large village, four Roman miles south of Mount Tabor, corresponding to the present site."-ROBINSON, Researches, vol. iii. p. 225. "AND she (Deborah) sent and called Barak . . . and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go, and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulon ? And I will draw unto thee, to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver them into thine hand . . . So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand And the Lord discomfited Sisera . men after him. "The north and the south, thou hast created them; Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.”—Psalm lxxxix. 12. "As I live, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come."-Jeremiah xlvi. 18. (Hos. v. i.) 6 "Mount Tabor is several times mentioned in the Old Testament: first, as on the border of Issachar and Zebulon; and then as the place where Deborah and Barak assembled the warriors of Israel, before their great battle with Sisera. The beauty of the mountain, and its conspicuous position, rendered it a favourite subject of poetic contemplation; and when the Psalmist exclaims, Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name,' he selects these two as the representatives of all the mountains of Palestine; the former as the most graceful, and the latter as the loftiest. There appears also to have been, in those days, a city of the same name, doubtless situated upon the mountain, which belonged to the tribe of Zebulon, but was assigned to the Levites." "Tabor is a fine round mountain sprinkled with old oaks to its very summit; and realizing, in its graceful form and beauty, all that I had been led to anticipate respecting it... It stands out almost insulated on the plain, being connected with the hills in the north-west only by a low ridge. Across this ridge, on the left of Tabor, we could see the lofty peak of the distant Hermon; and could now distinguish the ice upon its summit glittering in the mid-day sun." In ascending Mount Tabor, Dr. Robinson observes that he found the path generally good, so that he rode 1 1 Chron. vi. 77. Perhaps also the city is meant in Josh. xix. 22. easily quite to the summit. "The path winds considerably, and is obviously ancient; in several places steps are hewn out in the rock. The soil is good all the way up, and the grass tall and abundant . . . The sides of the mountain are mostly covered with bushes and orchards of oak trees, with also, occasionally, the butm, like the glades of a forest, presenting a beautiful appearance and fine shade. We were an hour in reaching the top, and encamped for the day and night on the south-western brow, overlooking the wide extent of plains below "The proper summit of the mountain consists of a beautiful little oblong plain or basin. . . skirted on the south-west by a ledge of rocks of some height, covered with foundations and ruins; and on the north-east by lower rocks; and this higher ground, on both sides, is thickly overgrown with bushes and small trees, while the basin itself lies in grass, without trees or ruins. We pitched our tent at the south-east extremity of this little plain, and were delighted with our temporary abode. We estimated the height of Tabor . . . at (about) one thousand feet above the plain . . . Immediately after our arrival, I took a walk round the whole brow of the mountain, in order to examine the ruins, mark the main features of the surrounding country, and enjoy the glorious prospect . . . The ruins upon the summit of Tabor belong to different ages. All around the top may be traced the foundations of a thick wall, built of large stones . . . In several parts are the remains of towers. . . But the chief remains are upon the ledge of rocks on the south of the little basin... Here are high heaps of ruins, mingled in indiscriminate confusion; consisting of walls, and arches, and foundations, apparently of dwelling-houses, as well as other buildings... the walls and traces of a fortress are seen here . . . (of the time of the Crusades, in which time also, and earlier, there were churches on Mount Tabor)." "The view from Tabor is very extensive and beautiful... (over) one of the finest landscapes in Palestine." 66 The sun rose gloriously upon us, as we sat at the door of our tent, upon the summit of Tabor. A very heavy dew had fallen during the night; so that the tent was wet as with rain. After the sun had been up about half an hour, a fog came on, and veiled everything below from our view. . . It cleared away, and we had (a) glorious prospect. . . The summit of Tabor is subject to such morning fogs, which hang around it like a fleecy crown."-ROBINSON's Researches, vol. iii. pp. 180, 181, 211-220, 235. "We left (writes a recent traveller) the beautiful country of Samaria, and entered the little town of Jennin, or Janeen, standing on the borders of Galilee, at the commencement of the great plain of Jezreel. Early in the morning, leaving this village, we entered almost immediately the plain. I was on my way to Nazareth, but I turned off the direct road, to Mount Tabor. We passed two miserable villages, looking at a distance like little mounds upon the surface of the great plain, and turning to the right, around the mountains of Samaria, saw afar off the lofty summit of Hermon. On the right, towards the Sea of Galilee, was the village of Bethshan, where the Philistines fastened the body of Saul, and those of his three sons, to the wall, after they had fallen in Mount Gilboa. Before us, and the most striking and imposing object on the whole of the great plain of Esdraelon, was Mount Tabor. It stands perfectly isolated, rising alone from the plain in a rounded tapering form, like a truncated cone, to the height of three thousand feet, covered with trees, grass, and wild flowers from the base to the summit, and presenting the combination, so rarely found, of the bold and the beautiful. At twelve o'clock we were at the miserable village of Deborah, at the foot of the mountain, supposed to be the place where Deborah the prophetess, and Barak and ten thousand men after him, descended upon Sisera. We moved around the sides of the mountain until we found a regular path, and ascended nearly to the top without dismounting. The path wound along the mountain, and gave us a view from all its different sides, every step presenting something new, and more and more beautiful, until all was completely forgotten and lost in the exceeding loveliness of the view from the summit. Stripped of every association, and considered merely as an elevation, commanding a view of unknown valleys and mountains, I never saw a mountain, which, for beauty of scene, better repaid the toil of ascending it; and I need not say what an interest was given to every feature, when we saw in the valley beneath, the large plain of Jezreel, the great battle-ground of |