elevation of their revered copy of the Pentateuch, they throw themselves on their faces in the direction, not of Priest or Law, or any object within the building, but obliquely towards the eastern summit of Mount Gerizim. And up the side of the mountain, and on its long ridge, is to be traced the pathway by which they ascend to the sacred spots where they alone, of all the Jewish race, yearly celebrate the Paschal Sacrifice'. 6. One more scene remains which supplies to this portion of Palestine associations like those which Olivet and Jacob's Well. Bethany supply to Judæa, and which suins up in so remarkable a manner all the successive points presented in the history of Shechem, that, often as it has been depicted, it must briefly be told again. At the mouth of the Valley of Shechem, two slight breaks are visible in the midst of the vast plains of corn-one a white Mussulman chapel, the other a few fragments of stone. The first of these covers the alleged tomb of Joseph, buried thus in the "parcel of ground" which his father bequeathed especially to him, his favourite son'. The second marks the undisputed site of the well, now neglected and choked up by the ruins which have fallen into it; but still with every claim to be considered the original well, sunk deep into the rocky ground by "our father Jacob," who had retained enough of the customs of the earlier families of Abraham and Isaac', to mark his first possession by digging a well, "to give drink thereof to himself, his children, and his cattle." This at least was the tradition of the place, in the last days of the Jewish people, and its position adds probability to the conclusion; indicating, as has been well observed', that it was there dug by the slope of Mount Gerizim, and is said by the Samaritans to be so called after Rabbi Joseph of Nâblus. There can be no doubt that the well now shown is the one which has always been pointed out as Jacob's well. But its later association has caused it sometimes to be called the well of the Samaritan-Bîr es-Samirîyehwhilst another well within the town is said to be known by the name of Jacob's well-Bir el-Yakôb. (Buckingham, 543, 544.) 5 Robinson, iii. p. 112. R one who could not trust to the fresh springs so near in the adjacent vale, which still belonged to the hostile or strange Canaanites. If this be so, we have here an actually existing monument of the prudential character of the old Patriarchas though we saw him offering the mess of pottage, or compassing his ends with Laban, or guarding against the sudden attack of Esau; fearful lest he "being few in number, the inhabitants of the land should gather themselves together against him, and slay him and his house'." By a singular fate, this authentic and expressive memorial of the earliest dawn of Jewish history became the memorial no less authentic and expressive of its sacred close. Of all the special localities of our Lord's life in Palestine, this is almost the only one absolutely undisputed. By the edge of this well, in the touching language of the ancient hymn, "Quærens me, sedisti lassus." Here, on the great road through which "He must needs go when "He left Judæa, and departed into Galilee," He halted, as travellers still halt, in the noon' or evening of the spring-day by the side of the well, amongst the relics of a former age. Up that passage through the valley, His disciples "went away into the city," which He did not enter. Down the same gorge came the woman to draw water, according to the unchanged custom of the East; which still, in the lively concourse of veiled figures round the wayside wells, reproduces the image of Rebekah, and Rachel, and Zipporah'. Above them, as they talked, rose "this mountain" of Gerizim, crowned by the Temple, of which the vestiges still remain, where the fathers of the Samaritan sect "said men ought to worship," and to which still, after so many centuries, their descendants turn as to the only sacred spot in the universe: the strongest example of local worship now existing in the world in the very face of the principle there first announced, that the sacredness of local worship was at an end. And round about them, as He and she thus sate or stood by the well, spread far and wide the noble plain of waving corn'. It was still winter, or early spring",-" four months yet to the 1 Gen. xxxiv. 30. 2 John iv. 2, 3, 6. According as we make the hours of St. John's Gospel by the Roman or our own reckoning. See Chap. II. p. 147. 4 Most of the points in this interview are well brought out by Clarke (iv. p. 80). 5 Robinson (Harmony, p. 189) fixes harvest;" and the bright golden ears of those fields had not yet "whitened" their unbroken expanse of verdure. He gazed upon them; and we almost seem to see how the glorious vision of the distant harvest of the Gentile world, with each successive turn of the conversation, unfolded itself more and more distinctly before Him, as He sate (so we gather from the narrative) absorbed in the opening prospect, silent amidst His silent and astonished disciples'. SAMARIA. III. Jerusalem and Shechem are the only ancient cities. which have reached the dignity of capitals of Palestine. And as in Judah no rival city ever rose till the time of the Herods, the whole splendour of the southern monarchy was concentrated in Jerusalem, and contributed to that magnificence which has before been described as probably excelling any sight of the kind within the Holy Land. But in the northern kingdom, the sovereigns followed the tendency by which princes of all times have been led to build sumptuous palaces, and select pleasant residences, apart from the great seats of state. This difference between the two kingdoms was doubtless in part occasioned by the stronger hold which the City of David possessed on the minds both of princes and people than could be the case in the less firmly established monarchy of Shechem. But it would also be fostered by the difference between the two regions. Except Hebron there was no spot to which a king of Judah would naturally be attracted, either by the beauty or the fertility of its situation. Solomon's Gardens in the Wâdy Urtâs were, as we have seen, the peculiar resort of the most luxurious of the Jewish kings'. The new capital which Herod founded for the Roman province of Judæa, under the name of Cæsarea, was created with an especial view to intercourse with the West, which in early times had no existence. But in the territory of Ephraim, the fertile plains, and to a certain extent wooded hills, which have been often noticed as its characteristic ornaments, at once gave an opening it in November or December; but it should rather be in January or February. The harvest of Palestine is in April or May. 1 left the great plain of Philistia on the 1st of May, and the corn was still standing. "His disciples. . marvelled. . yet no man said, What seekest thou?" John iv. 27. 2 See Chap. III. to the formation of parks and pleasure-grounds similar to those which were the "Paradises" of Assyrian and Persian monarchs. One of these was Tirzah, of unknown site, but evidently near Shechem, and of proverbial beauty', selected by the Its beauty. first sovereign, Jeroboam, and then during three short reigns the habitual residence of the royal house. Another was Jezreel, during the reign of Ahab; of which I shall speak hereafter. But the chief was Samaria. Six miles from Shechem, following the course of the same green and watered valley, the traveller finds himself in a wide basin, encircled with hills, on a lower level than the Valley of Shechem, and almost on the edge of the great maritime plain. In the centre of this basin rises an oblong hill, with steep yet accessible sides, and a long flat top. This was "the mountain Shomron" (corrupted through the Chaldee Shemrin into the Greek Samaria), which Omri bought of Shemer for the great sum of two talents of silver, "and built on the mountain,' and called the name of the city which he built, Shomron,' after the name of Shemer owner of the mountain.'" What Omri in all probability built as a mere palatial residence, became the capital of the kingdom instead of Shechem. It was as though Versailles had taken the place of Paris, or Windsor of London. But in this case the change was effected by the admirable choice of Omri in selecting a position which, as has been truly observed, combined, in a union not elsewhere found in Palestine, strength, beauty, and fertility. Its fertility and beauty are shared to a great extent with Shechem, in this respect the common characteristics of these later capitals, all probably alike included in the bitter praise of the prophet, "Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, 1 "Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah" (Cant. vi. 4). The word for "beautiful" (jafeh) is the same word as that which gave its name to Jaffa or Joppa. In this passage it would seem to be contrasted with "comely" (naveh), which appears to answer to the Latin decens, and the Greek σeuvós-“I am black, but comely" (Cant. i. 5). In Ps. xlviii. 2, however, jafeh is applied to the elevation of Jerusalem. Schwarz (p. 150 speaks of a "Tarza" on a high mount whose glorious beauty is a fading flower,-which are on the head of the fat ravines' of them that are overcome with wine'." But having these advantages which Shechem had, it Its had others which Shechem had not. Situated on its strength. steep height, in a plain itself girt in by hills, it was enabled, not less promptly than Jerusalem, to resist the successive assaults made upon it by the Syrian and Assyrian armies. The first were baffled altogether; the second took it only after a three years' siege', that is, three times as long as that which reduced Jerusalem. The local circumstances of the earlier sieges are well brought out by M. Van de Velde. "As the mountains around the hill of Shemer are higher than that hill itself, the enemy must have been able to discover clearly the internal condition of the besieged Samaria. The inhabitants, whether they turned their eyes upwards or downwards to the surrounding hills, or into the valley, must have seen all full of enemies. . . thirty and two kings, and horses and chariots. The mountains and the adjacent circle of hills, were so densely occupied by the enemy, that not a man could pass through to bring provisions to the beleagured city. The Syrians on the hills must have been able from where they. stood plainly to distinguish the famishing inhabitants." that beautiful eminence, looking far over the plain of Sharon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and over its own fertile vale to the east, the kings of Israel reigned in a luxury which, for the very reason of its being like that of more Eastern sovereigns, was sure not to be permanent in a race destined for higher purposes. The vast temple of Baal was there erected, which Jehu destroyed; and, in later times, Herod chose it alone out of the ancient capitals of the north, to adorn with the name and with the temple of Augustus, from which time it assumed the appellation which with a slight change it has borne ever since, "Sebaste." And now, although its existence has been brought fully to light only within the last few years, it still exhibits some relics of ancient architectural beauty. A long avenue of broken pillars, apparently the main street of Herod's city, here, as at Pal 1 Isa. xxviii. 1. 22 Kings xviii. 10. 3 I. 376. 377. See 1 Kings xx. 13-16; 2 Kings vi. 24-33. Sebaste. |