Josh. xv. also Carioth, by Josh. xv. 25. called Kerioth: whence Judas the traitor was called Is-carioth, as it were a man of Carioth. Then Hetham the abode of Samson, which Rehoboam reedified. Beyond these, towards the north border, and towards Eleutheropolis, is the city of P Jethar, or Jatthir, belonging to the Levites. In 9 St. Jerome's time it was called Jethira, and inhabited altogether with Christians: near unto this city was that remarkable battle fought between Asa king of Juda and Zara king of the Arabians, who brought into the field a million of fighting men, and was notwithstanding beaten and put to flight; Asa following the victory as far as Gerar, which at the same time he recovered.

Not far from Jether standeth Jarmuth, whose king was slain by Joshua, and the city overturned. Next unto it is Maresa, the native city of the prophet Michæa: between it and Odolla, Judas Maccabæus overthrew Gorgias, and sent thence 10,000 drachmas of silver to be offered for sacrifice.

s Odolla, or Hadullam, itself was an ancient and magnificent city, taken by Joshua, and the king thereof slain. Jonathan Maccabæus beautified it greatly. Then Ceila, or Keila, afterwards Echela, where David sometime hid himself, and which afterwards he delivered from the assaults of the Philistines: near which the prophet Abacuc was buried; whose monument remained, and was seen by St. Jerome.

Near it is Hebron, sometime called the city of Arbah, for which the Vulgar hath Cariatharbe: the reason of this name they give, as if it signified the city of four, because the four patriarchs, Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were therein buried; but of Adam it is but supposed; and it is plain by the places, Josh. xiv. 14. and xv. 13. and xx. 11. that Arbah here doth not signify four, but that it was the

name of the father of the giants, called Anakim, whose son, as it seems, Anak was: and Achiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, (whom Caleb expelled, Josh. xv.) were the sons of this Anak, Numb. xiii. 23. The name of Anak signifieth torquem, a chain worn for ornament: and it seems that this Anak, enriched by the spoils which himself and his father got, wore a chain of gold, and so got this name: and leaving the custom to his posterity, left also the name: so that in Latin the name of Anakim may not amiss be expounded by Torquati.

The city Hebron was one of the ancientest cities of Canaan, built seven years before Tsoan, or Tanis, in Egypt; and it was the head and chief city of the Anakims, whom Caleb expelled; to whom it was in part given, to wit, the villages adjoining, and the rest to the Levites. It had a bishop in the Christian times, and a magnificent temple built by Helen, the mother of Constantine.

Not far hence they find Eleutheropolis, or the free city, remembered often by St. Jerome. Then Eglon, whose king Dabir associated with the other four kings of the Amorites, to wit, of u Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, and Lachis, besieging the Gibeonites, were by Joshua utterly overthrown. From hence the next city of fame was Emaus, afterwards Nicopolis, one of the cities of government, or presidencies of Judæa. In sight of this city, x Judas Maccabæus (after he had formerly beaten both Apollonius and Seron) gave a third overthrow to Gorgias, lieutenant to Antiochus.

In the year 1301 it was overturned by an earthquake, saith y Eusebius. In the Christian times it had a bishop's seat, of the diocese of Cæsarea of Palestine.

From Emaus towards the west sea there are the cities of Nahama, Bethdagon, and Gader, or Gedera, or Gederothaima, of which, and of Gederoth, Josh. xv. 36, 41. Then Azecha, to which Joshua followed the slaughter of the five

u Josh. x. 11.

x 1 Macc. ili.

y Euseb. in Chron. Broch. Itin. 6.

Ꮓ

z Also I Chron. iv. 39. as is above remembered in the tribe of Simeon.

kings before named, a city of great strength in the valley of a Terebinth, or Turpentine; as the Vulgar readeth, 1 Sam. xvii. 2. whence, as it seems, they seat it near unto Soco, and unto Lebna of the Levites. It revolted from the subjection of the Jews, while Joram the son of Josaphat ruled in Jerusalem; and next unto this standeth Maceda, which Joshua utterly dispeopled.

On the other side of Emaus, towards the east, standeth Bethsur, otherwise Bethsora, and Bethsor; one of the strongest and most sought for places in all Juda: it is seated on a high hill, and therefore called Bethsur, (the house on the rock, or of strength). It was fortified by Roboam, and afterwards by b Judas Maccabæus. Lysias forced it, and Antiochus Eupator by famine; Jonathan regained it, and it was by Simon exceedingly fortified against the Syrian kings.

c Bethlehem is the next unto it within six miles of Jerusalem, otherwise Lehem, sometime Ephrata; which name, they say, it had of Caleb's wife, when as it is so called by Moses before Caleb was famous in those parts, Gen. xxxviii. 16. Of this city was Abessan, or Ibzan, judge of Israel after Jephthah, famous for the thirty sons and thirty daughters begotten by him. Elimelec was also a Bethlemite, who with his wife Naomi sojourned in Moab during the famine of Juda, in the time of the judges, with whom 4 Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi returned to Bethlehem, and married Boaz, of whom Obed, of whom Ishai, of whom David. It had also the honour to be the native city of our Saviour Jesus Christ; and therefore shall the memory thereof never end.

e In Zabulon of Galilee there was also a city of the same name; and therefore was this of our Saviour called Bethlehem Juda.

From Bethlehem, some four or five miles, standeth The

a Junius for in valle Terebinthi, hath in valle Querceti. Vatablus keeps the Hebrew reading in valle Elah.

b Joseph. 13. Ant. 9. i Macc. vi.

• Gen. liii. 48.

d Ruth i.

e Hieron. in Comm. super Matth. c. 2. Matt. ii. 1.

cua, the city of f Amos the prophet; and to this place adjoining is the city of Bethzacaria, in the way between Bethsura and Jerusalem, on whose hills adjoining the glorious gilt shields of Antiochus shined like lamps of fire in the eyes of the Jews. The city of 8 Bezek was also near unto Bethlehem, which Adoni-bezek commanded; who had, during his reign, tortured seventy kings, by cutting off the joints of their fingers and toes, and made them gather bread under his table; but at length the same end befell himself by the sons of h Juda, after they had taken him prisoner.

The rest of the cities in this part (most of them of no great estimation) we may pass by, until we come to the magnificent castle of Herodium, which Herod erected on a hill, mounting thereunto with 200 marble steps, exceeding beautiful and strong. And towards the Dead sea, and adjoining to the desert of Jeruel, between it and Tekoa, is that Clivus floridus, where in the time of Jehosaphat the Jews stood and looked on the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, massacring one another, when they had purposed to join against Juda; near which place is the valley of blessing, where the Jews, the fourth day after, solemnly came and blessed God for so strange deliverance.

k

Now the cities of Juda which border the Dead sea are these; Aduran, beautified by Roboam, and Tsohar, which the Vulgar calleth m Segor; so called, because Lot in his prayer for it urged that it was but a little one; whence it was called Tsohar, which signifieth a little one; when as the old name was Belah, as it is Gen. xiv. 2. In the Romans' times it had a garrison, and was called, as they say, Pannier; in Jerome's time Balezona. The Engaddi, or Hen-gaddi, first Asasenthamar; near unto which are the gardens of Balsamum, the best that the world had, called Opobalsamum; the most part of all which trees, Cleopatra,

2 Chron. xi.

f Amos i. I. 1 1 Macc. vi. 32. Joseph. Ant. 12. 14. 1 Macc. vi. 36. See in Manass. c. 7. sect. 7. §. 1. h Judg. i. 6, 7.

i Joseph. 14. Ant. 22. k 2 Chron. xx. 16, 26.

m Some call it Balsalisa and Vitula consternans. See in Gad. 10. §. 5. post principium in Haroher. Gen. xix. 20. Hieron. in Ose. Heb. Chatsatson-thamar. 2 Chron. xx. 2.

queen of Egypt, sent for out of Judæa; and Herod, who either feared or loved Anthony her husband, caused them to be rooted up, and presented unto her; which she replanted near Heliopolis in Egypt. This city was first taken by n Chedorlaomer, and the Amorites thence expelled. It was one of the most remarkable cities of Judæa, and one of the presidencies thereof.

The rest of the cities are many in the inland, and among them Jesrael; not that which was the city of Naboth, of which already; but another of the same name, the city of Achinoan, the wife of David, the mother of that Ammon whom Absalom slew: also, as some think, the city of P Amasa, Absalom's lieutenant, and the commander of his army. But this seemeth to be an error, grounded upon the nearness of the words Israel and Jesrael; and because 2 Sam. xvii. 25. Amasa's father is called a Jisraelite, who 1 Chron. ii. 17. is called an Ismaelite: indeed the Hebrew orthography sheweth, that Amasa's father is not said to be of the city Jesrael, but an Israelite in religion, though otherwise an Ismaelite.

In this tribe there were many high hills or mountains, as those of Engaddi upon the Dead sea, and the mountains of Juda, which begin to rise by Emaus, and end near Taphna; and these part Juda from Dan and Simeon. Of others which stand single, there is that of Hebron; at the foot whereof was that oak of Mamre, where the three angels appeared to Abraham, which 9 St. Jerome calleth a fir-tree; and saith, that it stood till the time of Constantine the younger. There is also that mountain, called Collis Achillæ, on the south side of Ziph; on the top whereof the great Herod, enclosing the old castle, erected by Jonathan Maccabæus, and called Massada, garnished it with seven and twenty high and strong towers; and therein left armour and furniture for an hundred thousand men, being, as it seemeth, a place unaccessible, and of incomparable strength.

" Gen. xiv. 7.

• 1 Reg. xxi.

P 2 Sam. xvii. 25.

a Hieron. in Loc. Heb. et Quæst. Heb. Joseph. 14. Ant. c. 20.