Though doomed to obscurity in the annals of national greatness, yet, as if by way of compensation,Asher obtained the fruitful plain of Accho, “the key of Palestine,”[60] extending from Mount Carmel to Zidon on the coast. By the richness of the soil,“His bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties;”[61] and possessing luxuriant olive-groves,“He dipped his foot in oil.”[62]Promised to be “blessed with children,” the descendants of Asher numbered, on entering Canaan, 267,000 souls;[63] and on the accession of David to the throne,the tribe sent anarmy of 40,000 troops to acknowledge the new sovereign.[64] Subject to the sudden attacks of the plundering Phœnicians, whose territory they occupied, and compelled at all times to be upon their guard, armed with their metallic greaves and sandals,“Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.”[65] Though the Asherites gave Israel neither king, judge, nor warrior, yet the names of two illustrious widows shine out from the general obscurity[—]“Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day;”[66] and the“widow of Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto whom Elijah was sent.”[67]
Celebrated for their activity, bravery, and independence, and represented in the prophetic symbols by a tree planted in a rich soil, and growing to a prodigious size, Naphtali received “Galilee of the Gentiles,” whose fruitfulness of soil is only excelled by the beauty of the scenery:“Naphtali is a spreading oak, producing beautiful branches.”[68] Foreseeing the prosperity awaiting him, in an eloquent apostrophe Moses addressed the tribe:“Oh Naphtali, satisfied with favor, and full with the blessing of the Lord, possess thou the west and the south.”[69] Embracing within his possession the green hills and valleys of “Upper Galilee,” together with the Sea of Tiberias, his posterity grew rich from the fruits of the one and the products of the other. But, reserved for a higher glory and assigned a more exalted destiny, the inheritance of Naphtali remained undistinguished for any great event till the dawn of our own era.Driven from his native city, our Lord chose Capernaum as his chief residence, situated within this tribeship.[70] Here was his home during the three most eventful years of his life; here the Galileans received him gladly; here is the scene of his greatest miracles and of his most touching parables; here, on the shore of its inland sea, were born most of his apostles; here he founded his infant church; and thus enlightened in the persons of the first Christians and earliest teachers of Christianity, Naphtali possessed the “west and the south” by the spread of the Gospel among the southern tribes, and by its more general diffusion over the “Great Sea” through Europeand America. And now, after more than three thousand years, each tribal possession retains its ancient physical characteristics, yields its former agricultural products, while prophecy has become history in the fortunes and destiny of the whole nation.
CHAPTER II.
Location of Jerusalem.—Strong defensive Position of the City.—Surrounding Hills and Valleys.—Its Situation compared to that of Athens and Rome.—True Meaning of the 125th Psalm.—Tower of Psephinus.—The two Valleys.—Height of the adjacent Mountains.—A City without Suburbs.—Modern Wall.—Goliath’s Castle.—Immense Stones of Solomon’s Age.—Ancient Portals.—Beautiful Corner-stone.—Pinnacle of the Temple from which Christ was tempted to throw himself.—Golden Gate.—Tower of Antonia.—Objection to Prophecy answered.—The Bevel the Sign of Jewish Masonry.—Great Cave beneath the City.—Wanderings by Torchlight.—Solomon’s Quarry.—Tyropean Valley.—Five Hills of Jerusalem.—Mount Zion.—Royal Abode.—Herod’s three Towers.—Splendid Church of St. James.—House of Caiaphas.—Scene of the Last Supper and of Pentecost.—Tomb of David.—Royal Plunderers.—Proof of its Antiquity.—Home of the Lepers.—Sad Sight.—Akra.—Bezetha.—Napoleon’s Church.
On the southern section of the Lebanon range, in N. lat. 31° 46′ 45″, and in E. long. 35° 13′ from Greenwich, stands the memorable city of Jerusalem. Elevated 2610 feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and 3922 above the River Jordan, it is thirty-three miles from the former and sixteen from the latter. Situated on a mountain summit, the crown of which is broken into a wilderness of bleak limestone peaks, divided by numberless ravines, it is by nature one of the most strongly fortified cities in the world. Occupying the summits of five hills, it is encompassed, except on the north, by deep valleys, which in the earlier stages of military science must have been formidable obstructions to an assailing foe. That well-known passage in the Psalms,“As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so is the Lord round about his people,”[71] most evidently includes the valleys that circumvallate the platform on which the city is built, as well as the surrounding mountains. Indeed, there is but little difference in the altitude of Olivet and Moriah, of the Hill of Corruption and Mount Zion. In the olden times, when an invading foe approached the walls ofa town with towers, battering-rams, ballistas, and catapults, an intervening valley was a more serious obstacle to encounter than a mountain to be scaled, especially as it served as a fosse, in crossing which the besiegers were exposed to the arrows of the besieged, who crowded the ramparts above. Approach Jerusalem from the north, west, or south, and the city rises above the hills that environ it, its embattled towers, graceful minarets, and swelling domes standing out against the sky as against a background. In this regard it is not unlike the Acropolis of Athens, which, rising like a thing of life from the Attic plain, has Lycabettus, the Pnyx, the Museum, and the Areopagus near, and Hymettus, Pentelicus, Mount Parnes, and Ægaleos in the distance;but it resembles more truly Rome, sitting on a cluster of hills, with an ample plain for future expansion, with hills near and mountains distant, the Janiculum answering to Olivet, and the Apennines to the Heights of Moab.[72]
To reconcile this passage with the topographical facts as they appear to every observer, some have pointed to the white mountains of Tîh on the south, to the wall-like ridge of Moab on the east, and to the rugged summits of Lebanon on the north; but it is simpler and more natural to suppose that the Psalmist had in his mind Olivet, the Mount of Corruption, and the Hill of Evil Council, rising from the two valleys which, like some deep moat, circumvallate the city on the east, south, and west; referring not so much to the height of the hills above the level of the city, as to their height from their valley beds, in which their everlasting bases rest. But on the north there is no such natural obstruction to impede the advance of an enemy. The ground rises gently to the summit of Scopus, which is a western projection of the Olivet ridge, a mile distant from the town, and which gradually disappears toward the west. To strengthen by art what nature had left defenseless, the celebrated tower of Psephinus was erected at the northwest corner of the ancient wall, which, being 70 cubits high, was not only a “tower of strength,” but also afforded from its top at sunrise a view of Arabia and of the sea.
Less than two miles to the northwest from Jerusalem are two slight depressions, separated by a rocky swell three quarters of a mile in width. The one on the north is the head ofthe Valley of the Kidron. At first a gentle depression, it runs eastward a mile and a half; then turning suddenly southward, it contracts and deepens, and becoming precipitous in its course, sweeps round the bases of Bezetha, Moriah, and Ophel, joining the Vale of Hinnom at the beautiful Gardens of Siloam. Varying in depth and breadth, it is seventy-five feet deep at the northeast corner of the city, twenty-five deeper opposite St. Stephen’s Gate, and reaches its greatest depth of 150 feet at the southeast angle of the Temple area. Varying in breadth from a hundred to a thousand feet, it is narrowest opposite the southeast corner of the town, and has its greatest breadth between Moriah and Olivet, on a line drawn from the Golden Gate.
The depression south of the rocky swell is the commencement of the Valley of Hinnom, which at first is almost imperceptible; but, deepening and contracting as it winds round the western side of the city, it runs for three quarters of a mile east by south to the Yâffa Gate, where it turns at right angles round the base of Mount Zion, having broken cliffs on the right, and shelving banks on the left. Running nearly due east for half a mile, it joins the Valley of the Kidron at the Pool of En-Rogel, where these two famous valleys become one, pursuing its sinuous course to the Dead Sea. Though but 44 feet deep near the Yâffa Gate, and 500 wide, it descends to the depth of more than 500 feet below the southern brow of Zion, and is broadest at the point of conjunction with the Kidron. From the beds of these valleys rise the defensive mountains around the Holy City. Though the lowest is less than 50 feet above the average level of the town, and the highest not more than 200, yet the triple summit of the Mount of Olives is more than 400 feet above the site of “Absalom’s Pillar” in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Mount of Corruption is 422 feet above En-Rogel, and the Hill of Evil Council rises 500 feet above the scorched rocks that line its base in the Vale of Gehenna.
Occupying the southern portion of its ancient site, and surrounded, as in former days, with a massive wall, Jerusalem is a city without suburbs. Unlike the approach to Zidon on the coast, which is in the midst of groves of fig, orange, and mulberry-trees, covering many miles in extent; unlike the approach to Damascus, which is inclosed with gardens of exquisite beauty, through which the Abana flows in “pearly brightness andperennial music the livelong day,” the approach to Jerusalem is arrested by high walls and guarded gates, beyond which are no habitations excepting the wretched huts of Silwân on the south, clinging to the rocky fastnesses of the Mount of Scandal. Being a capital city, and situated in the most turbulent district of the country, such a defense is necessary as a protection against the sudden attacks of the wild Bedouins of the Desert and of the Ghôr.Strongly fortified in the time of Jebus, when captured by David, its enlarged area was afterward protected by massive walls and towers, on which the sacred poets dwell with so much religious pride and delight.[73] In the days of our Lord there were two walls—one inclosing Mount Zion, the northern section of which extended a distance of 1890 feet east and west; the other, inclosing Mount Akra, extended from the Garden Gate in the first wall to near the present Damascus Gate, and, curving to the southeast, intersected the Tower of Antonia on Mount Moriah. Mount Bezetha, with the table-land beyond, then formed the suburbs of the town; but after the crucifixion the space was inclosed by a third wall, by order of Herod Agrippa. During the bloody wars occurring between the death of Solomon and the Egyptian conquerors, the walls were alternately demolished and rebuilt by the respective captors of the city; but it was not till the year 1542 A.D. that, by order of the Sultan Suleiman I., the present single wall was built. Having been constructed out of the old materials, it contains blocks of stones representing every age of the city, from the magnificent reign of Solomon to the fluctuating rule of the Crusaders.