CHAP. IX.

Of the tribe of Ephraim; and of the kings of the ten tribes, whose head was Ephraim.

SECT. I.

Of the memorable places in the tribe of Ephraim.

HAVING now passed over Phoenicia, we come to the

next territory adjoining, which is that of Ephraim; sometime taken, iper excellentiam, for the whole kingdom of the ten tribes. Ephraim was the second son of Joseph, whose issues, when they left Egypt, were in number 45,000; all which dying in the deserts, Joshua excepted, there entered the Holy Land of their children, grown to be able men, 32,500, who sat down on the west side of Jordan, between Manasseh and Benjamin; who bounded Ephraim by the north and south, as Jordan and the Mediterranean sea did by the east and west.

The first and chief city which Ephraim had was Samaria, the metropolis of the kingdom of Israel, built by Amris, or Homri, king thereof, and seated on the top of the mountain Somron, which overlooketh all the bottom, and as far as the sea-coast. It was afterwards called Sebaste, or Augusta, in honour of Augustus Cæsar. This city is often remembered in the scriptures, and magnificent it was in the first building; for, as Brochard observeth, the ruins which yet remain, and which Brochard found greater than those of Jerusalem, tell those that behold them what it was when it stood upright; for to this day there are found great store of goodly marble pillars, with other hewn and carved stone, in great abundance, among the rubble.

It was beaten to the ground by the sons of Hyrcanus the high priest; restored and built by the first Herod, the son of Antipater; who, to flatter Cæsar, called it Sebaste. Herein were the prophets Helisæus and Abdias buried,

i Psalm lix. lxxviii, cviii. Par. 25.

and so was John Baptist. It now hath nothing but a few cottages filled with Grecian monks.`

Near Samaria, towards the south, is the hill of Bethel, and a town of that name; on the top of which mountain Jeroboam erected one of his golden calves to be worshipped, with which he seduced the Israelites.

In sight of this mountain of Bethel was that ancient city of Sichem, after the restoration called k Neapolis, now Pelosa, and Napolasa: it was destroyed by Simeon and Levi, in revenge of the ravishment of their sister Dinah; and after that by Abimelech evened with the soil. Jeroboam raised it up again, and the Damascenes a third time cast it down.

Under Sichem, towards the sea, standeth Pharaton, or Pirhathon, on the mountain 1 Amalek, the city of Abdon judge of Israel; and under it Bethoron of the Levites, built, as it is said, by Sara, the daughter of Ephraim. Near to this city, Judas Maccabæus overthrew Seron and Lysias, lieutenants to Antiochus. This city had Solomon formerly repaired and fortified.

Between Bethoron and the sea standeth Samir, of which Josh. x. and Saron, whose king was slain by m Joshua; it is also mentioned Acts ix. 35. And of this Saron the valley taketh name, which, beginning at Cæsarea Palæstinæ, extendeth itself along the coast as far as Joppe, saith Adrichome. Though indeed the name Sarona is not particularly given to this valley, but to every fruitful plain region; for not only this valley is so called, to wit, between Cæsarea and Joppe, but that also between the mountain Tabor and the sea of Galilee; for so St. Jerome, upon Isaiah xxxv. interprets the word Saron; and so doth the same father, in his commentaries upon Abdia, read Saron for Assaron, understanding thereby a plain near Lidda; which Lidda, in his time, was called Diospolis, or the city of Jupiter, one of the toparchies of Judæa, the fifth in dignity, (or the third after Pliny,) where St. Peter (non sua sed Christi virtute)

* Sichar. John iv. 5. Maborthan Joseph. 11. Ant. 1.

1 Judg. xii. 15.

m Josh. xii. 18.

cured Æneas. n Niger calls all that region, from Antilibanus to Joppe, Sarona. This Joppe was burnt to the ground by the Romans, those ravens and spoilers of all estates, disturbers of commonweals, usurpers of other princes' kingdoms; who, with no other respect led, than to amplify their own glory, troubled the whole world; and themselves, after murdering one another, became a prey to the most savage and barbarous nations.

In Diospolis (saith Will. of Tyre) was St. George beheaded and buried; in whose honour and memory Justinian the emperor caused a fair church to be built over his tomb; these be Tyrius's words: Relicta a dextris locis maritimis Antipatride, et Joppe, per late patentem planitiem Eleutheriam pertranseuntes, Liddam quæ est Diospolis, ubi et egregii martyris Georgii usque hodie sepulchrum ostenditur, pervenerunt, ejus ecclesiam quum ad honorem ejusdem martyris pius et orthodoxus princeps Romanorum, Augustus Justinianus multo studio et devotione prompta ædificari præceperat, &c. "They having left," saith he, "on the " right hand, the sea-towns Antipatris and Joppe, passing "over the great open plain of Eleutheria, came to Lidda, "which is Diospolis, where the sumptuous tomb of the fa

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mous martyr St. George is at this day shewed: whose “church, when the godly and orthodox prince of the Ro"mans, high and mighty Justinian, had commanded to be "built, with great earnestness and present devotion," &c. Thus far Tyrius, by whose testimony we may conjecture that this St. George was not that Arian bishop of Alexandria, but rather some better Christian; for this of Alexandria was slain there in an uproar of the people, and his ashes cast into the sea, as P Ammianus Marcellinus reports. And yet also it may be, that this Georgius was a better Christian than he is commonly thought; for his words of the temple of Genius, "How long shall this sepulchre stand?" occasioned the uproar of the people against him, as fearing

n Acts ix. Luke xxiii. Niger. Comm. 4. Asiæ fol. 503. 14.

Of this St. George, see more

above in this second book, c. 7. sect. 3. §. 5.

P Lib. 22. C. II.

lest he would give attempt to overthrow that beautiful temple. This also Marcellinus reports, who though he says that this Georgius was also deadly hated of the Christians, who else might have rescued him; yet he addeth, that his ashes, with the ashes of two others, were therefore cast into the sea, lest if their relicks had been gathered up, churches should be built for them, as for others. But for my part, I rather think that it was not this Georgius, whose name lives in the right honourable order of our knights of the garter, but rather another, whom Tyrius, above cited, witnesseth to have been buried at Lidda, or Diospolis. The same also is confirmed by a Vitriac. St. Jerome affirms, that it was sometimes called Tigrida; and while the Christians inhabited the Holy Land, it had a bishop suffragan.

Near to Lydda, or Diospolis, standeth Ramatha of the Levites, or Aramathia; afterward Rama and Ramula, the native city of Joseph, which buried the body of Christ. ■ There are many places which bear this name of Rama; one they set in the tribe of Judah near Thecua, in the way of Hebron, another in Nephtalim, not far from Sephet; a third in Zabulon, which, they say, adjoineth to Sephoris; a fourth, which they make the same with Silo; and a fifth, which is this Rama, in the hills of Ephraim, called RamaSophim, where Samuel lived, and wherein he is buried.

S

From hence to the north, along the coast, are Helon, or Ajalon of the Levites, of which 1 Chron. vi. Apollonia, of which Josephus in his Antiquities, and in the Wars of the Jews. Also Balsalisa (for which Junius, 2 Kings iv. 42. reads Planities Shalista) they place hereabout in this tribe of Ephraim; but Junius, upon 1 Sam. ix. where we read of the land of Shalisha, findeth it in Benjamin.

On the other side of the mountains of Ephraim standeth Gofna, one of the toparchies or cities of government, the second in dignity, of which the country about it taketh

name.

Salig. tom. 6. c. 4.

r See in the tribe of Benjamin,

C. 12. §. I.

Ant. 13. 21. de Bell. Jud. 1. 6.

Then Thamnath-sara, or, according to the Hebrew, Thimnath-serach, one also of the ten toparchies or presidencies of Judæa, which they call Thamnitica, a goodly city and strong, seated on one of the high hills of Ephraim, on the north of the hill called Gaas; which city and territory Israel gave unto their leader Joshua, who also amplified it with buildings, near which he was buried. His sepulchre remained in "St. Jerome's time, and over it the sun engraven, in memory of that greatest of wonders which God wrought in Joshua's time.

In the places adjoining standeth Adarsa, or Adasa, where * Judas Maccabæus, with 3000 Jews, overthrew the army of Nicanor, lieutenant of Syria, near to Gaser, or Gezer, which Joshua took, and hung their king, a city of the Levites. It was afterwards taken by Pharaoh of Egypt, the people all slain, and the city razed: Solomon rebuilt it.

To the east of this place is the frontier city of Jefleti, of which Josh. xvi. 3. otherwise Pelethi, whence David had part of his pretorian soldiers, under the charge of Benaia. Then that high and famous mountain and city of Silo, whereon the ark of God was kept so many years, till the Philistines got it.

To this they join the city of y Machmas, or Michmas, in which Jonathan Maccabæus inhabited, a place often remembered in the scriptures. It standeth in the common way from Samaria towards Jerusalem, and is now called Byra.

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Then the village of Naioth, where Saul prophesied ; and near it 2 Ephron, one of those cities which Abijah recovered from Jeroboam, after the great overthrow given him. Then Kibtsaim of the Levites, of which Josh. xxi. 22. which Junius thinks to be the same with Jokmeham, of which 1Chron. vi. 68. As for Absalom's Baal-hazor, which they find hereabout, Junius reads it the plain of Chatzor, and finds it in the tribe of Judah; as Joshua xv. we read of two Chaty See in Benjamin. 1 Macc. ix. v. ult.

Judg. ii. 9. it is called ThimnathChores, Josh. xix. 50.

Hieron. in loc. Heb.

* Macc. vii. 40.

z 1 Kings iv. And see Rama in Benjamin.