PART II. as well as in other places of his kingdom; and that, 'therefore, upon his death, or some short time after, they opened their gates again. And this seems to be confirmed, not only by its being expressly said, 2 Chron. xxi. 10. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand; because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers: but also by its being said, both 2 Kings viii. 22. and 2 Chron. xxi. 10. only that Libnah revolted, without adding thereto what is just before said of Edom, that it continued to revolt unto this day. The omission of which expression seems to imply, that Libnah had ceased so to revolt before the time the sacred Penman wrote.

6.

Of Gur,

am.

In chap. ix. ver. 27. we read, that Jehu being anointed and Ible King of Israel by the appointment of God, and having slain Joram, the son of Ahab, he followed after Ahaziah, the King of Judah, that aided Joram; and that Jehu's men slew him at the going up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. Now Gur is no where else mentioned in Scripture; but Ibleam, by which it is said to be, is mentioned in two other places; viz. Josh. xvii. 11. and Judg. i. 27. In the former place we read, that Manasseh had in Issachar and Asher, Bethshean and her towns, and Ibleam and her towns, &c. Where, by the expression, in Issachar and Asher, is probably meant in the confines of those two tribes; where also Megiddo is said to be situated in the same text. Some understand Gur (or, as it is in the vulgar Latin, Gaver) to be the name of an ascent or hill by Ibleam; and the Seventy Interpreters render the Hebrew text thus: In the going up to Gai, which is Ibleam; whereby they plainly understood Gai, or Gur, to be only another name for Ibleam.

7.

Joktheel.

In chap. xii. ver. 20. we read, that the servants of Of Selah, or Joash King of Judah made a conspiracy, and slew him in Bethmillo, or the house of Millo, which goes down to Silla; of which we have spoken in the a description of the city of Jerusalem. In chap. xiv. ver. 7. we are informed, that

Amaziah, the son of Joash, slew of Edom in the valley of CHAP. IV. Salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel, unto this day. Of the valley of Salt I have before spoken. The word Selah does in the Hebrew tongue signify a rock, and so exactly answers to the Greek word Petra; and therefore it is not without reason agreed upon by commentators, that this Selah was the same city with that called by the Greeks and Latins, Petra, lying in Arabia Petræa, thought to be so named from this its chief city: though others rather think, that as this city had its name from its situation on ba rock, so the adjacent tract was called Arabia Petræa, from its being overspread with such rocks or rocky hills.

8.

son of

store the

rael. And

In ver. 25. of this fourteenth chapter, we are informed, that Jeroboam, the son of Joash King of Israel, restored the Jeroboam, coast of Israel from the entering in of Hamath, unto the sea Joash, how of the plain, according to the word of the Lord, which he said to respake by Jonah the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher. Of coast of Isthe entering in of Hamath I have before spoken; and that of Gathby the Sea of the Plain, is meant the Salt sea, (otherwise hepher. called by common writers, the Dead sea, and the Asphaltite lake,) is clear from Deut. iii. 17. Why this King is said to restore these parts, may be gathered from 1 Kings xv. 20. and 2 Kings x. 33. For in the former place we have an account, that Benhadad the King of Syria had smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphthali; and in the latter place we read, that Hazael, a succeeding King of Syria, smote all the country beyond Jordan. The only place mentioned in the text we are speaking of, and not before described, is Gath-hepher, the birth-place, or at least dwelling-place, of Jonas the prophet. This is expressly said by Eusebius and Jerom to be situated in the tribe of Zabulon; and the latter tells us in his preface to the prophecy of Jonah, that it was two miles distant from Sephorim, or Dioce sarea, in the way thence to Tiberias; that it was no great

b Compare 2 Chron. xxv. 12.

PART III. place, and that the sepulchre of Jonah was shewn there in his time. He also further observes, that some confounded this place with Gath near Lydda, or Diospolis, and lying in the country of the Philistines: whereas the sacred history plainly distinguishes this from that, by the addition of Hepher thereto. Whereby some suppose is denoted, that it lay in a tract of Zabulon, called the land of Hepher, 1 Kings iv. 10. and that the King of Hepher, said to be slain by Joshua, Josh. xii. 17. was King of this land of Hepher. But this is only conjecture. Upon the testimony of Eusebius and Jerom, concerning the situation of Gath-hepher in the tribe of Zabulon, it seems very probable, that it was the same with Gittah-hepher, mentioned as lying in the eastern coast of Zabulon, Josh. xix. 13.

9.

In chap. xvi. ver. 9. we read, that Tiglath-pileser, King Of Kir, be- of Assyria, went up against Damascus, and took it, and longing to the King of carried the people of it captive to Kir. This place is ren

Assyria.

10.

dered in the vulgar Latin, Cyrene, which cannot be understood of the city or country lying in Africk, and well known, and frequently mentioned by Greek and Latin writers under the name of Cyrene; forasmuch as the King of Assyria (at least in those days) had nothing to do with this Cyrene. Wherefore, by Kir and the Cyrene in the Latin version, must be understood some city or country. lying within the dominions of the King of Assyria. And accordingly we find a river Cyrrhus, and cities called Cyropolis, and Cyrena, and Carine, mentioned by writers as lying in these parts; and a part of Media, called Syromedia, from these Syrians, as is probably thought, being carried captive hither.

In chap. xvii. we have an account of the final captivity Of Halah, of the Israelites or ten tribes, by Shalmaneser King of Habor, Gozan, &c. Assyria, who is said ver. 6. to carry Israel away into Assyria, and to place them in Halah and in Habor by the river of were car- Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. In 1 Chron. v. 26. ried capit is said, that the King of Assyria brought the Reubenites and Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh, unto Halah, and

whither the ten tribes

tive.

Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan. That by the CHAP. IV. river Gozan is here denoted the country about that river, and which by Ptolemy is called Gauzanitis, is so probable, as to be agreed upon by the generality of writers. The word Halah may be otherwise written agreeably to the Hebrew Chalach; and therefore is very probably thought to denote the country in the north part of Assyria, called by Ptolemy, Calacine or Calachene. In like manner, Habor may be written, agreeably to the original, Chabor; whence it is probably thought to be the mountain (or the mountainous country) between Media and Assyria, called by Ptolemy, Chaboras. And lastly, Harah, mentioned in I Chron. v. 26. is thought by some to denote the same with the cities of the Medes, in this 2 Kings xvii. 6. which, they say, is confirmed by the observation, that Media is by the Greeks sometimes called Aria, and the Medes Arii, (namely, in Herodot. vii. 62. and Pausan. in Corinth.) It is certain, that in the east or south-east parts adjoining to, or not far from Media, we meet with a country, called Aria or Ariene.

11.

and Avah.

In ver. 24. chap. xvii. of this second Book of Kings we are informed, that the King of Assyria brought men from Of Cuthah, Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel. I need not speak any thing more of Babylon and Hamath; and I need but remind the reader, that it has been before observed in my account of the Garden of Eden, that Cuthah here mentioned was in all probability the same with Cush, which is said by Moses to be encompassed by the river Gihon, and that accordingly it is much the same with the country called by the Greeks Susiana, (where we read of the Cossei and Cissii, &c.) and to this very day is said to be called Chusestan. As for Ava, what city or country is denoted hereby, is hard to be accounted for. We do indeed read Deut. ii. 23. of the Avims; but then in the same text we read also, that the Caphtorim (or Philistines)

PART III. destroyed them, and dwelt in their stead, long before these times. And therefore Ava here mentioned cannot with any probability denote the country of the Avims, mentioned in the forecited place of Deuteronomy, as some have imagined. Nor does it appear, that the King of Assyria had then under his subjection the parts where these Avims are said to dwell; nay, the contrary rather appears. The most probable opinion in this matter seems to be that of the learned Grotius, who has observed, that there are by Ptolemy mentioned a people of Bactriana, under the name of Avadiæ. It is not to be omitted, that the place here called Ava seems in all probability to be the same that is called Ivah, chap. xviii. ver. 34. and chap. xix. ver. 13.

12.

Of Sephar

13.

The Sepharvaim above mentioned is very probably convaim. jectured by the learned to be the city called Sipphara by Ptolemy, and by Abydenus, the city of the Sippareni. It is called by a plural name in Ptolemy, as well as by a dual in the Hebrew, probably, because the river Euphrates ran through it, and so divided it as it were into two cities. In chap. xviii. ver. 34. together with the Gods of HaOf Arpad or math, and Sepharvaim, and Ivah, we have mention made of the Gods of Arpad and Henah. As to Arpad, thereby is probably denoted the country lying above the land of Hamath, and over against which lies the small island, called Aradus by the Greeks and Latins; which name contains in it apparent footsteps of the Hebrew name. Arpad or Arvad.

Arvad.

14. Of Henah.

As for Henah, I can neither meet with in others, nor think myself of any satisfactory account of it. Grotius thinks it might be, perhaps, Ange in Arabia Felix. Others take Henah and Ivah to be the names of two idols: but it seems clear from chap. xix. ver. 13. that they were both cities. The Chaldee Paraphrast renders them as two verbs. The Syriack and Arabick Interpreters render, what is Ivah in our translation, all along by Avah; and Henah by Noa.