John Lightfoot
(1602-1675)
Chapters
11 | 12 |
13 | 14 | 15 | 16
| 17 | 18 | 19 |
20
Chapter 11
The mountainous Country of Judea.
"What is the mountainous country of
Judea? It is the king's mountain."
However Judea, here and there, doth
swell out much with mountains, yet its chief swelling appears in that
broad back of mountains, that runs from the utmost southern cost as far
as Hebron, and almost as Jerusalem itself. Which the Holy Scripture
called "The hill-country of Judah,"
Joshua 21:11;
Luke 1:39.
Unless I am very much mistaken,--the
maps of Adricomus, Tirinius, and others, ought to be corrected, which
have feigned to themselves a very long back of mountains, beginning
almost at the Red Sea, and reaching almost to the land of Canaan, and
that with this inscription, "The Amorrhean Mountain." Those authors are
mistaken by an ill interpretation of [a] phrase rendering it, "in the
way by" (or near) "the mountain of the Amorites,"--when it should
be rendered, "in the way to the mountain of the Amorites." Let
the reader consult
Deuteronomy 1:19,20: "We departed from Horeb, and went through all
that great and terrible desert, which ye saw, in the way leading to the
mountain of the Amorite, as our Lord commanded us, and came to
Cadesh-barnea. Then I said unto you, You are now come to the mountain of
the Amorites," &c.
The mountain of the Amorites took its
beginning from Cadesh-barnea, the southern border, of the land of
Israel,--and, by a hardened gibbosity, thrust forward itself into Judea
beyond Hebron, the name only being changed into the "Hill-country of
Judea." Whence is that of Samson to be understood, that he carried not
the gates of Gaza near to Hebron, or to the mountain, whence Hebron
might be seen;--but to the top of this mountainous country, which runs
out to Hebron:--and so are the words to be rendered,
Judges 16:3, "He carried them to the top of a mountainous place,
which is before Hebron."
This mountainous country is called "The
mountainous desert,"
Psalm 75:6, because it is not from the east, nor from the west, nor
from the desert of the mountains. Where the Targum thus; "Nor from the
south, the mountainous place."
It remains doubtful, why it is called
by the Talmudists "The King's mountain." Whether because it was king
among all the other mountains of Judea? or, because the royal dignity of
David's house sprang hence,--to wit, from Hebron? There is much mention
of it in the Jewish writers.
The Chaldee paraphrast upon
Judges 4:5: "Deborah had white dust in the King's Mountain." That
is, as it seems, potter's clay: for the Gemarists, speaking somewhere
concerning potters say, "That they work in black dust, or in white
dust."
"In the days of R. Hoshaia, some went
about to get a freedom from some tithes for the Mount of the King."
Rabbi Simeon had vine-dressers in the
Mount of the King. He was minded to let out his vineyard to heathens.
R. Chaijah, R. Issai, and R. Immai,
went up to the King's Mountain. They saw a certain heathen, who was
suspicious concerning their wine.
A myriad of cities stood in the
Mountain-royal, of which R. Eliezer Ben Harsum possessed a thousand.
This mountainous country is not, therefore, called "The mountainous
desert," because it was void of cities and towns, but because it was a
more barren and rough country.
"The Royal Mountain was laid waste by
reason of a cock and a hen. It was the custom, when they brought forth
the bridegroom and the bride, to lead before them a cock and a hen: as
if they should say, Increase and multiply, as they. On a certain day a
regiment of Romans passed by, and wrested the cock and the hen from
them: these, therefore, rose up against them, and beat them. Away,
therefore, they go to Caesar, and told him, The Jews rebel against thee,
&c. R. Asai saith, Three hundred thousand drew sword, and went up to the
Royal Mountain, and there slew for three days and three nights," &c.
Rabbi Asai saith, "Janneus the king
had sixty myriads of cities in the Royal Mountain: and in each the
number was equal to them, that went out of Egypt,--excepting three
cities, in which that number was doubted. And these were, I. Caphar
Bish (that is, the Ill Town); therefore called so because it
afforded not a house of hospitality. II. [A town,] that had its name
from a certain herb, because by that herb they were nourished. III.
The town of males; so called, saith R. Jochanan, because their wives
first brought forth males, and then females, and so left off."
This story is recited by the Jerusalem
Talmudists, who say the town of males is so called, because,
unless the women departed thence somewhere else, they could not bring
forth male children.
"But (saith Ulla) I saw that place,
and it is not able to contain even sixty myriads of nests. Therefore,
said a certain sectary of R. Chaninah, Ye lie, ye lie. To whom he
replied, That land is called 'the land of a Kid': but now 'a kid' hath a
skin, that does not contain his flesh: so the land of Israel, while it
is inhabited, is spacious; but, when uninhabited, more contracted."
Chapter 12
The South Country. Judea called 'the South,' in respect of Galilee.
Rabban Gamaliel, and the elders
sitting together at the ascent into the gallery, in the mount of the
Temple, had Jochanan, the priest, and the amanuensis, sitting with them.
They said to him, "Go to, write to our brethren, the inhabitants of
Upper Galilee, and Nether Galilee, health: we certify you, that the time
is come of separating the tithes. And to our brethren, that inhabit the
Upper South Country, and that inhabit the Nether South Country, health:
we certify you," &c.
The 'Upper South country' consisted of
that part of the country, which was hilly; the 'Nether,' of a plain, and
valley sinking on both sides. Which country, although it were barren
above all other parts of the land, yet had its inhabitants, and those
many, as well as other countries of the land.
He that turns over the Talmudical
books, will meet very frequently with the name of the 'South,' taken for
'whole Judea' in opposition to 'Galilee.' "Those of Zippor enjoined a
fast to obtain rain, but the rain came not down. Therefore, said they of
Zippor, R. Joshua Ben Levi obtained rain for the southern people: but R.
Chaninah hinders it from coming upon the people of Zippor. They were
called, therefore, together to a second fast. R. Chaninah sent to fetch
R. Joshua Ben Levi. And both went out to the fast, and yet rain fell
not. He stood forth, therefore, and said before them, Neither doth
Joshua Ben Levi obtain rain for the southern people, nor does R.
Chaninah restrain it from the people of Zippor: but the southern people
have a soft heart, to hear the words of the law and be humbled: but the
people of Zippor have a hard heart." But now R. Joshua Ben Levi, who was
called "the southern," was of Lydda: and those southern people, for whom
he obtained rain, were of Lydda, and such as dwelt in that country.
"A devout disciple learned the
intercalation of the year before his master, three years and a half: he
came, and intercalated for Galilee: but he could not intercalate for the
south," that is, for Judea
Hence you may understand, in what
sense some Rabbins are called southern: as "R. Jacob of the
south"..."R. Samlai of the south"; whom you have disputing with certain,
whom the Gemarists call heretics: whom I think rather to have
been 'Christians.' And it seems to be the disputation of a Christian
purposed to assert a trinity of persons in the Deity, but nevertheless a
unity of the Deity. After you have heard the matter, perhaps you will be
of my judgment. View the place.
Chapter 13
Gaza
After very many histories of this
place in the Holy Bible, which there is no need to repeat here,--in this
city did Alexander the Great, at length, besiege Babemeses the Persian,
by the space of two months. "And that city, which before-time was most
famous, was laid waste by him, and rendered desert." Not that he had
destroyed the building of the city, or consumed it with fire; for
presently after his death, Antigonus and Ptolemy, his captains,
fighting, it had walls, gates, and fortifications: but that he divested
it of its ancient glory, so that it was at last melted into a new city
of that name built nearer the sea, where formerly had been 'the haven of
the Gazaeans.' That is called by Diodorus, 'old Gaza'; and 'Gaza
desert,' by Strabo, and the New Testament,
Acts 8:26. At last it was called 'New Maijuma,' and after that
'Constantia':--concerning which, see Eusebius, of 'the Life of
Constantine,' book iv. chap. 28; and Sozomen's 'Ecclesiastical History,'
book v. chap. 3...
There is mentioned the 'mart of Gaza,'
one of the three more famed marts,--to wit, that of Gaza, and of Aco,
and of Botna.
There was a place also without the
city, which was called, 'The waste (or desert) of the leper's cloister.'
Chapter 14
Ascalon. Gerar. The Story of the Eighty Witches.
'Ascalon,' in the Samaritan
interpreter, is the same with 'Gerar,'
Genesis 21.
The word Gerar, among the
Talmudists, seems to have passed into 'Gerariku.' "Wherefore (say they)
have they not determined of that country, which is in Gerariku? Because
it is ill to dwell in. How far? To the river of Egypt. But behold, Gaza
is pleasant to dwell in," &c.
In the author of Aruch it is,
Gardiki. "Bereshith Rabbah (saith he) renders Gardiki." 'The
king of Gerar,'
Genesis 20:2, with the Jerusalem Targumist, is "The king of Arad."
Note the affinity of Arad, Gerar, and Ascalon; and thence, unless I am
deceived, will grow some light, to illustrate those places in the Holy
Bible, where we meet with these names.
Ascalon was distant from Jerusalem
five hundred and twenty furlongs: that is, sixty-five miles. Which is to
be understood of the older Ascalon. For Benjamin Tudelensis makes
mention of a double Ascalon,--(this our) old, and the new. For thus he
writes: "Then" (from Azotus) "is new Ascalon distant two parsae, or
leagues" (that is, eight miles); "which Ezra, the priest, of blessed
memory, built at the seashore...now that is distant from old Ascalon,
now destroyed, four leagues."
So that, from Azotus to Ascalon, of
which we are speaking, and of which alone the Holy Scripture speaks,
were, by his computation, four-and-twenty miles; and by the computation
of Adrichomius, two hundred furlongs, that is, five-and-twenty miles.
"Ten miles from Gaza" (says our
countryman Sandes [Sandys], an eyewitness), "and near the sea, is placed
Ascalon, now of no note, anciently a venerable place to the heathen for
the temple of Dagon, and the festivals of Semiramis' birthday."
From Gaza to Azotus, Diodorus Siculus
being witness, are two-hundred and seventy furlongs: which amount to
four-and-thirty miles: namely, from Gaza to Ascalon, ten miles, and
thence to Azotus four-and-twenty.
That is a common saying, "From Ascalon
onward to the south, is the heathen country, and Ascalon itself is
reputed for a heathen country." And yet something of Ascalon was within
the land of Israel. The apple-gardens or orchards, did
bound the land of Ascalon on that coast, which we have observed before.
And yet, "when R. Ismael Ben R. Josi, and Ben Hakkaphar, were set over
the space of Ascalon" (that is, when it was intrusted to them to judge
concerning the spaces or parts of Ascalon,--namely, what were within the
land, and what without, &c.) "They pronounced it clean from the
authority of R. Phinchasi Ben Jair, who said, We went down to the
corn-market of Ascalon, and thence we received wheat, and going up into
our city we washed, and ate our Thruma"; i.e. The portion of
first-fruits belonging to the priests. The greatest part of the city, if
not the whole, was esteemed, under the second Temple, to be without the
limits of the land: but some part, or at least the apple-yards, and the
places next adjacent, were within the land.
Mention is made of a certain temple in
Ascalon among the "five more famous temples,--viz. the temple of Bel in
Babylon, the temple of Nebo in Cursi, of Tiratha in Mapheg, of Zeripha
in Ascalon, and of Nishra in Arabia."
And there is a story of a fast
enjoined, because some sign appeared of a blast of the corn in Ascalon:
"The elders went down from Jerusalem into their cities, and enjoined a
fast, because so much of a blast was seen in Ascalon as the space of the
mouth of an oven may contain."
But most famous of all is the story of
the eighty women, that were witches, hanged by Simeon Ben Shetach in one
and the same day. We will not think much to relate the thing in the
words of the Gemarists:--"When as two disciples of the wise men in
Ascalon were intent upon the study of the law, one of them, at length
dying, had no funerals performed for him,--when yet a publican, dying at
that time, had. To the student, that survived, are revealed the joys of
his saved companion, and likewise the punishments of the damned
publican." Let the learned reader turn this clause into English; unless
my conjecture fail me, it savours of spite and poison. I should thus
render it: "He saw Mary, the daughter of Eli, in the shades, hung up by
the kernels of the breasts; and when he inquired, How long she was to
suffer those things? it was answered, Until Simon Ben Shetach came to
supply her place. But, said he, for what crime? It is answered,
Therefore, because he sometime swore against his soul, and said, If I
shall ever become a prince, I will destroy all wizards. But behold, he
is become a prince, and yet he hath not done this: for eighty women,
that are witches, lie hid in a cave at Ascalon, and kill the world. Go,
and tell him, &c. He went to him, therefore, and related these things,
&c. On a certain rainy day, therefore, having eighty young men in
company with him, he goes to the cave, knocks, professes himself one of
the bewitching society, and is let in. He sees them exercising their
art. For, muttering certain words together, one brings morsels of
meat,--another, wine,--another, boiled flesh, &c. But what can you do,
say they? Saith he, I will twice utter my voice, and I will bring in
eighty youths handsomely habited, themselves merry, and shall make you
so. They say to him, Such we would have. He utters his voice the first
time, and the young men put on their clean clothes" (free from the
rains, for they had carried them with them covered and safe in certain
vessels for the same purpose). "Crying out the second time, in they all
come: and a sign being given, that each man should lift up from the
earth one woman (for so their magical power would perish), he said to
her which had brought the morsels, Bring hither now the morsels; but she
brought them not. Therefore, said he, Carry her away to the gallows.
Bring wine, but she brought it not; Carry her also away, saith he, to
hanging. And so it was done with them all. Hence is the tradition,
Simeon Ben Shetach hung eighty women in Ascalon. But they do not judge
two persons in the same day: but this he did out of the necessity of the
time." Where the Gloss thus; "He was compelled to do this, because the
women of Israel had very much broke out into witchcraft. Therefore, he
made a hedge to the time, and hanged them, to expose the thing publicly.
And this in one and the same day, that their kindred might no way
conspire to deliver them."
Chapter 15
Jabneh. Jamnia.
...Pliny doth dispose the towns here
in this order;--"Azotus, the two Jamnes, Joppe."--R. Benjamin, in the
order backward, thus,--"Joppah, Jabneh, Azotus." That is Jabneh with
this author, that is Jaminia with the other.
A remembrance of this place is in
2 Chronicles 26:6: but the chief fame of it is for the Sanhedrim,
that was placed there, both before the destruction of Jerusalem and
after.
Rabban Gamaliel, St. Paul's master,
first presided there. Under whom came forth that cursed form of prayer,
which they called "The prayer against heretics," composed by Samuel the
Little, who died before the destruction of the city. Gamaliel died
eighteen years before the Temple was destroyed; and his son Rabban
Simeon succeeded him, who perished with the city.
Jerusalem being destroyed, Rabban
Jochanan Ben Zaccai obtained of Titus the conqueror, that he might still
receive and retain the Sanhedrim of Jabneh: which being granted by him,
Jochanan himself was first president there; and after him, Rabban
Gamaliel the second: and after him, R. Akibah. And this place was famous
above all the other universities, except only the latest of all,--viz.
Tiberias: so that "The vineyard of Jabneh" became a proverb. "For there
they sat in order, as a vineyard." And it is reported, "that there were
there three hundred classes of scholars,--or, at least, eighty." How
long time Rabban Jochanan sat here, is doubted.
There are some, who attribute to him
two years only; and others five: with whom we consent. This Rabban
Jochanan I very much suspect to be the same with that John, mentioned
Acts 4:6. Omitting those things, which were done by him, while he
remained at Jabneh,--let me produce his dying words, as they are recited
by his friends: "When Rabban Jochanan Ben Zaccai now lay languishing,
his scholars came to visit him: whom he seeing began to weep. To whom
they said, 'O thou light of Israel, thou right-hand pillar, thou strong
hammer, whence are those tears?' To whom he replied, 'If men were about
to carry me before a king of flesh and blood, who today is here, and
tomorrow is in his grave,--if he were angry with me, his anger is not
everlasting; if he should cast me into bonds, his bonds are not eternal;
if he should kill me, his killing would not be eternal: and I might
perhaps pacify him with words, or soften him with a gift. But they are
ready to lead me before the King of kings, the Lord, holy and blessed,
who lives and lasts for ever, and for ever and ever; who if he be angry
with me, his anger is eternal; if he bind me, his bond is eternal; if he
kill me, his killing is eternal; and whom I cannot either appease with
words, or soften with a gift. And moreover, there are two ways before
me, one to paradise, another to hell; and I know not which way they will
lead me. Should I not therefore weep?'" Ah! the miserable and fainting
confidence of a Pharisee in death!
Rabban Gamaliel of Jabneh, a busy and
severe man, succeeded Jochanan. Being to be slain with his father,
Rabban Simeon,--by the intercession of Rabban Jochanan he was delivered.
Being also sought for to be slain, when Turnus Rufus (in Josephus,
Terentius Rufus) ploughed up the floor of the Temple, he was delivered
by a way scarcely credible. Sitting in Jabneh he removed R. Akibah, head
at that time of the school of Lydda, from his headship; and he at last
was removed from his, and over him was placed R. Eleazar Ben Azarias. R.
Akibah succeeded him, and sat forty years, and died a fool, being
deceived by Ben Cozba, and slain with him: and the university was
removed from Jabneh to Usha.
"Jabneh stands two parsae" (that is,
eight miles) "from Azotus: and was at last called Ivelyn." They
are the words of Benjamin, in his Itinerary [p. 51].
Chapter 16
Lydda
"Lydda was a village, not yielding to
a city in greatness."
Concerning its situation, and distance
from Jerusalem, the Misna hath these words: "The vineyard of four years"
(that is, the fruit of a vineyard now of four years' growth; for, for
the first three years, they were trees, as it were, not circumcised)
"was brought to Jerusalem, in the space of a day's journey on every
side. Now these were the bounds of it; Elath on the south; Acrabatta on
the north; Lydda on the west; and Jordan on the east." The Gloss; "The
wise men appointed, that the second tenth of the fruits, growing within
the space of a day's journey from Jerusalem, should be carried thither
to be eaten, and should not be redeemed. That the streets of Jerusalem
might be crowned with fruits."
When you consider this distance, you
may well wonder what that means, which is almost become a proverb, "The
women of Lydda knead their dough, go up to the Temple, pray, and come
back, before it be leavened." Not that the distance of the places is
made less; but that hence may be shewn, that no disadvantage accrued to
these women, who paid their vows and performed their religion.
I very much wonder, that the authors
of the maps have held Lod and Lydda for two towns; Lod not far from
Jordan and Jericho; Lydda not far from the Mediterranean sea. A Jew, or
one versed in Jewish affairs, will laugh at these things; when Lod and
Lydda have no difference at all between them,--unless that that is
Hebrew,--this, Greek.
When the Sanhedrim sat in Jabneh,
there flourished eminent schools in Lydda. Yea, Lydda had her schools
and her learned men, when the university was gone away into Galilee, and
Jabneh lamented her loss of scholars.
There R. Akibah bore the headship of
the school, removed, as I said before, from his government by Rabban
Gamaliel, "because he detained at Lydda more than forty pair of men
travelling" (towards Jabneh) "to give their testimony to the Sanhedrim
concerning the new moon; and suffered them not to go forwards."
Gamaliel being dead, or rather
removed,--when R. Akibah was head in Jabneh, R. Tarphon was rector of
the school of Lydda, whom you have sometimes disputing with R. Akibah,
but at last yielding to him with this commendation; "He that separates
himself from you, is as if he separated himself from his own life."
We read of five elders teaching and
erring before Tarphon at Lydda. We read also of a fast enjoined at Lydda
for the obtaining of rain, and Tarphon the moderator of the solemnity.
The stories of this place are infinite; we will gather a few.
Helena the queen celebrated the feast
of tabernacles at Lydda.
R. Eliezar and R. Joshua were sometime
present in the same place at the feast of dedication: but being not
enough satisfied concerning the fast at that time enjoined, one went to
the bath,--the other, to the barber's shop.
Here it was, that Ben Satdah was
surprised and taken, and brought before the Sanhedrim, and stoned...
Since it was not lawful to intercalate
the year any where but in Judea, "a great many went to Lydda out of the
school of the Rabbi" (Judah Haccodesh, viz. out of Galilee. And a little
after: "R. Jeremiah asked before R. Zeira, Is not Lydda a part of Judea?
Yes, saith he. Wherefore, then, do they not transact the intercalation
of the year there?--Because they are obstinate, and unskillful in the
law."
"Lydda is a part of Judea." Let some
maps mark this, which have placed a certain Lod, which never was any
where, not far from Jericho, as was said before; because Lod, in the
land of Benjamin, is brought in,
Nehemiah 11:35: but they set Lydda far beyond the bounds of Judea in
the land of Ephraim.
"Koshab Bar Ulla sometime got away to
Lydda to Rabbi Josua Ben Levi, dwelling there, when he fled from the
Romans. The Romans pursued him, and besieged the city. Unless you
deliver him to us, say they, we will destroy the city. R. Josua Ben Levi
persuaded him, and he was delivered to the Romans."
I might produce numberless things
celebrating the name of Lydda; such as, "The chamber of Beth-Arum in
Lydda." "The chamber of Beth-lebaza in Lydda." "The chamber of Beth-Nethaza
in Lydda."--We suppose these were schools.
I might mention very many names of
Rabbins residing at Lydda, besides those whom I have remembered before:
such are, R. Chama Bar Chanina, and R. Hoshaia with him. R. Illai, and
R. Eliezer; and others, who are vulgarly called the Southern, in
the sense we produced before. Concerning R. Josua Ben Levi, by name, the
author of Juchasin hath these words, "His habitation, or college, was in
the south of the land of Israel." He means Lydda.
R. Eliezer, dying at Caesarea, desired
to be buried at Lydda, whom R. Akibah bewailed as well with blood as
tears. "For when he met his hearse betwixt Caesarea and Lydda, he beat
himself in that manner, that blood flowed down upon the earth.
Lamenting, thus he spoke,--O my father, my father, the chariot and
horsemen of Israel. I have much money, but I want a moneyer, to change
it." The Gloss is this, "I have very many questions; but now there is no
man, to whom I may propound them."
There is a place between Jamnia and
Lydda, which was called Bekiin; of which there is this mention:
"R. Jochanan Ben Brucha, and R. Eliezer the blind, travelling from
Jabneh to Lydda, met R. Josua in Bekiin," &c.
From Jamnia to Joppe (according to
Benjamin, in his Itinerary [p. 51]) are three leagues, or parsae: "Now
Lydda was nigh to Joppa,"
Acts 9:38.
Chapter 17
Sharon. Caphar Lodim. The Village of those of Lydda.
Between Lydda and the sea, a spacious
valley runs out, here and there widely spreading itself, and sprinkled
with villages. The holy page of the New Testament [Acts
9:35] calls it Saron: and that of the Old calls the whole, perhaps,
or some part of it, 'the plain of Ono,'
Nehemiah 6:2, 11:35;
1 Chronicles 8:12...
The wine of Sharon is of great fame,
with which they mixed two parts water: and remarkable is that they say
concerning the houses of Sharon. R. Lazar saith, "He that builds a brick
house in Sharon, let him not return back": which was allowed to others,
Deuteronomy 20:5,--namely, that they should return back from the
war, if they had built a new house, and it were not yet dedicated. "But
the men of Sharon withdrew not themselves back" (they are the words of
the Jerusalem Gemara), "because they repaired their houses within seven
years: and the chief priest also prayed for them on the day of
expiation, that their house might not become their graves." The Gloss
upon the Babylonian Talmud thus; "Sharon was the name of a place, whose
ground was not fit for bricks: and therefore, they often repaired their
houses within seven years."
Among the villages, scattered up and
down in this pleasant vale, we meet with Caphar Lodim, between Lydda and
the sea. There is mention of it in the book Gittin, in the very
beginning: "He that brings a bill of divorce from a heathen country is
bound to witness thus,--This bill was written I being present, and was
sealed I being present.--R. Eleazar saith, Yea, he that brings it from
Caphar Lodim to Lydda": R. Nissim, explaining the place, saith thus; "Caphar
Lodim was without the land of Israel, neighbour to Lydda, which was
within [the land], and partook of its name, because some people
of Lydda were always present there."
Chapter 18
Caphar Tebi.
And this village neighboured upon
Lydda, situate on the east of it. "R. Eleazar had a vineyard of four
years' growth; on the east of Lydda, near Caphar Tebi." Of it there is
this mention also:--
"They sometime brought a chest full of
bones from Caphar Tebi, and they placed it openly in the entrance to
Lydda. Tudrus the physician and the rest of the physicians go
forth"--(namely, that they might judge, whether they were the bones of
men or no; and thereby, whether they were to be esteemed clean or
unclean). "Tudrus said, Here is neither the backbone nor the skull of a
man. They said, therefore, Since here are some, who reckon them clean,
others that hold them unclean, let the matter be decided by votes. R.
Akibah began, and he pronounced them clean, &c."
The name Tebi, given to this
village, seems to be derived from the kids skipping up and down
in this fruitful vale. The word also gave name to men; and that, as it
seems, with some delight. The woman Tabitha is of eternal memory,
Acts 9; and, in the pages of the Talmudists, "Tebi the servant of
Rabban Gamaliel; and Tabitha his maid-servant. Yea, every maid-servant
of his was called Mother Tabitha,--and every man-servant, Father Tebi."
Chapter 19
The northern coast of Judea. Beth-horon.
This coast is marked out
Joshua 18:12; where, at verse 14, are very many versions to be
corrected, which render the sea; such are, the Syriac, the
Seventy, the Vulgar, the Italian, ours, &c.: whence ariseth a sense of
insuperable difficulty to a chorographical eye: when it should, indeed,
be rendered of the west, as the Chaldee, Arabic, R. Solomon, &c.
rightly do.
We read of a double Beth-horon in the
Old Testament, but one only under the second Temple...
At that place that great Canaanitish
army perished,
Joshua 10, not with hail (the Jews being judges), which presently
melted,--but with stones, which hardened, and lasted unto all following
ages. Hence is that, "Whosoever shall see the place, where the
Israelites passed through the sea, where they passed through Jordan,
where they passed by the rivers of Arnon, or those great stones in the
going down of Beth-horon,--is bound to bless."
They believe, in the same place, also,
the army of Sennacherib fell. For so the Gloss upon the words before
spoken, "The going down of Beth-horon was the place where the army of
Sennacherib fell."
This was a highway. Josephus, in the
place above cited, relating a story of one Stephen, a servant of Caesar,
who suffered hardly by robbers in this place, saith, that it was "in the
public way of Beth-horon,"--namely, in the king's highway, which goes
from Jerusalem to Caesarea.
Yet the passage and ascent here was
very strait; which the Talmudists do thus describe: "If two camels go up
together in the ascent of Beth-horon, both fall." The Gloss, "The ascent
of Beth-horon was a strait place; nor was there room to bend to the
right hand or to the left."
The story of Cestius, the Roman
captain, in Josephus, is sad, but not unseasonable in this place. He
intrenched against Jerusalem, in a place called the Scope on the
north part of the city (which we shall show hereafter): and being at
length forced by the Jews to retreat, "he came near to Gabaon, to his
former camp." And being pressed farther by them, he betook himself to
Beth-horon; "He led his forces to Beth-horon."
"But the Jews, whilst he marched along
places where there was room, did not much press him; but they getting
before the Romans who were shut up within the straits of the descent (of
Beth-horon), stopped them from going out: others thrust them that came
in the rear down into the valley. And the whole multitude being spread
at the opening of the way, covered the army with their darts."
Behold! the way leading from Jerusalem
to Beth-horon:--
I. From the city to Scopo (of which we
shall speak afterward), is seven furlongs.
II. From Scopo to Gabao, or Geba,
forty-three furlongs. For Gabao was distant from Jerusalem...Josephus
relating it, fifty furlongs,--that is, six miles and more.
III. From Geba to Beth-horon fifty
furlongs, or thereabouts. And about Beth-horon was a very great
roughness of hills, and a very narrow passage.
Chapter 20
Beth-el. Beth-aven.
Josephus thus describes the land of
Benjamin; "The Benjamites' portion of land was from the river Jordan to
the sea, in length: in breadth, it was bounded by Jerusalem and
Beth-el." Let these last words be marked, "The breadth of the land of
Benjamin was bounded by Jerusalem and Beth-el." May we not justly
conclude, from these words, that Jerusalem and Beth-el were opposite, as
it were, in a right line? But if you look upon the maps, there are some
that separate these by a very large tract of land, and make them bend
and slope from one another.
Beth-el heretofore was Luz: of which
the Rabbins upon
Judges 1:23, &c. do not a little trifle. Sometimes it is called
Beth-aven. So the Talmudists; "That town, which sometimes was called
Beth-el, afterward was called Beth-aven." And the Chaldee upon
Hosea 4:15: "Go not up to Beth-el"; for the Hebrew, "Go not
up to Beth-aven." So also chapter 10:5,8. Not that there was not
another town, named Beth-aven (see
Joshua 18:12,13): but that Beth-el too deservedly bore the reproach
of that name, in the same manner as Jerusalem bore the name of Sodom,
Isaiah 1:10.
It is said of Deborah, that she lived
"between Ramah and Beth-el in mount Ephraim,"
Judges 4:5: where the Targum thus; "She had gardens in Ramatha,
olive-trees making oil in the valley, a house of watering in Beth-el."
Not that Beth-el properly was in the hill-country of Ephraim, since that
town stood upon the very boundaries of Judea; but that the dwelling of
Deborah was at the beginning of that hill-country, a valley running
between that hill-country and those boundaries. Beth-el itself was
situate in a hilly country,
Joshua 16:1; which yet one would scarcely call the hill-country of
Ephraim (since there was a time, when Beth-el and her towns belonged to
Judea,
2 Chronicles 13:19: hence the idolatry of those of Judah is
sometimes mixed with the Ephraimites', of which they hear often enough
from the prophets); but it was a certain hilly place, running out
between Judea and the land of Ephraim: see
Joshua 18:12.
On the east of Beth-el heretofore was
Hai,
Genesis 12:8;
Joshua 8:9, &c. But upon the very first entrance almost of Israel
into the land of promise, it became thenceforth of no name, being
reduced into eternal ashes by Joshua. The town Beth-aven was not far
from it,
Joshua 7:2, which gave name to the wilderness adjacent,
Joshua 18:12. In which we suppose Ephraim stood,
2 Chronicles 13:19. Which Ephraim, in the New Testament, is called
"the region near the wilderness,"
John 11:54; concerning which we shall speak afterward.
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