wrapt in prayer, whilst his servant mounted to the highest point of all, whence there is a wide view of the blue reach of the Mediterranean Sea', over the western shoulder of the ridge. The sun was now gone down, but the cloudless sky was lit up with the long bright glow which succeeds an eastern sunset. Seven times the servant climbed and looked, and seven times there was nothing; the sky was still clear, the sea was still calm. At last, out of the far horizon there rose a little cloud-the first that had for days and months passed across the heavens and it grew in the deepening shades of evening, and at last the whole sky was overcast, and the forests of Carmel shook in the welcome sound of those mighty winds which in Eastern regions precede a coming tempest. Each from his separate height, the King and the Prophet descended. And the King mounted his chariot at the foot of the mountain, lest the long-hoped-for rain should swell the torrent of the Kishon, as in the days when it swept away the host of Sisera; and "the hand of the Lord was upon Elijah," and he girt his mantle round his loins, and, amidst the rushing storm with which the night closed in, "ran," as if to do honour to the king', "before the chariot," as the Bedouins of his native Gilead still run, with inexhaustible strength, to the entrance of Jezreel, distant, though still visible, from the scene of his triumph. VI. Almost all the recollections of the plain of Esdraelon belong to the Old Testament. Yet we are now on the verge of the chief scenes of the New Testament, and the battle-field of Israel may have suggested to Him, who must have crossed and re-crossed it on His many journeys to and from and through Galilee, those "victorious deeds" and "heroic acts" which Milton has ascribed to His early meditations: "One while To rescue Israel from the Roman yoke, Then to subdue and quell o'er all the earth But it is the poet only, not the Evangelist, who has ventured This was also observed by M. Van de Velde (i. 326). From the place where Elijah must have worshipped, — which one may suppose to have been the point of the square ruin looking towards Jezreel, the view of the sea is just intercepted by an adjacent height. That height, however, may be ascended in a few minutes, and a full view of the sea obtained from the top; or again the view open to the west immediately below the Maharrakah. 2 See Thompson's Land and Book, 485. to throw even this passing thought into that peaceful career, and the one incident which connects Him with the plain of Esdraelon is remarkable for the striking contrast which it presents to all the other associations of the region. Nain. On the northern slope of the rugged and barren ridge of Little Hermon, immediately west of Endor, which lies in a further recess of the same range, is the ruined village of Nain. No convent, no tradition marks the spot. But, under these circumstances, the name is sufficient to guarantee its authenticity. One entrance alone it could have had, that which opens on the rough hill side in its downward slope to the plain. It must have been in this steep descent, as, according to Eastern custom they "carried out the dead man," that "nigh to the gate" of the village, the bier was stopped, and the long procession of mourners stayed, and "the young man delivered back" to his mother'. It is a spot which has no peculiarity of feature to fix it on the memory; its situation is like that of all the villages on this plain; but, in the authenticity of its claims, and the narrow compass within which we have to look for the touching incident, it may rank amongst the most interesting points of the scenery of the Gospel narrative. 1 Luke vii. 11-15. GALILEE. THE broad depression of Esdraelon was the natural boundary and debatable land between the central and northern tribes of Palestine. On the north of the plain rises another group of mountains, as distinct in character and form, as they are separate in fact, from those of Samaria and Judæa, and thus, in like manner, distinguished by the name of the chief tribe that dwelt among them, "the mountains of Naphtali," as the more southern were "the mountains of Ephraim" and "of Judah'." Scenery of Palestine. These hills are the western roots which Hermon thrusts out towards the sea, as it thrusts out the mountains of Bashan towards the Desert; and as such they partake of the jagged outline, of the varied vegetation, and of the high upland hollows which characterise in a greater or less degree the whole mass of the Lebanon range, in contrast to the monotonous aspect of the more southern scenery. So few travellers visit the interior of the Galilean mountains, that their beauty and richness is almost unknown. M. Van de Velde, who, contrary to the usual course, entered Palestine from the north, contrasts them favourably even with the rich valley of Samaria. "It suffered," he says, "in my case from my having entered the 1 Joshua xx. 7. rocky mountains of Ephraim from the much finer and truly noble Galilee'." Tabor, as already described, is in fact the furthermost southern and eastern outpost of the peculiar mixture of greensward and forest, which, like a long stretch of English park-scenery, extends the whole way from the plain of Acre to Nazareth, through the tribe of Zebulun. And a similar tract, although in a more mountainous district, characterises the hills of Naphtali, which bound the plain of Merom, The four This distinction of scenery, together with the natural separation of the hills of the north from those which we have hitherto traversed, contains the main explanation of the history of the northern tribes. Asher has been already described in connection with the maritribes. time plain of Phoenicia, on the skirts of which his possession hung. Of the almost servile character of Issachar enough has been said in describing the plain of Esdraelon'. But they must be briefly recalled here, as sharing the general fortunes of the northern group, of which the two chief tribes, Naphtali and Zebulun, occupied the mountain-tract, overlooking and commanding the territory of the two others,-of Asher on the west, and Issachar on the south. All the four alike kept aloof from the great historical movements of Israel. With the exceptions already noticed, when the immediate pressure of northern invaders rallied them, first round Barak and then round Gideon, in the Plain of Esdraelon, they hardly ever appear in the events of the Jewish history. They were content with their rich mountainvalleys, and their maritime coast. Zebulun is to "rejoice in his goings out." Asher was to "be blessed' with children," "acceptable to his brethren," dipping his foot in the "oil" of his olive groves, shod with "the iron and brass" of Lebanon. 1 Vol. i. 374. 2 See Chapters VI. and IX. 3 Deut. xxxiii. 24, 25. There is here a play on the word Asher, "blessed," as in the analogous case of Judah and "praise," Gen. xlix. 8. 4 Iron is found in Lebanon. (Russegger, i. 693; Volney, i. 233; Burckhardt, 73.) Copper (the true translation of the word rendered brass) is nowhere now found, but its frequent mention in connection with the Tyrians justifies the allusion. |