[49] Ezekiel 31:3f.
[50] Psalm 29:5.
[51] Zechariah 11:2f.
[52] East of the Jordan, between Jabbok and Arnon rivers.
[53] Joshua 11:17, 12:7, 13:5.
[54] Varius Avitus Bassanius, who took the name Heliogabalus upon his appointment as high priest of the sun-god, was born at Homs, A. D. 204, usurped the imperial throne at the death of his cousin Caracalla in 218 and, after a brief reign marked chiefly by its infamous debaucheries, was murdered by the Prætorians in 222.
[55] Edw. Robinson, Biblical Researches in Palestine, III. 517.
[56] Literally, “the stone of the pregnant woman.” Bearing in mind the meaning of the popular name, the reader will easily understand just how and why I have modified the frank, Oriental form of the story which follows.
[57] Many eminent scholars, however, follow Edward Robinson (Biblical Researches, III. 568) in identifying the “Entering In of Hamath” (Judges 3:3, I Kings 8:65, etc.), not with the northern end of the Bikaʿ, but with the east-and-west valley between the Lebanon and Nusairiyeh ranges, through which we have just come. While I incline more and more toward the view given in the text above, the question must be decided by one’s feeling as to which would be the more striking and appropriate landmark, rather than by any direct evidence. The territory included would be practically the same in either case.
[58] Heliogabalus. See [foot-note, page 191].