may be estimated not only by the consideration in which he was held by
the contemporary sovereigns of Egypt, Tyre, and Assyria, but by the
strength of the several kingdoms into which the dominions of David were
subsequently divided. Damascus revolted during the reign of Solomon, and
shook off the Jewish yoke. At his death, ten of the tribes revolted
under Jeroboam, and the country became divided into the two rival
kingdoms of Judah and Israel, having for their capitals Jerusalem and
Samaria. The kingdom of Israel fell before the Assyrian conqueror, in
the year B. C. 721, after it had subsisted about two hundred and fifty
years. That of Judah survived about one hundred and thirty years, Judea
being finally subdued and laid waste by Nebuchadnezzar, and the temple
burned B. C. 588. Idumea was conquered a few years after. From this
period till the æra of Alexander the Great, Palestine remained subject
to the Chaldean, Median, and Persian dynasties. At his death, Judea fell
under the dominion of the kings of Syria, and, with some short and
troubled intervals, remained subject either to the kings of Syria or of
Egypt, till John Hyrcanus shook off the Syrian yoke, and assumed the
diadem, B. C. 130. The Asmonean dynasty, which united, in the person of
the monarch, the functions of king and pontiff, though tributary to
Roman conquerors, lasted one hundred and twenty-six years, till the
kingdom was given by Anthony to Herod the Great, of an Idumean family,
B. C. 39.
2. At the time of the Christian æra, Palestine was divided into five
provinces; Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Perea, and Idumea. On the death of
Herod, Archelaus, his eldest son, succeeded to the government of Judea,
Samaria, and Idumea, with the title of tetrarch; Galilee being assigned
to Herod Antipas; and Perea, or the country beyond Jordan, to the third
brother, Philip. But in less than ten years the dominions of Archelaus
became annexed, on his disgrace, to the Roman province of Syria; and
Judea was thenceforth governed by Roman procurators. Jerusalem, after
its final destruction by Titus, A. D. 71, remained desolate and almost
uninhabited, till the emperor Hadrian colonized it, and erected temples
to Jupiter and Venus on its site. The empress Helena, in the fourth
century, set the example of repairing in pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to
visit the scenes consecrated by the Gospel narrative; and the country
became enriched by the crowds of devotees who flocked there. In the
beginning of the seventh century, it was overrun by the Saracens, who
held it till Jerusalem was taken by the crusaders in the twelfth. The
Latin kingdom of Jerusalem continued for about eighty years, during
which the Holy Land streamed continually with Christian and Saracen
blood. In 1187, Judea was conquered by the illustrious Saladin, on the
decline of whose kingdom it passed through various revolutions, and at
length, in 1317, was finally swallowed up in the Turkish empire.
Palestine is now distributed into pashalics. That of Acre or Akka
extends from Djebail nearly to Jaffa; that of Gaza comprehends Jaffa and
the adjacent plains; and these two being now united, all the coast is
under the jurisdiction of the pasha of Acre. Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablous,
Tiberias, and in fact, the greater part of Palestine, are included in
the pashalic of Damascus, now held in conjunction with that of Aleppo;
which renders the present pasha, in effect, the viceroy of Syria. Though
both pashas continue to be dutiful subjects to the Grand Seignior in
appearance, and annually transmit considerable sums to Constantinople to
insure the yearly renewal of their office, they are to be considered as
tributaries, rather than subjects of the Porte; and it is supposed to be
the religious supremacy of the Sultan, as caliph and vicar of Mohammed,
more than any apprehension of his power, which prevents them from
declaring themselves independent. The reverence shown for the firmauns
of the Porte throughout Syria attests the strong hold which the Sultan
maintains, in this character, on the Turkish population. The pashas of
Egypt and Bagdad are attached to the Turkish sovereign by the same
ecclesiastical tie, which alone has kept the ill-compacted and feeble
empire from crumbling to ruin.
3. A few additional remarks upon the topography and climate will tend to
elucidate the force of many of those parts of Scripture which contain
allusions to these topics. Dr. E. D. Clarke, after stating his resolve
to make the Scriptures his only guide throughout this interesting
territory, says, “The delight afforded by the internal evidences of
truth, in every instance where their fidelity of description was proved
by a comparison of existing documents, surpassed even all we had
anticipated. Such extraordinary instances of coincidence even with the
customs of the country as they are now exhibited, and so many wonderful
examples of illustration afforded by contrasting the simple narrative
with the appearances presented, made us only regret the shortness of our
time, and the limited sphere of our abilities for the comparison.” Judea
is beautifully diversified with hills and plains--hills now barren and
gloomy, but once cultivated to their summits, and smiling in the variety
of their produce, chiefly the olive and the vine; and plains, over which
the Bedouin now roves to collect a scanty herbage for his cattle, but
once yielding an abundance of which the inhabitants of a northern
climate can form no idea. Rich in its soil; glowing in the sunshine of
an almost perpetual summer; and abounding in scenery of the grandest, as
well as of the most beautiful kind; this happy country was indeed a land
which the Lord had blessed: but Mohammedan sloth and despotism, as the
instruments employed to execute the curse of Heaven, have converted it
into a waste of rock and desert, with the exception of some few spots,
which remain to attest the veracity of the accounts formerly given of
it. The hills of Judea frequently rise into mountains; the most
considerable of which are those of Lebanon and Hermon, on the north;
those which surround the sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea, also attain a
respectable elevation. The other mountains of note are, Carmel, Tabor,
Ebal, and Gerizim, and the mountains of Gilboa, Gilead, and Abarim; with
the summits of the latter, Nebo and Pisgah: a description of which will
be found under their respective heads. Many of the hills and rocks
abound in caverns, the refuge of the distressed, or the resorts of
robbers.
4. From the paucity of rain which falls in Judea, and the heat and
dryness of the atmosphere for the greater part of the year, it possesses
but few rivers; and as these, have all their rise within its boundaries,
their course is short, and their size inconsiderable: the principal is
the Jordan, which runs about a hundred miles. The other remarkable
streams are, the Arnon, the Jabbok, the Kishon, the Kedron, the Besor,
the Sorek, and the stream called the river of Egypt. These, also, will
be found described under their respective heads. This country was once
adorned with woods and forests: as we read of the forest of cedars in
Lebanon, the forest of oaks in Bashan, the forest or wood of Ephraim,
and the forest of Hareth in the tribe of Judah. Of these, the woods of
Bashan alone remain; the rest have been swept away by the ravages of
time and of armies, and by the gradual consumption of the inhabitants,
whose indolence and ignorance have prevented their planting others.
5. There are no volcanoes now existing in Judea or its vicinity: nor is
mention made of any in history, although volcanic traces are found in
many parts on its eastern side, as they are also in the mountains of
Edom on the south, the Djebel Shera and Hesma, as noticed by Burckhardt.
There can be no doubt that many of the sacred writers were familiarly
acquainted with the phenomena of volcanoes; whence it may be inferred
that they were presented to their observation at no great distance, and
from which they drew some of their sublimest imagery. Mr. Horne has
adduced the following instances: “The mountains quake at him, and the
hills _melt_, and the earth is _burned_ at his presence. His fury is
_poured out like fire_, and the rocks are thrown down by him,” Nahum i,
5, 6. “Behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come
down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And _the mountains
shall be molten_ under him, and the valleys shall be _cleft as wax
before the fire_, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place,”
Micah i, 3, 4. “O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou
wouldest come down, that the _mountains might flow down_ at thy
presence. As when _the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters
to boil_, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations
may tremble at thy presence. When thou didst terrible things which we
looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy
presence,” Isa. lxiv, 1–3.
6. The climate of Judea, from the southern latitude of the country, is
necessarily warm. The cold of winter is, indeed, sometimes greater than
in European climates situated some degrees farther to the north; but it
is of short duration, and the general character of the climate is that
of heat. Both heat and cold are, however, tempered by the nature of the
surface; the winter being scarcely felt in the valleys, while in the
summer the heat is almost insupportable; and, on the contrary, in the
more elevated parts, during the winter months, or rather weeks, frosts
frequently occur, and snow sometimes falls, while the air in summer is
comparatively cool and refreshing. Many winters pass without either snow
or frost; and in the coldest weather which ever occurs, the sun in the
middle of the day is generally warm, and often hot; so that the pain of
cold is in reality but little felt, and the poor who cannot afford fires
may enjoy, during several hours of the day, the more genial and
invigorating influence of the sun. This is the ordinary character of the
winters; though in some years, as will be seen presently, the cold is
more severely felt during the short time that it prevails, which is
never more than two months, and more frequently not so much as one.
Toward the end of November, or beginning of December, domestic fires
become agreeable. It was at this time that Jehoiakim, king of Judah, is
represented by Jeremiah as sitting in his winter house, with a fire
burning on the hearth before him, Jer. xxxvi, 22. The same luxury,
though frequently by no means necessary, is used by the wealthy till the
end of March.
7. Rain only falls during the autumn, winter, and spring, when it
sometimes descends with great violence: the greatest quantity, and that
which properly constitutes the rainy season, happening between the
autumnal equinox, or somewhat later, and the beginning of December;
during which period, heavy clouds often obscure the sky, and several
days of violent rain sometimes succeed each other with winds. This is
what in Scripture is termed the early or the former rain. Showers
continue to fall at uncertain intervals, with some cloudy but more fair
weather, till toward the vernal equinox, when they become again more
frequent and copious till the middle of April. These are the latter
rains, Joel ii, 23. From this time to the end of May, showers come on at
irregular intervals, gradually decreasing as the season advances; the
sky being for the most part serene, and the temperature of the air
agreeable, though sometimes acquiring a high degree of heat. From the
end of May, or beginning of June, to the end of September, or middle of
October, scarce a drop of rain falls, the sky being constantly
unclouded, and the heat generally oppressive. During this period, the
inhabitants commonly sleep on the tops of their houses. The storms,
especially in the autumn, are preceded by short but violent gusts of
wind, which, from the surface of a parched soil, raise great clouds of
dust; which explains what is meant by, “Ye shall not _see_ wind,” 2
Kings iii, 7. The continuation of the same passage likewise implies,
that such circumscribed whirlwinds were generally considered as the
precursors of rain: a circumstance likewise alluded to by Solomon, who
says, “Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift, is like clouds and wind
without rain,” Prov. xxv, 14. Another prognostic of an approaching storm
is a small cloud rising in the west, and increasing until it overspreads
the whole heavens. Such was the cloud, “like a man’s hand,” which
appeared to Elijah, on mount Carmel; which spread “till the heaven was
black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain,” 1 Kings xviii,
44. To this phenomenon, and the certainty of the prognostic, our Saviour
alludes: “When ye see a cloud” (or _the_ cloud, την νεφελην) “rise out
of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is,”
Luke xii, 54. The same appearance is noticed by Homer:--
Ὡς δ’ ὄτ’ ἀπὸ σκοπιῆς εῖδεν νεφος αιπολος ανηρ
Ἐρχόμενον κατὰ ϖόντον ὑπὸ Ζεφύροιο ἰωῆς,
Τῷ δε τ’, ἄνευθεν ἐόντι, μελάντερον, ἠΰτι ϖὶσσα,
Φαίνετ’ ἰὸν κατὰ ϖόντον, ἄγεί δέ τέ λαίλαπα ϖολλην.
Ῥίγησεν τε ἰδὼν. κ. τ. λ. _Il._ lib. iv, 275.
“Slow from the main the heavy vapours rise,
Spread in dim streams, and sail along the skies,
Till black as night the swelling tempest shows,
The cloud condensing as the west wind blows.
He dreads the impending storm,” &c. POPE.
Hail frequently falls in the winter and spring in very heavy storms, and
with hailstones of an enormous size. Dr. Russel says that he has seen
some at Aleppo which measured two inches in diameter; but sometimes they
are found to consist of irregularly shaped pieces, weighing near three
ounces. The copious dew forms another peculiarity of this climate,
frequently alluded to in Scripture: so copious, indeed, is it sometimes,
as to resemble small rain, and to supply the wants of superficial
vegetation. Mr. Maundrell, when travelling near mount Hermon, says, “We
were instructed by experience what the Psalmist means by ‘the dew of
Hermon,’ Psalm cxxxiii, 3; our tents being as wet with it, as if it had
rained all night.”
8. The seasons are often adverted to in Scripture, under the terms “seed
time and harvest.” The former, for wheat, is about the middle of October
to the middle or end of November: barley is put into the ground two and
sometimes three months later. The wheat harvest commences about the
twentieth of May, and early in June the whole is off the ground. The
barley harvest, it is to be observed, is generally a fortnight earlier.
A survey of the astonishing produce of this country, and of the manner
in which its most rocky and, to appearance, insuperably sterile parts,
are made to yield to the wants of man, will be sufficient to refute the
objections raised by skeptical writers against the possibility of its
furnishing subsistence to the multitude of its former inhabitants
recorded in Scripture. Dr. Clarke, when travelling from Napolose to
Jerusalem, relates, “The road was mountainous, rocky, and full of loose
stones; yet the cultivation was every where marvellous: it afforded one
of the most striking pictures of human industry which it is possible to
behold. The limestone rocks and stony valleys of Judea were entirely
covered with plantations of figs, vines, and olive trees: not a single
spot seemed to be neglected. The hills, from their bases to their upmost
summits, were entirely covered with gardens: all of these were free from
weeds, and in the highest state of agricultural perfection. Even the
sides of the most barren mountains had been rendered fertile, by being
divided into terraces, like steps rising one above another, whereon soil
had been accumulated with astonishing labour. Among the standing crops,
we noticed millet, cotton, linseed, and tobacco; and occasionally small
fields of barley. A sight of this territory can alone convey any
adequate idea of its surprising produce: it is truly the Eden of the
east, rejoicing in the abundance of its wealth. Under a wise and a
beneficent government, the produce of the Holy Land would exceed all
calculation. Its perennial harvest; the salubrity of its air; its limpid
springs; its rivers, lakes, and matchless plains; its hills and
dales;--all these, added to the serenity of its climate, prove this land
to be indeed ‘a field which the Lord hath blessed: God hath given it of
the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and
wine.’” An oriental’s ideas of fertility differ, however, from ours; for
to him, plantations of figs, vines, and olives, with which the limestone
rocks of Judea were once covered, would suggest the same associations of
plenty and opulence that are called up in the mind of an Englishman by
rich tracts of corn land. The land of Canaan is characterized as flowing
with milk and honey; and it still answers to this description; for it
contains extensive pasture lands of the richest quality, and the rocky
country is covered with aromatic plants, yielding to the wild bees, who
hive in the hollow of the rocks, such abundance of honey as to supply
the poorer classes with an article of food. Honey from the rocks is
repeatedly referred to in the Scriptures, as a delicious food, and an
emblem of plenty, 1 Sam. xiv, 25; Psa. lxxxi, 16. Dates are another
important article of consumption; and the neighbourhood of Judea was
famous for its numerous palm trees, which are found springing up from
chance-sown kernels in the midst of the most arid districts. When to
these wild productions we add the oil extracted from the olive, so
essential an article to an oriental, we shall be at no loss to account
for the ancient fertility of the most barren districts of Judea, or for
the adequacy of the soil to the support of so numerous a population,
notwithstanding the comparatively small proportion of arable land. There
is no reason to doubt, however, that corn and rice would be imported by
the Tyrian merchants; which the Israelites would have no difficulty in
exchanging for the produce of the olive ground and the vineyard, or for
their flocks and herds. Delicious wine is still produced in some
districts, and the valleys bear plentiful crops of tobacco, wheat,
barley, and millet. Tacitus compares both the climate and the soil,
indeed, to those of Italy; and he particularly specifies the palm tree
and balsam tree as productions which gave the country an advantage over
his own. Among other indigenous productions may be enumerated the cedar
and other varieties of the pine, the cypress, the oak, the sycamore, the
mulberry tree, the fig tree, the willow, the turpentine tree, the
acacia, the aspen, the arbutus, the myrtle, the almond tree, the
tamarisk, the oleander, the peach tree, the chaste tree, the carob or
locust tree, the oskar, the doom, the mustard plant, the aloe, the
citron, the apple, the pomegranate, and many flowering shrubs. The
country about Jericho was celebrated for its balsam, as well as for its
palm trees; and two plantations of it existed during the last war
between the Jews and the Romans, for which both parties fought
desperately. But Gilead appears to have been the country in which it
chiefly abounded: hence the name, “balm of Gilead.” Since the country
has fallen under the Turkish dominion, it has ceased to be cultivated in
Palestine, but is still found in Arabia. Other indigenous productions
have either disappeared or are now confined to circumscribed districts.
Iron is found in the mountain range of Libanus, and silk is produced in
abundance in the plains of Samaria.
9. The grand distinction of Canaan, however, is, that it was the only
part of the earth made, by divine institution, a type of heaven. So it
was exhibited to Abraham, and also to the Jews. It pointed to the
eternal rest which the spiritual seed of the father of the faithful were
to enjoy after the pilgrimage of life; its holy city was the figure of
the “Jerusalem above;” and Zion, with its solemn and joyful services
represented that “hill of the Lord” to which the redeemed shall come
with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; where they shall
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall fly away.