Vol, 111

at square miles. PALESTINE those at Tiberias rose considerably at the time of the last-mentioned earthquake. This sketch of geological structure enables us to understand the physical features of Palestine; and it is important as showing that the destruction of the Cities of the Plain cannot be explained as by Josephus (Wars, IV. viii. 4), who believed them to be feivtead under the Dead Sea (see Gn 14%), which was certainly in existence before the appearance of man. ii. NATURAL FEATURES.

—The hills of Western Palestine are the continuation of the higher Lebanon ridge to the north, of which Mount Her- mon (9200 ft.) is an outlier on the east at the springs of Jordan. In Upper Galilee, where the hard limestone prevails, the highest elevation is 4000 ft. above the Mediterranean near Meirfin, and the eastern slopes are very steep. On the west the foot hills and long spurs from the water- shed exhibit the softer chalk in parts. Lower Galilee includes the plateau of Tabor, 600 ft.

above the Mediterranean, and the western plain of Asochis (Buttauf), separated from the shore of the large shallow Bay of Acre by the low chalky hills, which also rise on the south round Nazareth. Mount Tabor (1800 ft.)

is an outlier of these hills on the south-east, with a rounded summit like an immense molehill, and south of this again the voleanic peak of Nebi Dhahy (called Little Hermon in the twelfth century) rises from the plateau, divided by the valley of Jezreel from Gilboa farther south. t this point the Palestine watershed is only about 200 ft. above the Mediterranean, at the north-east corner of the large triangular plain called Esdraelon. This plain has the range of Gilboa (1600 ft.)

on its east, and is bounded on the west by the long spur which divides it from the shore plain of Sharon, and which rises into the ridge of Carmel, which, projecting north, west, attains 1700 ft. above the sea, and, continuing 15 miles, falls to 500 ft. at the promontory which forms the natural harbour of Haifa on the south side of the Bay of Acre. A smaller plain lies west of the main shed, and south of Esdraelon near Dothan, separated by lower hills from Sharon.

Entering the Samaritan region the watershed gradually rises. Gilboa, which is capped with chalk, spreads north, from the rounded watershed hills to the south near Jenin; but round Shechem, and as far south as Bethel, the dolomitic limestone mountains form one of the highest and most rugged districts in Palestine. The principal features on this watershed are the summits of Ebal (3077 ft.) and of Gerizim (2850 ft.) divided by the deep pass of Shechem ; and, south of Shiloh, Baal-hazor (3300 ft.)

Long ridges run out west- wards from this chain, sinking to the chalky foot hills east of Sharon, and on the opposite side of the watershed are rugged slopes and small plateaus bounding the ΤΡ ΕΊΣ Approaching Jeru- salem the watershed sinks to about 2500 ft., and the chalk appears to the east on Olivet (2600 ft.); but after passing Bethlehem the flatter plateau rises ayain to the Hebron hills, which are in parts as rugged as those of Samaria, rising to 3000 ft. at Rimeh, north of Hebron.

On the west the spurs are here longer than in Samaria, with deep ravines; and the chalky foot hills form a yet more distinct district, called Shephélah in the Bible (‘lowlands’), while the Plain of Sharon widens into that of Philistia. On the east a desert plateau extends below the Hebron moun- tains, about 1000 ft. above the Mediterranean, and is terminated in magnificent precipices of hard limestone above the Dead Sea.

The surface of this plateau is cut up with ravines and sharp chalky ridges, and this ‘desert of Judah’ is the wildest and most desolate region in Western Palestine. South of Hebron the mountains are 642 PALESTINE PALESTINE divided by a long open valley, which runs south to Beersheba. The plateaus gradually sink towards the southern plain, 800 ft.

above the Mediter- ranean, which reaches round the hills towards that of Philistia, and sinks in steps and rounded ridges towards the Sinaitic desert, and on the east to the Arabah or broad valley south of the Dead Sea. The extremes of elevation between the summit of Hermon (9200 ft.) and the bottom of the Dead Sea (2600 ft.

below the Mediterranean) mark the depth of the great fault of the Jordan Valley, which is at first wide and marshy, at about sea- level near the Waters of Merom, flanked by the Galilean mountains to the west, and by the volcanic ridges and craters of the Jaulin to the east.

A steep spur from the Safed mountains forms a narrower gorge north of the Sea of Galilee, which is a natural basin, deepest on the south and east, pear-shaped, and 12 miles north and south by 8 at the widest, with pone 2000 ft. high on the east, and others of less ele- vation on the south-west. On the west and north steep slopes strewn with basalt sink into the lake. The surface is 680 ft. below the Mediter- ranean, and the Jordan falls thence to the Dead Sea, 1292 ft. below the same level.

The Jordan plain is about 10 miles wide, with high mountains on either side. The Dead Sea is flanked by mighty precipices on either side throughout its etait of 40 miles, and is 10 miles broad ; but immediately to its north the foot hills recede, forming the wider plains of Jericho and Shittim, west and east of the river, about 1000 ft. below the Mediterranean. Eastern Palestine includes the plateau of Bashan, the hills of Gilead, and the barren plains of Moab.

The first of these regions isa broad plain about 2000 ft. above the Mediter- ranean, broken by the ridge of the Jaulfin craters east of the Upper Jordan, and seamed by precipi- tous ravines with dolomitie cliffs, east of the Sea of Galilee. The plateau is divided from the Syrian desert by the isolated ridge of the Hill of Bashan (Ps 68" only), rising to 5700 ft. The Gilead hills rise to about 3000 ft., and are only some 500 above the eastern desert.

Their western slopes, of hard limestone and sandstone, are very steep, and the plateau is from 3000 to 4000 ft. above the Jordan Valley. Rugged ravines score these slopes, and the region is divided by the be of the Jabbok into two districts, now called ‘Ajliin and Belka—north and south re- spectively of the stream. The mountains sink on the south to the general level of the plateau east of the Dead Sea, and alower terrace of barren desert here answers to the desert of Judah west of the sea.

Among the ridges which run out west from the plateau, Mount Nebo is one of the most peepiencs (2643 ft.), but it is not as high as Jebel Osh'a in Gilead (3597 ft.), and does not command as extensive a view. It is, however, the nearest high point to the plains of Shittim, and projects farther west than the others. The tre- mendous gorges which divide the precipices west of the Moab paeeau present some of the grandest scenery in Palestine ; and among these the torrent of Arnon is the most famous.

The black basalt, white chalk, pink and yellow sandstones of the Zerka Malin rise sheer above a narrow brook; and into this flow the sulphur streams, bordered with orange deposits, from the hot springs of Callirrhée, passing es palm grove, and flowing in a cataract to the Dead Sea. This wild gorge may be the Nahaliel or ‘ravine of God’* (Nu 9119) mentioned in the Pentateuch. The Moab plateau continues in the ridge of Edom, east of the Arabah, rising to 4580 ft. at Mount Hor.

Its western ridges are called the ‘Abarim, or mountains ‘beyond’ the Dead Sea, in the Bible (Nu 2713, Dt 32” 342), These various natural features are distinguished in the OT by special terms: Har, ‘mountain country’; Sddeh, ‘plain’ (in Philistia); and Sharon, ‘plain’ farther north, and, according to Jerome, near Tabor; Shephélah, ‘lowland,’ for the foot hills on the south-west; Mishér for the lateaus of Bashan and Moab; Midbar for the Ppa of Juda ; and Negeb, or ‘ dry land,’ for the plains of Beersheba and the lower plateau south of Hebron, where no surface water is found as a rule.

The various kinds of valleys include: Nahal for a torrent-valley (the modern wady),'Emek for a broad flat valley flanked by mountains ; ‘Arabah for ‘desert’ valleys like that of Jordan and south of the Dead Sea; Sha@veh for a smaller vale; and Gai for a waterless ravine. The term Bik'ah appears to signify a plain between mountains, and is still so applied (Arab.

Buk‘ah and diminutive Bukei‘ah) in many places, both to the plain of the Orontes in Syria, and to the remarkable cup- shaped depression on the Gilead plateau, south of the Jabbok, which seems to be the ‘circle of ean ἝΞ 6”). ΤῊ terms ae (28 2) an igron (18 14?) apply to rug; orges ; an Debir, or ‘the back’ ἢ ΤΡ’. φὩ͵ τὶ 12 ἊΣ three cases to ridges. None of these terms are now in use except the one mentioned ; and the old names of natural features in Palestine have, as a rule, been lost.

The water supply of Palestine is fairly abund- ant, except in the deserts and in the Negeb, and it includes lakes, rivers, brooks, and springs. The waters of the Dead Sea are intensely bitter, con- taining 25 per cent. of chlorides washed down from the valley ; but those of the Sea of Gulilee and of Merom are sweet. The most important river is the Jordan, the geographical source of which is on the west side of Hermon near Hasbeya, 1700 ft.

above sea-level; but its most important supply issues as a foaming stream, 1000 ft. above sea-level, from under the cave of Banifis at the foot of Hermon, by the snows of which it is fed.

Rushing down through a thick copse, by rows of poplars, it joins several other streams, which flow over the t slopes into the plain of Tell el-Kadi (the site of Dan) from the north-west ; and the river is then lost in Le a i marshes of Merom, but gathers as the valley narrows, and descends rapidly to the Sea of Galilee, where a delta about a mile long has been formed, during the last nineteen centuries, at its junction with the lake.

On issuing into the southern valley the course becomes narrow and tortuous, a deep channel about half a mile to a mile wide having been worn in the valley bed. The stream is here. shallow, and crossed by about twenty fords, of which the most important on the main road is called ‘Abarah, and may be the Bethabara (?)

of the NT (Jn 1%): there is a cataract in the stream farther south, but the slope of the river- bed gradually becomes flatter after passing the Damieh ferry (Adam, Jos 316), the river having, however, acquired a rapid flow, which continues to its mouth. Opposite Jericho it is fordable for horses in the dry season, and is here about thirty yards wide.

In early spring, however (see Jos 3"), when the Hermon snows begin to melt, and after the winter rains, the Jordan will sometimes overflow its banks, and fill the whole channel, nearly a mile wide. The banks are formed by hillocks of white soft marl, which are at times undermined, and fall into the river. An Arab writer asserts that the river was known to have been thus blocked for a time (cf. Jos 3'*) in A.D 1267.

Sultan Beybars was then building a bridge at the Damieh ford, and the western bank of the PALESTINE river fell inon 8th December, damming the stream for four hours (Nowairi, see Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly Statement, July 1895, p. 257).

The river is often quite hidden by groves of tamarisk and cane brakes, The plains on either side are much cut up by tributary channels, but are covered in spring with rich grass; towards the south, how- ever, the bushes and acacia trees (shittim) cease, and a muddy saline flat grows only the alkali plant. The shores of the Dead Sea are strewn with gravel and salt-covered tree trunks brought down by the river in flood, and a swampy delta is also formed where the Jordan enters this lake.

The name of the river Jordan (‘ the descender’) is thought to be due to its rapid fall of 2000 ft. in a course of 100 miles. There are several important rennial affiuents on both sides of the river. On he west the streams of Wddy el-Hamdm flow by the small plain of Gennesaret into the Sea of Galilee. Farther south the perennial stream from Jezreel, and the waters of many springs under the Tabor plateau and Mount Gilboa, join the river.

In Samaria the brook of Wdady Far‘ah (probably the waters of Anon, Jn 3%) is an important affluent north-east of Shechem, and near Jericho the ravine of the Kelt is a winter torrent of great velonity, identified without reason with the Brook Cherith (1 K 17 8:5), which was ‘east’ of Jordan, probably in Gilead, East of the river several perennial brooks flow in, and the most important of these are the Yarmik, south of the Sea of Galilee, and the Jabbok, which is fed by springs at and north-east of Rabbath-ammon.

It flows north at first, and south of Gerasa turns to the west. Its bed is fringed with canes in the lower part of its course, and it is easily passable in summer. The springs of Nimrah (Nu 32°) also flow with other perennial brooks through the Shittim plains, and others which rise high up on the Moab plateau flow direct into the Dead Sea. In Western Palestine there are other perennial streams flowing into the Mediterranean.

The Leontes (or Kasimiyeh), which rises in the southern Lebanon, reaches the sea north of Tyre. The Belus, which gathers the waters of the low hills to the east, is a swampy stream south of Acre, and seems to be the Shihor-libnath, Jos 19% (but see Dillm. ad loc.) It is fordable at its mouth.

The Kishon, which debouches on the south side of the Bay of Acre, is more important, and is perennial, though in a very dry summer its bed shows only a chain of pools, and its mouth is choked by sand dunes. It flows north-west under Carmel trom a narrow pass leading out of the Esdraelon plain, where it is formed by two branches, of which the eastern is the true Kishon of the OT (see Jg 4°-7), springing from swampy pools west of Tabor.

The western stream is formed by springs from the downs south of Carmel, and its chief source is at Lejjin (the Legio of Roman times) near Taanach, west of the plain of Esdraelon. The waters of the south slopes of Carmel drain into the marshy Zerka or Crocodile River, remarkable from the 2nd cent. downwards as the only place where crocodiles were found in Palestine. They still inhabit its swamps.

Sharon, farther south, is drained by several streams, unnoticed except in the 12th century; and north of Jaffa is one more important (the ‘Aujeh), which carries a turbid sandy flood from the springs of Rds el- Ain (Antipatris) to the sea, It erreate to be the Me-jarkon, or ‘yellow water,’ of Jos 19 (but see Dillm. ad loc.)

The only perennial stream in Philistia is the Nahr Rudin, or ‘river of Reuben,’ named from a Moslem shrine, and flowing under the cliff of e/-Mughdr (probably Makkedah) to the shore near Jamnia, A great valley, south of Gaza, collects the waters of the Negeb hills, and PALESTINE 643 supplies the deep wells of Beersheba and the shallow pits at Gerar (Gn 26%"); but the water is only found by digging in its pebbly bed.

Its modern name is the Wddy Ghitzzeh Many of the other great ravines, such as the Brook | Kanah (Jos 16%) in Samaria, flow with water in winter; and the most remarkable of these is the stream which bursts out of the Bir Eyivb at Jerusalem in winter, flowing down the Kidron gorge towards the Dead Sea. Palestine is also well supplied with springs in all parts where the hard limestone is near the sur- face. The hills of Gilead run with small brooks.

There are minor streams in Galilee, and good springs in the central region and on the western slopes of the Hebron mountains. Near Jerusalem there is less water, and the dry regions of the Negeb and the deserts have been already noticed.

The springs mentioned in the Bible include the fountain of Jezreel (1S 291), one of several near the city, two of which (Ain Jalid and ‘Ain Tubaan) form large pools; the pool of Samaria (1 K 22%), which has ‘a fine natural spring; the pool of Gibeon (2 S 28), which rises in a cavern under the ancient site of the town; the fountain of Gihon (1 K 1%, 2 Ch 32%) east of Jeru- salem, also now rising in a cavern—the probable site of Bethesda (Jn 53); and the well of Sirah (2S 3%), a spring well near Hebron, which retains its ancient name.

To these we must add the well of Jacob at Shechem, and the Beersheba wells, which still contain natural waters. The towns called ‘Hn (with an affixed name) in the Bible still Pe springs, as a rule, when the site is known. he hot springs most famous in Palestine are those near Tiberias, near Hammath (east of Jordan), and at Callirrhée (Ant. xvul. vi. 5) as already men- tioned ; others occur at Gadara and in the valley south-west of Beisfn. The Palestine coast is very deficient in harbours.

The ports of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Jamnia, Joppa, Caesarea, Accho, Tyre, and Sidon, are all formed only by reefs. The Haifa open roadstead is protected by the bluff of Carmel, and is the only one now visited in winter storms. Fleets, however, found refuge at Tyre and Joppa as early as B.C. 1500, and the latter port was used by Solomon (2 Ch 216), The natural highways of the country are equally indicated by its formation and by history.

The great shore road has always been the main route of armies, and an important cross road led from Sharon across the downs south of Carmel, and from the Bay of Acre, to the Valley of Jezreel, crossing the Jordan at Bethabara (?), and gaining the Bashan plateau on the way to Damascus. The mountain roads are difficult paths; and until the Romans in the 2nd cent.

laid out roads, marked with milestones, all over both Eastern and Western Palestine, commerce appears to have been mainly confined to the natural routes above indicated. The pilgrim road from Damascus to ‘Akabah on the Red Sea leads over the eastern plateau, and formed the route by which Israel appears to have entered Moab and marched to Bashan. iii.

CLIMATE AND NATURAL Propucts,—In the short distance of a hundred miles the traveller passes from an Alpine region on Hermon to the tropical plains of the Dead Sea, and finds in Pales- tine a fauna and flora ranging from that of Northern Europe to that of Africa, In the Bible we read of snow, hail, and ice, as well as of the desert whirlwinds and the sunstroke. There is no reason to suppose that the climate and productions of the country now differ much from those of the earliest times.

Forests have, no doubt, been de- stroyed in Sharon and in the Hebron mountains ; but, on the other hand, copses now cover the sites of PALESTINE 644 PALESTINE former vineyards, marked by towers, terraces, and rock-cut winepresses, on Carmel and elsewhere. With decrease of population the great tanks and cisterns have fallen into ruins, with the aqueducts and rock-cut canals of Roman times.

But in the Gospels we read of the fevers of Gennesaret ; and the swampy plains must always have been malari- ous. The regions now desert or waterless are the same so described in the OT. The palm culture of the Jordan Valley has ceased, but it was mainly an artificial product of Herodian times. The lains are still as thickly covered with grass and owers in spring as they ever were, and woods and pastures by the waters still exist.

The climate of Palestine resembles that of Sicily, and the seasons are the same as in other Mediter- ranean lands. The average temperature in summer rises to nearly 90° F. by day, the nights being cool, with heavy dews. When the east wind blows from the desert, and ozone is absent from the air, the heat increases sometimes to 105° F., and the nights are also very hot; but this beers) only lasts for three or face days at a time. In the Jordan Valley in summer 118° F.

in the shade may be experienced. The extremes from 90° F. by day to 40° Ε΄ by night in the bare deserts of Moab are severely felt in autumn, but the prevalence of a fresh breeze from the sea makes the summer heat in the hills very moderate. In winter the hills of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee are often white with snow for several days, and the Edomite chain may be seen snow-covered from Jerusalem.

The palm will consequently not grow in the hills, and there are but few groves even in the plains, where frost is rarely felt. Lebanon and Hermon retain snow patches till autumn every year. The winter begins usually in December or earlier, and in January there are heavy gales and much rain. The ‘former rains’ (Dt 11‘) fall at the time of the autumn equinoctial gales, and the ‘latter rains’ about the spring equinox ; but in March the spring begins, and April is the month of grass and flowers.

In May the east wind prevails, and dries up the herb- age, but in June and July the west wind rises about 10 a.m. daily. The heat increases in August and September, and the country is entirely dried up in October. The most unhealthy time is when the autumn ploughing begins, after the first thundershowers in November. Thunderstorms in June during the harvest (1 S 12!7) occasionally occur suddenly. The dust whirlwinds (Job 379), which swirl along the plains in later summer—esp.

in Bashan—are a peculiar feature of the hot season. The rainfall averages 25 to 30 in. in ordinary years, and is quite sufficient ; but the storage of water in dry districts is very imperfect. Years of drought occur from time to time, as do earthquakes and visitations of locusts ; and these are noticed in every age from the earliest times. But in spite of the deserts, and of the barrenness of the mountains, Palestine has a good soil, esp.

in Bashan and Sharon, and is a land of ‘corn, must, and oil,’ answering to the descriptions of Deuteronomy (81: 11°), and capable of supporting a large τὴ Swe if fully cultivated. he natural growth is dependent on the moisture brought by the sea-breeze, and thus in Lebanon and in Palestine alike the slopes west of the watershed are covered with copse, while those to the east—shut out from the moisture—are bare.

In Eastern Pales- tine the woods of oak and pine covering Gilead are more extensive than in any otherdistrict. Theslopes here face the west, sat springs issue from the surface of the dolomitie rocks, the water having sunk through the chalky surface of the desert lateaus farther east. The oak woods. west of Nazareth, and in Sharon, have been sadly thinned, and a pine wood south of Bethlehem—noticed by Arculphus about A.D. 670—is now represented only by a few stunted trees.

The words used for forest in the OT (yaar and horesh) refer, how ever, to copse rather than to woods; and the occurrence of single trees (oak and terebinth), often noticed in the OT, is still a feature of the scenery. The Aleppo pine (P. Haleppensis), which appears on Lebanon and Carmel, is olay not native. It bears a name (sindbar) which ap- ars to be Greek, and under this term is noticed in the Mishna in the 2nd cent A.D. The native pine (P.

Carica) found in Gilead is more robably the ‘fir’ (1K 6%, Ezk 275) of the T. The copse, consisting of dwarf oak, mastic, styrax (stacte, Ex 30% ndtaph), hawthorn, and other shrubs, is found chiefly on the harder lime- stone, especially in Upper Galilee, on Carmel, in Samaria, and on the Hebron mountains and the spurs west of Jerusalem. Near the watershed the hills are ney bare, but covered with thyme, mint, and the delldn (or Poteriwm Spinosum), a brown prickly rosaceous plant.

The hyssop, and other kinds of marjoram, are commonly found growing on ruins. The carob occurs as a single tree, like the sycomore fig, and the di/b or plane (Gn 30%’). The poplar is found in various localities in Palestine (see Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, 290, and ef. Hos 418, where, however, the rendering should perhaps be ‘styrax,’ see art. POPLAR); but the beech does not occur south of the Northern Lebanon, though growing on chalky soils in Asia Minor.

The acacia and the tamarisk (Gn 21%, 1S 22% 313) are ey, found in the Jordan Valley, and the white broom (1 Καὶ 19, Ps 190", Job 30) is common in the deserts of Moab and Judah and in the Negeb. Among smaller plants the cistus (Jot, AV and RV ‘myrrh’ [which see], RVm ‘ladanum,’ Gn 37” 43") is very common on the chalk; and the plains of Sharon and Jordan are covered with many wild flowers, esp.

the pink phlox, the pheasant’s eye, and the narcissus (prob- ably the Rose of Sharon); while the common lily of the country, planted by Moslems in graveyards, is the purple iris. A complete account of the fauna and flora of Palestine occupies two volumes of the Memoirs of the Survey, and only the more conspicu- ous features noticed in the Bible are here mentioned.

Cultivated plants in Palestine, as corn (wheat and barley), balm, and fruits, together with wine, oil, and honey, are noticed in Egyptian records (Records of Past, 1st series, ii. 17 f.) as early as B.c. 1600. The almond (Juz, Gn 43") grows wild in Lebanon and Moab, and the oil tree (1 K 6%) or oleaster is also not uncommon on the hills. The apple (tappuah) is not common, but the Heb. word survives in the Arabic tuffaéh; the ash (Is 44%) is the Fraxinus Ornus, the common ash being unknown.

The box (Is 412° 6013) grows in Lebanon; the Syrian Bepyrus differs from that of Egypt, and is found in Merom, in the Sharon rivers, and at Gebal, as well as the Egyp. species. The chief fruit trees are the olive, fig, pomegranate, and apricot, which last, however, with the citron, prickly pear, walnut, and other fruits, seems to Eave Veen introduced at a late eriod. The vegetable products noticed in the entateuch appear to be all of great antiquity.

The citron (introduced from Media by the Persians) and the walnut (’ég6z, Arab 702), said to bear a Per- sian name, are unmentioned, as are cotton and silk, though both are now known in the country. Flax (Hos 2°, see Jos 2°), which was grown at Nazareth in the 12th cent. A.D., and which is noticed in the Mishna, is one of the oldest materials used by man. It may be here noted that the only foreign plants in the Pentateuch are calamus and cassia from Tonia (Ezk 27! [?; text dub.])

, or from Uzal in Arabia according to the LXX, with myrrh from Arabia, and probably frankincense and cinnamon PALESTINE PALESTINE 645 The sea trade with Asia Minor is, however, men- tioned on monuments of the 15th cent. B.c., and that with Arabia goes back ten centuries earlier. Gum tragacanth and balm (Gn 37%), pistachio nuts (Gn 43"), honey, and almonds, were natural products of Palestine, as were stacte (or styrax) and ladanum (Gn 37” 43") or cistus.

Palestine has also always been very productive of gourds, cucumbers, vetches, melons, pulse, and other vegetables. The henna used as a dye (Ca 418) is native, as is saffron or crocus (Ca 44), The kirsenneh, which is a common crop, probably re- presents the Heb. kuysemeth (Ezk 45). The alkali lant (Jer 2%, Mal 33) grows esp. near the Dead ea. Millet (Ezk 4%) is also known by its Heb.

name ; and the coriander (Ex 1651, Nu 117) is culti- vated, with cummin (Is 28”) and anise (Mt 23°) ; the mustard (Mt 13%!)

grows to a tree in the Jordan Valley, where the ‘Vine of Sodom’ (Dt 32%) is found in the ‘oshir tree (Calotropis Procera); the mulberry, now grown extensively for silk- worms, is noticed in the NT (Lk 17°) but not in the OT; willows (Ezk 175) occur along the Jordan; and the ‘heath’ of the OT (Jer 17° 48°) is the ‘av‘ar or stunted juniper of the Judean desert, from which more than one desert town was named, Palestine has never been remarkable for its mineral products.

Mines of copper and lead (Dt 8°) occurred only in Lebanon. Flint (of which knives were made, according to Jos δ᾽ and the LXX of 24%) is abundant, and is not only noticed in the 16th cent. B.c. on monuments, but is found worked into weapons in the city mounds at a great depth (as, for instance, at Lachish). The qieh of the Dead Sea is noticed (Gn 14”, and perhaps Is 34°), and was collected in the time of Josephus. Precious metals were in use, however, in the country long before the Exodus.

The fauna of the country is almost unchanged fhom the earliest historic times. The lion and the wild ox have become extinct ; the former is noticed by an Egyptian traveller in Lebanon in the 14th cent. B.C., and is even said to have survived to the 12th cent. A.D. ; its bones are found in caves and in the Jordan gravels. The wild ox (ré’ém or Bos Primigenius, the ‘unicorn’ [uovdxepws] of the LXX) was hunted in Lebanon by Tiglath-pileser in B.C. 1120, and its bones have also been found.

Both these animals were still hunted in Assyria in the 7th cent. B.c. On the other hand, the buffalo, now found in the marshes, is said to have been introduced by Mohammedan rulers in the ost-biblical times. With these exceptions, the alestinian animals are those of the OT. The bear, which according to the OT (1S 17%, 2K 2%) was found on the Palestine mountains, is now known only on Hermon and Lebanon.

The leopard (in the Jordan Valley), the wolf, the hyena, the jackal, and the fox are all found in the wilder districts ; the boar is common in the mountains as well as in swamps. The wild ass is still to be found in the Eastern desert. The cat and domestic fowls, which were brought from Persia before the Christian era, are not noticed in the OT ; nor are mules (1 K 18°) noticed in the Pentateuch, though known by the Assyrians in the 8th cent. B.C, in Palestine, and now common.

The fishes of the Jordan and Sea of Galilee are numerous, but as a rule coarse. The wild bee, Apis fasciata, the cochineal insect (Is 718), which feeds on the Syrian oak, and various species of locust (Ly 115) and of ant, are native. Scorpions are common in the plains and deserts, where swarms of flies are also very troublesome in summer. Snakes are less numerous than in Africa, but many species are fonnd. The camel is monumentally noticed in Palestine in the 14th century B.c.

; the coney (Hyrax) is common near Sinai; the hare is also found in the desert as well as in Palestine ; the fallow deer (AV hart) and roebuck (yahmir) are found in the woods of Tabor and Gilead respec- tively, and the latter also in Lebanon and on Carmel ; the gazelle (AV roe) and the wild goat (Ibex) belong to the plains and southern desert ; the wild ox (Bubale) is known only in the desert ; the wild sheep (AV chamois) is found in the Sinaitic desert—it is the koi of the Mishna (Turk.

Koi, ‘sheep’).*—Among birds the ostrich (AV owl) is distinctive of the desert, and the ‘cuckoo’ is believed to be a gull; the pelican is found in the Mediterranean and in the Waters of Merom, and the cormorant (shdlak or ‘diver’) is a sea bird; the stork is found in the Jordan Valley in spring, and both it and the heron (Assyr. anpatu) are common in other parts of Palestine. The hoopoe (AV lap- wing) also occurs in the Gilead woods, as well as in Western Palestine. Among other animalsnoticed .

n the Bible the mole rat (Spalax Typhlus) is commen (Is 2”); the weasel is also found (Lv 11”). ΑἹ] kinas of birds of prey, vultures, eagles, falcons, kites, hawks, and ravens, are common, with small and sreat owls, partridges and pintails, quails, pigeons, oves, sparrows, swallows, and cranes, even in the Beersheba desert. With regard to two animals described by Job (40.

41), leviathan is usually supposed to be the crocodile, which, as above noticed, is found in Palestine; behemoth answers best to the elephant [although taken by most modern commentators to be the hippopotamus], and the Asiatic elephant seems to have ee known as late as B.C. 1600 on the Euphrates near Nii (ΚΡ, lst series, iv. 6). Ivory was commonly used in Palestine in the 15th and l4th cent. B.c., and even apes were then sent from Syria to Egypt, according to the records of Thothmes ΠῚ.

» in which —_| also we find notice of asses, flocks and herds, goats and horses, taken from the Canaanites (ib. 17 f.) The Hebrews did not use horses toany largeextent | till Solomon’s time, but the Canaanites (cf. Jos 11°) had horses and chariots long before the Exodus, and in the 15th cent. B.c. they held the dog in as little estimation as did the Hebrews. It is remark- able that seals have been captured off the Palestine coast, though rare in the Mediterranean.

Some writers think that the ‘badger’ (tahash, Ex 26'*) should be rendered ‘seal’; but others prefer ‘ por- poise,’ which is found all round the coast, and was hunted by Sy cae er I. in the Mediter- ranean. The natural history of the Song of Songs embraces that of all Palestine ; that of the Book of Job is confined to the deserts round Petra; that of the Pentateuch may be said to belong to the desert, the hills of Gilead, and the Jordan Valley. iv. THE RACES OF PALESTINE.

—Among the earliest inhabitants are noticed the Zuzim or Zam- zummim, the Emim, and the Anakim. These words seem to be non-Semitic, and the latter may mean ‘tall,’ as a Mongol word. The Canaanites are re- garded by the author of Gn 10°+ as not Semitic, and there is monumental evidence (Tel el-Amarna Letters, No. 10 Berlin Collection) that the Syrian Hittites spoke a non-Semitic language (perliaps Mongolic) in the 15th cent. B.c. In this enumera- tion, however, the Amorites (?

‘ highlanders’) are included; and from the same monumental source it seems clear that they spoke an East Aramaic language like Assyrian. They had driven out the Moabites at the time of the Exodus, and covered Eastern Palestine, as well as the Western moun- * The fallow deer, roebuck, gazelle, wild goat, wild ox, wild sheep are mentioned only in Dt 145 (see Driver's note), and not in the parallel passage, Lv 11. ἀ Gn 10 is treated in this art. as an ‘ethnological table’ (but see Dillm. ad loc.

, and Sayce, 7CM 119 δ... 646 PALESTINE tains and the Lebanon.* The Hittites, according to Gn 23, extended to Hebron in an early age, but they were driven out of Central Palestine before the Exodus by Thothmes U1. (Brugsch, Hist. Egyp. i. 825). The Philistines, said to appear on monuments B.C, 1200, and whose Dagon was worshipped at Ashkelon in the 15th cent. B.c., are thought to have been of Cretan origin (Gn 10+), but the remaining tribes bear Semitic names, such as Canaanites (?

‘lowlanders’ of Sharon and the Jordan Valley), Perizzites or ‘ villagers’ (?), Kenites or ‘spear- men’ (?), Kenizzites or ‘ hunters’ (ἢ), Kadmonites or ‘easterns.’ The same cannot be said, however, of the Amalekites, who seem to have lived even in Central Palestine (Jg 12", though they are usually spoken of as a tribe in the desert S. of Pales- tine), or of the Girgashites—perhaps near Gergesa. The Hivites in Shechem and near Hermon (but see art.

HivirEs) may be ‘villagers,’ and the Rephaim ‘giants’ little Δ ΣΕ ΠΝ from the Anakim, whose last survivors were found near Gath (28 21™) in Philistia, whence the crip Avvim, living in enclosures, were expelled by the Philistines (Dt 2). The population thus seems onion to have instal three distinct stocks, though many of the above names may be descriptive.

The Hittites and Amorites alone are monumentally known—the first a hairless race with slanting eyes and pigtails, apparently Mongols ;+ and the latter a darker people, bearded and black-haired, with aquiline Sem. features. The Heb. groups, including Ammonites, Moabites, and the half-breed Ishmael- ites and Edomites, were distinguished by language from the aborigines. Hebrew, Moabite, Pheenician, and the Aram. of Syria (as known from B.C.

900 to 200) are kindred dialects, widely differing from the Eastern Aram. of Assyria and the Babylonian of the Tel el-Amarna letters. The Can. glosses in the latter show, however, thatthe then (c.1450B.c.)inhabitants of Pal. spoke a language akin to Hebrew. See also the many Sem. names quoted below (p.647*). Inthe 3rd cent. B.C.

the Phoenician power and language ex- tended over Sharon as far as Joppa, and about the same time the Greeks began to form a new element of i rasan The Romans were never numerous in *alestine, but during their rule a new Arab element from Yemen entered’ Bashan, and after Omar’s con- quest the old Aram.

tribes (including Nabateans and Palmyrenes) became mingled with Arab tribes from the Hajas, whose names still denote districts in the mountains of Western Palestine, while the Bedawin nomads trace their descent also to Arabia in the present day. European elements were added before the crusades, and in the 12th cent. colonists from all parts of Europe were numerous, a Italians and Franks.

Yew Euro and Jewish colonies are now still ἘΠΕΊΠΕΡ; and further elements of population have been due to the transplanting of AvArieas tribes into Palestine by the Assyrians ; to the inroads of the Turks, Mongols, and Turcomans, who have left small tribes behind them in Sharon and Esdraelon; and to the recent importation of Circassians into Bashan, and Bosnians into Sharon.

The evidence of language shows that the present peasantry are * On the ‘Amorites’ see also Driver in Hogarth’s Authority — rchceology (Index s. ‘ Amorites’), and in Comm. on Deut. a The order of words in this verse is thought to have suffered dislocation (see Dillm. ad loc., or Sayce, HCM 136; andctf. for the supposed Cretan origin of the Philistines, Am 97 and Dt 2). Σ Jensen supposes that the Hittites were the ancestors of the modern (Aryan) Armenians (cf. his Hittiter u.

Armenier, and a series of papers on ‘The Hittite Inscriptions’ by him and Hommel (who opposes Jensen) in the Expos. Times, 1898-99). The recently discovered texts found by Chantre in Cappa- docia (see translations in The Times of 10th and 24th October 1899) appear to the present writer to show that the Hittite language was Mongolian.

The whole subject is considered a in Conder’s The Hittites and their Language, 1898, PALESTINE mainly of Aramaic extraction; they have beer hardly touched by the European element except at Nazareth and Bethlehem: there has, however, been some Greek influence from an early period ; and they use a few Persian and Turkish words ; but their language is an Arabic dialect, though differing considerably from that of the pure Ara or Bedawin nomads, found in the Jordan Valley, the southern deserts, and the eastern plateau, and preserving, in vocabulary, in pronunciation, and In mar, many archaic features of the older Syriac and Aramaic.

In the Philistine plain the peasants approach the Egyptians in dress and in appearance, but the general type is very different from that of the Arabs, and 18 similar to that of the Assyrians on the monuments. A very ancient Can. element may be suspected to have survived, modified by a strong infusion of true Arab blood, in the 7th and even as early as the 2nd cent. A.D.

The modern Jewish element, which is con- stantly increasing, is entirely foreign, recruited earliest from Spain and Africa, and recently from Russia, Poland, and other European countries. The Turks and Kurds are present only as a ruling class, but Greek blood is no doubt found among the native Christians of the Greek sects, and Italian among Latin Christians.

The tall, handsome Druzes of Hermon and Bashan seem, by language, to be partly of Persian origin ; and the Metawileh of Upper Galilee (among whom blue eyes are not uncommon) are also Persian immigrants of the Shi'ah or Persian Moslem creed. Some of the oldest Jerusalem families, however, trace their descent to the pure Arabs who came with Omar.

There is no known evidence of the survival of Norman blood derived from crusaders ; and the language which they used has not affected the speech of Syrians, In the OT we have early reference to Aram. speech (Gn 31, Is 36") as distinct from Heb., and to the later mixed language of the Jews in Ashdod (Neh 13). The evidence of inscriptions seems to show that, about the Christian era, a very strong Greek element existed in Bashan, where in one case we have an Aram.-Gr.

bilingual of the time of Herod the Great. The dialects spoken between B.C. 900 and 200 are moreover attested, by texts and coins, to have been cognate to ancient Heb. ; and the Greek boundary-stone of Herod’s temple attests the presence of Greeks, even in Jerusalem, about the time of Christ. As regards population, the evidence of ruins shows that it was much larger in Roman and Byzantine times—and probably in the 12th cent. —than it is now. The numbers stated on Assyr.

texts would indicate a population exceeding 200,000 souls in the southern mountains in B.C. 701; and the Syrian forces opposing the Assyrians in B.C. 850 are said to have numbered 80,000, repre- senting a population of at least 400,000 souls. It cannot be said (but see Buhl, Die Soc. Verhéltn. α΄. Isr. p. 52) that Palestine was incapable of holding a population of 6,500,000 souls (cf. 2S 24°), though the question of numbers is rendered difficult by textual alterations.

At the present time the population of Western Palestine is esti- mated to be not more than about 600,000 ; but the country fully cultivated would support ten times Instances of these variations in numbers are not confined to the Genesee of Gn 111028, which differs so greatly in the Heb. Sam. and LXX VSS, or 1 Καὶ 61, where the LXX differs by forty years. In 1S 135 the Peshitta reads 3000 for 30,000. In 2S 84 the LXX has 7000 for 700, and in 1 K 5 20,000 for 20. In_1Ch 1120.

21 the Peshitta has 80 for 3; in 2Oh 34 the LXX A (agreeing more nearly with 1 K 62) reads 20 for 120; and in Ezk ast BA have 20,000 for 10,000 (Q): to say nothing of minor differences as to the regnal years. The numbers in some parts of the OT have evidently been miscopied or altered, and some- times largely increased. The difficulties as to numbers may thus in some cases be due to the state of the text. See, further ΝΌΜΒΕΕ, p. 5624, PALESTINE PALESTINE that number.

According to Ex 1257 38%, Nu 1“, the Hebrews at the Exodus were about three millions. v. BrBLE GEoGRAPHY.—The geography of Pales- tine forms an important element in the OT, and no book therein can be noticed on which this study does not throw some light. The Bible geography is to some extent illustrated by monumental in- formation. The lists of Thothmes ΠΙ., about B.c. 1600, include 119 towns in Palestine; others of Brent importance are noticed in the Tel el-Amarna etters, about B.C.

1450; others in the time of Ramses I1., about B.C. 1330. Shishak gives a list of 133 towns in all parts of Palestine about B.c. 935 and Sennacherib mentions others in B.c. 701. About 90 cities noticed in the Bible are thus monumentally known, between B.C. 1600 and 700. Those earliest noticed have Aram. rather than Heb. names, and were named by the Canaanites before the Exodus. The Hebrews seem very rarely to have altered the name of any oye though alter- native names sometimes occur.

Θ may consider generally the outline of the topography during the various ages—the Patriarchal, that of the Con- uest, that of the Kingdom, that following the aptivity, and that of the Greek and Roman age down to the Ist cent. A.D.—with a briefer refer- ence to later topographical records. Study of the topography is not seriously affected by textual discrepancies between the Hebrew and the Versions.

The most important addition is in Jos (15°), where 11 cities are noticed by the LXX and not in the Heb., viz. Tekoa, Ephratah, Peor (Faghtr), Etam (‘Ain ‘Atdn), Kulon (Kolo- nia), Tatam, Sores (Sarts), Karem (Ain Kdrim), Galem (Beit Jala), Bether (Bittir), and Manocho (Malhah), said to belong to Judah. The mention of Kolonia seems to show that this is a very late addition, and the cities lie, not in Judah but in Benjamin, except Tekoa, Ephratah, and Etam.

There are other textual differences where the Heb. text seems to be the less probable. Zoan (Pesh. Gn 13°) is better than Zoar, and the addition of Seir (Pesh. Gn 36°) supplies a gap: ‘at Jazer’ (LXX Νὰ 21") is better than ‘was strong.’ In Sam. Beth-jashan for Shen (Pesh. 1S 7") points to Jeshanah (‘Ain Sinia) for this site, and Gibeah (indicated by LXX) is apparently the meaning of ‘the high place’ (1S 10). Gath (LXX Bin 1 5 17°) is also preferable to ‘the valley.’ Ezel (1S 20", cf. v.

in Pesh. and LXX) disappears as a proper name, and Hareth (now Khards) becomes a city instead of a ‘wood’ (LXX of 1S 22°). Maon is also more probable than Paran (LXX of 1 S 251), and Bethzur than Bethel (LXX B of 1S 30%), as is Carmel for Racal (LXX B in v.”). Geshur for Ashurites (Pesh. and Vale. 2S 29) is probable ; and Tibhath for Betah (Luc. MareSdx, 2S 85) is certainly correct; while Edom for Aram (after same VSS in vy.

™ 18) agrees with the notice of the Valley of Salt and with the succeeding verses. Gath (Pesh. and LXX in 258 21) is better than the unknown Gob, and ‘the Hittites to Kadesh’ (Lucianic text) is an important improvement on Tahtim-hodshi (2S 24°), as is Ai for Gaza (MSS of 1 Ch 73). Geshur for Asshur (Ps 83°) is a prob- able emendation (so Lagarde, but see Duhm ad foc.), and Baal-hermon (Ca 8") for Baal-hamon (so Gritz, but see Budde, ad loc.) Gibeah (Pesh.

Jer 31) is better than the unknown Goath, and Accho (indicated by LXX) takes the place (so Reland δέ al., but see iene ad loc.) at Gs all’ (Mic 110), In the few remaining cases of textual differences affecting topography, the Heb. text seems to be pre- ferable. The town names of Palestine are so ancient that their occurrence does not, as a rule, affect critical questions; yet the absence of the names of Jeru- salem, Samaria, Tirzah, and Zereda in the Pent. is notable.

The permanence of the population has preserved some three-fourths of the OT nomen- clature to the present day, and these names are equally traceable in the 4th and 12th centuries A.D. in a large number of instances. The survey of the country has brought to light some 150 biblical sites which were unknown, because, as a rule, they do not appear on earlier maps. In Genesis the Heb.

ancestors are represented as migrating from Ur on the Lower Euphrates to Harran in the north, thus entering Canaan through Syria ; and Pheenician tradition points to the same line of immigration. The Amraphel and Arioch, with whom in Gn 14 Abraham is said to have been pu emnipeny bare been supposed (though Jensen, Ball, and King [Letters ie Geacriokions of Khammurabi, 1899) dispute this) to be the Bab. Khammurabi and Eriaku, whose date is fixed b many at about B.C.

2376-2333 (see Sayce, ΕΗ ἢ 281). The Hebrews naturally reached Bethel before Hebron and Beersheba. Of the cities noticed in Gn, those of Syria (Gn 10%8) are known in B.C. 1700, 1600, and 1500 on monuments in the cases of Sidon, Arka, Arvad, Zemar, and Hamath. Gerar and Gaza in Palestine (v.!) are noticed in B.c. 1600 and 1500 respectively ; but Dan (if really a town name in Gn 1412) does not seem to have been so named till the time of the judges (Jg 18%).

Dothan (Gn 3717) is noticed by Thothmes ΠΙ. about B.c. 1600, and its site is equally certain with those of the preceding cities. Damascus (Gn 15) is noticed by Thothmes I. in B.c. 1600, and on the Tel el-Amarna tablets a century later.* These tablets also refer to the land of Hobah (Gn 14) north of Damascus, and to the land of Ham (Gn 14°) in Bashan. The topography of Exodus is mainly confined to the desert, and unfortunately contains many names of unknown localities.

That of Numbers refers largely to a region never reached by the Egyptians, and only conquered by the eee in the 8th cent. B.c. The chief sites in Moab and Gilead retain their ancient names, and some are noticed on the Moabite Stone about B.c. 850. The conquest of Eastern Palestine in five months by the Israelites was less arduous than many of the yearly campaigns of the Egyptians and Assyrians, which extended over much greater distances through hostile of Palestine.

The view of Palestine from Nebo (Dt 3413) accords with the actual view, excepting that Dan and the ‘ Western Sea’ are hidden by nearer mountains. The great geogra hical book of the OT is, however, that of Joshua. The description of the boundaries of the land applies, in the judgment of the writer of the present article, to a time previous to that of the captivity of Gad in B.c. 734 (1 Ch 5*), and to that of the Moabite conquest in B.C. 850.

It also refers to a period not later than that of David, according to the note (1 Ch 451) concern- ing the dispersion of Simeon. Ai (Jos 85) was apparently no longer in ruins in B.C. 701 (Is 10*), and was repeopled after the Captivity (Neh 11"). The curse of Joshua on Jericho (Jos 655) was ful- filled (1 Καὶ 1652) in Ahab’s time, about B.c. 850; and the regions unconquered by Joshua (185: were part of David’s kingdom.

Jebus (Jos 15%) was ins taken by David ; and Nob, which is un- noticed in Jos (21) as a priestly city, had its popu- lation massacred by Saul (1 S 22"), but ap yarently was reoccupied by B.C. 701 (Is 10).

On the other hand, the distinction of Israel and Judah seems to be indicated geographically (Jos 11’*), and it is very remarkable that there is no account of the conquest of Central Palestine, and that the deserip- tion of the Samaritan region is much less com- On the names in these tablets see esp, Petrie’s Syria ana Egypt from the Tell el-Amarna Letters, yp. 144-187. 848 PALESTINE plete than that of Galilee and Judea.

There is an important difference in the order of the sage referring to the fulfilment of the law at Shechem (Jos 8”) in the LXX, and it has been suspected that the original book has lost portions referring to Samaria. The geography, however, does not 2 idee that of the later period (Neh 11”), when Judah colonized the earlier possessions of Simeon, and Benjamin settled in towns that had belonged to Dan.

The forty-eight Levitical cities were assigned in obedience to the law (Nu 35°), but the arrangement laid down in Ezk (4555) is quite different, and these cities are not so assigned in Neh (11%), The majority of the Levitical cities are well-known sites, and the variations in the imperfect parallel list (1 Ch 6) are few. Beth- shemesh, Bass Beth-horon, Eltekeh, Aijalon, Gath-rimmon, Taanach, Ashtaroth, Daberath, and En-gannim are among the Levitical cities which are noticed on Egyp.

monuments, and in the Tel el-Amarna letters, in the 16th and 15th cents. B.C., excepting Beth-horon and Eltekeh—noticed by Shishak (B.C. 935) and by Sennacherib (B.C. 701) ΤΕΕΠΟΘΑΥΘΙΣ. When we compare the final arrangements of the conquest — for at first Judah, Benjamin, and Joseph occupied country (Jos 16.

17) out of which portions were taken for Issachar, Dan, and Simeon —with the twelve provinces which existed in the time of Solomon, the two accounts are found to coincide very closely, but in subsequent ages the boundaries mentioned differ considerably from those of the Bk. of Joshua. Ephraim, Naphtali, and Asher are noticed as provinces with Issachar and Benjamin (1 K 4%); the second province in- cluded towns of Dan; the third appears to have been in Judah ; and the fourth perhaps in Zebulun.

East of Jordan the northern province had its capital at Ramoth-gilead (Reimén) and the southern at Mahanaim (probably Makhneh), while the twelfth province coincided with the lot of Reuben. Bec had already ceased to hold the Beersheba plains, The most completely described region in the Bk. of Joshua is that south of Jerusalem.

* The north boundary of Judah ran south of Jericho by Gilgal and Adummim (Tal'at ed-Dumm) to Enrogel in the Kidron Valley ; and, leaving the capital in Benjamin, it ran southward by ‘Rachel’s. Tomb (1 5 10°, Jer 312°) to Nephtoah (Jos 15°), which was at Etam according to the Talmud of Jerusalem (Ain ‘Atdn, south of Bethlehem), whence it ran west to Chesalon (Kesla) and to Kiriath-jearim (Zrma), and south of the valley of Sorek, and to Ekron and Jamnia and the sea.

The cities within this border are enumerated (Jos 15) in groups ac- cording as they were in the Neged or ‘dry land,’ the Shephélah or western foot hills, the Har or ‘mountain region,’ and the Midbar or desert. Of those in the Beersheba desert little is known, and the total is given as twenty-nine, while the details amount to thirty-four. Amam, Shema, Hazar- gaddah, Heshmon, and Bethpelet are, however, omitted in the parallel passage (Jos 19°).

Of the rest, only Adadah (‘Ad'adah), Kedesh (‘Ain Kades), and Kerioth-hezron (at Jebel Hadhireh) are known, with Beersheba (Bir es-Seb'a), Rimmon (Umm er-Rumémin), and perhaps Ziklag (‘Asluj). In the second list (Jos 19°) Sharuhen stands for Shilhim, and appears to be the present Tell esh- Shervah in the Philistine plains, which is noticed as early as B.C. 1700, when the Egyptians were ad- vancing on Canaan.

The second group in the ‘low- Throughout this article the identifications of towns, etc. are those which were first proposed by or which commen themselves to the present writer. Space forbids the reasons for his conclusions being stated. The reader may refer to the separate articles, in some of which a different identification is adopted, and where the authorities are cited. PALESTINE lands’ (Jos 15%-) is much more perfectly known, as lying south-west of the Jerusalem mountains.

Of these, Zorah is noticed monumentally in the fifteenth century B.Cc., and is now the village Surah. Eshtaol (2shu'a), Zanoah (Zanth), En- gannim (Umm Jina), Enam (‘Ain ‘Ainah), Jar- muth (Yarmiék), Adullam (‘Aid el-Mia), Socoh (Shuweikeh), and Gederoth (Jedireh) retain their old names little changed.

The third group is less known, but seems to have included cities on the edge of the plain of Philistia, ἜΝ which Migdal- ad (Mejdeleh), Lachish (Tell el-Hesy), Eglon (4;lan), Beth-dagon (Beit Dejan), Naamak (Na- ‘aneh), and Makkedah (probably e/-Mughdr) are fixed. Eglon is monumentally noticed in B.c. 1600, Lachish and Makkedah about B.c. 1480-1440, and Beth-dagon in B.c. 701.

The fourth group included towns nearer to the Hebron mountains, of which Nezeb (Beit Nusib), Keilah (Kilah), Achzib (‘Ain Kezbeh), and Mareshah (Mer‘ash) are all apparently noticed in the Tel el-Amarna letters of the 15th cent. B.c., and the two latter by Micah (115 10) in the 8th cent. B.c. The three Philistine cities which follow do not appear to have been conquered till the time of Solomon.

Ekron (‘Akir), Ashdod (£sdiid), and Gaza (Ghuz- zeh) were, no doubt, ancient sites, but only the latter —an important city long held by Egypt —is noticed in the 15th cent. B.c. The sixth group in the mountains begins in the south, including the Negeb hills. Among these cities (vv.

8-°) Jattir ("Adtir), Socoh (Shuwetkeh), Dannah (Idhnah), Debir (Dhaheriyeh), Anab (Anab close to the preceding), Eshtemoa (es-Semia), Anim (Ghuwein), and perhaps Holon (Beit Aula) and Giloh (Jala), are fixed; while in the seventh group nearer Hebron occur Arab (er-Rabiyeh), umah (Démeh), Beth-tappuah (Τ 7 1}, Hebron itself (el-Khalil), and Zior (Stair).

The eighth group includes towns farther east in the Hebron hills, such as Maon (Main), Carmel (Kurmud), Ziph vas ), Juttah (Yuttah), Zanoah (Zanu'a), Ha- Kain (Yukin); while Gibeah and Timnah (Jeb‘a and Tibneh) may be ruined sites north-west of Hebron, though this is uncertain, The ninth group is in the mountains north of Hebron, including Halhul (Halhil), Bethzur (Beit Sir), Maarath (Beit Ummédr), Beth-anoth (Beit ‘Ainin), and Eltekon — perhaps Tekoa (Teku‘a).

Two towns forming a separate group (v.™) are Kiriath-jearim (Erma), and Rabbah (Rubba) south-west of the receding. The six cities of the desert are less own, but the ‘City of Salt’ (v.®) may be Tell el- Milh east of Beersheba, and the last is nee (Ain Jidy) on the cliff above the Dead Sea. Several of the towns in the southern mountains are noticed in the lists of Thothmes mI. about B.c.

1600, such, for instance, as Carmel; but the Egyptians did not peice far into the mountains, though ea] held Jerusalem before the Hebrew conquest, and knew it by that name (Urusalim), which occurs in the Bk. of Joshua (15®, cf. 101%), The north boundary of Benjamin ran from Jordan north of Jericho (Jos 1811- to Bethel (Beitin) and to Ataroth-addar (ed-Ddrieh) on the hill south of lower Beth-horon (Beit ‘Ur et-Tahta, i.e. ‘the lower’).

The west border ran due south to Kiriath-jearim (‘Erma), joining the border of Judah. The cities included in this mountain region (vv.!

-*) are not all known, but among them were Bethel and Parah (Farah), Ophrah (probably Taiyibeh), Chephar-ha-Ammoni (Kefr ‘Ana,, Ophni (thought to be Jufna), and Geba (Jeb'a), with Gibeon (e/-Jib), Ramah (er-Rdm), Beeroth (Bireh), Mizpeh (perhaps Tedd en-Nasbeh), Chephirah (Kefireh), Irpeel (Rafat), Eleph ie: Jerusalem itself, and Kiriath tel-Keurieh, called also Kuriet el- Anab): all these are within the border.

PALESTINE PALESTINE 649 The lot of Dan (Jos 19°) was in the low hills and plain west of Benjamin. Its boundaries are not stated, but on the south coincided with Judah, from which tribe Zorah and Eshtaol on the border were taken. Near these was Ir-shemesh (Ain Shems), and farther north Shaalabbin (Se/bit) and Aijalon (Yalo). Timnah and Ekron (T7ibneh and ‘Akir) were also on the Judah border.

Eltekeh (perhaps Beit Likia) and Gibbethon (Kibbieh) were on the north-east, and Jehud (e/-Yehudiyeh) with Bene-berak (/bn Ibrak) in the plain north of Joppa. Me-jarkon (‘yellow water’) may have been the boundary stream already noticed, and Rakkon (‘shore ’) may be the present Tell er-Rakkeit on the shore north ὁ donne (are). The territory was insuflicient (v.‘”), and the plain was held by the Canaanites (Jg 15.

85), so that the Danites were forced to migrate from their plain or ‘camp’ (Mahaneh-dan, Jg 18**) west of Kiriath-jearim (in the valley of Sorek, south of Zorah) to the extreme north under Hermon. Of the cities of Dan, Joppa is noticed in the Tel el-Amarna tablets (15th cent. B.C.) as well as by Sennacherib in B.C. 701, and the latter also notices Beth-dagon (on the border of Judah), Bene- berak, Eltekeh, and Timnah.

The children of Joseph appear at first to have spread over all Samaria and Wee Galilee, as well as over Bashan and half Gilead. Their original boundary (Jos 161%) coincided with that of Benja- min, an aperoashed Judah at Gezer (Tell Jezer), which was, however, not taken (v.'”), though they claimed the plains subsequently given to Dan. Out of their territory also Issachar received a portion in the final division by lot.

Ephraim had a small and rugged portion ; but Manasseh was a ‘ great people’ (Jos 172"), yet unable to drive the Canaanites out of the chariot cities in the plains. Manasseh held some of the best lands in Central Palestine, and a wooded mountain, perhaps Car- mel (see Mic 74).

The north border of Ephraim is briefly described (Jos 1058), running on the west from the north-west angle of Benjamin to Michmethah east of Shechem (177), apparently the Mukhnah plain, and thence east to Taanath-shiloh (T"ana) and Janoah (Yaniin), and thus to the Jordan Valley near Jericho. The river Kanah (Wdady Kanah) formed the border on the north- west, running to the sea; but the plains north of Dan were not occupied. The list of ‘separate cities’ (16°) seems to have been lost.

The bound- aries of Manasseh are not stated, and only two towns within the portion of this tribe west of Jordan are noticed, namely, Shechem and Tappuah. The site of the latter is unknown, but it is perhaps the same as Yashubi ‘En Tappuah, which would find a fitting site at Yds#f close to the Mukhnah lain, the border of Ephraim (see Heb. Jos 177).

anasseh had originally ‘touched upon’ Asher and Issachar, and claimed cities in these tribes, of which in Issachar Bethshean (Beisdn), Ibleam (Yebla), Endor (παν), Taanach (7"dnuk), and Megiddo (probably Mujedd'a) are well known. It is remarkable that very few Samaritan towns are noticed, but in the Bk. of Joshua generally we find Shiloh, Tirzah, and Shechem mentioned. Monumental records are equally silent as to this very rugged mountain region.

On the other hand, Megiddo and Taanach are noticed by Thothmes Ul. (in B.C. 1600) and in the Tel el-Amarna texts (a century later); and again, in the reign of Ramses i. (about B.C. 1330), Megiddo is noticed as if near the Jordan. The boundaries of Issachar are also unnoticed Jos 19'7-2), but coincided with those of Manasseh, aphtali, and Zebulun, including the plain of Dothan and that of Esdraelon.

The known cities include Jezreel (Zer'in), Chesulloth (/ksd/), Shu- nem (Sélem), Hapharaim (e/-Ferrtyeh), Anaharath (En N'atirah), Rabbith (44a), Remeth (RdmeA), HS mae (Jenin), and En-haddah (perhaps Kefr Addn). Of these, Anaharath, and perhaps others, are noticed by Thothmes 1. in his lists. The borders of Zebulun are more particular! described. The lot included the Nazareth hills and the plain of Asochis with hills to its north.

The north and south limits seem to be fixed by Dabbesheth (Dabsheh) and Jokneam (7'ell Keimin) respectively (Jos 19"). The south border was at Sarid (or perh. Sadid, ef. LXX B in ν. 13), which may be Yell Shadid at the foot of the Nazareth hills. It ran east to Chesulloth and Daberath (Debdrieh), where, at the western foot of Tabor, the three tribes, Zebulun, Naphtali, and Issachar met (see 19%).

The south border of Zebulun also touched Japhia (γάζα, west of Nazareth), and reached the Kishon at Jokneam. Theeast borderskirted the Tabor plateau on the west, running north on the hills to Gath- hepher (now el-Mesh-hed) and to Rimmon (Rummé- neh) east of the Asochis plain. The north border started on the east at Hannathon (Kefr‘Andn) and passed along a deep valley to Dabbesheth.

The remainder of the line coincided with the south border of Asher (Jos 1957), running north of Cabul (Kabul) to Beth-dagon (probably Tell Davik south of Acre) and to Shihor-libnath —apparently the river Belus. The shores of the bay of Acre seem to have belonged to Asher, perhaps as far as the Kishon (1935), but Zebulun would seem to have had a ‘haven’ for ‘ships’ (Gn 49%), probably at Haifa under Carmel, in which name the Heb word for ‘haven’ or ‘shore’ survives.

Of the other cities of Zebulun, only Bethlehem (Bett Lahm) is certainly known. It appears to be quite clear that the Tabor plates as well as the hills of Upper Galilee, be- onged to Napa The towns included (19*) those in the plain, Bezaanannim (Besstim) as well as Heleph (perhaps Beit Lif) in the north.

Among those in the plain were Adami (ed-Ddémieh), Ham- math (south of Tiberias), Rakkath (believed by the Rabbis to be the old name of Tiberias, meaning ‘shore’), and Adamah (Admah north of Beis&n) ; Hukkok (Yakik) formed with Tabor the border on the south-west. In the upper mountains were Hazor (near Jebel Hadhireh), Kedesh( Kedes), Horem (Hirah), Beth-anath (‘Ainatha), and others which are doubtful.

The tribe of Asher claimed the lower hills be- tween Accho and Tyre (1955), but failed to drive the Canaanites from many of the cities (Jg 1"). Many of the towns of Asher are doubtful, thoug’: all appear to have been north of Acre. Dor (Jce 174, cf. 12% and 1 Ch 7) is quite unknown, though fixed by Eusebius at Tantérah south οἱ Carmel.

This, like many other assertions of his Onomasticon, is unauthorized and confusing, ἘΡῸΣ cially as Dor seems to have been on the ‘ uplanc Achshaph is probably e/-Yasif near Acre. Ham- mon seems to have been an important site near the shore farther north, where f 5. tenan discovered inscriptions to Baal Hammon. Kanah isin thehills east of Tyre, and Achzib (ez-Zib) is north of Acre in the plain. Among these cities Tyre aud Accho are noticed in the 15th cent. B.c.

in the Tel el Amarna tablets and Achzib by Sennacherib in B.C. 70]. East of Jordan, Reuben held the pong round Heshbon, and the lot seems to have been bounded by the hills north of that city (Jos 18°), ex tending to Jordan in the valley of Shittim; but in Ahab’s time several of the cities of Reuben are noticed on the Moabite Stone as having been held by ‘men of Gad.’ The south border was Arnon (now Wéady Mojib) and Aroer (‘Ar'air) on the N. brink of its valley. The sites of Medeba (.

Mddedeh), PALESTINE PALESTINE Heshbon (Hesban), Dibon (Dhibdn), and Beth-baal- meon (Ma'in) are those of considerable towns. Kiriathaim (Keridt) and Beth-jeshimoth (Suweimeh on the north-east shore of the Dead Sea) are known, with probably Sibmah (Sdmieh) near Heshbon.

The boundary of Reuben and Gad was at Jazer (probably Beit Zdr'a north of Heshbon), and the latter tribe held the Jordan Valley east of the river, and the western slopes of Gilead, bounded on the east by Aroer near Rabbath-ammon (Ammén). On the north-east they held Ramath- mizpeh (probably Sif, the Mizpeh of Jephthah, Jg 11) and Betonim, perhaps the district in north Gilead now called el-Butein.

Mahanaim was on the border between Gad and Manasseh, the latter tribe holding ‘half Gilead’ (13%), which appears to mean the eastern half, Gad extending to the ‘border of the ridge’ (Debir), and holding in the Jordan Valley Beth-aram (dmeh), Beth- nimrah (Nimrin), Succoth (Zell Der'ala), Zaphon (supposed by the Rabbis to be‘Amatah), and the lowlands to the Sea of Galilee.

This agrees with the notice of Mahanaim in Solomon’s south Gilead province (1 K 4"), The rest of the large portion riven to Manasseh east of Jordan included all ashan (v.*!), with the towns of Ashtaroth (Zell ‘Ashterah) and Edrei (edh-Dhra'a), which are noticed on monuments in B.C. 1600-1500. This tribal distribution of Palestine was broken up by the se (Por Tiglath-pileser Ill. (B.C.

745- 727) conquered Galilee (2 Καὶ 15“), and took captive the tribes east of Jordan (1 Ch 5°) shortly before Sargon took Samaria (B.c. 722). In 711 Ashdod was besieged by Sargon, and when Hezekiah was attacked by Sennacherib in B.c. 701, Beth-dagon, Joppa, Bene-berak and Hazor (Yazir in the plain) are said to have belonged to Ashkelon. Ammon, Moab, Edom, Ekron, and Gaza were then all inde- pendent, and Moab indeed had rebelled nearly two centuries earlier.

Thus the geography of the Book of Joshua represents a condition which did not long exist after the death of Solomon. The narrative chapters show that the conquest resembled those made by the Egyptians or Assyrians in their annual campaigns: ‘the cities that stood still on their mounds’ (Jos 111%) were not destroyed, unless taken by stratagem.

The invading army attacked usually the smaller places, but the fortresses with garrisons of chariots remained in the hands of the Canaan- ites, and subsequent attacks had to be made on places burned by Joshua and re-fortified by their inhabitants (e.g. Jg 1%, Jos 10%). The first cam- paign from Gilgal by Ai and Gibeon to Aijalon, and thence to Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, tiie Hebron, and Debir, followed apparently the line of the conquests of the Habiri noticed in the Tel el- Amarna texts (B.C.

1480-1440) : for they also came from Seir, and fought at Aijalon and Lachish, and penetrated by Keilah up the valley towards ebron. The site of Debir was in the Negeb (Jg 1.5) and near Anab (Jos 1599. 50), so that there is reason to place it at the important ancient site Dhaheriyeh (‘the place on the back or ridge’) near Anab, at a village where rock-cut tombs and other marks of antiquity are found. This was the southernmost extent of Joshua’s original conquest.

The conquest of Shechem (only about 20 miles from Ai) is not described, but the law was here fulfilled (Dt 27*, Jos 8); the next great contest was in Upper Galilee, where Hazor looked down on the Waters of Merom (Jos 1115), and where all the northern Canaanites gathered. Hazor is also a place whence letters were sent askin aid from Egypt in the 15th cent. B.c.

The Boo of Joshua ends with his burial at Timnath-heres (Jg 29) in Mount Ephraim (now Kefr Hédris), and that of Ele s:ar in Gibeah of Phinehas, prob- ably at the site now shown at ‘Awertah east of Gerizim. The bones of Joseph were buried at Shechem, where his tomb is shown near Jacob’s Well; and the altar on Ebal (Jos 8%) and stone monument in the plain of Shechem (Jos 24%) seemed to make this central city the capital of Israel.

There were, however, several successive sanctuaries which were recognized before the building of the temple, namely at Gilgal, Shiloh, Nob, and Gibeon. The ark rested in Kiriath- jearim, and an altar of Jehovah was built on Carmel before Elijah’s famous visit (1 K 18%), We have no notice, however, of contemporary local sanctuaries till after the division of the kingdom.

The six cities of refuge were placed equidistant, three on eitherside of the river, at Hebron,Shechem, and Kedesh-naphtali, at Bezer(Busetrah in Moab), Ramoth-gilead (Reimin), and Golan (Sahem el- Jauldn), in the south, the centre, and the north of the soaniy (Jos 207-8), A careful consideration of the geography of the Pent. and Bk.

of Joshua, by the aid of modern ex- ploration, shows that the whole is easily under- stood, and that in no case does there appear to be any element suggesting that the descriptions were enned after the Captivity. Towns appear in the later books, such as Samaria, Zereda (Surdah), Lod (Lydda), Ananiah (Beit Hanina), ete. ae 11%-8>), not noticed in Joshua, just as the later Heb. differs in the use of Persian and Gr. words, and in syntax and vocabulary, from the older Heb. of the Pentateuch.

The geography of the Bk. of Joshua is, however, so exhaustive, that little is added to it in the OT books that follow. In Judges, Bezek (12) may be the southern Bezkah rather than the Bezek of Saul (1 8 118), now Jéztk north-east of Shechem. Conquests were pushed farther south than Debir to Zephath (es-Sufa) in the Beersheba plateau ; but Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron were not taken (LXX Jg 118), or any chariot city in the plains.

Bethel fell, and its inhabitants migrated to Luz (Luweizeh) under Hermon (v.*) ; but inter- marriage with Canaanites (3°) eM the power of the conquering race, and the king of Mesopotamia is said (310) to have overrun Palestine (ef. the wordsof Burnaburias to Amenophis IV. in the Tel el-Amarna Collection). The episode of Sisera (Jg 45) is elu- cidated by its geography. His chariot city was Harosheth (‘the woods’), now el-Harathiyeh by the oak wood near the Kishon. The Kishon under Mount Tabor (ν.

7) is treacherous and swampy, and after the battle near Endor (Ps 8310) the chariots were engulfed in the stream (Jg 5%), while Sisera fled east to Bezaanannim (Bessim), near the Kedesh (Kadish) of the Sea of Galilee. The episode of Gideon’s victory is equally clear topographically.

He lived at Ophrah (probably Fer'ata) in Samaria (Jg 64), but encountered his eastern foes near the spring of Harod (Jg 71), and pursued them down the valley of Jezreel to Beth-shittah (Shutta), and te Abel-meholah (‘Ain Helweh) in the Jordan Valley, and by Succoth (Tell Der'ala) to Jogbehah (84), now Jubeihah on the hills north of Rabbath- ammon.

The story of Jephthah belongs to Mount Gilead, Tob (Jg 118) being the present Zaiyibeh south-east of the Sea of Galilee, and Mizpeh, probably, Saf, farther south on the Gilead upland. he pursuit of the Ammonites extended to Aroer on Arnon.

The exploits of Samson were confined to Philistia and the Shephélah near Zorah—the valley of Sorek (Jg 164) retaining its name at Surik close to his home, while the ‘cleft’ of the rock Etam (158: 8) may be the curious cavern in the cliff at Beit ‘Atdb rather farther east. The rock Rimmon (Jg 2118) was not far south of Shiloh at Rummén, and vine cultivation (v.

”) still continues south of Shiloh (Seién), the position of which is specially described as east of the road te PALESTINE Shechem, and south of Lebonah (Lubben) on that road (ν.}5). The first capital of the Heb. kingdom was at Gibeah (Jeé/'a) in Benjamin (18 13%), near Mich- mash (Mukhmds), where the two great precipices divide these villages (14°) in the valley of Suweinit —‘the little thorn trees’ — which perhaps pre- serves the name of Seneh, ‘the thorn.

’ The valley of Elah (Wédy es-Swnt) is still remarkable for the large terebinths whence its Heb. name was de- rived, and its site is fixed by the notice of Socoh (1S 17), now Shuweikeh, and of Gath (v.%) and Ekron. Gath (Giti Rimuna) is ai clearly fixed by a notice in the Tel el-Amarna letters at the site usually accepted—the cliff of Tedd es-SAfi —at the mouth of the valley of Elah.

David's wanderings from this Philistine fortress extended up the valley of Elah to Adullam (‘Aid el-Mia) on its western side; to Hareth (Khards), in the hills above it on the east; and to Keilah (Ki/ah) farther up its course towards Hebron (1S 211" δ 23); and thence to Ziph (Tell Zif) south-east of Hebron, and Maon (Teli Main) farther south. He was finally driven to the deserts of En-gedi (‘Ain Jidy), but returned to Maon (LXX 158 25!)

immediately south of Carmel (Kurmul)—a region still rich in sheep (1 S 23% 38 941 952), Ζὶ (27) was south of Beersheba not far from Arad (Zell ‘Ardd), where the Kenites lived (cf. Jg 1156 and 1S 27"), but not more than three days’ journey from Jezreel {30') for men mounted on riding camels. The Philistines, driven from the mountains, encamped by a ‘stream’ (Aphek) in Shunem (29), ef. 28°), which still runs from the spring at Siéilem.

Saul’s army being to the south, on the rugged and barren slopes of Gilboa near Jezreel, his night journey to Endor, north of the Philistine camp, was especi- ally dangerous. he second Heb. capital was at Hebron, Saul’s adherents having their centre at Mahanaim in Gilead. The well of Sirah (2 S 3%) retains its name (‘Ain Sdrah) north of Hebron.

The con- uests of David extended north of Hermon to ibhath (perhaps Kefr Dubbeh) in the Baalbek plains, but not to Kadesh farther north (2S 88 24°), now Kades, on the Orontes. Damascus and Edom were subdued, with Moaband Ammon. The border towards Pheenicia extended to Dan-jaan (Danian) near Achzib south of Tyre (24°), but the region from near Accho to Cabul (Kabil) was ceded later to Tyre by Solomon (1 K 913), whose king- dom extended, however, north of Damascus to Tadmor (1 Καὶ 98).

Tadmor retained its native name at Palmyra to the lst cent. A.D., as attested Ὁ a Palmyro-Gr. bilingual on the site. Tiphsa (Thapsacus on the Euphrates south of Carchemish) is stated { K 4%) to have been the limit of his power, including the country of the Hittite princes (v.4, cf. 9% 10°); and Gezer, recently wasted b the Egyptians, was ceded to Israel (1 K 9"). We thus reach the period of greatest prosperity, when zorpe (2 Ch 2"*) was a Heb.

port as well as Elath (1 K 95) on the Gulf of ‘Akabah. The Pho- nicians and the Hittites (1 K 10”) in Syria remained, however, as dependent allies. he Cherethites and Pelethites (2S 20%) may have been guards from Philistia like the Gittites (151), Gath (but see art. CHERETHITES). Mahanaim is described (2S 1833) as situated in a ‘ round,’ not far from a forest (v.

*), and the remarkable basin on the Gilead plateau in which the ruins of Makhneh stand is not far from the southern oak and fir woods, whence es-Sa/¢ (the Saltus of later times) was named. The third Heb, capital at Jerusalem had existed from the 15th cent. B.c. as a city. It requires to be separately treated (see JERUSALEM), but was chosen, probably in at Shechem, from military and political considera- tions.

The southern mountains have always been the last refuge from foreign invaders from the plains. even in Solomon’s age, with the loss of Damascus (1 Καὶ 115); and Zereda (Surdeh) in Ephraim be- came a centre of revolt (v.™, cf. LXX additions, 1K 1Q@at.), to his own record, extended over all Palestine except Upper Galilee, which was conquered by the Syrians (15%). The earlier boundary of Israel and Judah seems to have been near the Michmash Mee (v.%, cf. 2Ch 13” 16!

6, Zec 14, 2 Καὶ 238); an probabl of Shechem. The site of Elijah’s sacrifice (1 K 18) is supposed to have been at the southern Carmel, now called el-Mahrakah—‘the place of burning.’ The Aphek of the Syrian wars (1 K 20”) is probably Vik, on the precipices east of the Sea of Galilee. (1 K 21) is attested by the remains of rock-cut winepresses e4st of the town, though no vines are now grown. plains.

was probably not the distant Thapsacus on the for a town called Keratiya exists south-west of | PALESTINE 651 reference to the older centre The gradual decay of the kingdom began, Shishak’s conquests (14*), according irzah, the northern capital (1 Καὶ 1653), was at Teiasir, an ancient site north-east k of The vine cultivation of Jezreel A new capital at Samaria now appears in history (1 K 16%) in a well-watered mountain region, at Sebastieh west of Shechem, but much exposed to invasion both from the western and the northern Tiphsah (2 K 151°), smitten by Menahem, Euphrates, but the modern Tafsah (spelt with the final guttural) south of Shechem ; for the Hittites were still an independent people, unconquered Ὁ Assyria till the time of Sargon (cf.

2 K 75), an the conquests of Jeroboam I. in Syria (2 K 14%) extended only to Hamath, half-way to the Hittite capital at Carchemish (2 Ch 35”), now Jerdbis on the Euphrates.

After the Captivity geographical indications are less numerous, but many new towns are noticed (Ezr 2), such as Netophah (Beit Netif in the Shephélah), Azmaveth (Hizmeh), Neballat (Bir Nibdla), and Ono (Kefr ‘Ana) in Benjamin, Elam exh Beit ‘Alam west of Hebron) and others ready noticed: ‘the other Nebo’ (Neh 753) may be Nida in the same district ; the villages in the Shephélah were colonized by men of Judah and Benjamin, who spread as far as Ziklag, Lachish, and Lod (Neh 1133).

The ΤΟΡΟΡΤΆΠΙΟΝΙ notices of the poetical and prophetic books do not require special consideration, but that of the Song of ongs is remarkable as covering the whole of Palestine east and west of Jordan, and as indicat- ing the various natural features of the different regions—the flowers of Sharon (2'), the mountains of Bether (probably Bittir near Jerusalem, 2"), the pastures of Gilead (4'), the wild summits of Lebanon and Hermon (4°), the fertile plain round Tirzah (6), the hills above Damascus (7), the pools still found beneath Heshbon (7*), and perhaps the copses of Carmel, and the ‘circle’ of Mahanaim (015.

7°). The geography of the Hasmonman period, in the First Book of Maccabees, is evidence of the genuine character of that work. The revolt began at Modin (Medieh) on the hills east of Lydda; and the three great passes at Bethhoron, Bethzur, and Berzetho (Bir ez-Zeit), on the west, south, and north of Jerusalem, were defended by Judas, Adasa, the site of his last victory, was at “AdasaA near Gibeon.

Bethzacharias (Beit Skaria), where Eleazar was killed under the elephant (1 Mac 6”), was within sight of Jerusalem on the south. The raids of Judas were carried over the whole of Eastern Palestine and into Philistia and Edom, but the only parts securely held were in the mountains round Jerusalem. After his death the surviving a Θ “ Ἕἕἵ)ὕὈΐὕὍὌΡΪΡ͵Κ͵Ὸ͵ῬΘ.͵΄΄΄ἷὖἷἧ΄ἷἝἷἝἷΠἷΠΡΠΡρὅρὅρρὅτ΄ἽἿἽἝΓ ρ΄...

τ’, ““΄ ᾿λὨΙῸᾷΩΧΣΙτ͵ “«εο͵ τ πΛΑΣ, 652 PALESTINE brothers found refuge in the desert of Judah and in the Jordan jungle before establishing them- selves at Michmash. Under Jonathan the Jewish boundaries extended over all Western Palestine and Syria, even to the river Eleutherus north of Tripoli (Nahr el-Kebir), the port of Joppa and the cities of Philistia having been also won. Gerasa (Jerash) in Gilead is first noticed in the time of Alexander Jannus.

The NT topography is mainly confined to Lower Galilee, but the works of Josephus, the Mishna, and other early Talmudic tracts enable us to trace the boundaries of Samaria, while the village names of Lower Galilee are noticed in great numbers in the Life of Josephus,-including many places not other- wise mentioned, but which retain their ancient names.

The most important ae Saray ques- tionsin the Gospels, from a critical point of view, are those concerning the sites of Bethabara, Emmaus, and Sychar. Christian tradition from the fourth century has placed Bethabara (on the reading in Jn 1% see article BETHABARA) at the Jericho ford, because John preached in the wilderness of Judea (Mt 3!)

; but this does not accord with the distance from Cana of Galilee, a day’s journey (Jn 1* 2), and the Baptist preached in all parts of the Jordan Valley (Lk 3°), The name of Bethabara (‘house of the ferry’) survives at only one of the Jordan fords, Makhddet ‘Abdrah, ‘the ford of the ferry,’ and this is on the confines of Galilee (Mt 315), and a day’s sans from Cana.

The site of Emmaus is not known (possibly Khamasa south-west of Jerusalem); the emendation of the Sinaitic MS (Lk 24° reading 160 for 60 furlongs), clearly in- tended to point to Emmaus Nicopolis (“Amwds), gives too great a distance from Jerusalem to agree with the context (vv. *), Sychar (Sam. Jschar, translated in the Arabic of the Sam. Chronicle Askar) is clearly the village ‘Askar close to Jacob’s Well (Jn 45:5).

Anon near Salim (Jn 3%), where there was ‘much water,’ is probably to be found at the perennial stream north-east of Shechem, between the sites of ‘Aintin and Sédlim, where alone in Palestine the two names occur near each other. The site of Chorazin (Mt 11”) is fixed at Kerdzeh, north of the Sea of Galilee, but that of Capernaum (Capharasam in the earlier MSS) is disputed. Christian tradition from the 4th cent.

has placed it at Yell Him, but the fountain of Capernaum watered the plain of Gennesaret (Jos. BJ wt x. 8), and Isaac Chelo (14th cent. A.D.) identifies the town with a city of the Minim, who, according to the Rabbis, were heretics of Capernaum; Jewish tradition seems thus to point to the ruin of Minieh in the small plain of Gennesaret. Bethsaida Julias (Jos. BJ 1. x. 7) was at the mouth of the Jordan, east of the river, where it entered the Sea of Galilee.

It is usually placed at e¢-Tel/, a ruin now a mile from the mouth. The swampy delta between this site and the lake has probably been formed during the last nineteen centuries. This city appears to be the Bethsaida of the Gospels (Mk 8”) on the way to Cesarea Philippi under Hermon (v.”), and apparently east of Jordan (cf. Mt 1413-223 Jj 9”), although two of the oldest MSS omit the name in the last cited passage.

This view is not contradicted by the other passages in which Bethsaida is noticed (Jn 1%, Me 113). Magdala (Mt 1539), called Magadan in some early MSS, and ossibly identical with Dalmanutha (Mic 8°), is the ittle hamlet Mejdel north of Tiberias. Gerasa (Mk δὲ, Lk 8*=Gadara of Mt 8%) or Gergesa is usually placed at the ruin Khersa, under the cliffs east of the Sea of Galilee, a site which answers to the notice of a ‘steep place’(Mt 833).

See, further, under the articles GADARA, GADARENES, and GERASENES. PALESTINE was near Bethany (el-Azeriyeh) on Olivet. Geth- semane is only traditionally indicated, but it was clearly at the foot of Olivet, east of the Kidron Valley. Ephraim (Jn_11%) is traditionally the village Zaiyibeh near Baal-hazor (cf. 2 Ch 13% and 2 5 13%). Sg ee (Ac 23%), at Rds el- ‘Ain, on the old road from Jerusalem to Ceesarea, was a city built by Herod the Great.

| The boundaries of Samaria coincided roughly with those of the old territory of Manasseh west of Jordan, and extended to the Jordan Valley (cf. Mk 10") as well as to the sea—Czsarea Palestina and Capharsaba (Kefr Sdba) being Sam. towns according to the Rabbis. Samaritans also lived in Bethshean and on Carmel, where Kefr es-Samir represents the older Castrum Samaritorum.

The south boundary followed a great ravine eastwards from Antipatris, having Beth Rima (Beit Rima) and Beth Laban (Lubben) on the south, and pass- ing by Anuath and Borceos (Berkit). Acrabbi (Aierabel and Sartaba (Kurn Sartabah) were in udea; and the boundary, leaving Shechem on its west, thus seems to have followed the valley of Anon.

En-gannim (Jenin) was the border town of Galilee in the plain of Esdraelon; but Carmel, Gilboa, and all Sharon north of Antipatris appear to have been in Samaria. Galilee was bounded on the north (see Tosephta, Siphri, and Talm. Jerus.) by Achzib north of Accho (ez-Zib), Gatin (Ja'thin), Beth Zanita (Zuweinita), Melloth (Malia), Gelil (Jilil), and Kanah (Kanah), and thence on the north the line ran along the Leontes, and to Cesarea Philippi (Banids) under Hermon.

The ‘coasts of Tyre and Sidon’ (Mt 15%) were thus beyond the Holy Land. On the east, Bashan was divided into the districts of Gaulanitis (Jauldn), Trachonitis (the Lejja or ‘ basalt’ region), Iturzea,—usually supposed to be the Jedir region under Hermon,—Batanza and Auranitis (Haurdn). See BAsHan. Decapolis (Mt 4%, Mk 5”, Pliny, ΗΝ vy.

18) was a confederation of ten cities in Bashan, including Gadara (Umm Keis), Gerasa (Jerdsh), Canatha (Kanawiét), Abila (Adi/), Susitha (Sisieh), Dion (Adin), Capitolias (probably Bett er- Ras), Pella (Fahil), and Raphana, with Bethshean (Beisdn) west of the Jordan. Palestine was enriched by Herod the Great with new cities, such as Ceesarea, and by great buildings at Jericho, Phasaelis (Fusail in the Jordan Valley), Samaria, Antipatris, Ashkelon, ete.

He built the desert fortress of Masada (Sebbeh) on the south-west shores of the Dead Sea; and his tomb was in the circular fortress of Herodium, which still stands on its conical hill south of Bethlehem (Jebel Fureidis). His successors added Tiberias, Caesarea Philippi, Bethsaida, Archelais (probably Kerdwa in the Jordan Valley), and other towns ; but his dominions were divided (Jos. Ant. XVII. xi.

4), Archelaus ruling Edom, Judea, and Samaria; Philip rulin Bashan and Abilene (north of Hermon); an Antipas ruling Galilee, with Gilead and Moab (Perea); until under the Roman procurators Palestine became a province subject to the legate of Syria. During this period Damescus and the regions far east of the Jordan were subject to the Nabatzan princes of Petra from B.C. 95 to A.D. 106. Bashan was incorporated in the province of Syria in A.D. 34 after the death of Philip. Later Geography.

—Knowledge of the later to graphy of Palestine is important for a right under- standing of many questions, but the su jee can- not here be fully treated. The scattered notices in Pliny, Strabo, and other Roman writers do not add materially to our information, nor are many places noticed in the Mishna; but in the 4th cent. the Jerusalem Talmud contains many references. The conquests of Cornelius Palma | The site of Bethphage (Mk 11) is unknown, but it | under Trajan in A.D.

105 gave to the Romans the PALESTINE whole of Gilead and Moab from Bostra (Busrah) to Petra and ‘Akabah on the Red Sea. Bostra was the capital of this oe ye of Arabia, and the quarters of the Third Legion (Cyrenaica). In A.D. 295 Auranitis, Batanza, and Trachonitis were added to this province (which was ruled by a pro- pretor and a procurator), these districts having previously belonged to Syria.

The Syrian province continued to use the Seleucid era for dating texts, but the Arabian cities dated from A.D. 106, the era of Bostra. Hence (see Mr. A. G. Wright’s paper in Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly Statement, 1895, ΠΝ 67) it mes possible to draw the north undary of Arabia in A.D. 106 on the south side of Bashan sing just north of Adraa, while after A.D. 295 the border between Arabia and Syria ran farther north by Neve (Nawa) and Aere {es-Sunamein) in the north part of Bashan.

The most important ee historically in the 2nd cent. A.D. were Bether (Bittir near Jerusalem), where the great revolt of the Jews from Hadrian was suppressed, and Jamnia (Yebnah), the seat of the Sanhedrin after A.D. 70; while after A.D. 135 it sat at Shafram (Shefa ‘Amr), Oshah (Hisheh), Shaaraim (Sha'rah), and Tiberias in Lower Galilee. The eat Onomasticon of Eusebius, translated from Gr. into Latin by Jerome, is very important for a knowledge of the 4th cent.

topography, but the identification of Bible sites by these writers, who were intimately acquainted with the whole country, is as often wrong as right (as may be shown in cases such as Aijalon, ete.), and it has no authority, although upon it was founded the Greek ition which all pilgrim diaries repeat down to the 12th cent., and which still survives. The crusaders further confused the topography by new and ignorant identifications, often rejecting sites fixed by the consensus of Jewish, Sam.

, and Gr.-Christian tradition. Before the first crusade (A.D. 1099) the Greek Church divided the country into three provinces, Palestina Prima, Palestina Secunda (Galilee and East of Jordan), and Palestina Tertia in the south, in- cluding S.E. Palestine and the southern desert— all under the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem. The crusaders had four metropolitans (at Jerusalem, Cesarea, Tyre, and Nazareth) under the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem until A.p. 1187.

Under the Romans and Byzantines the boundaries of the country were guarded by Legions and native auxiliaries, established at centres like Bostra (Busrah) on the edge of the Syrian desert, and at Sinai, with posts along the plains of Moab and Damascus. The tombstones of Roman officers are commonly found in these regions with Greek (and sometimes Latin) inscriptions.

The crusaders divided all Palestine (except Bashan, which was never conquered) into fifteen baronies and fiefs under the a, 8 of Jerusalem in the 12th cent. The treaty of Richard 1. and Saladin (A.D. 1192) left to the Christians all the plains of Philistia and Sharon, with Galilee and Tyre, and many new fortresses were built in these regions early in the 13th century. The last region left to the Chris- tians, after the conquest of Bibars, consisted, about A.D.

1282, of Carmel, the plains of Acre, and the hills east of Tyre, all finally lost in 1291 on the fall of Acre. Moslem accounts of Palestine are slight and, as a rule, late, excepting the geography of El Mukaddasi, which throws light on the con- dition of the country before the first crusade. A considerable Christian population continued to exist under the Moslems during the centuries following Omar’s conquest, and was found in the country by the crusaders.

Soldiers from the west of Europe had already been planted in Palestine by the Romans in the 2nd cent., and a large population of European settlers occupied the land PALESTINE 653 in the 12th; but after the 13th this element wae represented till recently only by Italian traders on the coast, and by monks at Nazareth, Carmel, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem.

last twenty years the immigration of Circassians (in Bashan), of Bosnians (at Cwsarea on the coast), and of Jews at Jerusalem, with colonies near Jaffa, on Carmel, in Galilee, and in Bashan, are the most remarkable changes in the population of the country. Our knowledge of Palestine under the Franks, in the 12th and 13th cents.

, is singularly minute, and the remains of their churches and castles are among the most con- spicuous ruins in the country; but their influence on the native race and language seems to have been very small. Modern Palestine under the Turks is divided into four provinces,—that of Jerusalem, that of Nablus (Shechem), to which the Belka or ‘empty land’ (in Moab and Gilead) is attached, and that of Acre. Bashan is directly under the ruler of the capital at Damascus.

The country still possesses fine cornlands, especially in Sharon, Lower Galilee, and Bashan; its hills are covered with vines, especially on Hermon and round Hebron; and large groves of olives cover the lower foot hills. Most of its ancient towns are now either villages of huts built of mud in the plains and of stone in the hills, or they are ruins.

The only city is Damascus (250,000 in- habitants), and the chief towns are Jerusalem (per- haps 60,000), Hebron (10,000), Gaza (18,000), Jaffa (7000), Bethlehem (5000), NAblus (15,000), Jenin (3000), Nazareth (6000), Tiberias (2000), Accho (Acre, 8000), and Tyre (3000); but these are only estimates based on local information, and the numbers constantly vary, the Moslem population and the Samaritans at NAblus (140 souls) tendin to decrease, while the Jewish, Greek, German, an Maronite-Christian elements tend to increase, in numbers and in prosperity.

vi. ANTIQUITIES. —At a time approximately dated B.c. 2800, the Akkadians from the lower Tigris were sending ships to Sinai for granite (Tel- loh inscriptions of Gudea), and cutting cedars in Amanus (Amalum), and it is not improbable that they entered Palestine as did Amraphel (Aham- murabi) and Arioch (Friaku), who raided (Gn 145-17) through Bashan, Moab, and Edom to Kadesh- barnea, returning by En-gedi up the Jordan Valley to Dan, and to the land of Hobah north of Dam- ascus.

The date of the participators in this alleged early Chaldean raid may possibly be fixed by the cuneiform tablets c. B.C. 2300 (see above, p. 647"). During the same period the Men or Minyans(Jer51”, but see KAT? ad loc.) were ruling in Lower Egypt, and are said in Egyp. records (see Brugsch, i. 234) to have come from Assyria and from east of Syria, robably from near Lake Van. Their language, ike the Akkadian, appears (Tel el-Amarna tablets, No.

24, Berlin) to have been Mongolic, and they adored Set, a deity worshipped by the Hittites, to whom they were probably akin. It is not im- possible, therefore (but see above, p. 646"), that at During the this early period a Hittite tribe may have been ~ established among the Amorites in the south at Hebron (Gn 23), though in the later times of the Heb. conquest and in Solomon’s age (Jos 1,1 K 4”) the Hittites are confined to North Syria.

Ip the lowest strata of the mound at Lachish pottery as well as flint instruments occur, ant may belong to this period, and with these a signet which appears to have on it both Egyptian and Hittite hieroglyphics. To this early period may also be attributed the rude stone monuments, which are numerous in Moab, and which also occur near the Jabbok, at Rabbath-ammon, and near SOf in Northern Gilead, as well as in the Jaulin.

There are three or four examples in δῦ4 PALESTINE PALESTINE Upper Galilee, and a group west of Tell el-Kadi (Dan), but none are known in Western Palestine south of the Sea of Galilee. These monuments resemble those of our own islands, including monumental pillars (maggébéth of the Hebrew), circles of village enclosure stones (jdzérim, Arab. hadhr), and tables supported on upright or flat stones, such as are called cromlechs or dolmens in Britain.

The Moabite examples of the latter class of monuments cannot have been sepulchral, and were never covered over with mounds like the tomb-chambers of Europe. sro can only (in many instances) have served as tables, probably as altars, and they have often ‘cup hollows’ in the top stone, fitted for libations, such as are still ured into similar cup hollows in the north of urope.

The distribution of these monuments is remarkable, since they have disappeared from the regions in which Hezekiah and Josiah (2 K 18 23-®) destroyed the Canaanite altars and pillars, surviving cal in regions beyond the influence of the kings oe iadal They occur on Nebo (cf. Nu 23"), and at Dan, both of which were centres of idolatrous worship. The monumental history of Palestine from Egyp. sources begins about B.C.

1700 (Brugsch’s date), before which time the foreign kings of the Delta (Minyans or Hyksos) were in communication with ‘the north.’ Ahmes, first of the new native dynasty from Thebes (the 18th), drove the Asiatics from the Delta, and pursued them to Sharuhen (Tell esh-Sheri'ah) on the borders of Palestine. Thothmes 1. marched into Palestine and Syria, and beyond the Euphrates, about B.c. 1633; and a generation later Thothmes III.

won a great victory at Megiddo in Central Palestine, defeating a league of Canaanites and Hittites, and pursuin his conquests through Pheenicia by Aradus an Tunep, and beyond the Euphrates. The list of cities conquered in Palestine, about B.C. 1600, includes those of Philistia, Lower Galilee, and Bashan, as far as Ashtaroth and Damascus; but none appear to be mentioned in Samaria or Upper Judea, or in Gilead or Moab. The Egyp. chariots could not enter these rugged mountains.

Among the 119 towns in Palestine mentioned on this valu- able list at Karnak (first published by Mariette) the following cities noticed in the Bible are found in the order here given :—Megiddo, Gaza, Dothan, Rabbith, Kartan, Damascus, Edrei, Abila (of Bashan), Hammath, Madon, Lasharon, Ashtaroth, Maachah, Laish, Hazor, Adami, Kishion, Shunem, Misheal, Achshaph, Taanach, Ibleam, Anem, Kadesh (of Issachar), Anaharath, Nekeb, Joppa, Lod, Ono, Shochoh (near Adullam), Naamah, peat, Rakkon, Gerar, Aroer (of Simeon), Lebaoth, Rehoboth, Adoraim, Anim, Gezer, Rabbath, Zorah, Anem, En-gannim (of Judah), Gibeah (of Judah), and Zephathah.

These cities therefore all bore their biblical names in B.C. 1600, before the Exodus, and the list has the highest value for critical purposes. The civilization of the Canaanites at this period as described in the spoil lists of Thothmes 11. is most remarkable.

All the precious metals were in use; art objects from Phoenicia and Assyria were imported ; ivory was used for inlay- ing ; chariots Bee eet with gold and silver, or painted ; armour of bronze, and iron weapons are noticed with flint axes. Thrones, footstools, and sceptres, of precious wood, were adorned with gold and ivory; tables were set with gems; and tents had pillars of iron and of gold.

The cities had walls, and fine harvests of wheat and barley were reaped, while horses and flocks were captured by the Egyptians. Statues with heads of gold are also mentioned. Wine, oil, honey, balm, and fruits were presented. Even the ploughs seem to have been adorned with gold ; ead cedar wood was commonly used. Ships laden with timber and corn were sailing on the Mediterranean (cf. Gn 49", Nu 24"), and often carried slaves from the north. In the time of Thothmes Iv.

further ex- editions were made against the Hittites, now ieiven from Palestine to Kadesh on the Orontes. These conquests were maintained during the greater part of the long and prosperous reign of Ameno his ΠΙ. (about B.C. 1500 to 1464). The Egyptian monuments do not mention any Exodus, though Thothmes IV. is said to have driven out the Asiatics. The notices of the place Rameses (Gn 47", Ex 1!

*) do not serve to fix any date for such an event, and our only sources of informa- tion (see Jg 11%, 1 Καὶ 61) point to the 15th cent. B.C. as that during which the conquest of Palestine by the Hebrews was effected. In the ruins of Lachish the seal of Teie, the Armenian queen of Amenophis ΠΙ., is found, showing intercourse with Egypt about B.c.

1500; and the evans were in constant intercourse with Babylon, Assyria, and Armenia at this time, the royal houses being allied by marriages from the time of Thothmes Iv. A curious cuneiform tablet, sealed with a Bab. cylinder signet (Tel el-Amarna), is addressed to ‘all the kings of Canaan, servants of my brother, the king of Egypt,’ and served as a passport for an envoy.

The great collections of 300 cuneiform tablets, found in 1887 at Tel el-Amarna (between Memphis and Thebes), contain letters to Amenophis ΠῚ. and Amenophis Iv. from the kings of Babylon, Assyria, and Armenia, from princes in Asia Minor, and (in about 200 instances) from chiefs of the Hittites, Amorites, Phoenicians, and Philistines, who ruled as subjects of the Pharaoh, assisted by Egyp. residents in the chief towns of the Syrian si Palestine plains, and guarded by forces of chariots.

But towards the end of the reign of Amenophis I. revolutions occurred, which de- stroyed the Egyp. domination. The Canaanites sought alliance with Babylon, but this was refused. The Hittites and Cassites attacked Damascus, and overran Bashan. The Amorites made war on the Pheenicians, and besieged Tyre. The Egyp.

forces were defeated and withdrawn from the north and from Jerusalem, and the king of that city wrote to Egypt to complain of the entire destruction of ‘all the rulers,’ which followed, and which was due to the conquests of a people called the Habiri or ‘Abiri. They are said to have come from Seir to Jerusalem, and to have fought at Aijalon, and subdued Gezer, Ashkelon, Zorah, Lachish, Keilah, and other cities. The date coincides with that of the Heb.

conquest according to the OT notices, and it appears probable that (as Zimmern has ae sed) the Habiri are to be identified with the ebrews. In the reign of Amenophis Iv. communication with the north was (according to these tablets) much interrupted, and about B.c. 1400 the 18th dynasty was overthrown. Seti I, a generation later, began to attempt the reconquest of the lost empire when the 19th dynasty had arisen.

He netrated to Kanana (Kana‘an) near Hebron, and into the land of Zahi, famous for its wine and corn, and thought to have lain in the south of Pal., near which apparently lived the Anaugas perl ane Anakim). Seti also fought a battle at Inuamu, perhaps Jamnia, and his famous successor, Ramses It., besieged and took Ashkelon, and the towns of Shalama, Maroma (Meiriéin), Ain Anamim (‘Ainatha), Dapur (Debirieh), and Kalopu (perhaps Shalabén), in Upper and Lower Galilee.

lie ur- sued his conquests into Pheenicia, and, after taking Kadesh, entered into treaty with the Hittites, who had become independent, and marched to the * These two statements were clearly ryritten not earlier than the time of the 19th dynasty. PALESTINE Baya and to Ephesus. This Degree of conquest in Galilee seems to have coincided chronologically with the oppression of Israel under Jabin τι.

, kin of Hazor, whose ‘captain’ (sar), with a force o iron chariots (J, Π 43), bears a name not apparently Semitic, but easily explained as Egyp., viz. Sisera, t.e. Ses-Ra, ‘the servant of Ra.’ The conquests of Ramses I. were lost about B.C. 1300 by Merenptah, who was attacked in Egypt by tribes from the north, and after his time Arisu (Hareth), a Pheenician, ruled in the Delta. The power of Egypt steadily declined, and about B.c. 1200 Ramses Ul.

was attacked by northern tribes, coming both by sea and by land to Eeypt. Amon those enumerated are the Danau or Greeks, an the Pulesta, thought to be the Philistines. Early Assyr. invasions occurred (see ARAM) about this period; and in B.C. 1150 Assur-risisi set up a monument at Beirut, and about 1120 Tiglath- pileser 1. entered the Lebanon. An Assyr. king was also buried at Abydos in the time of Ramses XIv., and may have ase through Palestine. But, after the death of Solomon, Shishak (B.c.

966-933) invaded Palestine, and took 133 cities, among which Jerusalem is perhaps mentioned last (Maspero). The only monument of this later age is the famous Moabite Stone, found at Dhibdn, which records the revolt of Moab in the 9th cent. B.C., during the reign of Ahab (cf. 2 Καὶ 3*”), But the power of the Assyrians in Palestine was not severely felt until the time of Tiglath- ileser 111., who conquered Damascus in B.C. 732.

ior to this event Menahem of Israel and Ahaz of Judah brought tribute, as Jehu had done in the 9th cent. The fall of the Syrian power beyond Jordan was followed by the capture of Samaria in B.C. 722 by Sargon. The advance to Ashdod followed eleven years later, and the attack on Jerusalem by Sennacherib, in B.c.

701, failed in consequence of the success of Tirhakah, the Ethi- opian king of Egypt, after his defeat near J orp: Sennacherib ‘dwelt at Nineveh’ (2 K 1955) till his death twenty years later, and Judah was saved foracentury. The great inscription of Sennacherib attests the wealth of Hezekiah, and mentions his ivory throne.

The Siloam inscription, belonging to this age, not ante gives us the characters then in use,—closely like the Phenician,—but also shows us that the language of Judah was the ure Heb. in which the earlier books of the T are written. Sennacherib speaks of 30 talents of gold and 800 talents of silver given as tribute by Hezekiah, with precious woods, gems, eunuchs of the palace, horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep. Forty-six fortresses were be- sieged with battering-rams in Judea.

Manasseh is again noticed as tributary to Esarhaddon, who rebuilt Babylon (cf. 2 Ch 33") and conquered Egypt. Very few Palestine antiquities are as yet recovered previous to the time of Nebuchadnezzar B.c. 600), excepting those noticed above. At amaria a Heb. quarter-shekel weight * has been found (about 40 grains), and in the ruins of Lachish clay images, with pottery and seals.

Certain in- scribed seals from Jerusalem and Northern Pales- tine bear Hebrew personal names compounded with the sacred name Jah, which occurs on the Moabite Stone, and also early in Assyria and Syria. The * The old Jerusalem shekel, according to Maimonides, weighed about 320 grains, but the Galilean shekel was half the weight of the Jerusalem shekel. The weight has on it the words reba’ nezep, ‘quarter of half’ (Clermont-Ganneau), and reba’ she-l for ‘quarter shekel’ (Robertson Smith).

See the discussion by the latter in the Academy, 18th Nov. 1893, p. 443 f1., or PE FS, July 1894, p. 225 ff. The weight agrees with that of the quarter of a Galilwan shekel. After the Captivity the shekel weighed only 220 grains (see also PEFSt, July and Oct. 1899 and Jan, 1900, for further papers on the metrology). A specimen, appar- ently of the full nezep, weighing 156 grs., has recently been found by Bliss at Tell Zakariya (PEFSt July 1899, p. 307 1.)

PALESTINE 655 Siloam aqueduct, and probably many rock, cut tombs of the old Phcnician character, date from this period. ter the Captivity we silver sheke coins (worth about 2s. Sa. ) ademed with the pome- granate, which appear to be earlier than the 2nd or 3rd cent. B.c.; and the great inscription of Eshmunazar (probably of the 3rd cent. B.C.) shows that Sharon was ruled by the Sidonian kings under the Ptolemies, while dated texts of the same period attest the worship of Baal near Tyre.

The Greek influence which began to affect Palestine after the conquest by Alexander the Great is witnessed by the ruins of Tyrus in Gilead, where the palace of the priest Hyreanus (built in B.C. 176) is adorned with gigantic figures of lions, and with semi-Gr. semi-Egyp. pillars and cornices. To the 2nd cent. B.c. belong the coins of the Hasmoneean kings, inscribed in the later Heb. character, and also (from the time of Alexander Jannzus) in Greek. The Gr.

masonry (like that of the Acropolis), with drafted margins to the stones, is found at Tyrus and in Pheenicia, and continued in use in the time of Herod the Great. About the Christian era the Gr. tomb also began to supersede the earlier Heb. tomb with kokim or tunnel graves, and the adornment of the facades was executed in a peculiar native style, much influenced by Greek ideas, the best examples of which occur near Jerusalem.

The second cent of the Christian era was a eat building period in Palestine. Roman cities ike Gadara and Gerasa sprang up, and the temple of Baalbek was built. Numerous family areata —towers containing sarcophagi—were erected, esp. in Bashan and Gilead, and Gr. inscriptions prove that they were built in the lifetime of the owner. Bashan presents us with hundreds of Gr. texts of this age, dating from the time of Herod onwards, and witnessing to the existence of a mingled Arab- Gr.

population, adoring Arab and Gr. gods. The synagogues of Upper Galilee (to which probably others on Carmel and at Shiloh may be added) are equally influenced by Gr. art, though in some cases giving square Heb. inscriptions. ‘The most notable examples occur at Chorazin, Tell Him, Irbid, and in the mountains of Naphtali. Roman roads, with milestones inscribed in Gr. and in Latin, belong to the same period (esp. under the Antonines, A.D.

140 to 180); and at Gerasa we find a very perfect example of a Roman city, with its streets of columns, forum, theatres, naumachia basin, triumphal arch, baths, judgment basilica, and temples. To the 2nd and 3rd cents. A.D. belong also the Jewish and Christian osteophagi (or bone boxes) found on Olivet with Gr. and Heb. texts, and the tombstones of the old Jewish cemetery at Jaffa. The tomb of Eleazar bar Zachariah (A.D.

135) bearing his name has perhaps been found on Carmel, and that of a descendant of Rabbi Tarphon at Jaffa. The Palestine ruins of the Byzantine period (4th to 7th cent.) are extremely numerous, includ- ing fortifications, churches, chapels, and monas- teries in all parts of the country. Gr.-Christian texts are commonly found. The Gr. tomb con- tinued in general use, and copper coins of the later emperors are found in great numbers.

The remains of the Arab period before the crusades (especially the mosques at Jerusalem, Damascus, and ‘Ammifin) are teas numerous. A text from Harrfn (south-east of Damascus) proves the use of the Kufic character in Palestine before the time of Omar. The Norman buildings of the 12th and 13th cents.

represent a new and foreign element in architecture, and to this age belong many coins, seals, inscribed tombstones, yvlass mosaics, and frescoes, with other art objects, The 656 PALLU tatest important architectural remains are found in the mosques built by the great Egyp. rulers of the 13th and 14th cents. Modern additions to the architecture include the Latin monasteries at Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethlehem, Carmel, etc.

, with smaller Greek monasteries, and Protestant churches and orphanages at Jerusalem, Nazareth, etc. The real antiquities of Palestine are, however, for the most part hidden in the great mounds which mark the sites of ancient cities such as Ashkelon, Megiddo, Lachish, Cesarea, ete., which require further excavation. Lrreraturs.—The ee of Palestine occupies a stout volume recently published by Herr Réhricht, but the number of standard works necessary for the student is not large.

Reland’s Palestina Ilustrata is still valuable, and Robinson's Biblical Researches torm an invaluable storehouse of literary notices. The results of exploration are found in the publications of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1865-1900), and esp. in the Memoirs of the Survey, including seven quarto volumes illus- trated. Three of these treat of Western Palestine, one of Moab, one of Jerusalem, one contains Special Papers, and the last gives the Arab nomenclature.

Three volumes are added on the Natural History, Botany, and Geology, and two more are to follow on the Archmological discoveries of M. Clermont- Ganneau. To these must be added the maps (1 inch to the mile), with those on a smaller scale which give the results as bearing on ancient phy. The Egyp. records relating to Pales- tine will be found in Brugsch’'s History of Egypt, and in Chabas’ Voyage d'un Egyptien, see also W. M. Muller, Asien u.

Europa; ro, won of Civilization, Struggle of the Nations, and parta of Hogarth's Authority and Archeology; the ierret’s lling of the names is ΕΞ in hieroglyphic t in ictionary. The Tel el-Amarna tablets are published in fac- simile (Thontafelfund von el Amarna) by Winckler and tr4 by him in vol. ν. of K/B (see also Petrie’s Syria and Egypt from the Tell el Amarna Letters, and Conder’s Tell Amarna Tablets, 2nd ed.) The Assyr. records are tr. in RP, and (better) in K/B i.-iii.

, and in Schrader’s valuable work on the Cuneif. Inscript.and OT. The early Christian and Moslem accounts are treated in the publications of the Palestine Pilgrim Texts Society. The Greek inscriptions were collected by Waddington and de Vogiié (Inscriptions Grecques et Latines de la Syrie), and to the latter we owe valuable works on Jerusalem and on the churches of the crusaders.

The history of the various scripts is given by Isaac Taylor oie Alphabet), and the coinage is treated by Madden (Coins of the Jews). The Talmudic geography is detailed by Neubauer (Géographie du Talmud), and the Arab geographies ye hos! le Strange (Pal. under the Moslems); while the most important works treating of the crusaders include sp Gesta Dei, the History by William of Tyre, the valuable Regesta Regni Hierosolymitant by Herr Rohricht, and Rey’s Colonies Fra: 8 de Syrie.

Many other publications might be added to this list of leading works, such as the publications of the German Palestine Society, the works of de Saulcy, Guérin, and others, and scattered papers, given by the Biblical Archwological Society and other anti. quarian societies. Popular works on the country are not included in this list. 6 features of the country may be best understood from the τ Σ model by Mr. G, Armstrong pub- lished by the Palestine Exploration Fund.

The topogra, hical uestions and antiquities are treated in G. A. Smith's HHL; eker, Pal. (last ed.); Nowack, Heb. Arch. ; Benzinger, do. ; see also Conder’s Handbook to the Bible. Important details may also be studied in the British Museum catalo; 168 5 and M. Maspero’s studies of the ge: phical lists of Thothmes mt, and Shishak have been published in the Transactions of the Victoria Institute (for Thothmes, 1886, p. 277 ff., 1888, p. 53 ff. ; for Shishak, 1894, Ὁ. 68 {7.)

, which, together with those of the Royal Asiatic Society, contain other se bearing on Palestine ; cf. also parts of Sayce’s Patriarchal Palestine. The Mediaval Samaritan Topography is to be found in Juynboll’s Samaritan Book of Joshua, and in Neubauer’s Samaritan Chronicle, to which Nutt’s Samaritans may be added as of value.

Recent researches have so entirely changed the basis on which Palestine antiquities are now studied, that the traditional Christian topogra hy has ceased to be regarded as of primary importance, ej many works founded on this information have become obsolete.

Out- side the Bible the most important ancient work bearing on the ~andition of the country, about the Christian era, continues to 2e that of Josephus; but his text is so corrupt, and his state- ments of distance and area are so discordant, that it is impossible to rely on his accuracy in these details. C. R. Conver. PALLU (mb5; Φαλλούς, Φαλλούδ).,, One of the sons of Reuben, Gn 46°, Ex 64, Nu 26°-8, 1 Ch 53, The patronymic Palluites (‘x$52, Φαλλουεί) occurs in Nu 26°.

We should probably read Pallu for PELETH (wh. see) in Nu 164.