however briefly, all the objects of interest in and around Jerusalem.
Whole volumes have been devoted to the subject without exhausting it.
This brief and inadequate sketch may be brought to a close by recalling
to memory a Sabbath morning service in Christ Church on Mount Zion, as
the Protestant church, recently erected there, is called. The liturgy
had gained a deeper significance and impressiveness from the
associations of the place. The sermon had set forth Christ crucified as
the hope alike of Jew and Gentile. And the concluding hymn brought tears
to many eyes; solemn penitential thoughts to many hearts. Not a few of
the congregation, overcome by emotion, were unable to join audibly as we
sang:—
Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
Enthronéd once on high,
Thou favoured home of God on earth,
Thou heaven below the sky;
Now brought to bondage with thy sons,
A curse and grief to see,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem!
Our tears shall flow for thee.
O hadst thou known the day of grace,
And flocked beneath the wing
Of Him who called thee lovingly,
Thine own anointed King:
Then had the tribes of all the world
Gone up thy pomp to see,
And glory dwelt within thy gates,
And all thy sons been free.
“And who art thou that mournest me?”
Jerusalem may say,
“And fear’st not rather that thyself
May prove a castaway!
I am a dried and abject branch,
My place is given to thee;
But, woe to every barren graft
Of thy wild olive-tree!
“Our day of grace is sunk in night,
Our time of mercy spent,
For heavy was my children’s crime,
And strange their punishment:
Yet gaze not idly on our fall,
But, sinner, warnéd be;
Who sparéd not His chosen seed,
May send His wrath on thee!
“Our day of grace is sunk in night,
Thy noon is in its prime;
O turn, and seek thy Saviour’s face,
In this accepted time!
So Gentile, may Jerusalem
A lesson prove to thee,
And in the new Jerusalem
Thy home for ever be.”
[Illustration: The Valley of Jehoshaphat]
CENTRAL PALESTINE, OR SAMARIA.
[Illustration: CENTRAL PALESTINE, OR SAMARIA.
_Enlarged from Keith Johnston’s Map._
]
[Illustration: Head-Piece]
JERUSALEM TO SHILOH.
FROM Jerusalem northward as far as Bethel, a distance of ten or twelve
miles, we pass through the territory of Benjamin. The topography of the
district illustrates the prophecies of Jacob and Moses as to the
destinies of this small but warlike tribe, and explains the peculiar
position which it held in the Jewish commonwealth. From the central
plateau, which runs north and south, a succession of rugged and
difficult passes lead east and west, debouching on the fertile
Philistine plain on the one side, and on the yet more fertile valley of
Jericho on the other. Its barren rocky soil, ill-adapted for
agriculture, gave birth to a race of hardy warriors, whose military
prowess was often called into exercise in protecting Jerusalem against
invaders from the north, in guarding their own mountain fastnesses, or
in making forays upon the territories of their eastern or western
neighbours. Almost every hill-side has been the scene of a battle;
almost every mound of ruins marks the site of some ancient village
memorable for the heroic deeds there enacted. “Benjamin shall ravin like
a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall
divide the spoil.”[169] “And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the
Lord (_Jerusalem_) shall dwell in safety by him; and the LORD shall
cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his
shoulders:”[170] a prophecy fulfilled when centuries afterwards the Lord
took up His earthly abode among the mountains of Benjamin. With its
barren soil and numerical inferiority it yet won for itself the proud
title of “little Benjamin their ruler;”[171] it gave the first king to
Israel, and the great Apostle of the Gentiles boasted, with a lawful
pride, that he was “of the tribe of Benjamin.”[172]
[Illustration: MOSQUE OF DAVID.]
[Illustration: JERUSALEM AND THE MOUNT OF OLIVES FROM SCOPUS.]
For some miles along the road, or from the eminences which skirt it,
Jerusalem is visible. Age after age, invading armies, or bands of
pilgrims, approaching from the north, as they have turned the crest of
Scopus, have gained their first view of the city—a view in some respects
even finer than that from Olivet. Here the first crusaders halted at
break of day, and as Jerusalem burst upon their view, they knelt, and
with tears of gladness, kissed the sacred soil. Richard Cœur de Lion,
leaving his camp at Ajalon, pressed forward alone, and as he ascended
one of these hills, buried his face in his mailed hands, and exclaimed,
“Oh! Lord God, I pray Thee that I may never look upon Thy holy city, if
so be that I rescue it not from Thine enemies.”
[Illustration: RAMAH.]
A complete itinerary of the villages along this route is given us by the
prophet Isaiah, describing the march of the Assyrian army. Beginning at
Ai, near Bethel, about twelve miles north of Jerusalem, “he is passed to
Migron, at Michmash he hath laid up his baggage; they are gone over the
passage; they have taken up their lodging (_i.e._ halted for the night),
at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled. Lift up thy voice, O
daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.
Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
As yet shall he remain at Nob that day.” Having thus seized all the
villages on his line of march, he has reached the immediate precincts of
the city, where the camp of the Assyrians is yet pointed out. Confident
of victory, “he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter
of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem;” but “the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall
lop the bough with terror, and the high ones of stature shall be hewn
down, and the haughty shall be humbled.”[173]
Nearly all the villages here enumerated can be identified, and not a few
of them still bear their ancient names. A Concordance or a
reference-Bible will show what an affluence of historical associations
lie all around us—Ai, the scene of Joshua’s first great battle—Migron,
where the army of Saul encamped in his campaign against the
Philistines—Michmash, the scene of Jonathan’s heroic exploit—Ramah, the
home of Samuel—Gibeah, the birth-place of Saul—Gallim and Laish the
abode of Phalti the husband of Michal, when torn away from
David—Anathoth, the residence of Jeremiah, and Nob where in the house of
Ahimelech the priest, the sword of Goliath was laid up, and the
shew-bread was placed before the Lord, of which David “did eat when he
was a hungred, and they that were with him.”
[Illustration: ANATHOTH.]
Apart from its historical associations, there is little to interest in
the district through which we pass. A bleak, wind-swept, rock-strewn
moor or a series of rounded hills where the grey limestone comes up to
the surface, with only a few patches of meagre vegetation on the shallow
soil, make up the scene. There is, however, one steep conical hill
rising above the others, which arrests attention. Like the Jebel
Fureidis near Bethlehem, it is conspicuous from every direction. Its
modern name Neby Samwil—THE TOMB OF SAMUEL—embalms the memory of the
prophet, who here judged Israel. With very strong probability it is
identified with Mizpeh, _i.e._ the Watch-tower, a name exactly
appropriate to this lofty eminence, from which a view is gained over the
whole of Southern Palestine. Here the prophet summoned Israel to war
against their oppressors, or convened them for judgment; here “he took a
stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it
_Eben-ezer_, saying, Hitherto, hath the Lord helped us;” and here was
heard, for the first time, the cry of devout loyalty, so often repeated
since, “God save the king.”[174]
About two hours after leaving Jerusalem, we reach a small town, Bireh,
the Beeroth of the Gibeonites,[175] but which has a deeper interest from
its connection with the life of our Lord. It was the first stage for the
pilgrims returning northward from Jerusalem, where they halted for the
night. The stragglers who had lingered in the city here rejoined their
companions and resumed their journey to Galilee on the following
morning. The Child Jesus having tarried behind in Jerusalem, “Joseph and
His mother knew not of it; but they, supposing Him to have been in the
company, went a day’s journey; and they sought Him amongst their
kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found Him not, they turned back
again to Jerusalem seeking Him.”[176]
A little to the north-west of Beeroth, we approach an Arab village,
standing on the ridge of a hill with a valley on either side. To the
eastward the ridge rises considerably, giving an extensive view over the
Jordan valley. A desolate moorland, strewn with ruins, stretches away to
the north. As we enter the village, the first of the wretched and
squalid houses which comprise it, makes some pretension to architectural
decorations in a form not uncommon through central Palestine—over the
doorway a couple of willow-pattern plates are let into the wall. The
modern name, Beitîn, is but a reminiscence of its ancient and venerable
one BETHEL. But except the name there is little to remind us that we are
on a spot so memorable in Jewish history. A large reservoir, similar to
those at Solomon’s Pools and Hebron,—three hundred and fourteen feet
long by two hundred and seventeen wide, constructed of massive Jewish
masonry, may not improbably go back to a very early period. It is now
empty except after heavy rains; but it was formerly filled by the
springs at which Abram doubtless watered his flocks and herds when,
entering the land of Canaan, “he pitched his tent, having Bethel on the
west, and Hai on the east, and there he builded an altar unto the Lord,
and called upon the name of the Lord.”[177]
The patriarch after his journey into Egypt, returned “unto the place
where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai unto
the place of the altar which he had made there at the first, and there
Abram called upon the name of the Lord,” for wherever he pitched his
tent there he built an altar—an example to all future ages of household
piety and domestic worship. It was here and now that the strife occurred
between his herdsmen and those of his nephew Lot. Standing on the high
ground already spoken of, the younger man “lifted up his eyes and beheld
all the plain of the Jordan that it was well watered everywhere ... even
as the garden of the Lord ... then Lot chose him all the plain of the
Jordan, and Lot journeyed east; and they separated themselves the one
from the other.” As one contrasts the barren rocky hills around us with
the rich and fertile plain of Sodom, the self-denial of “the Father of
the faithful,” becomes very striking and instructive. A new meaning is
thus given to the promise which followed upon the choice of Abram: “And
the Lord said unto him, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up
thine eyes, and look from the place where thou now art, northward, and
southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou
seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.... Arise, walk
through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I
will give it unto thee.”[178] The blessing which thus came upon
“faithful Abraham,” will surely be inherited by all who, like him, are
content to forego present advantages in the service and at the call of
God.
Of the city which once stood upon this site scarcely any trace remains.
A careful examination of the ruins of a Christian church, probably of
the date of the Crusades, shows that it has been built out of an older
edifice. The size of many of the stones and the peculiar bevel on the
edge shows that the original edifice was Jewish.
The foundations of other ancient structures may be traced on the
hill-side, and near its summit are the remains of a tower which still
rises to a considerable height. Nothing has yet been discovered to fix
the site of the temple which Jeroboam built here to rival that at
Jerusalem, or of the altar where, as he stood to offer incense, he was
rebuked by the fearless prophet, followed by the withering of the
monarch’s arm, and the miraculous overthrow of the altar.[179] A Jewish
tradition tells us that the temple was so built that the idol-priests
could look down upon that of Solomon on Mount Moriah. From the top of
the tower this cannot now be done, but the Mount of Olives is distinctly
visible almost to its base. Jerusalem is hidden by an intervening hill.
I was told by my dragoman that a few years ago, before the upper courses
of masonry had been removed, the temple platform could be seen, and it
was evident that a very small addition to the height at which I stood
would render this quite practicable.
It was somewhere in the rock-strewn moorland, which stretches around the
city, that Jacob, travelling northward, a fugitive from his father’s
house at Beersheba, received the mysterious vision, which formed the
turning point in his career. Standing amongst these heaps of stones and
sheets of smooth, bare rock, it is easy to realize the scene as “he
tarried there all night because the sun was set, and he took of the
stones of the place and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that
place to sleep.”[180]
[Illustration: RUINS OF BETHEL.]
[Illustration: STONE CIRCLE NEAR BETHEL.]
The historian goes on to tell us that “the name of that city was called
Luz at the first,” implying an earlier Canaanitish settlement. A curious
and interesting trace of this fact is found in the stone-circles,
resembling those in our own country, which still exist on the east of
the city. There are numerous instances in Palestine of the occurrence of
dolmens and rude stone circles. We must doubtless refer them to the
early settlers, antecedent to the Hebrew conquest.
We now leave the sterile rocky heights of Benjamin and Judah, and shall
soon enter upon the fertile plains and valleys of Samaria. The soil is
richer and better cultivated. The hills are terraced up to their
summits, and are covered with corn-fields and orchards. In the days of
prosperity and plenty, when “every man sat under his own vine and
fig-tree,” even the barren slopes of Southern Palestine were brought
under cultivation. They drew “honey from the rock, and oil out of the
flinty rock.” Even yet we can trace the lines of these ancient terraces
showing what the land once was, and what it may yet become again when
“the time to favour Zion, yea, the set time, is come.” But now these
long lines or scattered heaps of stones only add to the general sense of
desolation. In the country north of Bethel, however, we come to many
districts in which something of the former fertility and prosperity may
yet be found. From our camp in Ain Haramiyeh, or Robbers’ Fountain, a
few miles north of Bethel, we could see the hills clothed to their very
summits with fig-gardens, now in their bright spring greenery. A Syrian
gentleman, who was my frequent companion through this part of Palestine,
plucked the young figs as he passed without stint or scruple. His reply
to my question as to his right to do so was instructive as throwing
light upon an incident in the life of our Lord as to which some
difficulty has been felt. In the early spring, when the first leaves
appear, an immense number of small figs are produced, which do not ripen
but fall from the branches, crude and immature, to the ground. To these
we find a reference in the Apocalypse “as a fig-tree casteth her
untimely figs.”[181] The true crop is not produced till later in the
year. This first crude “untimely” growth, though of no commercial value,
is yet plucked and eaten by the peasantry, sometimes with a pinch of
salt, sometimes with bread. Like the wild fruit of our hedgerows it is
free to all passers-by. It was just at this early season, before the
feast of the passover, that our Lord and His disciples, having walked
from Bethany, “hungered.” Seeing a fig-tree “afar off having leaves,”
they sought fruit and “found nothing thereon but leaves only, for the
time of figs was not yet.”[182] That is to say, seeing leaves they had a
right to expect fruit. Finding fruit they would have had a right to
pluck it, “for the time of figs was not yet,” the true and valuable crop
was not yet produced. This incident He turned into a solemn lesson of
warning to the Jews. It was at the close of His public ministry.
“Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit and finding
none,”[183]—nothing but the leaves of mere profession and outward
privilege. The time of forbearance and patient pitying delay had
passed—that of rejection and destruction had come; “and He said unto it,
Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the
fig-tree withered away.”
“On the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth
up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah,”[184] stood
SHILOH, exactly on the spot thus precisely indicated is the village of
Seilûn, the Arabic form of its ancient name. It stands on a slight
eminence, rising from an extensive plain. An ancient well probably marks
the spot where “the daughters of Shiloh came out to dance in dances” at
their annual festival, and were carried away as brides by the Benjamites
who had crossed the frontier.[185] Of the tabernacle in which the ark
rested, from the time of Joshua to that of Samuel, no trace, of course,
remains. But on the summit of a little knoll we find the remains of what
was once a Jewish synagogue, afterwards used as a church, and
subsequently as a mosque. On the lintel over the doorway, between two
wreaths of flowers, is carved a vessel shaped like a Roman amphora; it
so closely resembles the conventional type of the “pot of manna” as
found on coins and in the ruins of the synagogue at Capernaum, that it
doubtless formed part of the original building. It is a not improbable
conjecture that the synagogue may have been erected on the sacred spot
which for so many generations formed the centre of Jewish worship. And
in the rock sepulchres with which the neighbouring hill-sides are
honey-combed, the remains of Eli, and of the high-priests who had
ministered before him at the altar were doubtless laid to rest.
[Illustration: RUINS OF A SYNAGOGUE AT SHILOH.]
There are few spots in Palestine of which the identification is more
certain, or the associations more interesting than Shiloh. Here the
childless wife prayed; and when her prayer had been heard she brought
the infant Samuel (_Asked of the Lord_), and said to the aged priest,
“Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by
thee here, praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed; and the Lord
hath given me my petition which I asked of Him: therefore also I have
lent him to the Lord: as long as he liveth shall he be lent to the
Lord.” The incidents which followed—the annual visit of the happy
mother, the little coat, made with such loving care, for the absent boy,
the child Samuel “growing in stature and in favour both with the Lord
and also with men,” the aged, sorrowful priest, the mysterious voice in
the silence of the night, the mournful tragedy of Eli’s death, and the
universal recognition of “all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba that
Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord,”[186]—have delighted
infancy and instructed manhood throughout the civilized world for three
thousand years.
[Illustration: THE SITE OF SHILOH.]
The subsequent history of this favoured spot is very mournful. Partaking
in the wickedness and idolatry of Samaria, and then deserted by the
apostate people for more favoured shrines, it soon sank down into ruin
and desolation, so that in the time of the later kings it became a
conspicuous instance of the fate which awaits all who forsake God. God
“forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men.”
“But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at
the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people
Israel.” “I will make this house (the Temple) like Shiloh, and will make
this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.”[187] The same lesson
is thus taught us here as in the cities in which our Lord’s mighty works
were performed, that privileges abused or neglected can only increase
our guilt and deepen our ruin.
[Illustration: Head-Piece—Road-side Wells]
SHECHEM, EBAL, AND GERIZIM.
SHORTLY after leaving Seilûn we descend into the broad and fertile plain
of El Mukhna. Two parallel ridges of mountains bound the view on the
north-west. Rising to a height of two thousand seven hundred feet above
the level of the sea, they are conspicuous objects in the landscape, and
are visible from a great distance. Elsewhere in Palestine we are struck
by the contrast between the grandeur of the history, and the
unimpressive character of the scenery; but these noble and massive forms
are a fitting theatre for the grandest events. They are EBAL and
GERIZIM. In the narrow valley between them was Shechem, where Abram
pitched his tent, and built his first altar, on his entrance into the
Promised Land.[188] In the plain at the foot was the parcel of ground
which Jacob bought, where he digged a well, and erected an altar, and
called it El-elohe-Israel, (_God, the God of Israel_).[189] Close by is
the sepulchre in which the embalmed body of Joseph was buried when his
descendants came up from Egypt.[190] On those opposing heights the
blessings and the curses of the Law were recited, whilst the people
stood in the valley between.[191] It was on Gerizim that Jotham spoke
his parable of the trees choosing a king.[192] In this ancient and
venerable sanctuary, the kings of Israel received their
inauguration,[193] and after the secession of the northern tribes,
Jeroboam fixed here his capital.[194] And it was in this birth-place of
the Jewish nation, that our Lord proclaimed the abrogation of all that
was local and temporary in the covenant with Abraham and his seed,
“Neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem shall ye worship the
Father.... God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth.”[195] The associations of this spot thus cover
the whole range of Hebrew history, from its commencement to its close.
[Illustration: ARAB AT TENT DOOR.]
[Illustration: THE VALLEY OF SHECHEM, WITH EBAL AND GERIZIM.]
The circumstances of our Lord’s memorable visit are stated with great
precision. It was on his way from Judæa into Galilee, in the early
spring—“there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest”—at the hour
of noon—“Jesus being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well, and
it was about the sixth hour.” At the same season, by the same route, at
the same hour, we reached the well. Early in the year though it was, we
found the heat very great and the journey toilsome. Thankful indeed were
we to arrive at the resting-place. The fields were bright with the
tender green of spring-time. The wide expanse of pasture and the patches
of young corn were inexpressibly refreshing to the eye after our long
sojourn among the barren hills of the south. In due time “the sower and
the reaper would rejoice together.” But alas! the spiritual harvest
which had seemed ready to the reaper’s hand as our Lord spoke, has
issued only in disappointing failure. The divine Husbandman himself
gathered in the first fruits; those that followed found “tares” only.
The bitter animosity with which the Samaritans regarded the Jews was
soon turned against the Christians. Even when the empire had become
nominally Christian, violent and murderous persecutions broke out
against the followers of Him who had here proclaimed Himself the
Messiah, “I, that speak unto thee, am He.” And as though inheriting the
fanatical hostility of their ancestors, the present Moslem population of
Nablus, are amongst the most bigoted and violent in the whole East.
[Illustration: JACOB’S WELL AND JOSEPH’S TOMB.]
The well is still “deep,” though the bottom is choked with rubbish and
the stones cast into it by travellers. The measurements, however, vary
considerably. Maundrell, and Robinson in his first edition, make the
depth one hundred and five feet; McCheyne, Wilson, and Calhoun only
seventy-five. The careful and repeated soundings of my own party nearly
coincide with the latter statement; we made it seventy-eight feet. I can
suggest no way of reconciling these discrepancies. It is probable that
the depth may have diminished since the visit of Maundrell in 1697.
Robinson does not appear to have measured it himself, but to have relied
upon the report of his companions. The upper part of the shaft is lined
with rough masonry. After copious rains there is a little water in the
bottom, but ordinarily the well is quite dry.