ROB ROY CAPTURED BY THE ARABS OF LAKE HÛLEH.
THE MOUTH OF THE JORDAN, LAKE HÛLEH.
By Permission of Mr. Macgregor.
Of Lake Hûleh little was known until it was explored by Mr. Macgregor in his canoe voyage on the Jordan. It is a triangular sheet of water, about four and a half miles in length by three and a half in its greatest breadth, surrounded by an impenetrable morass covered with tall canes and papyrus reeds, through which, as the Arabs declare, it is impossible even for a wild boar to make its way. It could not be surveyed from the shore, and until Mr. Macgregor’s adventurous expedition no boat had ever floated on its waters. The additions which he has made to our knowledge of the hydrography of the district are of the highest value; and his vigorous narrative of the difficulties he surmounted, and the perils he escaped amongst the wild Bedouins of the district is familiar to all our readers.
LAKE HÛLEH, OR THE WATERS OF MEROM.
It was in this hot, seething, pestilential, but fertile plain that Joshua, after the subjugation of central and southern Palestine, fought his third and last great battle with the hosts of Canaan. Jabin, king of Hazor, rallied round him all the chiefs who had not yet yielded.[[272]] They came from “the plains south of Chinneroth,” the Jordan valley south of the sea of Galilee, the Jebusite from the fortress of Benjamin, the Hittite and the Amorite from the far south, to “the Hivite under Hermon,” in the north. “And they went out, they and all their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon the sea shore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the Waters of Merom to fight against Israel.” It was doubtless the multitude of their horses and chariots, a force not possessed by Israel, which induced them to select this long plain as their battle-field. Suddenly Joshua and his men fell upon them from the heights above, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them and chased them far to the west, across the hills and valleys of Galilee, where their horses and chariots could only encumber them, right across the land to Zidon, utterly destroying them in the long pursuit, houghing their horses, and burning their chariots. Northward and eastward, too, Joshua chased the Hivites even to the valley of Mizpeh, the plain of Cœle-Syria, which extends to the entering in of Hamath. So utter was the rout, so complete the victory, that no cities attempted further resistance, as they had done in the south. Hazor, the capital, and probably the stronghold of king Jabin, was the only place which Joshua burned with fire when he turned back from the pursuit. The whole land was now secured to Israel to the base of Lebanon, and the four northern tribes were settled in their allotted possessions.
HERMON FROM THE NORTHERN SHORE OF LAKE HÛLEH.