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age, seem to have considered commerce incompatible with that magnanimity and personal independence in which they gloried.

From the mountainous character of Palestine, the descriptions given of it in scripture have frequently been impugned by modern infidelity: statements of its natural sterility and barrenness having been advanced in opposition to the historians of holy writ, who represent it as at one period abundantly productive and fertile. When Lot separated from Abraham, we are told that he "beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where-as the garden of the Lord, as the land of Egypt." Isaac, when blessing Jacob, declared that God should give him "of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine." The spies whom Moses despatched to see whether "the land be good or bad, fat or lean, whether there be wood therein or not," returned saying, "we came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey, and this is the fruit of it-they brought the pomegranates and the figs." The appellation is of frequent occurrence with reference to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, descriptive of its extraordinary fertility, furnishing in abundance all the necessaries and luxuries of life. The falsity of these statements is however more than insinuated by Voltaire, who, in his History of the Crusades, represents Judea as having been, what he states it is "at present, one of the worst of all the inhabited countries of Asia, being almost entirely covered with parched rocks, with one layer of soil, and such as if cultivated might be compared to Switzerland." The parched rocks of which the French infidel speaks, are the range of secondary limestone, which constitutes, with but few interruptions, the external envelope of the globe. The assertion, that if properly cultivated Judea might rank with Switzerland in point of fertility, is totally destitute of proof; and is in fact quite opposed to the testimonies of those who have visited the country. Both Josephus and Aristæus § ascribe to their native land an extraordinary fruitfulness; and though a national prejudice might incline them to speak favourably of the country of their birth, yet, when their testimony is corroborated by that of heathen authors, we are bound to receive it. Strabo speaks of several districts, especially about Jordan and Jericho, as fertile; though he represents the neighbourhood of Jerusalem as rocky. | Hecatæus, as cited by Josephus, describes Judea as one of the best and most fertile countries-optimi et feracissimi soli.¶ Tacitus tells us, that rain is seldom; that the soil is rich and fertile; that besides the fruits known in Italy, the palm and balm-tree flourish in great luxuriance.** P. de Valle, in his Letters, notices the exceeding beauty of the country, the fruitfulness not only of its valleys but of its mountainous districts, and the abundance which even its "parched rocks" would yield, if favoured with diligent culture.††

* Gen. xiii. 10.

+ Gen. xxvii. 28.

Num. xiii. 20, 27.

§ Joseph. Wars. lib. viii. c. 3. Aristeas. pp. 13, 14. Edit. Hody.

Strabo. lib. xvi.

** Tacitus. Hist. lib. v. c. 6.

Joseph. cont. Ap. lib. i.

+ P. de Valle. Let. xiii.

The manner in which the most barren of the mountains were rendered fertile is exceedingly curious, and very fully described by Maundrell. The mountain was divided into different terraces, like steps rising one above another, upon which the soil was maintained by means of stone walls. "Of this form of culture," he observes, "you see evident footsteps, wherever you go, in all the mountains of Palestine. Thus the very rocks were made fruitful. And perhaps there is no spot of ground in this whole land, that was not formerly improved to the production of something or other, ministering to the sustenance of human life."* Even now, Dr. Shaw remarks that it yields a much more preferable crop than the very best part of the coast of Syria and Phenice. "Thus," says he," the cotton that is gathered in the plains of Ramah, Esdraelon, and Zebulon, is in greater esteem than that which is cultivated near Sidon and Tripoly; neither is it possible for pulse, wheat, or any sort of grain, to be more excellent than what is commonly sold at Jerusalem." He farther mentions the "many tokens which are to be met with of the ancient vineyards about Jerusalem and Hebron," and "the great quantity of grapes and raisins, which are from thence brought daily to the markets of Jerusalem, and sent yearly to Egypt."+ This declaration, we may observe, shows the fulfilment of the prophecy of Jacob, with reference to the temporal condition of Judah; "binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes; his eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk."t

On his journey from Napolese to Jerusalem, Dr. Clarke observes, "the road was mountainous, rocky, and full of loose stones, yet the cultivation was everywhere marvellous." The limestone rocks and stony valleys "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 utmost summits, were overspread with gardens; all of these were free from weeds, and in the highest state of cultivation. 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 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 vales: all these, added to the salubrity of its climate, prove the land to be, indeed, ' a field which the Lord had blessed.'" In judging of the ancient

* Maundrell's Journey, pp. 64, 65.

Gen. xlix. 11, 12.

+ Shaw's Travels, p. 365.

§ Dr. E. D. Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 283, oct. edit. Of the plain of Esdraelon, the old French traveller, Doubdan, writes: "Cette campagne est la plus, fertile, et le plus heureuse, pour la pasturages de toute la Terre Saincte, et porteroit de tres beaux grains, et en abondance, commes nos meillures terres de France, si elle estoit cultivée."-Voy. p. 579.

representations of the land of Canaan, we must, however, remember that they are the statements of orientals, whose ideas of fertility are widely different from ours; in the productions of the vine, the figtree, and the olive, for which Judea was famous, an eastern would behold all his dreams of luxuriance amply realized.

The inspired poetry of the Hebrews abounds with glowing descriptions of the natural beauty and fertility of Judea; when, under a provident paternal government, it was celebrated in song and choral hymn as the glory of all lands.

"Thou lookest down upon our land and waterest it,

And makest it full of sheaves,

The river of God is full of water.

Thou preparest corn and tillest the land,

Thou waterest its furrows and softenest its clods;

Thou moistenest it with showers, thou blessest its springing,

Thou crownest the year with thy blessing,

And thy footsteps drop fatness.

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness,

And the hills are encompassed with rejoicing;

The pastures are clothed with flocks,

And the fields are covered with corn:
All shout for joy and sing." *

"The springs arise among the valleys,
They run among the hills.

There the thirsty wild beast cools itself,
The wild ass quenches his thirst.

The fowls of heaven dwell beside them,

And sing among the branches.

He watereth the hills from the clouds above;

The fruit of his work satisfieth the earth.
He maketh grass to grow for cattle,
And herb for the service of man,
Preparing bread from the earth

And wine that maketh glad man's heart;
The fragrance of the oil for ointment,
And bread that giveth strength.

The cedars of Lebanon tall as heaven!

He has planted, he watereth them."+

In the Harleian Miscellany there is the narrative of an English pilgrim, who visited the Holy Land in the year 1660. He gives the following pious reasons for the existing sterility he witnessed, in comparison with its ancient productiveness: My opinion is, that when it was fruitful, and a land that flowed with milk and honey, in those days God blessed it, and that as then they followed his commandments; but now being inhabited by infidels, who profane the name of Christ, and live in all filthy and beastly manner, God curseth it, and so it is made barren; for it is so barren that I could get no bread when I came into it. One night, as I lodged short of Jerusalem, at a place called in the Arabian tongue Cuda Chenaleb, I sent out my moor to a house not far from the place where we had pitched our tents to get some bread, and he † Psalm civ.

* Psalm lxv.

brought me word that there was no bread there to be had, and that the man of that house did never eat bread in all his life, but only dried dates, nor any of his household; whereby you may partly perceive the barrenness of the country at this day; only, as I suppose, by the curse of God that lyeth upon the same; for that they use the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah very much in that country, whereby the poor Christians who inhabit therein are glad to marry their daughters at twelve years of age unto Christians. And to conclude there is not that sin in the world, but it is used there among those infidels that now inhabit therein; and yet it is called Terra Sancta, and in the Arabian tongue Cuthea, which is the Holy Land, bearing the name only, and no more, for all holiness is clean banished from thence by those thieves, filthy Turks and infidels, that inhabit the same. Having my certificate sealed by the guardian, and a letter delivered unto me, to show that I had washed myself in the river Jordan, I departed from Jerusalem."*

The mountains of Palestine were frequently made the scenes of idolatrons worship; its ancient occupiers, the Canaanites, participating in the general superstition, that by resorting to their summits they should obtain a nearer communication with heaven. Hence, when the king of Moab wanted to obtain an answer from God, he took Balaam the prophet, and brought him to the high places of Baal-probably artificial mounds. Baffled in that position he then took him to a natural eminence, in the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah; and foiled again here, he removed him to the loftier summit of Peor. Each of these places was made the scene of idolatrous rites, for "he erected seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar." The Jews caught the superstition from the heathen, when friendly alliances were formed with them, and frequently were they found ascending the lofty eminences in the land to call upon their false divinities. It is particularly observed of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, "that he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his sons pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, and he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills." ↑ Divine judgments were frequently threatened by the prophets for this proceeding:

"I will requite in their bosom their iniquities;

And the iniquities of their fathers together, saith Jehovah,

Who burnt incense on the mountains, and dishonoured me upon the hills: Yea, I will pour into their bosom the full measure of their former deeds."‡

Jeremiah remarks, that "in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains." It was not, however, convenient, on domestic occasions, to undertake a journey to an eminence, perhaps, at the nearest, at some considerable dis

* A true and strange Discourse of the Travels of Two English Pilgrims, what admirable Accidents befell them in their Journey towards Jerusalem, &c. Written by Henry Timberlake.

† 2 Kings xvi. 3, 4.

Isaiah lxv. 1.

§ Jer. iii. 23.

*

tance, and therefore not to lose the advantages which elevation was supposed to give, the practice of resorting to the house-top suggested itself. Zephaniah speaks of worshipping "the host of heaven upon the house tops ;" and Josiah is said to have beaten down the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made."+ This was a general custom with the Jews, during the idolatrous periods of their history, for they are denounced as

"A people who provoke me to my face continually;

Sacrificing in the gardens and burning incense on the tiles."

It is singular how widely the practice of hill-worship extended itself: it was the custom of the Persians, according to Strabo, and all the people of Cappadocia and Pontus. Mithridates, upon his war with the Romans, is said to have chosen one of the highest mountains in his dominions, upon the top of which he reared an immense hill equal in size to the summit on which it stood, and sacrificed to the god of armies. The pile was raised by his vassal princes, and, besides the customary offerings, wine, honey, and oil, with every species of aromatic, were presented. The fire is said to have been seen at the distance of a thousand stadia.§ Kæmpfer relates that the Japanese temples, at the present day, are all sweetly seated upon eminences, the gods being supposed to delight in high and pleasant places; and Homer represents the hills and headlands as reciprocating the feeling and rejoicing at the birth of Apollo. ||

To denote a mountain, and a chain or ridge of mountains, the Hebrews had but one word, har: to express, however, the latter idea, the term is sometimes used in the plural. Hence, Gilboa, which in the first book of Samuel is called a mountain, is denominated, in the second book, the mountains of Gilboa. Amos and Micah make use of the phrase, "the heights of the earth," is 'nda, for mountains.¶ For hills, the Hebrews had three terms, nral, bay, ow, Gibua, Ophel, Shephi; the latter is generally applied to a high place in the wilderness, a barren, bleak hill.**

The hilly character of Palestine originates some peculiar phraseology in Scripture. When Moses speaks of Israel's being put in possession of it, he thus expresses himself, "he made him ride on the high places of the earth;"++ and Ezekiel directs one of his prophecies to the "mountains of Israel," evidently intending to address the whole land.‡‡ The same prophet makes use of a very singular expression; he terms the Israelites the people who dwell in na the navel of the earth.§§ The phrase alludes to the elevated character of Palestine; for in the book of Judges, an army coming down from the top of the mountains is said to come down from the navel of the land. The expression, as denoting the situation of a place, is not peculiar to the sacred writers: Cicero, when speak

* Zeph. i. 5.

+ 2 Kings xxiii. 12.

§ Appian de Bello Mith. p. 215. Amos iv. 13. Micah i. 3. Ezek. xxxvi. 1.

** Jeremiah xiii. 12.
§§ Ezek xxxviii. 12.

Isaiah lxv. iii.
Hymn to Apollo.
++ Deut. xxxii. 13.
Judges ix. 36, 37.

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