BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTICES OF GAZA. 183 tar-about five hundred and fifty pounds, and equal to one camelload is transported to Cairo for four dollars and a half, though the journey takes fifteen days. Latterly a large trade in wheat, barley, and sesamum has sprung up with Europe, shipped mostly from Jaffa. With a harbor at hand, and a government to protect Gaza from the Bedawîn, it would rapidly rise in importance. It is admirably situated for trade with the eastern tribes of Arabs, and with Egypt. At no very distant day a railroad may pass down from the plains of northern Syria to Egypt, and then again Gaza, as the frontier city, will become populous and flourishing. Gaza is amongst the very oldest cities in the world. It has participated in all the vicissitudes of good and evil which have checkered the long and eventful history of this country. It is mentioned in almost every book of the Old Testament and often in the Apocrypha, once in the New Testament, and continually in Church history, and in the annals of the Crusades. It was a town before Abraham saw the Land of Promise, and now it is the largest city close to the sea-coast of Palestine. The Pharaohs and the Ptolemies held it as the gate-way to Asia and the East. To the conquerors of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia its possession was essential for their invasions of Egypt. It stopped the fiery career of Alexander for five months, and its burning ruins were finally extinguished by the blood of its brave defenders. Bonaparte conquered it at the beginning of this century, and from it the Egyptian army, under Ibrahim Pasha, took their final departure from Syria, at the dictation of the European powers, in 1840. Through numberless sieges and sacks of lesser note Gaza has held on to life, with a tenacity almost without a parallel, down to the present hour. The name occurs for the first time in Biblical history in the tenth chapter of Genesis,' amongst the cities on the border of the Canaanites; and in Joshua' it is mentioned that he smote all the people of the land unto Gaza, and also that it was one of the three cities in which alone Anakims still existed. In the distribution of the land it was assigned to Judah;* and after the death of Joshua it was actually conquered by that tribe; but they did not long keep possession of 1 Gen. x. 19. 4 Josh. xv. 47. 3 it, for when it again appears in sacred history, it is as a city of the Philistines,' and in connection with the romantic adventures and exploits of Samson.' It was here that Israel's great champion was imprisoned, and made to grind at the mill. To what an abject condition that renowned hero was reduced, To grind in brazen fetters under task, Who tore the lion as the lion tears the kid; Ran on embattled armies clad in iron, In scorn of their proud arms and warlike tools; Spurned them to death by troops? The bold Ascalonite Fled from his lion ramp; old warriors turned Their plated backs under his heel, Or, grovelling, soiled their crested helmets in the dust. Then, with what trivial weapon come to hand, The jaw of a dead ass his sword of bone, A thousand foreskins fell, the flower of Palestine, In Ramath-lechi, famous to this day. Then by main force pulled up and on his shoulders bore The gates of Gaza, post, and massy bar, Up to the hill of Hebron, seat of giants old. Thus Milton sings his glorious deeds. Yes, and with what shame, remorse, and horror he is made to bewail his unequalled folly in having divulged the secret gift of God To a deceitful woman **** Delilah, That specious monster, my accomplished snare, Who shore me, Like a tame wether, of my precious fleece, Am I not sung and proverbed for a fool By far the most wonderful exhibitions of his giant strength he ever made was in this city, not only in walking off with the gates to the top of yonder hill towards Hebron-though any one who 2 Judg. xvi. 1-3; 21-30. 11 Sam. vi. 17. OVERTHROW OF DAGON'S TEMPLE. 185 knows what the doors of a city gate are will not think this a small achievement-but chiefly in pulling down the vast temple of Dagon, by which he himself perished, with three thousand of his enemies. I looked at some of the old columns near the brow of Castle Hill with great interest, and fancied that they once formed part of Dagon's temple. It appears that, in addition to the three thousand upon the flat roof, "the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there;" and all were crushed together in one unparalleled calamity. Have you never felt it difficult to believe that such strength could reside in or be put forth by any combination of human bone and sinews? It was divine power acting through the limbs of Samson. Samson himself, according to Milton, was rather disposed to understate the gift: What is strength without a double share The edifice must have been of enormous size; and it is not easy for me to understand how the tearing of a column or two from so vast a temple could have brought the whole to the ground. The roofs in Gaza were then flat as they are now, and it does not require a very large space to contain three thousand people, standing as close as they can be packed. A further explanation may be found in the peculiar topography of Gaza. Most of it is built on hills, which, though comparatively low, have declivities quite steep. The temple was erected upon one of these, beyond a doubt, for such was and is the custom in the East; and in such a position, that if the central columns were taken out, the whole edifice would be precipitated down the hill in ruinous confusion. There is such a steep declivity on the north-east corner of the present city, near the old dilapidated castle and palace, and the houses in that vicinity have fragments of columns wrought into the walls and laid down as sills for their gates. Somewhere in that neighborhood, I suppose, the temple stood, and it coincides with this conjecture that the wely of Samson is in a garden a little east of it. 1 Judg. xvi. 27. It is one of those pleasant coincidences that here at Gaza, where we read in that ancient story that Samson "did grind in the prison," we still have the same operation ringing in our ears. The reason is, that this city has no mill-stream near it; there are no wind or steam mills, and hence the primitive apparatus is heard in every street. How do you understand the story of Samson and his three hundred foxes, as narrated in the fifteenth chapter of Judges? I have often heard it quoted as proof of the incredibility of some of the Bible narratives by sceptics, who deny the possibility of one man's catching so many of those animals. It is probable that jackals were also included, and these are even now extremely numerous. I have had more than one race after them, and over the very theatre of Samson's exploit. When encamped out in the plain, with a part of Ibrahim Pasha's army, in 1834, we were serenaded all night long by troops of these hideous howlers. But if we must limit Samson's exploit to ordinary foxes, even these are to be found here. It must be admitted, however, that the number seems not only large in view of the difficulty of capturing them, but also far too great for the purpose intended. The object was to set fire to the dry corn which covered the plains of the Philistines. Now, a spark would seem sufficient to accomplish this. During the summer months the whole country is one sea of deadripe grain, dry as tinder. There is neither break, nor hedge, nor fence, nor any cause of interruption. Once in a blaze, it would create a wind for itself, even if it were calm to begin with; and it would seem that a less number could have answered all the purposes of Samson; but to this it is obvious to remark that he meditated no limited revenge. He therefore planned to set the fields. of many towns and villages on fire at the same moment, so that the people would be confounded and bewildered by beholding the conflagration on all sides of them, and, each being intent on saving his own crop, no one could help his neighbor. Besides, the text implies that certain parts were already reaped, and this would produce interruptions in the continuity of the fields; and, also, we know not the methods of cultivation at that early period. Part of the land may have been permitted to lie fallow, or might have been THE THREE HUNDRED FOXES. 187 planted with "summer fruits," which, being green, would stop the conflagration, and render necessary a greater number of firebrands. As to the difficulty of capturing so many foxes, we must remember that Samson may have been judge or ruler of Israel at that time;' and if we take two or three other facts into account, it will not appear incredible that the governor of a nation could gather such a number of foxes when he had occasion for them. The first is, that in those days this country was infested with all sorts of wild animals to an extent which seems to us almost incredible. This is evident from many incidental allusions in the Bible; but the use of fire-arms has either totally exterminated whole classes, or obliged them to retire into remote and unfrequented deserts. No doubt, therefore, foxes and jackals were far more numerous in the days of Samson than at present. The second fact is, that, not having firearms, the ancients were much more skilful than the moderns in the use of snares, nets, and pits for capturing wild animals. A large class of Biblical figures and allusions necessarily presupposes this state of things. Job, and David, and all the poets and prophets continually refer, in their complaints, to snares, nets, pits, etc. We are justified, therefore, in believing that, at the time in question, the commander of Israel could, with no great difficulty, collect even three hundred foxes. He was not limited to a day or a week; and though it may be true that in the whole country there are not now so many killed in an entire year, yet this does not prove that this number could not have been then gathered by Samson from the territories of Judah, Dan, and Simeon, over which his authority presumably extended. We therefore require no correction of the text to render the whole account credible, nor need we call in the aid of miracles. It was merely a cunning device of Israel's champion to inflict a terrible chastisement upon his enemies. That it was felt to be a most serious calamity is shown by the cruel punishment inflicted upon the indirect cause of it. Not being able to reach Samson, they wreaked their vengeance upon his wife and all her house, and they destroyed them with the same element which had consumed their harvest. And when we remember that, according to Burckhardt, so great is the dread of fire in harvest 1 1 Judg. xv. 20; xvi. 31. 2 Judg. xv. 6. |