pestifer: neque vento impellitur, neque pisces aut suetas aquis volucres patitur, incertum unde superjecta ut solido feruntur, periti imperitique nandi perinde attolluntur, &c. "That it is very great, and (as it were) a sea of a cor"rupt taste; of smell infectious, and pestilent to the bor"derers: it is neither moved nor raised by the wind, nor "endureth fish to live in it, or fowl to swim in it. Those things that are cast into it, and the unskilful of swimming, as well as the skilful, are borne up by this water. At one "time of the year it casteth up bitumen; the art of gathering which, experience (the finder of other things) hath "also taught. It is used in the trimming of ships, and the "like businesses."

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And then of the land he speaketh in this sort: "The "fields not far from this lake, which were sometime fruit"ful, and adorned with great cities, were burnt with light"ning; of which the ruins remain, the ground looking "with a sad face, as having lost her fruitfulness: for what"soever doth either grow, or is set thereon, be it fruits or "flowers, when they come to ripeness, have nothing within “them, but moulder into ashes." Thus far Tacitus. And it is found by experience, that those pomegranates, and other apples, or oranges, which do still grow on the banks of this cursed lake, do look fair, and are of good colour on the outside; but being cut, have nothing but dust within. Of the bitumen which this lake casteth up, it was by the Greeks called asphaltitis. Vespasian, desirous to be satisfied of these reports, went on purpose to see this lake, and caused certain captives to be cast into it, who were not only unskilful in swimming, but had their hands also bound behind them; and notwithstanding, they were carried on the face of the waters, and could not sink.

§. 5.

Of the kings of Moab, much of whose country within Arnon,

Reuben possessed.

OF the kings of Moab, whose country (within Arnon) Reuben possessed (though not taken from Moab, but from Sehon the Amorite) few are known. Junius in Numbers

с

xxi. 14. nameth Vaheb, which seemeth to be the ancestor or predecessor of Balac, the son of Zippor, which Balac sent for Balaam to curse Israel. For, fearing to contend. with Moses by arms, by the examples of Sehon and Og, he hoped, by the help of Balaam's cursings, or enchantments, to take from them all strength and courage, and to cast on them some pestilent diseases. And though Balaam at the first, moved by the Spirit of God, blessed Israel, contrary to the hope and desire of Moab; yet being desirous in some sort to satisfy him, and to do him service, he advised Moab to send Madianitish women among the Israelites, hoping by them, as by fit instruments of mischief, to draw them to the idolatry of the heathen; but in the end he received the reward of his falling from God, and of his evil counsel, and was slain among the rest of the princes of Midian.

After these times the kings of the Moabites are not named; saving that we find in 1 Chron. iv. that Jokim, and the men of Chozeba, and Joash, and Sareph, all being of the issue of Juda, sometime had the dominion in Moab: but as it is written in the same verse, These also are ancient things, to wit, as some expound it, The particulars of these men's governments are no where extant, or remaining: or as others, Hæc prius fuere; These families of Juda were once thus famous: but now their posterity choose rather to abide in Babylon, and be clay-workers to the king there.

Then we find Eglon king of Moab, who with the help of Ammon and Amalek mastered Israel, and commanded them eighteen years; which Eglon Ehud slew in his own house, and afterwards 10,000 of his nation. What name the king of Moab had, unto whom David fled, fearing Saul, it doth not appear; or whether it were the same against whom Saul made war, it is not manifest, for neither are named. But in respect that this Moabite was an enemy to f Saul, he received David, and relieved him, knowing that Saul sought his life.

e

c Numb. xxi. xxii. xxiii. xxiv. Josh. xxiv.

d Judg. iii.

e

1 Sam. xxii.

I Sam. xiv.

After this, David himself entered the region of Moab, but not likely in the same king's time; h for he slaughtered two parts of the people, and made the third part tributary : whereupon it was said of David, i Moab is my washpot, over Edom will I cast my shoe; meaning, that he would reduce them to such an abjection, and appoint them for base services: and that he would tread down the Idumeans.

The next king, after David's time, of the Moabites, whose name liveth, was Mesha; who falling from Judah (perhaps in remembrance of the severity of David) fastened himself to the kings of Israel, and paid tribute to k Ahab 100,000 lambs, and 200,000 rams with the wool: who revolting again from Israel, after the death of Ahab, was invaded by Jehoram, with whom joined the kings of Judah and Idumæa; and being by these three kings pressed and broken, he fled to Kir-hareseth, as is elsewhere shewed. There is also mention made of the Moabites without the king's name; when that nation, assisted by the Ammonites and Idumeans, invaded Jehoshaphat. And by reason of some private quarrels among themselves, the Moabites and Ammonites set upon the Idumeans, and slaughtered them; and then ́one against another, so as 1Jehoshaphat had a notorious victory over them all, without either blood or wound. Also in the time of m Jeremiah the prophet, there was a king of Moab, which is not named, which was after Mesha of Moab many descents: for Mesha lived with Jehoram and this Moabite in Zedekiah's time, fourteen kings of Judah coming between, who wasted 300 and odd years.

SECT. V.

Of the memorable places of the Gadites, and the bordering places of Ammon.

THE territory adjoining to Reuben is that of Gad, whereof all that part which joined to the mountains was some time in the possession of the Ammonites, as far to the south as Aroer. Of the children of Gad, the seventh son

of Jacob by Zelpha, the handmaid of n Leah, there parted out of Egypt and died in the deserts 45,550, and of their sons there entered the land promised 45,000 bearing arms: from the half tribe of Manasseh, the river of Jaboc divided them; from Reuben, the cities of Hesbon, Elhele, and Aphec.

The chief city of Gad was Aroer, which they make to be the same with Ar, or Rabbath-Moab, the great or commanding Moab. But the learned Junius, attending diligently to those words of Moses, Deut. ii. 36. Ab Harahero, quæ est in ripa fluminis Arnon, et civitate ipsa quæ est in flumine; where the city in the river is distinguished from the city upon the bank of the river (as also in like manner, Josh. xii. 2. and xiii. 9.) thinketh, that Haroher, which doubtless belonged to the Gadites, (as Numb. xxxii. 34. it is said that they built it,) was indeed seated near Har of the Moabites; but diverse from it. For that Har was never possessed by Moses, it is plain, Deut. ii. 9. where God, forbidding Moses to touch it, saith, he hath given Har for an inheritance to the sons of Lot. Now that this city, which in divers places is said to be within and in the middle of the river of Arnon, (and so distinguished from Haroher, which is said in the same places to be on the bank of Arnon,) is Har of the Moabites; the same Junius proveth out of Numb. xxi. 15. where Arnon is said to be divided into divers streams, where, or among which, Har is seated: and the same is confirmed by the place of Josh. xiii. 25. where Haroher is said to be seated before Rabbah; which Rabbah as it seems, cannot be the Rabbah of the Ammonites, (for they seat not Haroher near it, nor in sight of it,) and therefore by Rabbah, here we must understand Rabbah of Moab, which they make to be Ar or Har; and so we must needs distinguish it from Haroher. And as for Har P, (which also gave the name to the coast adjoining,) it seems it continued in the possession of the Moabites, after they

n Gen. xxx. Numb. i. 26, 32. Josh. xiii.

• Isai. xv. Deut. ii.

the words Numb. xxi. 28. are to be expounded; not that the city of Har, but the coast adjoining, was wasted

r Deut. ii. 9. Out of which place by Sehon.

had once expelled the giant-like people, called Emims, first weakened by Chedorlaomer and his associates: but Haroher, by the interchange of times, suffered many ancient changes, as being won from the Moabites by Sehon, and from him by the Israelites; and from them, as it seems in the story of Jephtha, by the Ammonites; and from the Ammonites again, by the Israelites, under the conduct of Jephtha. In St. Jerome's time, the greatest part of this city perished by an earthquake, as also Zoar, in which Lot saved himself in the destruction of Sodom, seated not far hence; which they say was therefore called vitula consternans, because, as a wanton tumbling heifer, she was thrice overthrown with earthquakes; for which cause also r Jerome seems to think that this Zoar was called Salissa or Bal-salissa, as if Bal had been a remainder of the old name Balah or Belah (of which Gen. xiv. 2.) and Salisha, which hath a signification of the ternary number, had alluded to the three earthquakes.

Brochard takes Haroher to be Petra, but erroneously, as before it is noted; seeing that Petra was in the south border of Moab, adjoining to Edom, whereas Haroher is in the north-east border. Between Haroher and Jordan they seat Dibon, which is attributed to the Gadites, because they are said to have built it, Numb. xxxii. 34. though Joshua xiii. 17. it is said that Moses gave it the Reubenites. Of this city, among the rest of Moab, both Isaiah xv. and Jeremiah xlviii. prophesied that it should perish; and the lakes about it run with the blood of the inhabitants. great village near Arnon in St. Jerome's time.

It was a

Keeping the banks of Arnon, one of the next cities of fame to Aroer, was Beth-nimrah, of which Isaiah xv. 21. prophesieth, That the waters thereof should be dried up; and all the vale of Moab withered. Not far from Bethnimrah in this tribe Adrichomius placeth Jogbeha, and

a Gen. xiv. 5. Judg. xi. 35.

Hier. in Epitaph. Paul. et in Quæst. et Loc. Hebr. see Junius's Annotations upon 1 Sam. ix. 2. where he makes Shalisha a plain country in

Benjamin, and the same with Balshalisha, 2 Kings iv. 42. where he expounds Bal or Bahal to be as much as Planities.