guage much more precise and minute than suits its figurative and poetic style.

"From generation to generation it (Edom) shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever: but the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it, and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation for dragons and a court for owls. There shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate." (Isaiah, ch. xxxiv.) "I have made Esau bare. Also Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and hiss at the desolation thereof. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighbouring cities thereof, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it." (Jer., chap. xlix.) "O Mount Seir, I am against thee. I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. I will make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off him that passeth out, and him that returneth. I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return." (Ezekiel, chap. xxxv.)

Such was the language uttered by the Jewish prophets while this doomed region was yet prosperous and powerful. It portrays a state of desolation and ruin the most absolute and irretrievable, such as probably no portion of the globe, once fertile and populous, now exhibits, with the single exception of Edom. These fearful denunciations and their fulfilment constitute an invulnerable argument in favour of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, and the present state of this once rich and beautiful region is a terrible monument of the Divine displeasure against wickedness and idolatry.

DOUBTFUL INTERPRETATIONS.

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Keith has laid special stress upon the declaration, "None shall pass through it forever and ever. I will cut off from Mount Seir him that passeth out, and him that returneth," and he has attempted to show that no traveller has passed through Edom with impunity, though a number have succeeded in visiting Petra, the ancient capital. Such a statement and interpretation is the more remarkable, as it is well known that tribes of Bedouins wander at large among these mountains, passing to and fro at pleasure, as the demands of their nomadic life may dictate. Such, probably, has ever been the case.

The import of these predictions would seem to be well satisfied by the utter annihilation of the immense Indian trade which centred at Petra, and the breaking up of the great lines of communication which united that celebrated mart with Jerusalem, Tyre, Gaza, Aila, and Egypt, and, through these places, with the whole civilized world. This, as it seems to me, is the obvious meaning of the prediction, though the more literal interpretation has served to fill some travellers with misgivings in approaching the sealed and forbidden region.

The language of Jeremiah, xlix., 16, "O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill," and that of Obadiah (v. 3), “Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high," is usually applied to Petra, and has even been adduced to settle the question, whether the numerous excavations in Wady Mousa were made for human habitations or for tombs. The context pretty clearly shows that the words of the prophets had no such reference. They are, no doubt, strikingly descriptive of the situation of Petra, in a deep fissure of the mountain, and, at the same time, elevated three thousand feet or more above the level of the sea, and not less than two thousand, perhaps, above Wady Araba. But they are equally applicable to the whole region of Mount Seir, in reference to

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TREES IN THE DESERT.

which they seem to have been used, at least by Obadiah. The deep valleys, bounded by high, steep cliffs, which pervade every part of the country, and which must always have contained the chief part of the population, are well described as "clefts of the rocks, and heights of the hill," as "high habitations."

April 4. After riding about one hour this morning, we came to a fountain called Ain Muridah. The water is brackish, and unfit to drink, but the eye is cheered with a green spot of grass and shrubs, that derive life and beauty from the moisture which it diffuses around. A few neglected palm-trees flourish here, and add to the agreeable surprise of the traveller. The acacia is more abundant in this part of the valley than I remember to have seen it before. It must not be thought, however, that where these or other trees are spoken of as abundant in Arabia, anything exists which is entitled to the name of a wood or grove. I do not think that, with the exception of the cultivated gardens belonging to the convent at Mount Sinai, and the palm groves of Acaba, I have ever seen as many as a dozen trees upon any one acre.

The Arabian acacia is full of thorns. It attains to no great height, has a spreading top, and the largest which I have seen do not exceed a foot in diameter. The timber is white, and very solid and durable; indeed, it seems quite incorruptible. It was probably the shittim-wood of the Scriptures, of which the ark and tabernacle were constructed.

A little before twelve o'clock we turned out of Wady Araba to the west, at a point which we were told was only eight hours from the Dead Sea, then indistinctly visible far to the north. As we advanced up Wady el Koora, a more plentiful, though still scanty verdure, adorned the slopes of the hills; for to this name, rather than that of mountains, the low ridges are entitled which mark the termination of

MOUNT HORMAH-KADESH BARNEA.

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the sandstone formation. At five P.M. we encamped in a broad valley, which the Arabs call Wady Fikara. A lofty pass in the mountains, called El Safa, was immediately before us, at the distance of about a mile. The rocky bed, now dry, of a broad mountain torrent runs through the length of the wady, from southwest to northeast. A clump of trees, laden with rich and very green foliage, stood on its bank; and a growth of shrubs and grass, still far from plentiful, imparted a decidedly verdant hue to the valley and the slope of the mountain.

This mountain, which stretches from the western shore of the Dead Sea, far to the left of our encampment, into the desert, is an important barrier upon this side of Palestine, and must have added greatly to its security against the hostile incursions of the wandering tribes of the neighbourhood, as well as against the more formidable attacks of the Edomites in the wars which took place between these two powers. It was, probably, in attempting to pass this great natural bulwark from Kadesh Barnea that the Israelites received the memorable repulse from the Amalekites and Canaanites, which was followed by their return into the wilderness and the forty years' wanderings (Numbers, xiv., 40-45).

Kadesh Barnea appears to have been situated at or very near the foot of the mountain. 66 They rose up early in the morning, and gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the Lord hath promised: for we have sinned." Moses remonstrated; "But they presumed to go up unto the hill-top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp. Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah."

This occurrence happened during the first visit of the Israelites to Kadesh Barnea, upon which point they march

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SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

ed directly from Mount Horeb. Nearly forty years afterward they returned to Kadesh Barnea, with a view, perhaps, of once more attempting to enter the land of promise over these mountains, though such a design is not expressly mentioned. They were again attacked by the Canaanites, who "took some of them prisoners" (Numbers, xxi., 1), but they were subsequently able to discomfit their enemies and destroy their cities. Hormah was also the scene of this battle. This second approach to their frontiers had provoked the attack by the inhabitants of the mountain, though an invasion from this quarter, if intended, had already been. abandoned, and the Israelites had taken up their march southward. They passed by Mount Hor and the Red Sea, evidently along Wady Araba to Acaba, and around the territories of Edom, through which they had been denied a passage.

It seems pretty clear that they had advanced upon Kadesh Barnea on their first visit by this same route along Wady Araba (Deut., i., 2). "There are eleven days' journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, unto Kadesh Barnea,” a passage which it will be difficult to understand if it does not refer to the march of the Israelites between these two points. These facts help to settle the position of Kadesh, and they seem to fix it near the base of the mountain range under which we encamped in Wady Fikara. It was on the boundary between Judah and Edom (Joshua, xv., 3, and Numbers, xx., 16), on or near the great thoroughfare of Wady Araba, along which the Israelites passed in their approach as well as in their departure, and, as we have seen, close to Hormah, the place, probably the mountain pass, which was the scene of their defeat by the Amalekites, and of their subsequent success. Kadesh Barnea may not improbably have been in some part of Wady Fikara, the broad valley that stretches along the base of this mountain.