THE NEGEB, OR "SOUTH COUNTRY" OF SCRIPTURE. BY THE REV. EDWARD WILTON, M.A. Oxon., INCUMBENT OF SCOFTON, NOTTS, AND CHAPLAIN TO THE EARL OF PREFACE. THE following pages do not contain, as might at first sight be supposed, a mere Treatise on a particular province of the wide domain of Scripture Geography. While addressed primarily to the Biblical critic and the Hebrew student, they equally appeal to all who take an interest in that department of Christian Evidence which is founded on the minute accuracy of Holy Scripture, in its physical, topographical, and other details, often introduced in the most incidental manner. The book consists of three Parts; the two former, however, being principally introductory to the third or main division. The first Part treats of the Geography of the "South Country," and defines its limits by means of various statements scattered up and down the Old Testament.1 The second Part discusses its special characteristics, chiefly physical and zoological, as they are embodied in certain passages occurring in the poetical books; together with one or two remarkable fulfilments of prophecy which are exemplified in the present aspect of the country. The third Part is an elaborate attempt to identify the 1 Under this head is to be included the dissertation on "Gerar and its Philistine Inhabitants" in the Appendix. |