be seen. It took us just one hour to reach our cottage from the hill above the village. Several wadies along the path run down to the valley of the Jordan, and the road sometimes keeps round the head of them, and at others passes through them. I did not note their names. proach. All those places which you passed without visiting are mentioned in the Sennache. 10th chapter of Isaiah, with several others to the north of them. The prophet is rib's apdescribing the approach of Sennacherib's army: "He is come to Aiath, he has passed to Migron; at Michmash he has laid up his carriages: they have gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled. Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth." Thus one can follow, step by step, the invading host of Assyria, until they reach “ poor Anathoth," and shake their` hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, from Nob, which was at the north end of this Mount of Olives. sites. No neighbourhood in Palestine is more crowded with interesting Biblical Biblical associations than this over which you have passed so hastily. I should like to spend a day wandering over the rough hills between Er Ram, Gibeah, Michmash, Rimmon, Bethel, and Beer. Perhaps we might stumble upon the site of Ai, which Joshua's curse has hidden from all the world; for he "burned Ai, and made it a heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day."2 It must be somewhere between Michmash and Rimmon, a region greatly cut up with gorges and ravines; and as I passed from Beit-în toward Michmash, I could easily understand how Joshua's ambush of five thousand men could lie hid between Ai and Bethel.3 Some of our Jerusalem friends identify Ai with a conspicuous mound which I saw from a distance. It bears now no other name than Tell, which you may translate "heap ;" and as for "desolation,” it remains complete unto this day. No doubt traces still remain, could we but find them, of that great heap of stones which Joshua raised over the carcass of Ai's hapless king.* fowl. May 14th. Is it not remarkable that there is no allusion to the common Barn-door barn-door fowl in the Old Testament, and that in the New they are only mentioned in connection with Jerusalem? In Matthew Christ thus addresses this wicked city: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and Isa. x. 28-32. 2 Josh. viii. 3. 3 Josh. viii. 12. Josh. viii 29. PART IV. Cock ye would not!"1 Matthew,2 Mark,3 and Luke refer to the crowing of the cock when Peter denied his Lord; and Mark mentions cock-crowing as one of the watches of the night in connection with Christ's prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem.5 I have often thought of this remarkable silence in regard to one of man's most common associates and greatest comforts, especially in this country. The peasants, not to say citizens in general, would scarcely know how to live without fowls. Their eggs, and they themselves, answer the place of meat for most of their meals. They swarm round every door, share in the food of their possessors, are at home among the children in every room, roost over head at night, and, with their ceaseless crowing, are the town-clock and the morning bell to call up the sleepers at early dawn. If they were thus common among the ancient Hebrews, it seems strange that they should never have been mentioned. Is not the cock-crowing a very indefinite division of time? I have noticed cowing throughout our wanderings that they seem to crow all night long. That is true, particularly in bright warm nights; and what is curious, too, I have heard a single cock crow so often and continue so long that I gave over counting from mere weariness. It is, however, while the dawn is struggling into day that the whole band of chanticleers blow their shrill clarions with the greatest energy and emulation. It seems to be an objection to the sign given to Peter, that a thousand cocks in Jerusalem might crow at any hour. For him, however, it was sufficient that in the house of Caiaphas there was but one which gave forth its significant note in immediate response to his cruel and cowardly denial of his Lord, and it answered the purpose intended perfectly. Peter heard, and then "went out and wept bitterly." We must not be very severe upon the Armenians for attempting to preserve the identical spot where this incident occurred, since the Evangelists record the fact with so much particularity. 1 Matt. xxiii. 37. 2 Matt xxvi. 34. 3 Mark xiv. 30. shrines WHEN you were laying down rules for visiting these sacred localities with Sacred safety and advantage, I felt and remarked that the whole truth had not been stated, and I now resume the subject in connection with my visit to the Holy Sepulchre, and inquire whether it is not possible that we carry our disgust at what is doubtful or puerile much further than is necessary or profitable. For example, do not the purest and best feelings of our nature prompt us to preserve and protect from desecration such sites as this of the Holy Sepulchre? And then, again, look at another aspect of the matter. Suppose that on our arrival here we inquired for the tombs of prophets and kings who rendered this place so illustrious, and were answered by the people that they knew nothing about them; that they had never heard of such men as David and Solomon ; that there were neither tradition nor memento of their ever having lived and reigned in this city. Strangers from a distance, like you, come to us with these stories, but neither we nor our fathers ever heard of them, nor is there any locality in our vicinity that has now, or ever had, any such associations connected with it." 66 due to sacred sites. And if our most diligent inquiries proved fruitless-there really were no Reverence Calvary at Jerusalem, no Garden of Gethsemane, no Bethlehem, no Olivet, no Bethany-would we not, upon opening our New Testaments, look into each other's face with perplexity and blank dismay? On the other hand, what is it now that gives such supreme gratification to our visit at Jerusalem? Is it not these very names, clinging to these sacred sites and scenes with invincible tenacity, through wars and destructions absolutely without parallel, and repeated down long centuries of most dismal darkness and confusion worse confounded? And because, in the death-struggle to hold fast these sacred land-marks, ignorant men or crafty priests have perverted them to selfish purposes, or pushed becoming reverence and love over into sinful superstition, are we therefore to scout the whole thing, and scowl upon these cherished sites, |