the Jordan, so his soul panted after God, from whose outward presence he was shut out. The river, with its winding rapids, "deep calling to deep," lay between him and his home. All that he could now do was to remember the past, as he stood "in the land of Jordan," as he saw the peaks of "Hermon," as he found himself on the eastern heights of Mizar', which reminded him of his banishment and solitude. As we began, so we end this brief account of the Peræan hills. They are the "Pisgah" of the earlier history: to the later history they occupy the pathetic relation that has been immortalised in the name of the long ridge' from which the first and the last view of Granada is obtained; they are "the Last Sigh" of the Israelite exile. 1 Ps. xlii. 1, 6. What special mountain is thus intended, cannot be ascertained. But it must have been some where on the eastern side. 2 "L'oltimo sospiro del Moro." CHAPTER IX. PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. Rev. xvi. 16. "He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Ar-Mageddon." General features :-I. Boundary of northern and central tribes. II. Battle field. 1. Victory over Sisera-2. Victory over the Midianites3. Defeat of Saul-4. Defeat of Josiah. III. Richness and fertility of Issachar Jezreel-Engannim. IV. Tabor-Sanctuary of the northern tribes. V. Carmel-Scene of Elijah's sacrifice. VI. Nain. PLAIN OF ESDRAELON. ON descending from the hills of Manasseh, the traveller leaves the province of Samaria, and enters on that of Galilee, embracing two spheres of wonderful, though most different, interest, the great battle-field of Jewish history, and the chief scene of Our Lord's ministrations. It is the former of these two distinct spheres that first claims our attention. General features. To any one who has traversed the almost undistinguishable undulations of hill and valley from Hebron to Samaria, it is a striking contrast and relief to come upon a natural feature so remarkable as the plain of Esdraelon. No better test of Dr. Robinson's' high geographical powers can be given than an ocular comparison of his description of this plain with its actual localities. There are various points from which it can be seen to great advantage. The heights above Jenin, the summit of Tabor, and the eastern end of Carmel, may be especially mentioned. Its peculiarities are briefly told. It is a wide rent of about twelve miles in width, between the mass of southern Palestine which we have just left, and the bolder mountains of northern Palestine, which are in fact the roots of Lebanon. It consists of an uneven plain, running right from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea on the west, to the valley of the Jordan on the east. portion reaches straight across without hills of Samaria to those of Galilee. See Robinson, B. R., vol. ii. p. 227, 230. I had every opportunity of verify Its central and widest interruption from the This is what, for the ing this accuracy on the spot. For the details I refer to the map. |