[Page 190].—Sandys (p. 117) thus describes this country. “We passed this day through the most fragrant and pleasant valley that ever I beheld. On the right, a ridge of high mountains, whereon stands Hebron; on the left the Mediterranean sea, bordered with continued hills, beset with variety of fruits. The champaign between them (the plain of Sephela) full of flowery hills ascending leisurely and not much surmounting their vallies, with groves of olives and other fruits dispersedly adorned.”
[Page 198].—Hebron.] See in Josephus, Ant. xii. 12. 1 Macc. vi. 65. 2 Macc. x. the account of the capture of Hebron by the Maccabees. Eusebius makes its distance from Jerusalem twenty-two miles; an Itinerary, quoted by Reland, thirty-one. Christian travellers have scarcely ever proceeded to the south of Bethlehem; and Captains Irby and Mangles and Mr. Bankes, appear to have been the first Englishmen who had visited Hebron for a long series of years. Travels, 342. It is held in high veneration by the Mahometans, as the burying-place of Abraham, and called El Khalil, the holy.
[Page 199].—Terebinth of Mamre.] Reland, p. 711, seq. has made an ample collection of passages from Josephus (Jos. B. J. iv. 9.) and other authors relative to this celebrated tree. It was alleged by some to have stood there since the creation, by others to have shot up from the staff of one of the angels entertained by Abraham. So great was the veneration paid to it that an altar stood beneath its shade, on which sacrifices used to be offered, till Constantine ordered an oratory to be erected instead of the altar. There can be no doubt that it was a tree of most venerable antiquity, the terebinth being from its longevity as much an object of reverence where it prevails, as the oak formerly in Gaul and Britain. See Harris’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 309.
[Page 200].—Does it begin to be light towards Hebron?] “Judæi in Talmud Joma, cap. 3. et Maimonides in eum locum referunt, missum quolibet mane fuisse, qui ex summo templo ortum diei pro sacrificio offerendo observaret; cui acclamarint, ‘Num lux usque Hebronem sit;’ hoc est num ita lux fugaverit tenebras, ut qui ortum spectet etiam Hebronem videre possit.” Cellar. lib. iii. c. 13. p. 345. Lightfoot, i. 943. The reader must not expect to find that every trait in this account of the going up to the Passover can be warranted by quotation from Jewish authors. That it was the custom to go up in large companies on this occasion, accompanied with song and music, (Is. xxx. 29. Harmer iii. No. lxxx.) there can be no doubt. See Luke ii. 14. John vi. 4.[[134]] In the description of the psalms which were sung, and other circumstances by which the picture is filled up, the author has allowably indulged his imagination.
[Page 206].—Bethshur (Josh. xv. 58.) was on the road from Jerusalem to Hebron, at the distance of twenty miles from the former. It is frequently mentioned in the books of the Maccabees and in Josephus as a fortress of great strength. Jos. Ant. xiii. 9. 1 Macc. vi. 7. In the second book of Maccabees, xi. 5. it is said to be only five stadia from Jerusalem, but this is evidently a false reading. See Reland, p. 658. Cell. iii. 13. 344.
[Page 208].—Etham.] Ἡν δὲ χωρίον τι ἄπο δύο σχόινων Ἱεροπολύμων, ὁ καλεῖται μὲν Ἠθαμ, παραδείσοις δὲ καὶ ναμάτων ἐπιῤῥοίαις ἐπιτερπὲς ὁμοῦ καὶ πλόυσιον· εις τοῦτο τὰς ἐξόδους ἀιωρούμενος ἐποιεῖτο. Jos. Ant. viii. 7. 3. speaking of Solomon. An account of the modern state of these reservoirs may be seen in Maundrell, p. 88. Pococke, ii. 42. Buckingham, 224.
[Page 211].—No beggar among you.] The reader will not suppose that these words occur in the law of Moses, in whose writings, as Michaelis observes, (Mos. Law, § 142.) the name of beggar is not found, or any allusion to such a class of society: but that the spirit of his institutions excluded beggary. The laws respecting the treatment of the poor are found, Deut. xiv. 28, 29. xv. 1-11. xxiv. 19-22. xxvi. 11-15. Lev. xix. 9, 10. xxiii. 22.
[Page 211].—Tekoah.] This town, the birthplace of Amos, lay six miles to the south of Bethlehem, (Maundrell, p. 88, says nine) and on the very edge of the desert. 1 Macc. ix. 33. “Ultra nullus est viculus, ne agrestes quidem casæ, et furnorum similes, quas Afri appellant mapalia. Et quia humi arido et arenoso nihil omnino frugum gignitur, cuncta sunt plena pastoribus, ut sterilitatem terræ compensent pecorum multitudine.” Hieron. Prolog. ad Amos. Op. v. 208. “The mountains of Palestine,” observes Shaw, (p. 338) “abound with thyme, rosemary, sage, and aromatic plants of the like nature, which the bee chiefly looks after.” Bethcherem, the name of which (villa vineæ) implies its productiveness of grapes, is mentioned by Jeremiah, (vi. 1.) as in the vicinity of Tekoah. Hieron. in loc. Op. iv. 533.
[Page 214].—Ziph.] It lay eight miles eastward from Hebron. Josh. xv. 24. Reland, 1064.
[Page 219].—Valley of Rephaim.] The Rephaim, from whom this valley took its[its] appellation, were the supposed gigantic inhabitants of Canaan, whence the valley is called by the Seventy κοιλὰς Τιτάνων, Josh. xv. 13. It stretched from mount Moriah to Bethlehem, and the road now goes through it, Maund. 87. Bethlehem itself has been so frequently described by travellers, that it is unnecessary to quote any thing from their works. Josephus gives thirty stadia for its distance from Jerusalem, somewhat less than four miles, or six sabbath-days’ journies; Eusebius and Jerome six miles, Reland, 445. 645. The course of the Kedron to the Dead Sea appears from Pococke’s description to be considerably north-east of Bethlehem, ii. 34.