Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure

by C. R. Conder

From our pleasant camp at Umm el Fahm, where are no less than twenty springs within the village lands, and fine gardens of oranges, lemons, and large shaddocks, we marched north-west to the town of Mujeidil in the Nazareth hills. On this day (the 19th of October) we crossed the Kishon and found by experience how treacherous are the banks of this apparently insignificant stream. The subject which naturally concludes the account of the Plain, is therefore the great battle in which the host of Sisera was drowned in the swollen waters of this river.

The amount of light which can now be thrown on this episode is very great. The topography has hitherto been obscure, but the Survey does much to explain it. To suppose that Sisera fled from the Great Plain to the neighbourhood of Kedes in Upper Galilee (a distance of over thirty miles) has always appeared to me to be contrary to what we know of the general character of the Biblical stories, the scenes of which are always laid in a very confined area; nor has the name of the plain, Bitzaanaim, near Kedesh, been recovered in this direction. Bitzaanaim was a town of Issachar near Adami (Ed Dâmieh) and should therefore be sought east of Tabor in the plateau over the sea of Galilee, where we still find it in the modern Bessûm. The Kedesh of the narrative where Barak assembled his troops is therefore possibly Kedîsh on the shore of the sea of Galilee, only twelve miles from Tabor. There is thus, from a military point of view, a consistency in the advance to Tabor (a strong position in the line by which the enemy were approaching), which is lacking if we suppose a descent from the stronger hills of Upper Galilee. The Kings of Canaan assembled in Taanach and by the waters of Megiddo, but it was not at either of these places that the battle was fought. Sisera was drawn to the river Kishon (Judges iv. 7), and the host perished near Endor, “at the brook Kishon” (Psalm lxxxiii. 10). The battle-field indeed was almost identical with that from which Napoleon named the “battle of Mount Tabor,” when the French drove the Turks into that same treacherous quagmire of the Kishon springs.

There are few episodes in the Old Testament more picturesque than this of the defeat of the Canaanites. Tabor, the central position, a mountain whose summit is 1500 feet above the plain, is bare and shapeless on the south, but to the north it is steep, and wooded with oaks and thickets in which the fallow-deer finds a home. About three miles west are the springs from which the Kishon first rises, and from this point a chain of pools and springs, fringed with reeds and rushes, marks, even in the dry season, the course of the river. Along this line, at the base of the northern hills, the chariots and horsemen of Sisera fled. The sudden storm had swollen the stream, “the river Kishon swept them away, that river of battles the river Kishon.” The remainder fled to Harosheth, now only a miserable village (El Harathîyeh), named from the beautiful woods above the Kishon at the point where, through a narrow gorge, the stream, hidden among oleander bushes, enters the Plain of Acre.

The flight of Sisera himself was in an opposite direction, under the slopes of Tabor and across the great lava plateau on which stood, near Bessûm, the black tent of Heber the Kenite.

The Bedawin have a delicious preparation of curdled milk called Leben, which is offered to guests but generally considered a delicacy; from personal experience I know that it is most refreshing to a traveller when tired and hot, but it has also a strange soporific effect, which was so sudden in its action on one English clergyman after a long ride, that he thought he had been poisoned. It was perhaps not without a knowledge of its probable effects, that Jael gave to her exhausted guest a tempting beverage which would make his sleep sound and long.

One final illustration may be added. In the magnificent song of Deborah, the great storm which swelled the Kishon is described:

“They fought from heaven, the stars from their courses fought against Sisera” (Judg. v. 20).

The season was probably that of the autumn storms which occur early in November. At this time the meteoric showers are commonest, and are remarkably fine in effect, seen in the evening light at a season when the air is specially clear and bright. The scene presented by the falling fiery stars, as the defeated host fled away by night, is one very striking to the fancy, and which would form a fine subject for an artist’s pencil.