appear to have gathered all their strength for a final
effort; and having marched up the sea coast, to have
encamped, like the Midianites, in that part of the plain
properly called "the valley of Jezreel." The spot on
which their encampment was fixed was on the northern
side of the valley, in one passage called Aphek, and in
another Shunem. The name of Aphek has perished, but that
of Shunem is preserved, with a slight alteration, in a village
which still exists on the slope of the range called Little
Hermon, possibly the same as the "Hill of Moreh,"
on the north of the valley, under which had been pitched
the tents of Zebah and Zalmunna. On the opposite side,
nearly on the site of Gideon's camp, on the rise of Mount
Gilboa, hard by the "spring of Jezreel," was the army of
Saul, the Israelites as usual keeping to the heights, whilst
their enemies clung to the plain. It was, whilst the two
armies were in this position, that Saul made the disguised
and adventurous journey by night over the shoulder of
the ridge on which the Philistines were encamped, to
visit the witch at Endor, situated immediately on the
other side of the range, and immediately facing Tabor.
Large caves which, at least to modern notions, accord
with the residence of the Necromancer, still perforate the
rocky sides of the hill.1

boa.

The onset took place the next morning. The Phi- Battle of listines instantly drove the Israelites up the slopes of Mount GilGilboa, and however widely the rout may have carried the mass of the fugitives down the valley to the Jordan, the thick of the fight must have been on the heights themselves; for it was "on Mount Gilboa" that the wild Amalekite, wandering like his modern countrymen over the

battle to fix it. But the mention of Ebenezer in 1 Sam. iv. 1, compared with the mention of the same name in 1 Sam. vii. 12, in connection with Mizpeh, would induce us to fix it in the south, and therefore identify it with the "Aphek" mentioned in Josephus (Bell. Jud. II. xix. 1), as situated near the western entrance of the pass of Bethhoron. The same doubt attaches to the scene of the defeat of Benhadad (1 Kings xx. 26), also at "Aphek." But there again

the mention of the "plain" under the
name "Mishor,"-in every other in-
stance applied to the table-lands on the
east of the Jordan (see Appendix, s. v.)
-points to the "Aphaca," mentioned
by Eusebius, to the east of the sea of
Galilee, and possibly preserved in the
modern" Feik."

1 Van de Velde (ii. 383). I only saw
the spot from Tabor, which also com-
mands the relative view of Bethshan
and Gilead, as given in p. 338.

Z

upland waste, " chanced" to see the dying king; and "on Mount Gilboa" the corpses of Saul and his three sons were found by the Philistines the next day. So truly has David caught the peculiarity and position of the scene which he had himself visited only a few days before the battle "The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: 0 Jonathan, thou wast slain upon thine high places," as though the bitterness of death and defeat were aggravated by being not in the broad and hostile plain, but on their own familiar and friendly mountains. And with an equally striking touch of truth, as the image of that bare and bleak and jagged ridge rose before him with its one green strip of table-land, where probably the last struggle was fought, the more bare and bleak from its unusual contrast with the fertile plain from which it springs-he broke out into the pathetic strain "Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no rain upon you, neither dew, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away,-the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil."2

3

On the slope of this range-still looking down into the Valley of Jezreel, but commanding also the view of the Jordan-a high spur of rock projects, on which stands the village of Beisan, once the city of Bethshan. It was one of the Canaanite strongholds which had never been taken by the Israelites, and accordingly was at once open to the victorious Philistines. They stripped and dismembered the royal corpse. The head was sent to the great Temple of Dagon, probably at Ashdod; but the armour was dedicated in the Temple of the Canaanite Ashtaroth at Bethshan, and the headless body with the corpses of his three sons fastened to the wall, overhanging the open place in front of the city gate. That wall overlooked the valley of and Jabesh the Jordan, into which the Valley of Jezreel there opens. In the hills of Gilead, which are seen rising immediately beyond, was a town which Saul had once saved from a

Bethshan

Gilead.

4

11 Sam. xxix. 2.

22 Sam. i. 6, 19, 21, 25.

3 Jud. i. 27.

5

4 That this was the distribution cannot be doubted on a comparison

of 1 Sam. xxxi. 10, and 1 Chr. x. 8, 10.

Such is the proper force of "the street of Bethshan," 2 Sam. xxi. 12.

cruel enemy. The inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead remembered their benefactor.2 Their "valiant men came, under cover of the "night," across the Jordan, carried off the bodies, and buried them under the terebinth'3 of their own city, where they lay till they were disinterred by David, to be buried in their ancestral cave at Zelah in Benjamin.*

4. The next battle-the last of which we have any Defeat of distinct notice—was hardly less mournful than that of Saul. Josiah. It was in the last days of the Jewish monarchy, when the northern kingdom had been already destroyed, that Palestine was first exposed to the disastrous fate which involved her in so long a series of troubles from this time forward-that of being the debateable ground between Egypt and the further East; first, under the Pharaohs and the rulers of Babylon; then under the Ptolemies and Seleucida. "In the days of Josiah, Pharaoh-Necho king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the Euphrates," possibly landing his army at Accho, more probably, as the expression seems to indicate, following the track of his predecessor Psammetichus, and advancing up the maritime plain till he turned into the plain of Esdraelon, thence to penetrate into the passes of the Lebanon. King Josiah," in self-defence, and perhaps as an ally of the Assyrian king, "went against him."5 The engagement took place in the central portion of the plain-the scene of Sisera's defeat" the plain of Megiddo." "6 The Battle of "Egyptian archers," in their long array, so well known Megiddo. from their sculptured monuments, "shot at King Josiah," as he rode in state in his royal chariot, and " he was sore wounded," and placed in his "second" chariot" of reserve, and carried to Jerusalem to die. In that one tragical event, all other notices of the battle are absorbed. The exact scene of the encounter is not known. It would seem, however, to have been at a spot called after the name of a Syrian divinity" Hadad-Rimmon"-that the king fell. On this consecrated place were uttered the lamentations, con

66

1 1 Sam. xi. 1-11.

21 Sam. xxxi. 11. Jabesh (Yabes) was identified by Dr. Robinson on his second journey.

3 1 Chr. x. 12. Elah. See Appendix, 8.v.

4 2 Sam. xxi. 14.

8

52 Kings xxiii. 29; 2 Chr. xxxv. 20, 22.

6" Beka." 2 Chr. xxxv. 22.

7 2 Chr. xxxv. 24.

8 Zech. xii. 11.

Richness of the

Character

tinued at Jerusalem by one whose strains were only inferior in pathos to those of David over Saul ;—“ and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, and Jeremiah lamented for Josiah; and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel : and, behold, they are written in the Lamentations."1

Other battles there have been in later times-in the Crusades, and in the wars of Napoleon, which confirm the ancient celebrity of the Plain of Esdraelon; but of those one only deserves to be named in conjunction with these of which I have been speaking-that of Hattin,2 which will be best considered elsewhere.

III. But there is another aspect under which the Plain plain of of Esdraelon must be considered. Every traveller has reEsdraelon. marked on the richness of its soil-the exuberance of its crops. Once more the palm appears, waving its stately tresses over the village enclosures. The very weeds are a sign of what in better hands the vast plain might become. The thoroughfare which it forms for every passage, from east to west, from north to south, made it in peaceful times the most available and eligible possession of Palestine. It was the frontier of Zebulun-"Rejoice, O Zebulun, in thy of Issachar. goings out." But it was the special portion of Issachar; and in its condition-thus exposed to the good and evil fate of the beaten highway of Palestine, we read the fortunes of the tribe which, for the sake of this possession, consented to sink into the half-nomadic state of the Bedouins who wandered over it,-into the condition of tributaries to the Canaanite tribes, whose iron chariots drove victoriously through it. Rejoice, O Issachar, in thy tents they shall suck of the abundance of the seas [from Acre], and of the [glassy] treasures hid in the sands3 [of the torrent Belus]. Issachar is a strong ass, couching down between two 'troughs' and he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute." 4 Once only did the sluggish tribe shake off this

1 2 Chr. xxxv. 25.
2 See Chapter X.

3 Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19.

4 Gen. xlix. 14, 15.

yoke; when under the heavy pressure of Sisera, "the 'chiefs' of Issachar were with Deborah." 1 But still they were looked up to-perhaps on account of this very choice of land-as "men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do," and they, with the neighbouring tribes, were foremost in sending to David, on his accession, all the good things that their soil produced, "bread, and meat, and meal, cakes of figs, bunches of raisins, and wine, and oil, on asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, .... for there was joy in Israel.” 3

PALACE of

In accordance with this general character of the plain, were some of its special localities. The park-like aspect which has already been noticed in the hills between Shechem and Samaria, breaks out again in this fertile district. The same luxuriant character which had rendered this whole region the favourite haunt of the four northern tribes, rendered it also the favourite resort of the later kings of Israel. Of all the numerous villages that now rise out of the plain on the gentle swells which break its level surface, the most commanding in situation is that which, in its modern name of Zerin, retains the ancient name of Jezreel. As Baasha had chosen Tirzah, as Omri PARK and had chosen Samaria, so Ahab chose Jezreel as his regal JEZREEL. residence. It never indeed superseded his father's capital at Samaria, as that had superseded Shechem; but it was the chief seat of his dynasty for three successive reigns; and its importance is evident, from the fact that it gave its name to the whole plain, of which it thus became the chief city. It is now a mere collection of hovels. But its situation at the opening of the central eastern valley, so often described, commanding the view towards Carmel on one side, and to the Jordan on the other, still justifies its selection by Ahab and his Queen, as the seat of their court, and its natural features still illustrate the most striking incidents in the scenes in which it appears in the Sacred History, of the overthrow of the house of Ahab. We see how up the valley from the Jordan, Jehu's troop might be seen advancing,-how in Naboth's "field"

1 Jud. v. 15.

2 1 Chr. xii. 32

31 Chr. xii. 40,

4 1 Kings xxi. 1; 2 Kings ix. 30.