and liable to inundations, when the rivers, swollen by torrents or dissolving snows, overflowed their banks, and carried all before them with resistless fury. To the sudden destruction thus produced Isaiah probably alludes. (xxxviii. 17.) Therefore, to enter into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, (Isa. ii. 19.) was to the Jews a very proper image to express terror and consternation. The prophet Hosea has carried the same image further, and added great strength and spirit to it (x. 8.); which image, together with these of Isaiah, is adopted by the sublime author of the Revelation (vi. 15, 16.), who frequently borrows his imagery from our prophet.1 Some of these caves were very capacious: that of Engedi was so large, that David and six hundred men concealed themselves in its sides; and Saul entered the mouth of the cave without perceiving that any one was there. Josephus has taken particular notice of such caverns, which in his time were the abode of robbers. Maundrell3 has described a large cavern under a high rocky mountain in the vicinity of Sidon, containing two hundred smaller caverns, which are supposed to have been the residence of the original inhabitants. Numerous caves were noticed by Mr. Buckingham in the rock to the south of Nazareth; several of which now, as antiently, serve as dwellings to the Nazarenes. Captain Lyon has described similar residences occupied by a tribe of Troglodytes in northern Africa.5 It was probably in some such cave that Lot and his two daughters dwelt after the destruction of Sodom (Gen. xix. 30.) and in similar caverns, excavated by primeval shepherds as a shelter from the scorching beams of the sun, Dr. Clarke and his fellow-travellers found a grateful protection from the intense heat of the solar rays.6 These were sometimes the haunts or strong-holds of robbers (as 1 Bishop Lowth's Isaiah, vol. ii. p. 37. 3 Travels, pp. 158, 159. 5" As the natives live under ground, a person unacquainted with the circumstance might cross the mountain without once suspecting that it was inhabited. All the dwelling-places being formed in the same manner, a description of the scheik's may suffice for the rest. The upper soil is sandy earth about four feet in depth; under this sand, and in some places lime-stone, a large hole is dug to the depth of twenty-five or thirty feet, and its breadth in every direction is about the same, being as nearly as can be made, a perfect square. The rock is then smoothed, so as to form perpendicular sides to this space, in which doors are cut through, and arched chambers excavated, so as to receive their light from the doors: these rooms are sometimes three or four of a side, in others, a whole side composes one : the arrangements depending on the number of the inhabitants. In the open court is generally a well, water being found at about ten or twelve feet below the base of the square. The entrance to the house is about thirty-six yards from the pit, and opens above ground. It is arched over head; is generally cut in a winding direction, and is perfectly dark. Some of these passages are sufficiently large to admit a loaded camel. The entrance has a strong wall built over it, something resembling an ice-house. This is covered over-head, and has a very strong heavy door, which is shut at night, or in cases of danger. At about ten yards from the bottom is another door, equally strong, so that it is almost impossible to enter these houses, should the inhabitants determine to resist. Few Arab attacks last long enough to end in a siege. All their sheep and poultry being confined in the house at night, the bashaw's army, when here, had recourse to suffocating the inmates, being unable to starve them out."-See Capt. Lyon's Travels in Northern Africa, p. 25. 6 Travels in Greece, &c. vol. iv. pp. 189, 190. 2 Antiq. lib. xiv. c. 15. § 5. the excavations in the rocks near Bethlehem are to this day1), and to them our Lord probably alludes in Matt. xxi. 13., where he reproaches the Jews with having profaned the temple of God, and made it a den thieves. VII. Numerous fertile and level tracts are mentioned in the sacred volume, under the title of Plains. Three of these are particularly worthy of notice, viz. 1. The Plain of the Mediterranean Sea, which reached from the river of Egypt to Mount Carmel. The tract between Gaza and Joppa was simply called the Plain: in this stood the five principal cities of the Philistine satrapies, Ascalon, Gath, Gaza, Ekron or Accaron, and Azotus or Ashdod. The tract from Joppa to Mount Carmel was called Saron or Sharon; which however is a different place from the Sharon that lies between Mount Tabor and the Sea of Tiberias, and from another place of the same name, which was celebrated for its pastures, and was situated in the tribe of Gad beyond Jordan. 2. The Plain of Jezreel or of Esdraelon, also called the Great Plain (the Armageddon of the Apocalypse), extends from mount Carmel and the Mediterranean to the place where the Jordan issues from the Sea of Tiberias, through the middle of the Holy Land. Here, in the most fertile part of the land of Canaan, the tribe of Issachar rejoiced in their tents. (Deut. xxxii. 18.) In the first ages of Jewish history, as well as during the Roman empire and the crusades, and even in later times, it has been the scene of many a memorable contest. Here it was that Barak, descending with his ten thousand men from Mount Tabor, discomfited Sisera and all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people that were with him, gathered from Harosheth of the Gentiles unto the river of Kishon; when all the host of Sisera fell upon the sword, and there was not a man left; when the kings came and fought, the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. (Judg. iv. 13, 15, 16. v. 19.) Here also it was that Josiah, king of Judah, fought in disguise against Necho king of Egypt, and fell by the arrows of his antagonist. (2 Kings xxiii. 9.) So great were the lamentations for his death, that the mourning for Josiah became an ordinance in Israel (2 Chron. xxxv. 24, 25.): and the great mourning in Jeru salem, foretold by Zechariah (xii. 11.), is said to be as the lamentations in the plain of Esdraelon, or, according to the prophet's language, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megid don. Josephus often mentions this very remarkable part of the Holy Land, and always under the appellation of the Great Plain: and under the same name it is also mentioned by Eusebius and by Jerome. It has been a chosen place for encampment in every contest carried on in this country, from the days of Nabuchadonosor 1 Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 421. See also Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c. vol. ii. pp. 540-554. for a description of the caves in the mountain of Kerefto (in the province of eastern Courdistan), which tradition states to have been antiently used for the same purpose. 1 king of the Assyrians, in the history of whose war with Arphaxad it is mentioned as the Great Plain of Esdrelom, until the disastrous march of the late Napoleon Buonaparte from Egypt into Syria. Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Christian crusaders, and antichristian Frenchmen, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks and Arabs, warriors out of every nation which is under heaven, have pitched their tents in the Plain of Esdraelon, and have beheld the various banners of their nations wet with the dews of Tabor and of Hermon.2 This plain is inclosed on all sides by mountains: not a house or tree is to be discovered in it, yet the whole appears to be cultivated. It now bears the name of Fooli, and has been celebrated in modern times by the victory which Murat gained over the Mamelukes and Arabs, in their attempt to relieve Acri or Acre, in April 1799.3 3. The Region round about Jordan (Matt. iii. 5.) comprised the level country on both sides of that river, from the lake of Gennesareth to the Dead Sea. Of this district the Plain of Jericho, celebrated for its fertility and the intense heat that prevails there during the hot season, forms a part; as also do the Valley of Salt near the Salt or Dead Sea, (where David defeated the Syrians (1 Chron. xviii. 3-8.) and Amaziah discomfited the Edomites1), and the Plains of Moab where the Israelites encamped," and which are also called Shittim in Numb. xxv. 1. Josh. ii. 1. and iii. 1. the Plains of Shittim, in Numb. xxxiii. 49. (marginal rendering), and the Valley of Shittim in Joel iii. 18. VIII. Frequent mention is made in the Scriptures of Wildernesses or Deserts, by which we usually understand desolate places, equally void of cities and inhabitants. The deserts noticed in the Bible, however, are of a different description; as the Hebrews were accustomed to give the name of desert or wilderness to all places that were not cultivated, but which were chiefly appropriated to the feeding of cattle, and in many of them trees and shrubs grew wild. Hence this term is frequently applied to the commons (as they would be called in England) which were contiguous to cities or villages, and on which the plough never came. The wildernesses or deserts of Palestine, therefore, are twofold: some are mountainous and well watered, while others are sterile sandy plains, either destitute of water, or affording a very scanty supply from the few brackish springs that are occasionally to be found in them; yet even these afford a grateful though meagre pasturage to camels, goats, and sheep. The Deserts of the Hebrews frequently derived their appellations from the places to which they were contiguous. Thus the Desert or Wilderness of Shur, lay towards the north-eastern point of the Red Sea. In this wilderness, Hagar wandered, when unjustly driven 1 Judith i. 8. 3 Light's Travels, p. 201. 5 Numb. xxii. 1. xxvi. 3. 2 Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. pp. 255-258. 6 The Arabs to this day give the appellation of Desert to any solitude, whether harren or fertile. Clarke's Travels, vol. iv. p. 422. from Abraham's house by the jealousy of Sarah (Gen. xvi. 7.): and the Israelites marched through this wilderness after they had miraculously crossed the Red Sea (Exod. xv. 22.), as they also did subsequently through the Wilderness or Desert of Paran, which lay considerably more to the south. (Numb. x. 12.) In this desert (which was situated in Arabia Petræa, near a city of the same name) Ishmael resided: and hence Moses sent out spies to bring intelligence concerning the promised land. (Numb. xiii. 3.) The Desert of Sinai was that in the vicinity of Mount Sinai in Arabia: here the Israelites were for a long time encamped, and received the chief part of the laws delivered to them by Jehovah through the ministry of Moses. The Wilderness of Ziph was contiguous to a town or village of the same name, and here David concealed himself for some time. (1 Sam. xxiii. 14, 15.) But the most celebrated of all is the Great Desert, called the Wilderness or Desert of Judæa (Psal. lxiii. title); which, commencing from Tekoah in the tribe of Judah, (whence it is termed the wilderness of Tekoah, 2 Chron. xx. 20.) extends through Arabia Petræa to the Persian Gulph. In this desert John the Baptist abode till the day of his showing unto Israel (Luke i. 80.); and here he first taught his countrymen. (Matt. iii. 1. Mark i. 4. John x. 40.) The vast Desert of Arabia, reaching from the eastern side of the Red Sea to the confines of the land of Canaan, in which the children of Israel sojourned after their departure from Egypt, is in the sacred writings particularly called THE DESERT; very numerous are the allusions made to it, and to the divine protection and support, which were extended to them during their migration. Moses, when recapitulating their various deliverances, terms this desert a desert land and waste howling wilderness (Deut. xxxii. 10.)—and that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, scorpions, and drought, where there was no water. (Deut. viii. 15.) The prophet Hosea describes it as a land of great drought. (Hos. xiii. 5.) But the most minute description is that in Jer. ii. 6.-a land of deserts, and of pits, a land of drought, and of the shadow of death,1 a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt. These characteristics of the desert, particularly the want of water, will 2 1 This expression has exercised the ingenuity of commentators, whose opinions are recited by Mr. Harmer (Observations, vol. iv. pp. 115, 116.) but the correctness of the prophetic description is confirmed by the existence of a similar desert in Persia. It is a tract of land broken into deep ravines, destitute of water, and of dreariness without example. The Persians have given to it the extraordinary but emphatic appellation of Malek-el-Moatdereh, or the Valley of the Angel of Death. (Morier's Second Journey, p. 168.) At four hours' distance from the promontory of Carmal, keeping along the coast, Mr. Buckingham entered a dreary pass cut out of the rock, called Waad-el-Ajal, literally, the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Here were the appearances of a gate having once closed it, as places for hinges were still visible; and, while the centre was just broad enough to admit a wheeled carriage or loaded camel, there were on each side raised causeways hewn out of the rock, as if for benches of repose, or for foot passengers. (Buckingham's Travels, p. 122.) It was, in all probability, from some similar pass, that the son of Jesse borrowed the figure of which he makes so sublime a use in the twenty-third psalm. 2 Scorpions are numerous in the desert as well as in all the adjacent parts of account for the repeated murmurings of the Israelites both for food and water (especially the latter) and the extremity of their sufferings is thus concisely but most emphatically pourtrayed by the psalmist. (cvii. 5.2) Hungry and thirsty, THEIR SOUL FAINTED in them. In this our temperate climate, surrounded as we are with perpetual verdure and with every object that can delight the eye, we can scarcely conceive the horrors encountered by the hapless traveller when crossing the trackless sands, and exposed to all the ardours of a vertical sun. The most recent as well as the most graphic description of a desert (which admirably illustrates the passages above cited), is that given by the enterprising traveller M. Belzoni, whose researches have contributed so much to the elucidation of the sacred writings. Speaking of a desert crossed by him in Upper Egypt, on the western side of the Red sea, and which is parallel with the great desert traversed by the Israelites on the eastern side of that sea, he says, "It is difficult to form a correct idea of a desert, without having been in one: it is an endless plain of sand and stones, sometimes intermixed with mountains of all sizes and heights, without roads or shelter, without any sort of produce for food. The few scattered trees and shrubs of thorns, that only appear when the rainy season leaves some moisture, barely serve to feed wild animals, and a few birds. Every thing is left to nature; the wandering inhabitants do not care to cultivate even these few plants, and when there is no more of them in one place, they go to another. When these trees become old and lose their vegetation, the sun, which constantly beams upon them, burns and reduces them to ashes. I have seen many of them entirely burnt. The other smaller plants have no sooner risen out of the earth than they are dried up, and all take the colour of straw, with the exception of the plant harack; this falls off before it is dry. "Generally speaking, in a desert, there are few springs of water, some of them at the distance of four, six, and eight days' journey from one another, and not all of sweet water: on the contrary, it is generally salt or bitter; so that if the thirsty traveller drinks of it, it increases his thirst, and he suffers more than before. But, when the calamity happens, that the next well, which is so anxiously sought for, is found dry, the misery of such a situation cannot be well described. The camels, which afford the only means of escape, are so thirsty, that they cannot proceed to another well: and, if the travellers kill them, to extract the little liquid which remains in their stomachs, they themselves cannot advance any farther. The situation must be dreadful, and admits of no resource. Many perish, victims Palestine, and serpents of fiery bites (as the Arabic version renders Deut. viii. 15.) are not unfrequent. Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, &c. pp. 499, 500. 1 Bee particularly Numb. xx. 2-5. and xxi. 5. In the Christian Observer for 1810, pp. 1-9. there is a new and elegant version of the hundred and seventh psalm, accompanied with critical and explanatory notes, from the pen of Bishop Jebb, |