34 In his days did Hiel the Bethelite | thereof in his youngest son Segub, according build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof to the word of the LORD, which he spake b in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates Joshua the son of Nun.

8 Josh. 6. 26.

Verse 9. "Tirzah."-See the note on Josh. xii. 24; where we mentioned the difficulty of determining its site. Th current maps generally follow D'Anville, who seems to have adopted the statement of Brocard, a monk of Strasburg who travelled in the latter part of the 13th century. He places it upon a high mountain three leagues to the east o Samaria.

24. "Samaria."-The destruction of the palace at Tirzah (verse 18) probably assisted Omri's decision to found new capital. The two talents of silver which Omri paid for the hill is equal to 6847. Some travellers and topogra phers confound Samaria with Shechem or Nablous; but it is now generally identified with a site about eight miles t the north of that city, and about forty-five miles to the north of Jerusalem. It remained the capital of the norther kingdom, while that kingdom endured, and perished with it; for when taken. after a three years' siege, by Shalmaneze king of Assyria (719 B.C.), he razed it to the ground, leaving it a mere heap of rubbish (Micah i. 6). The foreigner whom that prince settled in the desolated country, and who took the name of Samaritans, seem to have made Shechen their chief seat, as it was ever after. But they appear also to have gradually rebuilt part of this town, as we find it occu pied by them after the southern Jews had returned from their captivity (Ezra iv. 17; Nehem. iv. 2). Still later, it seem to have been more fully rebuilt and occupied by the Samaritans; for when they revolted from Alexander the Great, from jealousy at the favour he had shown to the Jews, that conqueror came from Egypt, and having taken the city, be stowed it upon his Macedonian followers. After this, it was sometimes in the hands of the kings who succeeded Alex ander in Syria, and at others was held by his successors in Egypt, until the Jews acquired full possession of the country under John Hyrcanus, who took the city, after a year's siege, and razed it to the very ground. It was afterward rebuilt by Gabinius, the Roman president of Syria, who called it after his own name; but it was still a comparatively inconsiderable place until it was restored to its ancient splendour by Herod the Great (B.c. 21), who changed its nam to the Greek one of Sebaste, which in Latin is Augusta, in honour of Augustus. As thus restored, it existed in the time of our Saviour, and it continued a place of importance until the Jews were expelled from their country by Adrian after which it went gradually to decay. Such ruins as have since been mentioned, or now exist, of course belong to the city which existed in the time of our Saviour, when, according to Josephus, it was twenty furlongs in circumference. The situation of Samaria is well described by Dr. Richardson. He says:-"The situation is extremely beautiful and strong by nature; more so, I think, than Jerusalem. It stands on a fine large insulated hill, compassed all roun by a broad deep valley, and when fortified as it is stated to have been by Herod, one would have imagined that, in the ancient system of warfare, nothing but famine could have reduced such a place. The valley is surrounded by fou hills, one on each side, which are cultivated in terraces up to the top, sown with grain, and planted with fig and olive trees, as is also the valley. The hill of Samaria likewise rises in terraces to a height equal to any of the adjoining mountains.' This description answers exactly to that given 550 years ago by Brocard ( Descriptio Terræ Sanctæ in whose time much more of the ancient city remained than at present. He notices the innumerable marble columns still standing, belonging to the royal buildings. palaces and colonnades of this once magnificent city. But there were only a few inhabited houses, together with a church dedicated to John the Baptist, which the Saracens had turned into a mosque. Maundrell could find no other traces of the ancient city than a large square piazza encompassed with pillars. Later travellers describe this in such a manner as to convey the impression, that in the 130 intervening years the fall of many of the pillars has caused such alteration, that its character as a square piazza is no longer distinguish able. But, as such, it may well answer to the description by Josephus, of a sacred enclosure of about a furlong and half, built nearly in the middle of the city, by Herod, who adorned it with all kinds of ornamen's, and erected therei a temple, remarkable for its largeness and beauty. Buckingham says that the pillars in this part are now eighty-thre in number, standing, and many others fallen. They are all without capitals; but Richardson (who counted but sixt pillars) says there are numerous fragments of Ionic volutes to testify the order to which they belonged. This statel colonnade doubtless formed a part of some of Herod's magnificent buildings, if not, as seems most probable, a portion the sacred enclosure. It is locally considered to have belonged to Herod's palace. None of the walls of this building remain: but there are several detached pieces of walls standing on the edge of rocky prominences, that seem to b fragments of the ancient fortifications. There are also a number of columns still standing on the first terrace. chardson says: "I counted twelve in a row, besides several that stood apart, the brotherless remains of other rows." O the eastern side of the hill, near the summit, are the remains of another building, where eight large and eight smal columns are still standing, with many others fallen near them. They are all smaller and of inferior stone to those o the great colonnade (Buckingham).—The great church mentioned by Brocard is still existing as a conspicuous ruin It is said to have been built by the empress Helena. It had become a ruin even in Maundrell's time, and the Turks ha erected a small mosque within its walls, over the venerated dungeon in which John the Baptist is supposed to hav been imprisoned and beheaded. This ruined church and the interior mosque are fully described by Mr. Buckingham The modern representative of Samaria is a poor village of about thirty dwellings of the most humble description and is governed by its own sheikh, who is himself a husbandman. In the walls of these dwellings, however, portion of sculptured blocks of stone are perceived, and even fragments of granite pillars have been worked into the maso.ry while other vestiges of former edifices are seen occasionally scattered widely about. The most complete account of thi site which we possess, is that given by Mr. Buckingham.

Ri

31. "Baal."—This word (y) is not, so to speak, the proper name of a god, but a general title of honour (an swering to master, lord, or husband) applied to many different gods. Thus we have "Baalim," in the plural, for fals gods collectively, and in some cases the title "Baal" is applied to Jehovah himself (Hos. ii. 16). As the sun was th great and prominent object of ancient idolatry, we must understand that he is most usually intended by Baal, particu larly when the name is mentioned with that of the moon and the host of heaven. In other cases various local idols an intended, which may in most instances be resolved into different symbolizations or impersonations of the sun. In th instance of the Baal now before us, a great weight of testimony enables us to determine, with almost absolute certainty that he was the Phoenician Melkart, called by the Greeks and Romans, the Hercules of Tyre. It will be observed the Jezebel, who introduced and so jealously supported this worship, was the daughter of a Phoenician king-Eth-bual, th king of Zidon, which proves it to have been the Baal, or great god, of that people. It was therefore also the sam Baal whose worship was at a later period introduced by Athaliah, the daughter of this same Jezebel, into the kingdo

idah. This single fact is so conclusive as to the identity of this Baal with that of Phoenicia. that we shall not I on others which might be adduced from similarity of worship, and other circumstances. It will be observed, that Jezebel and her father Eth-baul have the name of the idol incorporated with their own.

ow, the Phoenician Baal was Melkart, whom the Greeks, according to their usual custom of identifying the gods her nations with their own, confounded with Hercules, and distinguished as the Hercules of Tyre. In reality, wer, he was a very different idol to their own deified hero of that name, and would appear to have been an incarn of the sun. It was allowed even by the Greeks, that of all the gods and demi-gods who bore this name, he of nicia was the most ancient of all. Those who wish to understand his reputed place in the genealogy of the Phon gods, may find it in the fragment of Sanchoniathon preserved by Eusebius, and it would be unintelligible sepay from the context. It may suffice to state that, from the earliest foundation of Tyre, Melkart appears to have been utelar god of that city; and that his worship extended with the extension of that state, until it was prevalent in he towns of the Phoenician confederation, and was established in the most distant colonies of that most enterg people. At Gades (Cadiz) the everlasting light was kept burning in his temple; and the Carthaginians, who aed his worship, for a long time sent to Tyre for his service a tenth part of their income. He almost became the rsal god of the Phoenician people, at home and in all their dispersions; and some faint traces of his worship still st among the people of Malta.

te name which he bears (Melkart, Melkrat, or Melchrat,) is usually understood to mean "the king of the city," Tyre; although Selden thinks it means "the strong king." We are however convinced in our own minds, that ame is equivalent to the Hebrew, melek-eretz (the vowels not being essential), "king of the earth," h would naturally be applied to him as an impersonation of the sun.

ider the name of the Tyrian Hercules this idol was very famous. When Herodotus was in Egypt, he learned that ulus was there regarded as one of the primeval gods of that country; and being anxious to obtain some more cit information on the subject, he undertook a voyage to Tyre, for the express purpose of seeking such information e famous temple there dedicated to his worship. What he learned confirmed his impression as to the high anty of this god; for the priests informed him that the foundation of the temple was coeval with that of the city, b, they said, was founded 2300 years before that time. His attention was attracted by the various rich offerings e temple, particularly by one pillar all of gold, and another of emerald, which by night shone with amazing dour. Some particulars furnished by him and other writers, are interesting, as showing some such analogies to ites in the worship of the true God. as may have the more readily induced the Israelites to fall into the idolatry eir neighbours. No human sacrifices were offered to him: nor does the Bible any where lay this charge to the aip of Baal-no swine were sacrificed to him; though this was a common enough sacrifice to many other idols efire was always burning on his altar-the priests officiated barefoot-and kissing was among the acts of worship, h is in fact expressly mentioned in chap. xix. 18.

Many representations of the Tyrian Hercules are extant on coins. We give two, which will serve as fair average mens: they are both in the British Museum, and are represented of twice the real size. The first, which des the most attention as being the most ancient, and in the style which the coins of Western Asia exhibit before oved by Greek and Roman taste, is of copper. It was found in the island of Cossyra (now Pantellaria), which ged to the Tyrians. The other is a Tyrian coin of silver (weighing 214 grains), and exhibiting a very striking of the same idol, in a more modern and perfect style of art. One of the figures in the date is unfortunately erated; but the curator of the coins in the British Museum thinks that the complete date may have given 84 B.C. s of this description are sometimes as old as 122 B.C. For more information concerning Melkart, see the Mygies' of Bannier and Creuzer; Jahn's Archæologia Biblica;' and Heeren's Phoenicians,' with the several authocited by them.

6

6

1.-Melkart, or the Tyrian Hercules (the Phoenician Baal). From a Copper Coin of Cossyra in the British Museum. (Twice the size of the original.)

8. 2.-Head of do. From a Silver Coin of Tyre in the British Museum. (Twice the size of the original.)

"Jericho."-See the notes on Josh. v. 9, 10. All travellers previous to Mr. Buckingham have acquiesced in the nt statement, that, as we stated in the first of the notes now cited, the site of the ancient Jericho is marked by the village of Rihhah, between three and four miles from the Jordan, where, however, it was admitted that no trace of cient city could be found. But that traveller has questioned this conclusion on such strong grounds, that his cornhas, and we think with great propriety, been introduced into most recent maps of the Holy Land. As Mr. ingham has the sole merit of this discovery, and we decidedly acquiesce in his conclusions, there is nothing for us

to do but to follow his account. We have already, in the second of the above-cited notes, described the plain of Jericho. It is only necessary therefore to observe, that travellers from Jerusalem to Jericho must, after descending the hills which bound the plain on the west, proceed for about four miles towards the Jordan before they reach Rihhah. But Mr. Buckingham had scarcely quitted the foot of these hills to go eastward over the plain, before he came upon the ruins of a large settlement, of which sufficient remained to prove it to have been a place of consequence, although no one perfect building existed. Some of the more striking objects among the ruins were several large tumuli, evidently the work of art, and resembling in size and shape those of the Greek and Trojan heroes on the plain of Ilium. Near to this was also a large square area, enclosed by long and regular mounds, uniform in their height, breadth, and angle of slope, and seeming to mark the place of enclosing walls now worn into mounds. Besides these, the foundations of other walls in detached pieces, portions of ruins of an undefinable character, shafts of columns, and a capital of the Corinthian order, were seen scattered about over the widely-extended heaps of this ruined city. These ruins did not seem, taken in their greatest extent, to cover less than a square mile; but the remains were not sufficiently marked to enable Mr. Buckingham to form a plan of them. The order of the columns is indicated by the Corinthian capital, which also shows that the building belonged probably to the time when the country was dependent on Rome; and we hazard a conjecture, that they may have belonged to the palace which Herod built at Jericho; and the knowledge that a palace was built at so comparatively late a period, strengthens whatever conclusion may be formed in preference of this site to that of Rihhah, where no ancient remains whatever are found.

But, besides this, the situation of these remains agrees much better than the site of Rihhah with the position which Josephus assigns to Jericho. He says: "It is situate in a plain; but a naked and barren mountain, of very great length, hangs over it. This mountain extends to the land about Scythopolis northward, and southward as far as the country of Sodom and the utmost limits of the lake Asphaltites. It is all of it very uneven, and uninhabited by reason of its barrenness." (De Bello Jud.' 1. iv. c. 8, sec. 2.) And in another place, he says that Jericho is one hundred and fifty furlongs from Jerusalem, and sixty from the Jordan, adding, "The country as far as Jerusalem is desert and stony; but that as far as the lake Asphaltites lies low, though it be equally desert and barren." It is clear that all this applies very exactly to Mr. Buckingham's Jericho, but not to Rihhah. He observes himself: "Nothing can more accurately apply in all its particulars than this description does to the site of the present ruins, assumed here as those of the ancient Jericho, whether it be in its local position, its boundaries, or its distance from Jerusalem on the one hand, or from the Jordan on the other. The spot lies at the very foot of the barren hills of Judæa, which may be said literally to overhang it on the west; and these mountains are still as barren, as rugged, and as destitute of inhabitants as formerly, throughout their whole range, from the lake of Tiberias to the Dead Sea. The distance, by the computation of our journey in time, amounted to about six hours, or nearly twenty miles; and we were now, according to the report of our guides, at the distance of two hours, or about six miles, from the banks of the Jordan."

Concerning Rihhah, which has so long borne the honour of being the representative of Jericho, we have only to observe that it appears to have obtained this distinction through some supposed resemblance between its name and that of Rahab the harlot. But were this analogy still clearer, it would prove nothing, since Jericho was never called after that celebrated woman. It is a poor village, containing about fifty dwellings, every one of which is fenced in front with thorny bushes, while a barrier of the same kind encircles the whole of the village. A fine brook flowing by the village, and emptying itself into the Jordan, supplies the inhabitants with water for the irrigation of the grounds, and for the domestic wants of the inhabitants. The only alleged antiquities shown here are a modern square tower of Mohammedan workmanship, said to be the house of Zaccheus, and an old tree, stated to be that into which the same person climbed to see Christ pass by; but, unfortunately for the story, this tree is not a sycamore, which the Evangelist mentions in the narrative of that interesting transaction.

CHAPTER XVII.

1 Elijah, having prophesied against Ahab, is sent to Cherith, where the ravens feed him. 8 He is sent to the widow of Zarephath. 17 He raiseth the widow's son. 24 The woman believeth him. AND 'Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

2 And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,

3 Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. 6 And the ravens brought him bread and

flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

7 And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

8¶And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,

9 Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.

11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.

12 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of

Heb. Elijahu. Luke 4. 25, he is called Elias. 2 Ecclus. 48.3. James 5. 17. Heb. at the end of days. 4 Luke 4. 26, called Sarepta.

meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. 14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD 'sendeth rain upon the earth.

15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.

16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.

17 ¶ And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.

18 And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art 6 Or, a full year.

thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?

son.

19 And he said unto her, Give me thy And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.

20 And he cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, hast thou also brought evil unto the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?

21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the LORD, and said, O LORD my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come 'into him again.

22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.

24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.

7 Ileb, by the hand of.

8 Heb. measured.

9 Heb. into his inward parts.

5 Heb. giveth. Verse 1. "Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead."-It is commonly thought that this describes Elijah as a native of the town of Tishbe in Galilee (tribe of Naphtali), which the Apocrypha mentions as the birth-place of Tobit, and which is the only place of the name we know. But it does not follow that there was no place of the same or similar name on the east of Jordan; for many places are mentioned only once in Scripture. It also rather tells against this interpretation, that the Jews in our Saviour's time believed that no prophet ever came out of Galilee. Furthermore, we doubt that the text describes him as the native of one place and the inhabitant of another; especially when we consider that the original clause is T‘AWND 'AWAN, in which the word rendered "the inhabitants" is the same as that rendered "the Tishbite," with the necessary difference in the servile prefix, and which, in this connection, the Septuagint understood as a proper name, giving the sense of, "the Tishbite, from Tishbe of Gilead." This interpretation also agrees with Josephus, who says that Elijah was a prophet of Thes. on, a country of Gilead.

5. "The brook Cherith."-This appears to have been a winter torrent falling into the Jordan. There have been various opinions about its situation, particularly with reference to the side of the river on which it lay. In the first place, however, we think that if Elijah was apprehensive of Ahab's persecution, he would probably not have remained in the west of Jordan, but would have interposed that river between himself and his pursuers. We think this also is proved by the text, which places it before Jordan;" for, as we explained in the note to 1 Sam. xiii. 5, "before," as a topographical indication, usually means" eastward." Upon the whole, it appears to us that the local traditions point out as fair an alternative as any that can be chosen. They place the retreat of the prophet near a brook on the east of the Jordan, a few miles below the ford near Bethshan. The district is finely broken into hill and vale; and being well wooded, and caverns being formed in the sides of some of the hills, it furnished as secure a retreat to the fugitive prophet as could be well selected, unless he had retired to the mountains or deserts on the outskirts of the kingdom. Josephus indeed says that he went into the southern parts of the country, which does not apply to the situation mentioned, which is nearly east from Samaria.

6. "And the ravens brought him bread and flesh.”—All the versions, the Arabic excepted, agree in rendering the word orebim, by "ravens." Such a weight of testimony is not to be lightly rejected, notwithstanding the difficulties of the interpretation which it offers. It would suggest that the ravens, which would naturally be induced to harbour in such a wooded neighbourhood as that which appears to have been Elijah's retreat, were directed by a controlling and directing impulse from God, to drop or otherwise deposit, near the refuge of the lone prophet, a portion of the food which they were conveying to their nests for their own offspring. The raw meat he might easily dress with a fire of dry wood: and as to the objection derived from the unclean character of the bird, according to the law, it has been much exaggerated; for although the bird was one of those declared unfit for food, it is not true that contact with it, or the touch of that which had been in contact with it, conveyed any ceremonial pollution. An ass was as unclean as a raven; yet no one was polluted by riding on an ass, or by eating that which an ass had carried. However, many ancient and modern commentators are of opinion that the word on which the whole question turns should be rendered as a proper name, and as such referred either to the Arabians, whose name is (without the points) the same as this ; or else to the inhabitants of some town called Horbo or Orbo. This last conjecture is better than the other, and also than that which, from a similar analogy, makes the word to mean "merchants ;" and it would be still better if we suppose the name of the town to have been Oreb (or raven). There are not known to have been any towns called Orbo or Horbo; but we know there was a rock called Oreb, from the Midianitish king of that name being slain there

(Judges vii. 25), and a town or village near it may at this time have borne the same name. It is at least interesting to know that a local site bore this name of "raven;" and we have no hesitation in expressing an opinion that the alter native lies between real ravens and the inhabitants of a place denominated from the raven.

9. "Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon."-This place, called Sarepta in the New Testament, was one of the Pho nician towns which stood between Tyre and Sidon, and which, although less renowned than these two famous cities were still noted in history for their industry and manufactures. Reland quotes several ancient writers who celebrate the wine of Sarepta. It was also famous in mythology as the spot from which Europa, the daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, was stolen and carried to Crete by Jupiter. The town stood near the sea, about nine miles south of Sidon, where its modern representative is found in a small collection of humble dwellings (forming a hamlet called "Sarphan"), about half a mile from the sea-side. The ancient town would seem to have stood on the declivity of the hills on which this village stands, and on the space between them and the sea. There are no standing ruins; Sarepta having shared the fate of five or six other considerable cities in this quarter, the sites of which are only distinguishable by numerous stones, much dilapidated, but retaining marks of having been cut square by the chisel, with mortar adhering to them, and some fragments of columns. Antonius Martyr, who seems to have been there in the seventh century, says that Sarepta then existed as a small town, occupied by Christians, and where they failed not to show the apartment occupied by Elijah, the bed in which he lay, and even the marble vase in which the widow made her bread. There was a town there also, distinct however from the remains of the old one, in the time of Sandys, who says:-“ We came to a small solitarie mosque not far from the sea; erected, as they say, over the widdowes house that entertayned Elias; close by it are the foundations of Sarepta. It was the seat of a bishop, and subject unto Tyrus. Right against it, and high mounted on the mountayne, there is a handsome newe towne now called Sarapanta. Beyond, on the left hand of the way, are a number of caves, cut out of the rocke, the habitationes, as I suppose, of men in the golden age, and before the foundation of cities." This comparatively modern town has also disappeared, being represented, as we n.entioned, only by the small village upon the mountain.