[Page 19.]—Confines of Judah and Benjamin.] See Reland, 840. It is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as included in the territory of Benjamin; Judges i. 21. Sometimes of Judah; Josh. xv. 63. The Rabbins say that the boundary line passed through the temple. Josephus (Ant. v. 1. 22.) reckons it to belong to Benjamin.
[Page 20.]—A beautiful plain.] “Jerusalem is surrounded by precipices on the south-east, east, and west, having only a small level towards the south, and a larger one to the north, which forms the summit of the mountain over which is the road to Jaffa.” Travels of Ali Bey, ii. 240.
[Page 21.]—Absalom’s pillar.] A monument, in part of the valley of Jehoshaphat, which passes by the name of the pillar of Absalom, is represented by Pococke, vol. ii. p. 22. It is cut out of the rock, and the front is adorned with Ionic columns. It is probably a sepulchre of much later origin.
[Page 23.]—Modes of threshing.] See Russell’s Aleppo, i. p. 76. Lowth on Isaiah, xxviii. 27, 28. Fragments to Calmet, No. xlviii.
[Page 25.]—Anathoth.] “Civitas sortis Benjamin, sacerdotibus separata, in tertio ab Ælia milliario: de qua Hieremias propheta.” Hieronymus in locis.
[Page 28.]—Elisama had neither kindred nor even acquaintance in Anathoth.] The author appears to have forgotten what he had said, vol. i. p. 16.
[Page 28.]—Emmaus.] This is not the Emmaus mentioned Luke xxiv. 13., but a town afterwards called Nicopolis. See Reland, 146. The Emmaus of the gospel history was a village, and nearer to Jerusalem. Rama, too, must not be confounded with the town of this name now called Ramla, about three leagues from Joppa, on the road to Jerusalem. Pococke, ii. 4. The ruins of Modin are said to be still visible on the top of a high mountain to the south of the road from Joppa to Jerusalem, (Richardson, ii. 26.) but I am not aware that any modern traveller has explored them.
[Page 31.]—Lydda.] It is still known by the name of Loudd. It lies about a league east-north-east of Rama, and in the same fertile plain. Poc. ii. 4.
[Page 31.]—Ono.] See Lightfoot’s Works, ii. 320. Reland, Cat. sub. voce. It was three miles from Lydda. 1 Chron. viii. 12. From a passage quoted by Lightfoot it appears to have abounded in figs. Sharon was a continuation of the great plain of Sephela mentioned before. The whole coast of Palestine, from Carmel to the limits of Egypt, is level. “Pro campestribus in Hebræo Saron ponitur. Omnis regio circa Lyddam, Joppen, et Jamniam apta est pascendis gregibus.” Hieronym. ad Jes. lxv. 1 Chron. xxvii. 29. Reland, 370.
[Page 32.]—The servants were treated as the chief persons.] The genius of the Mosaic law was considerate of the comfort of servants, who were to join in the festive meal made upon the unsacrificed portions of the free-will-offerings, Deut. xii. 18. and in the feast of Pentecost, Deut. xvi. 11. But I am not aware of any direct authority for representing it as a Jewish custom to make a feast for the servants, in which they were treated as the chief persons. Yet it is not probable that our Lord (Luke xii. 37.) would have represented the master as girding himself and waiting on the servants whom he wished to reward for their fidelity, if such a thing were wholly unknown. Bishop Pearce, in his note on this passage, explains it of the custom of the bridegroom’s waiting on the company as a servant, which he says was common not very long since in our own country. It would still remain to be explained how the servants came to be included in the company on which he waited. The Roman Saturnalia, however, may show that such an inversion of the customary relations of life was not altogether foreign to ancient manners.