the hill the traveller comes suddenly upon an area, once surrounded by limestone columns, of which fifteen are still standing, and two prostrate. These columns form two rows, thirty-two paces apart, while less than two paces intervene between the columns. They measure 7 feet 9 inches in circumference; but there is no trace of the order of their architecture, nor are there any foundations to indicate the nature of the edifice to which they belonged, Some refer them to the temple which Herod built in honour of Augustus, others to a Greek church which seems once to have occupied the summit of the hill. The descent of the hill on the W.S.W. side brings the traveller to a very remarkable colonnade, which is easily traceable by a great number of columns, erect or prostrate, along the side of the hill for at least one-third of a mile, where it terminates at a heap of ruins, near the eastern extremity of the ancient site. The columns are 16 feet high, 2 feet in diameter at the base, and 1 foot 9 inches at the top. The capitals have disappeared: but the shafts retain their polish, and when not broken, are in good preservation. Eighty-two of these columns are still erect, and the number of those fallen and broken must be greater. Most of them are of the limestone common to the region; but some are of white marble and some of granite. The mass of ruins in which this colonnade terminates towards the west is composed of blocks of hewn stone, covering no great area on the slope of the hill, many feet lower than the summit. Neither the situation nor extent of this pile favours the notion of its having been a palace; nor is it easy to conjecture the design of the edifice. The colonnade, the remains of which now stand solitary and mournful in the midst of ploughed fields, may, however, with little hesitation be referred to the time of Herod the Great,

and must be regarded as belonging to some one of the splendid structures with which he adorned the city. In the deep ravine which bounds the city on the north there is another colonnade. The area in which these columns stand is completely shut in by hills, with the exception of an opening on the north-east; and so peculiarly sequestered is the situation, that it is only visible from a few points of the heights of the ancient site, by which it is overshadowed. The columns, of which a large number are entire, and several in fragments, are erect, and arranged on a quadrangle 196 paces in length, and 64 in breadth. They are three paces asunder, which would give 170 columns as the whole number when the colonnade was complete. The columns resemble in size and material those of the colonnade last noticed, and appear to belong to the same age. These also probably formed part of Herod's city, though it is difficult to determine the use to which the colonnade was appropri ated. It was possibly one of the places of public assembly and amusement which Herod introduced into his dominions.

The modern representative of Samaria is a poor village of about thirty dwellings of the most humble description; and is governed by its own sheikh, who is himself a husbandman. In the walls of these dwellings, however, portions of sculptured blocks of stone are perceived, and even fragments of granite pillars have been worked into the masonry, while other vestiges of former edifices are seen occasionally scattered widely about.

30. Ahab......the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him.'-Hitherto the irregularities connected with the service of the golden calves set up by Jeroboam, as symbols of Jehovah, had formed the chief offence of Israel. But Ahab having married

Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of Tyre, he soon became entirely subservient to her influence, and gave the sanction of his authority to the introduction of the gods of other nations. The king built a temple in Samaria, erected an image, and consecrated a grove to Baal, the god of the Sidonians. Jezebel, earnest in promoting the worship of her own god, maintained a multitude of priests and prophets of Baal. In a few years idolatry became the predominant religion of the land; and Jehovah, and the golden calves as representations of him, were viewed with no more reverence than Baal and his image. It now appeared as if the knowledge of the true God was for ever lost to the Israelites; but Elijah the prophet boldly stood up, and opposed himself to the authority of the king, and succeeded in retaining many of his countrymen in the worship of Jehovah. The greater the power was which supported idolatry, so much the more striking were the prophecies and miracles which directed the attention of the Israelites to Jehovah, and brought disgrace upon the idols, and confusion on their worshippers. The history of this great and memorable struggle gives to the narrative of Ahab's reign an unusual prominence and extent in the Hebrew annals; and although a writer studious of brevity might at the first view be disposed to omit, as episodical, much of the history of Elijah the Tislibite, a little reflection will render it manifest that the prominence given to the history of this illustrious champion for the truth, was a designed and necessary result from the fact that the history of the Hebrew nation is the history of a church; and that although the history of this great controversy might be omitted or overlooked by those who erroneously regard the history of the Hebrews merely as a political history, in the other point of view it becomes of the most vital importance.

31. Ethbaal king of the Zidonians.'-He was also king of Tyre, which indeed is the title given him by Josephus and his authorities. He is mentioned by Menander under the name Ithobalus. Josephus, on the authority of the Tyrian annals, thus enumerates the kings of Tyre that succeeded Hiram, the contemporary of Solomon:—

After the death of Hiram, his son Balnazarus succeeded him on the throne, who lived forty-three years, and reigned seven. Next to him his son Abdastartus, who lived twenty-nine years, and reigned nine. He was murdered by the four sons of his nurse, the eldest of whom reigned twelve years. Then Astartus, the son of Deleastartus, who lived fifty-four years, and reigned twelve. Next, his brother Aserymus, who lived fifty-four years, and reigned nine. He was slain by his brother Pheletes, who then ascended the throne. He lived fifty years, and reigned eight months. Ithobalus, a priest of Astarte, put him to death, and assumed the sceptre. He lived sixty-eight years, and reigned thirty-two. His successor was his son, Badezorus, who lived forty-five years, and reigned six. His son and successor, Margenus, lived thirty-two years, and reigned nine. Pygmalion succeeded him, who lived fifty-six years, and reigned forty-seven. In the seventh year of his reign, his sister Dido fled, and built Carthage in Libya.'

According to this, the time from the death of Hiram to the beginning of the reign of Ithobalus is about fifty years; and from the death of Solomon to the beginning of Ahab's reign are fifty-seven years. Hiram, who was already king in the time of David, and reigned only thirty-two years, must have died at least ten years before Solomon, and consequently from the death of Hiram to Ahab, about sixtyseven years elapsed. If all these numbers are correct, Ahab must have married Jezebel after he became king. But allowance must be made for the mistakes which transcribers are apt to make in copying numerals. We here see the reason why Jezebel, the daughter of a priest of Astarte, was so zealous a promoter of idolatry; and as twentyone years after the death of Ithobalus, his grand-daughter Dido built Carthage and founded that celebrated commonwealth, we may judge what sort of a spirit animated the females of this royal family. Hence we shall feel less surprise that Jezebel should have exerted such an influence over the king and kingdom of Israel, and that her daughter Athaliah afterwards took possession of the throne of Judah.

And the fact that a son of the king's nurse was able to place himself on the throne confirms the opinion which has been more than once stated in this work, that in the East nurses held a very important rank in families. See Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth, v. 36.

Baal. This word (y) is not, so to speak, the proper name of a god, but a general title of honour (answering to master, 'lord,' or 'husband') applied to many dif ferent gods. Thus we have 'Baalim,' in the plural, for false gods collectively, and in some cases the title 'Baal' is applied to Jehovah himself (Hos. ii. 16). As the sun was the great and prominent object of ancient idolatry, we must understand that he is most usually intended by Baal, particularly when the name is mentioned with that of the moon and the host of heaven. In other cases, various local idols are intended, which may in most instances be resolved into different symbolizations or impersonations of the sun as representing the life-giving powers of nature. On the connection between Baal and Moloch, and on the probability of their representing two aspects of the same power, see the note on Lev. xviii. 20. In the instance of the Baal now before us, a great weight of testimony enables us to determine, with almost absolute certainty, that he was the Phoenician Melkart, called by the Greeks and Romans the Hercules of Tyre. It will be observed that Jezebel, who introduced and so jealously supported this worship, was the daughter of a Phoenician king-Eth-baal, the king of Zidon, which proves it to have been the Baal, or great god, of that people. It was therefore also the same Baal whose worship was at a later period introduced by Athaliah, the daughter of this sume Jezebel, into the kingdom of Judah. This single fact is so conclusive as to the identity of this Baal with that of Phoenicia, that we shall not dwell on others which might be adduced from similarity of worship, and from other circumstances. It will be observed, that both Jezebel and her father Ethbaal have the name of the idol incorporated with their

own.

Now, the Phoenician Baal was Melkart, whom the Greeks, according to their usual custom of identifying the gods of other nations with their own, confounded with Hercules, and distinguished as the Hercules of Tyre. In reality, however, he was a very different idol from their own deified hero of that name, and would appear to have been an impersonation of the sun. It was allowed even by the Greeks, that of all the gods and demi-gods who bore this name, he of Phoenicia was the most ancient of all. Those who wish to understand his reputed place in the genealogy of the Phoenician gods, may find it in the fragment of Sanchoniathon preserved by Eusebius, and it would be unintelligible separately from the context. It may suffice to state that, from the earliest foundation of Tyre, Melkart appears to have been the tutelar god of that city; and that his worship extended with the extension of that state, until it was prevalent in all the towns of the Phonician confederation, and was established in the most distant colonies of that most enterprising people. At Gades (Cadiz) the everlasting light was kept burning in his temple; and the Carthaginians, who retained his worship, for a long time sent to Tyre for his service a tenth part of their income. He almost became the universal god of the Phoenician people, at home and in all their dispersions; and some faint traces of his worship still subsist among the people of Malta.

The name which he bears (Melkart, Melkrat, or Melchrat), is usually understood to mean 'the king of the city,' i. e. Tyre; although Selden thinks it means the strong king.' We are, however, convinced in our own minds,

מלך ארץ that the name is equivalent to the Hebrew

melek eretz (the vowels not being essential), king of the earth,' which would naturally be applied to him as an impersonation of the sun.

Under the name of the Tyrian Hercules this idol was very famous. When Herodotus was in Egypt, he learned that Hercules was there regarded as one of the primeval gods of that country; and being anxious to obtain some

more explicit information on the subject, he undertook a voyage to Tyre, for the express purpose of seeking such information at the famous temple there dedicated to his worship. What he learned confirmed his impression as to the high antiquity of this god; for the priests informed him that the foundation of the temple was coeval with that of the city, which, they said, was founded 2300 years before that time. His attention was attracted by the various rich offerings in the temple, particularly by one pillar all of gold, and another of emerald, which by night shone with amazing splendour. Some particulars furnished by him and other writers, are interesting, as shewing some such analogies to the rites in the worship of the true God, as may have the more readily induced the Israelites to fall into the idolatry of their neighbours. No human sacrifices were offered to him: nor does the Bible anywhere lay this charge to the worship of Baal-no swine were sacrificed to him; though this was a common enough sacrifice to many other idols-the fire was always burning on his altar -the priests officiated barefoot-and kissing was among the acts of worship, which is in fact expressly mentioned in ch. xix. 18.

Many representations of the Phoenician Baal or Melkart are extant on coins. We give two, which will serve as fair average specimens: they are both in the British Museum, and are represented of twice the real size. The first, which deserves the most attention as being the most ancient, and in the style which the coins of Western Asia exhibit before improved by Greek and Roman taste, is of copper. It was found in the island of Cossyra (now Pantellaria), which belonged to the Tyrians. The second represents Baal as horned, vested in a cuirass, and bearing an enormous trident. Creuzer questions whether it may not represent Baal in the character of Lord of the seas, or of the infernal regions-we think the former-as this was the aspect under which their universal idol was of peculiar interest to the Phoenicians. The third figure, representing Baal with a terrific aspect, furnished with wings, and armed with a glaive in his right hand and a kind of gridiron in his left, strongly suggests the traditional idea of Moloch; and in fact Creuzer, from whom it is copied, suggests that it is no other than Baal-kronos, or Moloch,' being that aspect of Baal under which he is identified with Moloch. The fourth figure exhibits Baal or Melkart in that warlike aspect which probably suggested to the Greeks the identification of that idol with Hercules. He is here furnished with four legs, to signify, probably, the pervading energy of the sun and the rapidity of his course. All these are in a style of configuration which reminds one strongly of the rude idols of the South Sea islanders. The other is a Tyrian coin of silver (weighing 214 grains), and exhibiting a very striking head of the same idol, in a more modern and perfect style of art. One of the figures in the date is unfortunately obliterated; but the curator of the coins in the British Museum thinks that the complete date may have given 84 B.C. Coins of this description are sometimes

5. BAAL, OR THE TYRIAN HERCULES.--From a Silver Coin of Tyre in the British Museum. (Twice the size of the original.)

VOL. II.

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305

CHAPTER XVII.

1 Elijah, having prophesied against Ahab, is sent to Cherith, where the ravens feed him. 8 He is sent to the widow of Zarephath. 17 He raiseth the widow's son. 24 The woman believeth him.

AND 'Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, "As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.

14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD 'sendeth rain upon the earth. 15 And she went and did according to the

3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

7 And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

8

And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,

9 Arise, get thee to 'Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.

11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.

12 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that

1 Heb. Elijahu. Luke 4. 25, he is called Elias. 4 Luke 4. 26, called Sarepta. 5 Heb. giveth.

I

house, did eat many days.

16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake 'by Elijah.

17 ¶ And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.

18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?

19 And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.

20 And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?

21 And he 'stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.

22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.

24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.

3 Heb. at the end of days.

7 Heb. by the hand of.

8 Heb. measured.

Verse 1. 'Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead.'-It is commonly thought that this describes Elijah as a native of the town of Tishbe in Galilee (tribe of Naphtali), which the Apocrypha mentions as the birth-place of Tobit, and which is the only place of the name we know. But it does not follow that there was no place of the same or similar name on the

east of Jordan: for many places are mentioned only once in Scripture. It also rather tells against this interpretation, that the Jews in our Saviour's time believed that no prophet ever came out of Galilee. Furthermore, we doubt that the text describes Elijah as the native of one place and the inhabitant of another; especially when we consider

in which ,הַתִּשְׁבִּי מִתְּשָׁבֵי גִלְעָד that the original clause is

the word rendered the inhabitants' is the same as that rendered the Tishbite,' with the necessary difference in the servile prefix, and which, in this connection, the Septuagint understood as a proper name, giving the sense of the Tishbite, from Tishbe of Gilead.' This interpretation also agrees with Josephus, who says that Elijah was a prophet of Thesbon, a country of Gilead.

5. The brook Cherith.'-This appears to have been a winter torrent falling into the Jordan. There have been various opinions about its situation, particularly with reference to the side of the river on which it lay. In the first place, however, we suppose that if Elijah was apprehensive of Ahab's persecution, he would probably not have remained in the west of Jordan, but would have interposed that river between himself and his pursuers. We think this also is proved by the text, which places it 'before Jordan;' for, as explained in the note to 1 Sam. xiii. 5, before,' as a topographical indication, usually means eastward.' Upon the whole, it appears to us that the local traditions point out as fair an alternative as any that can be chosen. They place the retreat of the prophet near a brook on the east of the Jordan, a few miles below the ford near Bethshan. The district is finely broken into hill and vale; and being well wooded, and caverns being formed in the sides of some of the hills, it might furnish as secure a retreat to the fugitive prophet as could be well selected, unless he had retired to the mountains or deserts on the outskirts of the kingdom. Josephus indeed says that he went into the southern parts of the country, which does not apply to the situation mentioned, which is nearly east from Samaria.

6. The ravens brought him bread,' etc.-That the word Dy pointed by the Masoretes so as to be pronounced orebim (sing. oreb), means ravens, is unquestionable; and this therefore is the sense which our present pointed copies of the Hebrew Scriptures would convey. But the Masoretic points form a system of interpretation, which a very large number of Hebrew scholars refuse to regard as in every point conclusive. As most of our readers probably know, these points, representing the vowels, have the effect of fixing the particular significations of every word, just as to the consonants grn, the different senses of grain, grin, groan, etc., are given by the difference of the interposed vowels. These vowels thus restrict to a particular meaning a word the sense of which we should otherwise have to collect from the context, or from tradition. Now the Hebrew text was written and remained for many ages without vowel points; and these points were added by the Jewish doctors to fix the sense, which, without such a resource, was likely to lose its uniformity of interpretation after the race became dispersed among all nations. Now, although these doctors rendered a valuable service to Scriptural interpretation by their very arduous labour, and although their determinations, taken in the mass, doubtless convey the received and traditionary sense which was in their time assigned to the text, we are by no means bound in every instance to their decisions, particularly as in many cases they will be found, when many alternatives lay before them, to have chosen the most marvellous and strange rather than that which the context would most obviously suggest.

In the present case, the word Dy, as taken without the points, may mean ravens, or Arabians, or Orebim as a proper name, or strangers. Now it is certain that any person finding the word without vowels, and left to find the meaning from the context, would not for a moment think of ravens, but would fix on one of the other alternatives. As to the Orebim, there was a rock called Oreb (Judges vii. 25), the inhabitants near which may be supposed to have been so called; but this was on the other side of the Jordan. And with reference to the Arabians, nothing seems to us more likely than that encampments of Arabs (who still intrude their tents into the border or waste lands of settled countries) would, in this season of drought, have been formed on the banks of the brook Cherith, and (knowing the scarcity of water elsewhere) would have remained there as long as it afforded water to

them-that is, as long as Elijah remained. They were also, both from their condition and habits, the very persons in whose keeping the secret of his retreat was most safe-far more so than it would have been with any townsmen, subjects of Ahab. They were the least likely to know his person, and that he was sought after by the king: and if they did know, they were less than any other persons open to the inducements the king could offer, or the fears he could impose. If however the reader prefers to hold that the well-disposed inhabitants of a town called Oreb or Orbo, were the parties by whom Elijah was supplied with food, there are good authorities to support him in that conclusion, and to shew that a small town of that name did exist near at hand.

As to the ravens, we can easily conceive that, in an age when the love of the marvellous had become absolutely a mania among the Jews, they would by choice select of many interpretations the most unlikely and wonderful: and we feel as assured that, having the present alternatives before them, they would, from their instinctive marvellousness, fix on this, as we are that this is the very one which, of all the others, a man of plain understanding would reject. Indeed, the opportunity of determining the sense to ravens must to a Jew have been too delicious to be neg lected, since it afforded excellent opportunities of amplifying and illustrating the matter in his own peculiar vein.

The difficulties attending the common opinion have greatly embarrassed the commentators. Of this a sample may be given from the Synopsis Criticorum of the elaborate Poole: Unquestionably they brought meat dressed, not raw (Gen. ix. 1). You may ask, where did the ravens get it? Ans. 1, From the kitchen of king Ahab or of Jehoshaphat. 2, Or, it was prepared for him by some of the seven thousand, to whom God communicated the secret (1 Kings xix. 8). Or, 3, The angels perhaps exposed the meat in some certain place, whence the ravens brought it. Or, 4, He could provide who gave them such a commission, and who could effect this in a thousand ways. God prepared a table for his servant in the utmost penury. He did not take care that wine should be brought him.' Hales (who takes the view that the inhabitants of a place called Oreb are denoted) properly remarks on this- Such a comment, put out of a learned language into plain English, can only excite a smile, mingled with regret, that literary talent should be so wasted or misemployed on idle speculation.' We should add, that the Jewish interpreters have not only suggested the alternatives mentioned by Poole, but several others, among which one is, that the meat was a portion of that which Obadiah provided for the prophets whom he concealed in the caverns.

9. Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon.'-This place, called Sarepta in the New Testament, was one of the Phoenician towns which stood between Tyre and Sidon, and which, although less renowned than these two famous cities, were still noted in history for their industry and manufactures. Reland quotes several ancient writers who celebrate the wine of Sarepta. It was also famous in mythology as the spot from which Europa, the daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, was stolen and carried to Crete by Jupiter. The town stood near the sea, about nine miles south of Sidon, where its modern representative is found in a small collection of humble dwellings (forming a hamlet called Sarphan'), about half a mile from the sea-side. The ancient town would seem to have stood on the declivity of the hills on which this village stands, and on the space between them and the sea. There are no standing ruins; Sarepta having shared the fate of five or six other considerable cities in this quarter, the sites of which are only distinguishable by numerous stones, much dilapidated, but retaining marks of having been cut square by the chisel, with mortar adhering to them, and some fragments of columns. Antoninus Martyr, who seems to have been there in the seventh century, says that Sarepta then existed as a small town, inhabited by Christians, and where they failed not to shew the apart