northern limit of the Holy Land, and became a chief seat of Jeroboam's idolatry, who there set up one of the golden calves. The city was conquered, with other towns, by the Syrians,' and in the days of Eusebius was still a small village. The name, however, is, perhaps, best known, in the almost proverbial expression, 'from Dan to Beer-sheba,' as denoting the whole extent of the Promised Land.

"The site of this ancient city is to be found at the place Tell el-Kâdy, which is described under Sources of the Jordan.' Near the fountains there mentioned, are no ruins; but Burckhardt speaks of ruins of ancient habitations, about a quarter of an hour north; and the hill over the fountains appears to have been built upon, though nothing is now visible. By some writers, Dan, or Laish, has been confounded with Bâniâs, or Cæsarea Philippi."-See ROBINSON's Researches, vol. iii. pp. 351,

358.

MOUNT HERMON, SHENIR, SIRION, SION, OR SIHON. (JEBEL ESH-SHEIKH.)

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"AND we took at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto mount Hermon ; (which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion; and the Amorites call it Shenir ;) . . .”—Deut. iii. 8, 9.

"... Mount Sion, which is Hermon."-Deut. iv. 48. 66 So Joshua took all that land . . . even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon.' .”—Joshua xi. 16, 17.

"Now these are the kings of the land, which the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land on the other side Jordan towards the rising of the sun,

1 1 Kings xv. 20.

from the river Arnon unto mount Hermon, and all the plain on the East. Sihon, king of the Amorites and the coast of Og, king of Bashan

that

reigned in mount Hermon."-Joshua xii. 1—6.

"These are the nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel by them . . . the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-Hermon, unto the entering in of Hamath."-Judges iii. 1—3.

"And the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land: they increased from Bashan unto Baal-Hermon and Senir, and unto mount Hermon."1 Chron. v. 23.

"He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.”—Psalm xxix. 6.

"O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar."-Psalm xlii. 6.

"The north and the south, thou hast created them : Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.”—Psalm lxxxix. 12.

“.. As the dew of Hermon."-Psalm cxxxiii. 3,

[Joshua xi. 3, xiii. 5-11; Canticles iv. 8.]

The hill Jebel-Sheik is called in Scripture Mount Hermon, and is mentioned as the northern boundary of the land of Israel on the other side Jordan, and as part of the possession of Gad and Reuben, as over the valley of Lebanon, and as the bounds of the country of the Hivites in Mount Lebanon, that extended from Baal-Hermon to Hamath, which name of Baal seems to refer to the heathen worship that was carried on here; perhaps to the same deity that was adored at Baal-beck, which is not a great way from the foot of it, and probably in that very valley of Lebanon, which is said to be under this hill. The description also of Hermon, as a mountain of snow, agrees with its

present appearance, being always covered with it; and interpreters of Scripture have called it "The Mountain of Snow."

The passage in Psalm cxxxiii. 3, has always been

considered a difficult one. interpretation of it:

Pococke gives the following

"If any one," he says, "considers that Hermon is elsewhere actually called Sion, he will doubtless be satisfied that the most natural interpretation of the Psalmist would be to suppose, though the whole might be called both Hermon and Sion, yet that the highest summit of this mountain was in particular called Hermon, and that a lower part of it had the name of Sion; on which supposition, the dew falling from the top of it down to the lower parts, might well be compared in every respect to the precious ointment upon the head that ran down unto the beard, even unto Aaron's beard, and went down to the skirts of his clothing."-PoсOCKE's Observations on Palestine, pp.

74, 75.

Seen from a distance, Dr. Robinson describes Mount Hermon as 66 a lofty dark blue mountain;" and, again, when viewed from the hill over Nazareth, he calls it "the majestic Hermon with its icy crown."

"In the lofty mountain north-east of Galilee, called Jebel Esh-Sheikh," he writes, we have the majestic Hermon of the Old Testament, which is put as the northern limit of the territory of Israel beyond Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto Mount Hermon. The Psalmist couples it with Tabor, as the representatives of all the mountains of the Promised Land. Eusebius describes Mount Hermon as over against Paneas and Lebanon: Jerome learned from his Hebrew teacher that Hermon impended over Paneas; and in that day its snows were carried in summer to Tyre as a luxury. Mount Hermon bore also the name of Sion; was called by the Sidonians Sirion; and by the Amorites Shenir. . . Very early it received the

appellation of the ' snowy mountain.' The mountains on the plain of Esdraelon, sometimes called the Little Hermon,' have erroneously been considered by some travellers as the true Hermon of the Scriptures.'

"The usual estimate of the height of Jebel EshSheikh is 10,000 feet above the Mediterranean. The top is partially crowned with snow, or rather ice, during the whole year, which however lies only in the ravines, and thus presents at a distance the appearance of radiant stripes around and below the summit. In one part it is cultivated, and has several villages."See ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. iii. pp. 81, 190, 344, 345, 357.

ACCHO, ACRE, OR PTOLEMAIS. ('AKKA.)

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"NEITHER did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho."-Judges i. 31.

"And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren, and abode with them one day."-Acts xxi. 7.

Acre, anciently called Accho, is a sea-port, and fortified town of Palestine, about twenty-seven miles south of Tyre. It is situated on the coast of the Mediter