Northern Palestine.—Gibeah.—Birthplace of King Saul.—Historical Events.—Thrilling Story of Rizpah watching her Dead Sons.—Identity of the City.—Field of the Arrow.—Parting of David and Jonathan.—Nob.—Massacre of the Priests.—The View.—Birthplace of Jeremiah.—Geba.—Pottage.—Benighted.—Yusef Shang, of Beeroth.—A Night of strange Experience.—Town of Beeroth.—Ancient Bethel.—Its Desolation. Site of the City.—Abraham’s Altar.—Parting of Abraham and Lot.—The Fountain.—Jacob’s Flight and Dream.—Idolatry.—Prophecy fulfilled.—Route to Shiloh.—Romantic Scenery.—Robbers’ Fountain.—Wild Glen.—Robbers.—Their Dance.—Sinjil.—Shiloh.—Remains.—Site discovered in 1838.—Tower.—Damsels of Shiloh carried off.—Death of Eli.—Approach of the Robbers.—An Attack.—Resistance.—Again assailed.—Again resist.—Revolvers drawn.—Escape.—Overtaken.—Third Attack.—Revolvers in demand.—Sixteen against Four.—Serious Moment.—One of the Party whipped.—Narrow Escape.—Lebonah.—Ride to Nablous.—Grand View.—Evening on the Plain of Mukhrah.—Antiquity of Nablous.—History.—Its beautiful Situation.—Population.—Inside View of the Town.—Character of the People.—Christian School.—Origin of the Samaritans.—Remnant of the Nation.—Their Creed.—Their religious Peculiarities.—Their High-priest.—Their sacred Writings.—Vale of Shechem.—Its Length and Beauty.—Cursings and Blessings of the Law.—The Scene.—Great Congregation.—Twin Mountains.—Jacob’s Well.—History.—Sweet Water.—Evidence of its Antiquity.—Jesus at the Well.—Woman of Samaria.—Accuracy of its evangelical History.—Well Sold.—Tomb of Joseph.—Symbol of his Life.—Ascent of Mount Ebal.—Twenty Lepers.—Ascent of Mount Gerizim.—Almond-groves.—Ruins on the Summit.—Holy of Holies of the Samaritans.—Traditions.—Not the Scene of the Offering of Isaac.—Samaritan Passover.—Impressive Moment.—Lambs slain.—The Feast.
The day was all that the most romantic tourist or thoughtful traveler could have desired, when, at three o’clock on Monday afternoon, in the month of April, we left Jerusalem for the last time, on our long tour through Northern Palestine. Passing out of the Damascus Gate, I ascended the rocky ridge over the grotto of Jeremiah, and looked down upon the Holy City with the fondness of one bidding adieu to the scenes of his childhood. A gentle breeze was blowing from the WesternSea, and the flag of our country floated from the summit of Zion. The clattering of horses’ hoofs on the pavements below told me my companions were coming, and, turning to the northwest, the “City of the Great King” faded forever from my view. Crossing the hill Scopus, we were soon on the great caravan route leading from Egypt to Damascus. For half an hour our path lay through an open and undulating country, when it passed between two conical hills—Shâfât on the west, and Nob on the east.Less than a mile beyond the latter is Gibeah, the birthplace of King Saul.[435] Called by the Arabs Tuleil el-Fûl—“the Hill of the Beans”—it resembles a perfect cone when viewed from a distance. Rising from a rich plain, it is an object of universal attraction. Terraced from base to summit, it presents to the eye a beautiful appearance, as the green circles of corn mingle with the white limestone soil. On the summit are the remains of a tower or palace, fifty-six feet long and forty-eight wide, and by some unknown force the huge blocks of stone have been thrown together in a form not unlike a pyramid.
Few places in the Holy Land fill so large a space in the inspired volume as Gibeah. Coming from Bethlehem on his way to Mount Ephraim, the unfortunate Levite at nightfall turned in hither, and was received into the house of a peasant. That night was committed an offense by the young men of the city, which resulted in one of the most terrible battles on record. To punish the offenders and avenge the insult, around this hill all Israel gathered for battle against the Benjamites, and, though the former were repeatedly repulsed,they at length triumphed and well-nigh exterminated the tribe of Benjamin.[436] Three centuries later, after the death of all the actors in that mournful tragedy, Gibeah rose to royal significance. Here resided Kish, unto whom was born Saul, than whom“there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he; from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.”[437] From here his father sent Saul to recover the strayed asses, and, while looking for the asses, he found a kingdom.Returning from Rameh after his coronation, he chose Gibeah as the seat of his new government.[438] From this first royal city in Palestine he went forth to fighthis first battle,which was against the Ammonites, who had besieged Jabesh-gilead.[439]After his rejection by Samuel at Gilgal, hither Saul returned in disgrace;[440] and it was here, in those dark days of disappointment which followed, that an evil spirit came upon him,and, to soothe his troubled soul by the soft music of his harp, the shepherd-boy of Bethlehem was summoned to the king’s presence.[441]Here the high-minded Jonathan conceived his more than woman’s love for the son of Jesse.[442] Forgetting earlier attachments and David’s well-earned renown, here, in a fit of passion, Saul threw his javelin at the youthful warrior.[442] Here he gave his daughter Michal in marriage to David;[442]and here the true-hearted wife rescued her persecuted husband from the murderous hand of her father, and deceived the king by placing an image in her bed.[443]Here the unwilling Michal was given to Phalti,[444]and from Gibeah Saul and his sons went forth to the fatal battle of Gilboa.[445]
Forty years after the death of the king the tragical history of Gibeah closed, as it had commenced, in a scene of blood. For an offense, the history of which is neither recorded by sacred or profane writers, the Almighty sent a famine of three years’ continuance upon the land, and when David inquired of the Lord the cause, he was informed,“It is for Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.”[446] Josephus supposes that Saul had violated the treaty which Joshua had made with the men of Gibeon, and had attempted to slay the entire population of the city. Wishing to relieve his kingdom from the miseries of a famine, David summoned the Gibeonites to his presence, to ascertain the nature of the redress they demanded. They demanded the surrender of seven of the descendants of Saul to be hung in Gibeah, and their request was granted.Five of the victims were the sons of Merab, whom Michal had brought up after her sister’s death, and the other two were the sons of Saul by his wife Rizpah.[447] On the same day the sons and grandsons of Israel’s first king were executed together, to expiate the offense of a father long since dead. Less fortunate than the offspring of Merab, the sons of Rizpah left a mother to mourn their untimely end. For tendernessof affection, for the depth of maternal grief, and for the lengthened period of watching and mourning, the story of Rizpah has no parallel in the literature of any nation. David’s sorrow for Absalom was sincere, keen, and overwhelming, but the grief of Rizpah was the sorrow of a mother. “And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest upon them by day, nor the beasts of the fields by night.” Such was the mournful spectacle that that broken-hearted mother presented to all who passed by, sitting beside the bones of her dead sons all through the long Syrian summer, from April till October, neither permitting the vulture to prey upon them by day nor the hyena by night.Time had assuaged her grief, and David ordered that the bones of her sons should be interred with those of Saul and Jonathan, in the country of Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish.[448]
The identity of Gibeah as the scene of so many important events is sustained by evidence no less abundant than indubitable. In his description of the march of Titus to Jerusalem, Josephus informs us that the Roman general halted at Gibeah, thirty stadia from Jerusalem, which exactly corresponds with the distance between this hill and the Jewish capital. During the night a Roman legion, coming from Emmaus, joined the main army here, where is the point of junction between the two great routes from the north and west, and on the following morning the combined forces moved on to Scopus, from whence they beheld the Holy City. Three centuries later, Jerome, in describing the journey of Lady Paula to Jerusalem, represents her as coming up from Joppa via the two Bethhorons, with Ajalon and Gibeon on the right, and stopping at Gibeah, where “she called to mind the old story of the Levite and his concubine.” Thus the crimes of a city perpetuate the memory of its site.
South of Gibeah is the field which contained the stone Ezel, where occurred the affecting interview between David and Jonathan, and where the latter discharged the signal arrow for the escape of the former. Behind one of the many jutting rocks which here lift their naked crowns on high the fugitive found a hiding-place, where he remained till, according to aprevious agreement, Jonathan came, shot an arrow beyond a little lad, and cried, “Is not the arrow beyond thee?” which was the signal that Saul was intent on killing David. The two friends met, embraced, and wept; and, after renewing their covenant, Jonathan returned to Gibeah, and David fled to Nob. His presence excited the fears of the priest Abimelech, which he soon, however, allayed by a plausible story,and from his hand received the sword of Goliath, and the shew-bread to which our Lord alludes.[449] It was because of this kindness to a public enemy that Abimelech was summoned to the presence of the enraged king, and sentenced to death by him, with all of his father’s house. Revering the sacred person of a priest, no Israelite would execute the royal sentence. The work of executioner fell to the lot of Doeg, the stranger, the shepherd, and the spy.Unappeased by the slaughter of eighty-five innocent priests, Saul smote the city of Nob with the edge of the sword.[450] Two places are designated as the probable site of this ancient Levitical city—one containing the famous tomb of El-Messahney, near the Tombs of the Judges, and the other a conical peak less than a mile to the south from Gibeah. The former has the advantage of an acknowledged Jewish sepulchre, while the latter has that of location.
The view from the summit of Gibeah is as interesting as it is commanding. Three miles to the southeast is Anâta, the Anathoth of the Bible and the birthplace of Jeremiah. Never large, it still retains its diminutive proportions. Standing on a low, broad ridge, surrounded by green fields, twenty huts occupy the site of this once priestly city. Of the ancient town all that now remains are portions of an old wall, a spacious cistern, and fragments of marble columns.It was hither Solomon banished Abiathar for attempting to raise Adonijah to the throne of his father David.[451] But Anathoth is chiefly significant as the native city of the greatest of prophets, whose courage was equal to his danger, whose fortitude never forsook him, and whose zeal for God was only excelled by the terribleness of his persecutions. In the darkest hour of his country’s history, Jeremiah was called to lament the desolations of Zion, to reprove kings, and to die for the truth. Offended at the severity of his denunciations, his townsmen drove him from the place of his birth, and, flying to Jerusalem for refuge, hisfidelity to God, his unblanched courage in reproving royal crimes, and his horrid pictures of coming ruin, evoked the angry passions of those whom he would have reformed, and the plaintive bard of Israel was added to the long but honored list of martyrs.
Turning to the northwest, the tower of Geba of Benjamin was visible,[452] and three miles beyond were the rocks of Michmash, where Jonathan surprised and defeated the Philistines,and where are still to be seen the famous rocks Bozez and Seneh.[453] After glancing at other memorable places, which, together with those mentioned, we had previously visited, we descended from the summit of the hill,and at its base entered a noble field of lentiles or pottage, such as Esau sold his birthright for.[454] When young it resembles a pea-vine. It grows to the height of eight inches, and when harvested it is pulled like flax. It is cooked like beans, with the exception that the water is allowed to evaporate, when the softened grain is stewed with butter and onions, making a delicious dish, and one worth a birthright to a famishing hunter.
The sun was setting, and the shadow of the mountains darkened the plains when we resumed our journey. The lateness of the hour required dispatch, and Beeroth, the place where we were to spend the night, was six miles to the north. Unfortunately we were without a guide, and our path was simply a camel track, devious, stony, and uncertain. Though we knew the general direction of Beeroth, yet the number of small villages in the vicinity, the growing darkness, and the uncertainty of the road, baffled all effort to find the place. Overtaking an Arab belonging to Beit Untâh, he agreed for a present to serve us as guide. Not suspecting deception, we followed him nearly to his own town, which he assured us was the desired place. But knowing from our maps that Beeroth was to the right of the path, and Beit Untâh to the left, we refused to follow him farther. Truth is an unknown virtue in the Arab character, and he who confides in it leans upon a broken reed. For the paltry sum which a night’s lodging would bring, this man was leading us astray.
A solitary light shone from a hut in Beeroth, when, turning eastward, we traversed plowed fields, leaped ditches, crossed ravines, and rued the day we had presumed to travel withouta guide. Reaching a fountain, the waters of which sparkled in the starlight, we regained the path. Having a letter of introduction from Dr. Sandreczki, of Jerusalem, to one Yûsef Shang, a Christian Arab, and the scribe of the town, we inquired for him; but, to add to our mishaps, Yûsef was not at home. There we were, homeless, foodless, friendless, and in the dark. An old Arab dame, however (heaven pity her homeliness and reward her kindness!), knew where Yûsef was, and called him to our aid.