A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine, Book 5 · Part 1 · Chapter 14 – Chapter 15
CHAP. XIV. Objections against Judah answered.
Philol.
WOuld not it affright one to see a dead man walk? And will not he in like manner be amazed to see the Dead-sea moving? Why have you made the surface of the waters thereof waving, as if like other seas it were acted with any ty…e, which all Authors avouch, and your self confessethaIn description of Iudah §. 5. to be a standing stinking lake? Think… not to plead, that such waving is the impression of the winde thereupon, seeing Tacitus affirmes of this sea, Neque b…is…. li. 5. p. 618vento impellitur, it is such a drone, it will neither goe of it self, nor yet be driven of the winde.
Aleth.
I will not score it on the account of the Graver, that it is onelyonly lascivia, or ludicrum coeli, the over-activity of his hand: And in such cases the flourishings of the Scrivener are no essentiall part of the Bond: but behold Mercators, and other Authors Maps, and you shall finde more motion therein, then is here by us expressed. The most melancholy body of moisture, (especially of so great extent) is necessarily subject to such simpering in windy weather, as inseparable from the liquidity thereof.
Philol.
Why set you Zeboim most northernly of all the five Cities in the Dead-sea, in the place where Sodome is situated in all other descriptions?
Aleth.
The placing of them is not much materiall, whether longwise all in a File as Mr. More sets them, or in two Rankes, (two and two) as they are ordered by*So set in our Map of old Canaan. Mercator. Skuls in a charnel-house never justle for the upper place; and as sensless is the contention betwixt these dead Cities, which shall stand first, whose foundations long since were doubly destroyed with fire and water. But the sole motive of my placing Zeboim most northern of these four Cities, is because I findec1 Sam. 13. 18. the valley of Zeboim in the Tribe*Ne…. 11. 34. of Benjamin, which probably lay near the influx of Iordan into the Dead-sea, denominated from the vicinity of Zeboim thereabouts.
Philol.
The Hebrew Orthography confutes your conceit. For Zeboim by you last alledged is spelled with different letters from the City which was burnt with fire from heaven.
Aleth.
I confess a threefold variation in the writing of this name, though all the same in effect,
1 Gen. 14. 2. and so also Deut. 29. 23. foreign
2 1 Sam. dSo also Nehem. 11. 34.13. 18 foreign
3 Hoseah 11. 8. foreign. I shall set thee at Zeboim &c.
Here to mollifie the word, the Gutturall is either altered, or wholly omitted; neither amounting to make it a new word: How variously are the names of the same English towns spoken and spelled; as Lester, Leicester, Legeocester, Legecester, yet the same word dressed in severall spellings and pronunciations?
Philol.
Why make you Heb…on being a noted City of the Priests, and City of Refuge, different from all the rest, onelyonly with a single circle about it?
Aleth.
Because the fields and villages thereof were none of the Priests,fIosh. 21. 12. but were given to Caleb the son of Iephunneh for his possession.
Philol.
If so, then Hebron ought not to have had any circle at all about it, being a bare City of the Priests without any suburbs belonging thereunto.
Aleth.
The Priests in Hebron had, and had not, suburbs pertaining thereunto, according to the severall acception of suburbs. If by them you onelyonly understand aedificia suburbana, buildings (though without the City walls) contiguous thereunto, these (no doubt) belonged to the Priests, who hadgIbid. v. 13. Hebron with her suburbs: otherwise if you extend them to ager suburbanus, the fields surrounding the City, these related to Caleb as the proper owner thereof.
Philol.
You might well have afforded conjecturall flags to most of the Cities in Iudah, going generally by guess in your placing of them, and differing from all other authors therein.
Aleth.
The Learned in Anatomy have informed me, that veins are alike in their trunks, but not in their branches; so that although the great Channels of bloud run alike in all bodies, yet the smaller veines (as is most visible in their diva…ication on the back of the hand) disperse themselves diversly, in divers persons: The like is confessed in all Maps of Iudah, wherein the grand Cities, Hebron, Debir, Bethlehem &c. have their certain position agreed on by most Authors, whilest their inferiour places (and no Tribe afforded more obscure Cities but once named in Scripture) are subject to much variety, according to the fancies of Authors. Wherein we hope we have observed, as much as might be, these short, and small directions we finde in Scripture.
Philol.
But you are not constant to your self in the location of those lesser places, as appears by some diversity of their distances (both amongst themselves and from Ierusalem) in the particular description of Iudah, and in the generall Map of Palestine.
Aleth.
I confess the same; who having discovered some errors in the particular Map, reformed the same in the Map-generall. Which may be beheld in this point, as a new Edition of the former, corrected and amended. Request I therefore the Reader in such small differences, to rely rather on the credit of the Map-generall.
Philol.
You*Lib. 1. p. 22. § 2. once placed Hepher a royall City in Manasseh on this side Iordan, which since you have removed into Iudah, without giving any account of the alteration.
Aleth.
Some probability perswaded us to our former opinion. Cheifly because Hepher is mentioned in Ioshua's aJosh. 12. 17list, next to Tapuah; which is known to be in Manasseh. But since finding also a Tapuah bJosh. 15. 34.in Iudah, and a land of c1 King. 4. 10.Hepher near Sochoh, a place also indJosh. 15. 35. Iudah, it hath staggered our judgment, and caused us to remove Hepher into Iudah with a flag of uncertaintie thereon; all Authors finding an Ignoramus for the exact position thereof.
Philol.
The land of Goshen is sufficiently known to be ineGen. 46. 28. Egypt: And how stragleth offJosh. 10. 41. and 15. 15. Countrey of Goshen into this Tribe?
Aleth.
You know that besides this England wherein we live, there is an Anglia in Denmark, whence our Ancestors are said to have come; and there is England beyond Wales, whither some of our nation removed. Some such occasion (to us unknown) might give the name of Goshen to a petty tract of ground in Iudah: Or else it might be so called from some assimilation in the fruitfulness thereof. Wonder not at a Goshen in Egypt, and another in Iudah; when we finde twogJosh. 15. 24. and 55. Ziphs, twohJosh. 15. 34. and 56. Zenoahs, two iJosh. 35. & 48.Socohs &c. (As two Kirbies market-townes in Westmorland) within the compass of this Tribe.
Philol.
Conceive you that any wildernesses wherewith Iudah abounded, were places of any pleasant habitation?
Aleth.
I am confident thereof. For instance, Engedi though ak1 Sam. 24. 1. Wilderness, was so delicious a place,lCant. 9. 14 that the Spouse is compared to a cluster of Camphire in the Vineyards of Engedi. Besides, it had the conveniency of Palmtrees, thereforem2 Chr. 20. 2. in Scripture called Hazazon-Tamar, which is Engedi Tamar, being in Hebrew a Palme. Nor can I omit the testimony of nIn…ra …os Engadda oppidum est, s…cundum ab Hierso…ymis s…ilitate, Palmetorumque nemoribus, nunc alterum bus…um.Pliny as the best comment herein in Gods word; who speaking of people living on the west of the Dead-sea; amongst these (saith he) is the town ENGADDA; Second to Ierusalem in fruitfulness, and WOODS OF PALME-TREES; but now become another heap of Ashes.
Philol.
I finde indeed a City, and wilderness of Maon in this Tribe, but were the dwellers therein, those same Maonites, which are said Iudg. 10. 12. with the Zidonians and Amalekites to have oppressed Israel?
Aleth.
O no. I take these tyrant Maonites to have been a fierce and forein Nation. Saint Hierom, de locis Hebraicis, conceives Maon to be the Countrey of Moab. The vulgar Latine translates it Canaanites, because Maonites signifieth inhabitants, and the Canaanites we know were the ancient and originall dwellers in the land) whose Relicks left in the land contrary to Gods command, were constant thornes in the sides of the Israelites. But I conceive rather with learned Cajetan on this place, these Maonites were a distinct neighbouring nation, whose certain habitation is to us unknown.
Philol.
Saul, when marching against the Amalekites, is said to have numbred the people (being two hundred and ten thousand, in *1 Sam. 15. 4.Telaim: which by the coast of the Countrey seems south in or near Iudah. Yet no such place appears in your Map thereof.
Aleth.
The Hebrew word foreign is variously interpreted, the Rabbins render it appellatively in Lambes; affirming the Saul did not count them in specie, but for more safety or expedition, computed the people by their Paschall Lambes, proportioning such a number of men to a Lambe. Others read it, He numbred them as Lambes, that is, now grown meek and quiet, (whereas at the first there were some*1 Sam. 10. 27. & 1 Sam. 11. 12 animosities of the people against him: Shall Saul reign over us?) contentedly submitting themselves to his command. But I take Telaim for a true City, and the same with Telem Iosh. 15. 24. which you may finde in our description.
CHAP. XV. Objections against the Land of Moriah answered.
Philol.
I Perceive the imperfection of your description by the omitting of a memorable valley therein, namely the vale of Baca, mentioned by the Psalmist pronouncing him blessed who passing through the vale of Baca aPsal. 84. 6.maketh it a Well. You in stead of passing through, pass by this vale unmentioned.
Aleth.
I reserved my observations on this vale for this place. Some render it appellatively, The vale of weeping: meaning thereby the militant condition of a Christian in this life, incumbred with constant afflictions. If so, this vale of Baca is too big to come under my description; all the mountains in the world being but part of this valley, the extent whereof is adequate to the whole earth. But if you be pleased to take this vale for a proper place, I embrace the opinion of learned Ainsworth on the text, that this vale of Baca, or Mulberry trees, (for so also it signifieth) was near to Ierusalem; out of the tops of whichb2 Sam. 5. 23. trees, God sounded the Alarum to David when he conquered the Philistines.