Pilgrimage, Book 1 · Chapter 18
CHAP. XVIII.
Of Palaestina, and the first inhabitants thereof, the Sodomites, Idumaeans, Moabites, Ammonites, and Canaanites, with others.
PHoenicia is stretched by some (as you hauehave read) euen to Aegypt, all alongst that Sea-coast, and in that respect partly, and partly because they obserued some neerenesse in Religion, I hauehave adioyned the Philistims to the Phoenicians: howbeit, others doc confine Phoenicia betwixt the Riuer Valania and Mount Carmel. Thus hath aBrocard. descript. Terrae sanc…iae, Magmud Geog….Brocard written, and after him Maginius; who doe reckon vntounto Palaestina, Galilaea, Samaria, Iudaea, and Idumaea, leauing out Phoenicia, bounded as aforesaid, to make a part of Syria by it selfe. Of this Region I purpose to make larger discourse in the next Chapter; here intending to rake out of their dust the auncient Nations which inhabited this Land, before the Israelites were Lords thereof. The Sodomites sometimes inhabited a pleasant and fertile valley, watered by Iordan, which Moses compareth bGen.13.10.to the Garden of the LORD, and the Land of Aegypt, for pleasure and plentie. To the Sodomites I reckon also those other Cities partakers of the same fertilitie and vengeance, Gomorrha, Adma, Zeboim, and little Zoar, saued at the request of Lot. Their Kings and their Warres are mentioned, Gen. 14. Their wickednesse in many places of Scripture; which Ezechiel cEz.16.49.reduceth to these foure heads, Pride, Gluttonie, Idlenesse, and Crueltie, or hard-heartednesse. Their iudgement both Moses and others, and the place it selfe doe record. Their Religion was an irreligion, and prophane contempt of GOD and Man. Europe (I would I could not say England) can now yeeld the like: sauing that in our subtile, and more warie age, Policie, hauing eaten vp Religion, hath with the bloud thereof died her cheekes, and would seeme more shamefast then those former Sodomites. Thus did dEs.1.10.Esay speake to the Princes of Sodome (in his time) and the people of Gomorah, in respect of that their wickednesse, which suruiued them, and hath fructified vntounto vsus, among whome yet the LORD of Hosts (as with them) hath reserued a small remnant from this worse plague then Sodoms brimstone, a Reprobate sense. The difference betwixt ours and them is, that they were more open, ours more close, both in like height. but not in like weight of wickednesse; our darkenesse excelling theirs both in the sinne, and in the punishment, in as much as a greater light hath shined, which wee with-hold in vurighteousnesse. And if you will hauehave the maine character of difference betwixt these and those; the one were beastly Men, the other are Deuils in the flesh.
First, from a sparke of Hell Concupiscence, (guided by Sensuall Lust, attended by ePro.1.32.Ease and Prosperitie, and further inflamed and blowne by the Deuill) an vnnaturall fire, (which still beareth the name of Sodomie) was kindled, which gaue coales to a supernaturall flame, rained by the LORD in Brimstone and Fire from the LORD out of Heauen, and burning euen to Hell againe (the α and ω of wickednesse) where they suffer (sayth *Iude, v.7.Iude) the vengeance of eternall fire. This f2.Pet.2.6.is written for our learning, on whom the ends of the world are come, their ashes being made an example vntounto them that should after liue vngodly. Let not any obiect the Preacher here, and require the Historian, seeing that Historie builds not Castles in the ayre, but preacheth both ciuill and diuine knowledge by examples of the passed, vntounto the present Ages. And why should not I preach this, which, not my calling alone, but the very place it selfe exacteth?
They being dead, yet speake, and the place of their buriall is a place to our memorie, being turned into a Sea (but a Dead Sea gIordan runneth into the Dead Sea, and there stayeth without issue to the Ocean.) which couereth their sinnes, that it may discouer ours; which, as astonished at their vnnaturalnesse, hath forgotten her owne nature: It drowneth the Earth, which it should hauehave made (as whilome it did) fertile: it stayes it selfe with wonder and indignation, and falling in a dead swowne, sinketh downe with horror, not wakened, not moued with the windes blustring; refusing the light of the Sunne, the lappe of the Ocean, the commerce of Strangers, or familiaritie of her owne, and (as it happeneth in deepe passions) the colour goeth and commeth, changing three times eueryevery day: it gaspes forth from her dying entrailes a stinking and noysome ayre, to the neere dwellers pestiferous, sometimes auoiding (as it were excrements) both lighter ashes, and grosse Asphaltum: The neighbour-fruits participate of this death, promising to the eye toothsome and holesome foode, performing onelyonly smoake and ashes. And thus hath our GOD shewed himselfe a consuming fire, the LORD of anger, to whome vengeance belongeth; all creatures mustering themselues in his sight, and saying at his first call to execution, Loe we are here. That which I hauehave said of these miracles, still liuing in this Dead Sea, is confirmed by testimonie of many hIoseph.de bel. Iud.l.5.c.5. Cornel.Tacit. bi….lib.5. These two describe it at large. Also Strabo, lib.16. Plin.lib 5.c.16. besides the moderne and elder Christians. Ptolo…ey placeth the middest thereof in 66.50. & 31 10. l.7.c.16.Authors. Brocard telleth of those Trees, with ashes, growing vnderunder Engaddi, by this Sea; and a vapour, arising out of the Sea, which blasteth the neighbour-fruits; and the *Gen.14.10.slime-pits on the brinkes of this Sea, which he saw. Neither strangers nor her owne hauehave accesse there, where Fishes (the naturall inhabitants of the Waters) and Water-fowles (the most vsuall guests) hauehave no entertainement, and men or other heauie bodies cannot sinke. Vespasian proued this experiment by casting in some bound, vnskilfull of swimming, whome the waters (surfetted with swallowing her owne) spewed vp againe. The Lake, Iosephus sayth, is fiue hundred and fourescore furlongs in length (Plinie hath an hundred myles) the breadth, betweene sixe and fiue and twentie myles, Strabo telleth of thirteene Cities still, (whereof Sodome was chiefe) of threescore furlongs compasse; whereof some were consumed by fire, or swallowed by Earthquakes and sulphurous Waters, the rest forsaken: some Remainders (as bones of those carkasses) then in his time continuing. iL.Vert.l.1. c.9.Vertomannus sayth, That there are the ruines of three Cities on the toppes of three Hils: and that the Earth is without water, and barren, and (a greater miracle) hath a kinde of bloudie mixture, somewhat like redde Waxe, the depth of three or foure cubites. The ruines of the Cities are there seene still.
Idumaea lyeth Southward from Iudaea: it had name of Edom, the surname of Esau, sonne of Isaak. The Historie of this people, and the Horites, ioyned with them, is related by kGen.36.Moses. It was subdued by Dauid, according to the Prophecie, The elder shall serue the younger. They rebelled vnderunder Ioram the sonne of Iehosophat; as Isaak had also prophecied. From that time they continued bitter enemies to the people of GOD, lIos. Antiq.13. 17.till Hircanus, the sonne of Simon compelled them to accept both the Iewish Dominion and Religion: after which they were reckoned amongst the Iewes. Of the Idumaeans were the Amalekites, m1. Sam.15.destroyed by Saul. They were South from Iuda. nIob.2.11.Elphaz the Themanite, it seemeth, was of Esau his generation, and of the right Religion. The Idumaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites are by some placed in Arabia, of which I will not contend: I here mention them, as both borderers and subiects to the Israelites; of which we reade much in the Scripture; little elsewhere that maketh to our purpose. South from Amalek was Kedar, a countrey abounding with flockes of Sheepe and Goats. But I may not now dwell in the Tenis of Kedar, till I come to the Ismaelites.
oMoabltes & Madianites.On the East side of the Lake of Sodome is that Region which the Moabites (so often in Scripture mentioned) sometime inhabited: and before them the Emims, which were Gyants, tall as the Anakims, Deut. 2. 10. The Moabites were the posteritie of Lot, by incest with his daughter. pArias Montanus.Moab had on the East the Mountaines of Horeb; on the West the salt Sea, and part of Iordan; Arnon on the South, and the North border stretched from Iabbok to the Mountaines of Pisga. That part of their Countrey, betweene Iabok and Arnon, Sihon King of the Amorites had taken from them, and lost againe to the Israelites. Balac their King, fearing to loose the rest, sent for Balaam the Wizard to curse the Israelites; who yet, by Diuine power, was forced to blesse them. Yet the lustre of Balacs promises so dazeled his eyes, that qApoc.2.14.he taught Balac to put a stambling-blocks before the Israelites, and by sending amongst them their women, to draw them to carnall and spirituall whoredome; so to prouoke the wrath of GODS icalousie against them. But the zeale of Phineas stayed it; and Balaam, in his returne home ward to his Countrey of Mesopotamia, was slaine by the Israelites among the Madianites, partakers with the Moabites in Balaams idolatrous proicct. These Madianites descended of Abraham, rAbrahams children by K…urah were authors of the Nations called Filij orientis, the children of the East, which inhabited the parts of Arabia betweene the Moabites, Ammonites, and the Persians & Chaldaeans, from Mesopotamia to the Persian gulfe. Ar.Mont.Ch… n…n.by Keturah, and dwelt in a part of Arabia, neere to the Moabites, on the East. Some of them dwelt neere to Mount Sinai, Exod. 2. 15. and in the Desart, on the East side of the Red Sea. Their mightie Armie was mira culously destroyed by sIud.7.20.the Sword of the LORD, and Gedeon. The Moabites were subiected to Israel by Dauid, and so continued to the Kings of Samaria, till, that State being rent, they freed themselues. It seemeth they worshipped the Sunne; as the names Kirchereseth, Beth-Baalmeon, and Balacs high places doe shew, and we hauehave obserued before in the worship of Bel and Baal. Chemosh was another Idoll of theirs, to which Salomon built an high place. Pehor also, and Baal pehor, and the rest, whose Rites are now rotten, and the memorie worne out.
In their rebellion against Iehoram King of Israel, he and Iehoshapat, King of Iuda, with the King or Vice-roy of Idumaea, went to recouer them by force. The Moabite, in despaire, offered a bloudie Sacrifice of his eldest Sonne and Heire; or, as Tremellius readeth it, tK…g3.27.The King of Edoms sonne: which caused the Israelites returne. The Ammonites and Moabites might not enter into the Congregation of GOD, vntounto the tenth generation, because uDeut.23.3.they met not the Israelites with bread and water in their way, when they came out of Aegypt, and for hiring Balaam against them. Ar. Montanus sayth, That the Moabites were circumcised in imitation of the Israelites, but worshipped not their God, but their owne Idols.
xThe Ammonites succeeded the gyants called Zamzummias, Deut.2.20.The Ammonites (their brethren in the euill both of Lot their father, and their owne) inhabited Northward from Moab; on the East were the hils Acrabim; on the West the Amorite; the hils Luith, Basan, &c. made it a valley. Their chiefe Citie was Rabbath, after called Philadelphia. These Ammonites had beene troublesome to the Israelites, in the times of yIud.11.5.Iephte and of z1. Sam.11.Saul. And after, Dauid in iust reuenge, for violating the Law of Nations, destroyed them. Moloch, or Melchon, was their Idoll, which is supposed aP Mart. in 2.Reg.2. Vatab. in Leu. 18.to be Saturne, whose bloudie butcherly sacrifices are before spoken of. It was a hollow Image (sayth bLyra in Leu. 18.Lyra) of Copper, in forme of a man. In the hollow concauitie was made a fire, with which the Idoll being heated, they put a child into his armes and the Priests made such a noyse with their Timbrels, that the cries of the child might not moue the parents to compassion, but they should rather thinke the childs soule receiued of the God into rest and peace: others cA…et in Act. c.7. ex P. Fag. resert l.White.adde, That this Moloch had seuen Roomes, Chambers, or Ambries therein; one for Meale; a second for Turtles; a third for Sheepe; the fourth receiued a Ramme; the fift a Calfe; the sixt an Oxe: if a man would offer sonne or daughter, the seuenth was readie for that crueltie. Some interprete Moloch and Remphan, Act. 7. to be the Sunne and Moone.
There was a valley neere Ierusalem (sometimes possessed by the sonne of dP. Mart. in 2. Reg.2. Chytr. O…omast.Hinnom) where the Hebrewes built a notorious high place to Moloch: it was on the East and South part of the Citie. It was also called Topheth, or Tymbrell, of that TymbrellRite which those Corybantes and bloudie Priests did vse; or else for the spaciousnesse of it. eIer.7.31,32.Icremie prophecieth, That it should be called the Valley of slaughter, because of the iudgements for the idolatrous high places in it. VponUpon the pollution hereof, by slaughter and burials, it grew so execrable, that Hell inherited the same name, called Gehenna, of this place: first, of the lownesse, being a Valley: secondly, for the Fire, which here the children, there the wicked, sustaine: thirdly, because all the filth was cast out of the Citie hither, it seemed they held some resemblance. The Ammonites also were (as Montanus affirmeth) circumcised.
Canaan was the sonne of Cham, Father of many Nations, as fGen. 10.15.Moses declareth, Sidon and Heth, Iebufi, Emori, Girgashai, Hivi, Arks, Sini, Arvadi, Zemari, Hamathi; the most of which were expelled their Countrey, slaine or made Tributarie by the Israelites. Their border was from Sidon to Gaza West, and on the East side from Sodome to Lasha or Callyrrhoe. gAntiq Iudaic. l 3.c.7.Arias Montanus is of opinion, That according to the number of the twelue Tribes of Israel, so were the people of Canaan: and therefore to those eleuen before rehearsed, he addeth their father Canaan, who left his name to them all; and where he liued, retained a part to himselfe, betweene the Philistims and Amorites. Of those his sonnes, Sidon, the eldest, inhabited the Seacoast: and Eastwards from him Heth vntounto the hill Gilboa: of him came the Hittites. Iebus went further, on the right hand: Emor inhabited the mid-land Countrey Westward from the Iebusites. The Girgashite dwelt aboue the Hittite, next to Iordan, and the Lake Chinereth (so called, because it resembleth the forme of a Harpe) after called Gennezareth. The Hevite or Hivite inhabited betweene the Amorite and the Philistim. The Arkite possessed the rootes of Libanus. The Sinite dwelt beyond the Hittite, Eastward, neerer to Iordan. Arvadi enioyed the Countrey next to the Wildernesse of Cades. Zemari obtained the Hils, called of him Scmaraim. The Hamathite possessed the Countrey nigh to the Fountaines of Iordan. As for the most notable Mountaines and Cities, which each of these Families enioyed, they which will, may reade further in the same Author.
Of these and their auncient Religions and Polities wee finde little or nothing but in the Scripture, where the Lord testifieth, that for their sinnes the Land spued them out. Some of them (as some thinke) fled into Africa: where Augustime hExposit.ep.ad Rom.…nchoat.sayth, That the Countrey people, inhabiting neere Hippon, called themselues in their Punicke Language Chanani.
Procopius, in the fourth booke of the Vandale Warre, affirmeth, That all the Seacoast, in those times, from Sidon to Aegypt, was called Phoenicia: and that when Ioshua inuaded them, they left their Countrey, and fled into Aegypt, and there multiplying, pierced further into Africa; where they possessed all that Tract, vntounto the Pillars of Hercules, speaking halfe Phoenician. They built the Citie Tinge or Tanger in Numidia, where were two pillars of White stone, placed neere to a great Fountaine, in which, in the Phoenician Tongue, was ingrauen: We are Canaanites, whome IOSHVA the Theefe chased away. Which if it were so, the name of Hercules might therefore be ascribed to those Pillars, as accounted the chiefe Phoenician Idoll.
Philo iPseudo Phile. de Ant. Bib.(or the Author of those fabulous Antiquities) sayth, That the Israelites found, among the Amorites, seuen golden Images, called Nymphes, which, as Oracies, directed them in their affaires, and wrought wonders: the worke of Canaan, Phut, Selath, Nebroth, Elath, Desvat, of admirable workmanship, yeelding light in the night, by vertue of certaine stones, which could not by mettall be broken, or pierced, or be consumed by fire, but must needes hauehave an Angell to burie them in the depth of the Sea, and there let them lye.
This people was not vtterly at once destroyed, but sometime, as in the dayes of kIud. 4.2.Iabin and Sisera, conquered their Conquerours, and retained some power and name of a people, till the times of Dauid, who destroyed the Iebusites, and dwelt in the Fort of Sion, calling it after his owne name, l2.Sam.5.7.The Citie of Dauid. And in the dayes of Salomon, Pharao, King of Aegypt, tooke and burnt Gezer, and slew the Canaanites that dwelt in the Citie, and gaue it for a present to his daughter, Salomons wife. And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Iebusites, whome the children of Israel were not able to destroy, those did Salomon make tributaries vntounto this day. 1. King. 9.16,20,21. The posteritie of these seruants of Salomon are mentioned mNebe.7.60.among the Israelites, which returned from the Babylonian Captiuitie, and accrewed into one People with them.