ideas have measured this by English bedsteads; but when we reflect that neither the divan nor its covering is so nearly fitted to the size of the person as our bedsteads are, we may make, in the necessary dimensions of his bedstead, no inconsiderable allowance for the repose of this martial prince." But the statement of the inspired historian could not restrain the flights of Rabbinical imagination, and regardless of the sacred text they profess ed to illustrate, the Rabbins surpassed the extravagancies of the Arabian, Persian, and Indian poetry. "The fable of the Loves of the Angels (Blackwood's Mag. 1832), that ancient perversion of the passage in Genesis which describes the apostacy of the sons of Seth, and their intercourse with the rejected family of Cain, forms a considerable share of the Rabbinical narratives. But their love of variety is not satisfied with one class of this offence, nor with one class of its perpetrators. The giant Og is one of the offspring of the angelic intercourse, yet the criminal is not the good angel, but the bad. We are thus told that Og was born before the Deluge, and was the son of the evil angel Schampiel, and that his mother was no less a personage than the wife of the Patriarch Shem himself. Sihon, the brother giant, king of the Amorites, was said to be born in the Ark. The giant Og is a prodigious favourite with the Rabbins, and figures alternately as the Orion and Hercules of the Talmud. In the Jalkut Schimoni, Moses is represented as having told the Angel of Death that he had been engaged in a war against Sihon and Og, two heroes of the heathens, who were of so vast a stature that they could not be drowned in the Deluge, its waters reaching no higher than their ancles.' Of Sihon it is told, as an instance of the singular triumph of Israel, 'that he was harder than a wall, and taller than any tower, and that no creature born of earth could withstand his strength.' But his chief power was connected with the prince of Demons. Yet the Rabbins grew sceptical as to the height of Og above the Deluge, and attempted to provide for him in a more

VOL. I.

comfortable way than by thus wading or swimming for his life. The Sevachir declares that Og, after a bold attempt to check the descent of the waters of the coming Deluge by putting his hand against the windows of the firmament, and his foot against the fountains of the great deep-an attempt which was suddenly frustrated by making the waters boiling hot, until the giant was scalded to the bone, and obliged to give way— mounted upon the Ark, and thus rode out the storm. He must have been an inconvenient passenger if he retained his appetite, for the treatise of the Sopherim states, as his bill of fare, 1000 oxen and 1000 head of game, and for his drink 1000 measures of wine. But the giant perishes at last before the victorious progress of the Tribes. The Berachoth declares that Og (who, it seems, was Sihon's brother), knowing the inevitable mischief which must occur to his territories from suffering the approach of these sacred invaders, determined to meet them in time; and having ascertained that their camp was three miles in extent, he tore up from the ground a sheet of rock of the same size, and, lifting it over his head, went forth to overwhelm the Israelites. But on his way the rock proved his own destruction, for some insects were miraculously set to work upon the stone, which bored through it until the rock fell upon his shoulders, nearly strangling him. While he was in this dilemma it is obvious that he must have been powerless, a circumstance of which the Israelitish leader took advantage, though it must be allowed that his weapons and his activity were equally surprising. We read that he took an axe ten ells long, and jumped ten ells high; yet with all these natural and artificial endowments he was unable to reach above the giant's ancle! There, however, he struck him manfully, and lamed him for life, a preliminary to his final destruction. At this time Og was nine hundred years old."

The plains of Bashan are intersected by basalt ridges, which are prolongations of

U

Chron. xxi. 2; 2 Chron. xxx. 5. When the kingdom of Judah is only meant, the phrases are from Geba to Beersheba, 2 Kings xxiii. 8; from Beersheba to the mountains of Ephraim, 2 Chron. xix. 4. Beersheba, we are expressly informed, was situated on the south of Judah (2 Sam. xxiv. 7, 15), towards Idumea, and therefore must not be confounded with another Beersheba in Upper Galilee, mentioned by Josephus and recently by Dr Richardson.

Few places have been noticed in history during so many centuries as this venerable frontier town of the Holy Land. When Hagar was finally dismissed from Abraham's family with her son Ishmael, she wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba, Gen. xxi. 14. The Wilderness had not then received that name, but such it was designated from a circumstance which immediately followed. Abimelech, the king of Gerar, along with Phichol, the "chief captain of his host," here met Abraham, and entered into an alliance with him, that he (Abraham) would not deal falsely with him, nor with his son, nor with his son's son; but according to the kindness that he had done unto him, he would do unto Abimelech, and to the land wherein he sojourned, Gen. xxi. 22, 23. "Now, therefore," says he, " swear unto me by God"-the first mention of an oath given or taken in the name of God-" and Abraham said, I will swear." Before he sware, however, he "reproved Abimelech, because of a well of water which Abimelech's servants had violently taken away," or he thought it necessary that there should be a right understanding between them, and he therefore argued with Abimelech about a well of water dug by his own servants, of which those of Abimelech had taken forcible possession. The latter, however, declared his ignorance of the matter, and that he had never heard of it till that moment. Abraham then took seven ewe lambs of his flock separately, and placed them by themselves. Abimelech's curiosity was excited by this procedure, and he inouired its meaning, to which

Abraham replied, "These seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me that I have digged this well," namely, "Thy acceptance of these seven ewe lambs shall be an acknowledgment that this well which I have digged belongs to me." The alliance having been completed, Abraham called the place Beersheba, or the well of the oath. In this explanation it is to be observed that the Hebrew word seven is equivalent to the word translated oath, and both words are in Hebrew intimately related to each other, because the number seven was of frequent occurrence in sacrifices and holy rites. We are farther told that Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba "and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God." In the marginal reading the word grove is simply rendered a tree. "Hence," says Bishop Patrick, "some think the custom of planting groves was derived into all the Gentile world, who so profaned them by images, and filthiness, and sacrifices to demons, that God commanded them by the Law of Moses to be cut down."

Abraham was residing at Beersheba when he encountered the extraordinary trial of his faith in the command to sacrifice his only son Isaac. The Patriarch and his son returned thither after the former had evinced his faith and patience, and received the Divine promise that "in his seed would all the nations of the earth be blessed," Gen. xxii. 18, 19. When Isaac repaired the well which his father Abraham had digged, he also called it Sheba, or the oath. In process of time a considerable town arose at Beersheba, which is noticed by various writers under the name of Barzimma, or Barsabe. Beersheba was the frequent residence of Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 10, and here he was comforted by the God of his fathers in a vision before he proceeded to Egypt with his family, Gen. xlvi. 1-5. Joeland Abiah, the sons of Samuel, were Judges in Beersheba, 1 Sam. viii. 2. Zibiah, the mother of Jehoash, king of Judah, was a native of Beersheba, 2 Kings xii. 1; 2 Chron. xxiv. 1; and the Prophet Elijah retired

to this place when he fled from the vengeance of Ahab and Jezebel.

Beersheba at first belonged nominally to the tribe of Judah, Josh. xv. 28; 1 Kings xix. 3; but it appears from Josh. xix. 2, that it had been, strictly speaking, conceded to the Simeonites. Shimei, a lineal descendant of Simeon, "had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brethren had not many children, neither did all their family multiply like to the Children of Judah, and they dwelt at Beersheba, Moladah," &c. 1 Chron. iv. 27, 28. In the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah, Beersheba was notorious for its idolatry, and it is classed with Bethel and Gilgal, into any of which the Jews were cautioned not to enter, Amos v. 5; viii. 14. After the return of the Jews from the Babylonish Captivity under their leader Nehemiah, B. C. 445, they re-occupied the town, and they are described as dwelling "from Beersheba unto the Valley of Hinnom," Neh. xi. 30. About A. D. 300, Eusebius describes Beersheba as a large village, having a Roman garrison. In St Jerome's time, about the beginning of the fifth century, it is described in similar terms, which are evidently taken from Eusebius. Heylin informs us that it was fortified by the Crusaders, when they took possession of Palestine, as a town of considerable importance; and it is thus described by an old author: "Beersheba is a town at the foot of the mountains, and near the commencement of the level country between the mountains and Ascalon, ten miles from Ascalon." A different position is thus assigned to it here from that given by Eusebius. Some travellers allege that a castle called Gallin, and others that a village called Gibelin, is on the site of Beersheba; but Seetzen asserts that the town is still in existence under the name of Birszabea, under which designation it is entered in several maps, and that it is now a poor village adjoining an extensive desert, which has scarcely an inhabitant except near the sea-coast.

BEESHTERAH, a city of the halftribe of Manasseh east of the Jordan, given "with her suburbs" to the Levites,

and one of the forty-eight cities allotted to them, Josh. xxi. 27. It was the same as Ashtaroth mentioned in 1 Chron. vi. 71. BEL, or BELUS. See BAAL. BELA. See Zoar.

BELMEN, the name of a place whence the Jews received assistance when Judea was invaded by the Assyrian army under Holofernes, Judith iv. 4. It is supposed to be Abel-Maim in the tribe of Naphtali.

BENEBERAK, a city belonging to the tribe of Dan, Josh. xix. 45. Eusebius says that it lay near Azotus or Ashdod, and was in his time a small village.

BENEJAAKAN. See BEEROTH. BEN-HINNON, or GENHINNON, the Valley of the Children of Hinnon, lay in the south-east suburbs of Jerusalem. See GEHENNA.

BENJAMITES, one of the Twelve Tribes, so called from Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob by Rachel, who was called Benoni, or son of sorrow, after his birth, and Benjamin by his father, or son of my right hand. This tribe, which was the smallest in point of numbers and perhaps in influence of the Twelve, lay between the tribes of Judah and Joseph, contiguous to Samaria on the north, to Judah on the south, to the river Jordan on the east, and to Dan on the west, which parted it from the Mediterranean Sea. It contained comparatively few cities or towns, but this deficiency was supplied by the importance of those which it possessed, Jericho, Ramah, Gibeon, Mizpeh, Ai, Gilgal, Anathoth, and others, being populous cities, while, in conjunction with the tribe of Judah, the Benjamites claimed a considerable part of the city of Jerusalem. The two celebrated villages of Bethany and Gethsemane also belonged to this tribe, and four of its cities were allotted to the priests, Josh. xxi. 17, 18. The cantonment or province is described as being rich and fertile, presenting a fine undulated appearance of hills and valleys; and although it possessed no rivers or streams of any consequence, it was amply supplied with water, and produced excellent fruits and crops.

The tribe of Benjamin is thus described by Jacob, its ancestor: "Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil," Gen. xlix. 27. This tribe was fierce and warlike, and Benjamin is therefore fitly compared to a ravenous wolf, which appears from several instances, especially in the affair of the Gibeonites, whose cause they espoused; and although they gained two advantages on that occasion, they were subsequently almost extirpated, only six hundred of them escaping. The reader will find the entire account of this desperate civil war which the Benjamites sustained against all the other tribes, as well as the curious origin of it, in the three last chapters of the Book of Judges. When the tribe was numbered in the Wilderness, it amounted to 45,600 persons, Numb. xxvi. 41. Moses thus speaks of Benjamin in his final blessing of the Tribes, immediately before his death: "The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him, and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders." This imports that Benjamin would continue longer than the other tribes, which was exactly fulfilled, for the tribe of Benjamin adhered to Judah, when the Ten revolted in the reign of Rehoboam and formed themselves into the separate kingdom of Israel. Benjamin experienced the same fortune as Judah-both tribes went into captivity, and returned together. Benjamin is mentioned next to Levi by Moses, because the Temple in which the priests officiated was partly situated in his lot; hence it was said of the tribe, that "the Lord shall dwell between his shoulders," or by his side or borders, as the same word is translated in another place, Numb. xxxiv. 11. During our Saviour's personal ministry, the cities and towns of the canton of Benjamin, at that time an integral part of Judea, were honoured by his presence, and in them he wrought some great miracles.

The tribe of Benjamin gave birth to Ehud, Judge of Israel, a "man left handed," or one who could wield a sword

equally with either hand, and who delivered the Israelites from the tyranny of Eglon, king of Moab, who had been permitted by the Almighty to conquer them, and keep them in subjection during eighteen years, "because they had done evil in the sight of the Lord." The king of Moab was killed by Ehud in a very remarkable manner, Judges iii. 15-25. The tribe of Benjamin, though the "smallest of the tribes of Israel," gave the Israelites their first king in the person of Saul, the son of Kish, whose family was even "the least of all the families of the tribe," 1 Sam. ix. 21. The tribe was peculiarly honoured in producing St Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, who describes himself as "circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless," Philip. iii. 5, 6.

BEON, or BEAN, according to Manetho, an Egyptian writer quoted by Josephus, was the name of an ancient Egyptian king, whose posterity lived in hostility with the Israelites; but it is also the name of a place situated in the Land of Jazer or Gilead, mentioned as finely adapted for cattle, Numb. xxxii. 3.

BERACHAH, blessing, or bending of the knee, VALLEY OF, in which Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and his people assembled to praise Jehovah for their triumph over the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, 2 Chron. xx. 26. It lies in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem, and is otherwise called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which stretches between the Eastern walls of the city of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.

BEREA, heavy, weighty, from Cágos, weight, the name of a large and populous city of Macedonia, about fifteen miles west of Pella and nearly thirty from Thessalonica, the site of which is now occupied by Kara Veria. Berea, Bercea, or Berrhoea, is often mentioned by the early writers as a place of great antiquity. When the Jews of Thessalonica assaulted