[Page 34.]—Flight of locusts.] Blumenbach’s Nat. Hist. Art. Gryllus migratorius. The epitome of Livy, lib. lx. mentions a pestilence as breaking out in Africa, about this time, in consequence of the putrefaction of a vast swarm of locusts. According to other accounts nearly a million of persons perished. Oros. v. 11. Prid. Conn. An. 125. Of their devastations, see Shaw, 187. who illustrates almost every particular in the description of Joel, from his own experience. Hasselquist, 444. Bryant’s Plagues of Egypt, p. 133-152.
[Page 36.]—Joppa.] The author supposes this name to be derived from the Hebrew יפה beautiful. Under the name of Jaffa, this port is celebrated in the history of the middle ages, and in that of the late war. Josephus speaks of the badness of the anchorage, (Bell. Jud. iii. 8. 3.) and modern travellers confirm the account.
[Page 37.]—One of the towers of Jerusalem can be discerned.] Ιόππη—ἐν ὕψει ἱκανῶς, ὤστε ἀφορᾶσθάι φασιν ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ τὰ Ἱεροσόλυμα, την τῶν Ιουδάιων μητρόπολιν. Strabo, lib. xvi. 759. This circumstance is not confirmed by modern travellers. Pococke, ii. 3. “Joppa stood upon and under a hill, from whence, as Strabo relates, but impossible to be true, Jerusalem might be discerned; having an ill haven, defended on the south and west with eminent rocks, but open to the fury of the north.” Sandys, p. 118. Yet Josephus relates, (Bell. Jud. v. 4.) and in this he could hardly be mistaken, that the sea was visible from one of the towers of Jerusalem.
[Page 39.]—Grecian story of Andromeda.] “Est Joppe ante diluvium, ut ferunt condita: ubi Cephea regnasse eo signo accolæ adfirmant, quod titulum ejus, fratrisque Phinei veteres quædam aræ cum religione plurima retinent. Quinetiam rei celebratæ carminibus ac fabulis servatæque a Perseo Andromedæ clarum vestigium, belluæ marinæ ossa immania ostendunt.” Pomp. Mela, i. 11.
[Page 40.]—A Nazarite.] See Lightfoot on Luke i. 15. 1 Cor. xi. 14. Jennings’s Jew. Ant. i. 415. Mich. Mos. Law, § 143.
[Page 41.]—Maresa.] See Josephus, Ant. xiii. 10. 2. Its capture by Judas Maccabæus is mentioned, Ant. xii. 7. ad fin. It was at Maresa that Asa defeated the Ethiopians. 2 Chron. xiv. 10. Jerome and Eusebius place it at two miles from Eleutheropolis. Cellarius, iii. 13. p. 359.
[Page 41.]—Destruction of Samaria.] See Jos. Ant. xiii. 10. 3. Prid. Conn. An. 109. Antiochus Cyzicenus, who commanded the Egyptian auxiliaries, had fallen into an ambuscade, and lost many of his men. Callimander, whom he had left in command, was defeated and killed.
[Page 43.]—Gazera.] This place, called also Gezer, or Gadara, (to be distinguished from Gadara in the Peræa mentioned in the New Test.) is several times spoken of by Josephus in connection with Joppa. Ant. xiii. 9. Reland, 778, 801. Strabo mentions it in connection with Ascalon and Ashdod, xvi. p. 759. It was the western boundary of the portion of Ephraim. The root of the word (גדר) denoting an enclosed place, gave rise to several names of towns; among others the Phœnician Γάδειρα, Cadiz.
[Page 44.]—The five cities of the Philistines.] Gath, Ekron, Ascalon, Gaza, and Ashdod, (Azotus.) Jos. Ant. vi. 1.
[Page 44.]—Eleutheropolis.] Though scarcely mentioned in the times of the Old or New Testament, it became afterwards a place of considerable importance, and the episcopal see of Palestina prima. Epiphanius was born there. Reland, 749.