The facts which respect the great diversities of level have been only of late ascertained. They pertain to the whole surface of the country, and give reason to think that much more in this department of knowledge remains to be learnt. Meanwhile, what we know supplies a valuable means for illustrating peculiarities in scriptural language. Thus, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, we read that a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. The journey was, indeed, a rapid descent. With a similar exact regard to qualities of the country which could hardly have been known to foreigners, and which, betokening the pen of natives, attest the nationality of the sacred books, the patriarchs are said to go down to Egypt (comp. Gen. xxvi. 2; xlvi. 3); Agabus went down from Jerusalem to Cesarea (comp. Acts xii. 19); and persons are repeatedly said to go up to Jerusalem (comp. John vii. 10; Acts xxiv. 1).

In the water-system of the Jordan, two spots demand special notice, namely, the two large collections of water or lakes denominated seas in the language of Scripture. The more northern bears the name of the Sea of Gennesareth, a name said to be derived from a rich plain of the same name lying on its western shore. In earlier days it was called simply the Sea of Kinnereth. From lying in Galilee, it was termed the Sea of Galilee; and from Tiberias, an important town on its south-western shore, it received the appellation of the Sea of Tiberias.

The town and lake of Tiberias are thrice mentioned by that name in the New Testament (John vi. 1, 23, xxi. 1). The city was built in a superior style by Herod Antipas, the tetrarch (who had a palace in it), in honour of the Roman emperor Tiberius, after whom it was called. About the middle of the second century after Christ, it became the head quarters of Judaism in the Holy Land. This pre-eminence it long retained. A residence here is highly valued by the Jews, because of the former renown of the place in connection with Jewish literature, and because they expect that the Messiah will make his first appearance in the parts of Galilee bordering on the Lake of Tiberias. The present town has but a mean appearance as you approach it, and it is not improved when you get close to its walls. In 1837, it was visited by an earthquake which consigned hundreds of its inhabitants to death, and the survivors to poverty and woe. Outside the walls are considerable ruins of different kinds of edifices.

Lake Tiberias lies in the general direction of north and south. According to Lieut. Molyneux, its greatest length is eighteen miles, and its breadth nine. It still abounds in fish, some of which are of the same species as fish found in the Nile. The indolent people on the borders of the Lake catch them now only by the line and hand-net thrown from the shore. Birds of various kinds disport themselves over the Lake. At the south and the west there is a margin. Here, in their season, may be seen many beau

tiful oleanders in the richest blow, intermixed with high reeds and rushes. This rank vegetation continues along the river more or less to the south. The water as it issues from the Lake is as clear as crystal. The river is here about thirty feet in width, and, in the middle of the stream, about six deep. Molyneux, who surveyed the Lake in a boat, found the depth vary from ten to twenty-six fathoms. Its bosom is ordinarily calm and undisturbed, except by the aquatic birds which here and there plunge into its pellucid depths or splash over its glassy surface. The course of the Jordan must cause a current in the Lake from north to south.

'A fine view of the Lake is obtained from the front of the precipice overlooking the town (Tiberias). It is nearly visible to its whole extent; and though the hills by which it is surrounded on all sides, except at the entrance and the emergence of the Jordan, present but little of the picturesque, we were more gratified by the scenery, on the whole, than we had been led to expect. The Lake itself, which is exposed to occasional violent squalls blowing down upon it from the adjoining heights, was remarkably placid and clear when we first beheld it from this position. A simple solitary skiff, generally employed in bringing wood from the eastern side of the Lake, had its little sail spread before us, and was scudding on its waters, over which there now ply no warlike galley with oars, like those mentioned by Josephus, and no boats bearing the industrious fisherman and the produce of his toil, and no vessels conveying passengers from town to town and village to village, such as those we read of in the New Testament. The whole country in its neighbourhood is well nigh depopulated by the judgments of God and the depravity and misgovernment of man. The traveller stands astonished at the view of the grievous change which it has witnessed. He is most deeply affected also in the remembrance of the consecration of its narrow borders by the personal ministry of the Saviour himself, and in his reflection on the moral influences which have gone forth from its now almost forsaken shores to the very ends of the earth' (Wilson, 'Lands of the Bible,' ii. 111). The view of the Lake and surrounding country from the plain where the Jordan resumes its course, is more interesting than that which is obtained immediately over Tiberias. The hills on the east side appear to the eye a more regular wall than those on the west side. Along the eastern margin of the Lake there appears a small belt of low sand. It was over the precipitous banks beyond this that the herd of swine are thought to have run 'violently down a steep place and perished in the waters' (Matthew viii. 32). The panorama embraces the summit of the snowcrowned Hermon. In the plain south of the Lake there is a great deal of culture.

The surface of the Lake lies, as we have said, 750 feet below

the level of the Mediterranean Sea. The place, therefore, is a deep bowl. In consequence, its prevailing temperature is high. The district also bears traces of being volcanic in its origin. Thermal springs, which are still used for bathing, are found in its vicinity, in virtue of which Pliny pronounced Tiberias salubrious. The heat of the water is very great. Schubert gives it at 140 deg. of Fahrenheit.

The environs of the Lake are described as presenting parts of great beauty. On or near its shores stood towns of eminence and considerable villages. On its north-eastern extremity was Bethsa'ida Julias. Midway, on its eastern shore, was Hippos. Further south, and a little way inland, lay Ga'mala, which in the same direction conducted to Ga'dara. Coming round its southern bend, we meet with Tariche'a; then Tiberias, about midway on its western banks; and, pursuing the line of the water northward, are brought to Arbe'la, then Ma'gdala, when, passing the eastern outlet of the rich and lovely plain of Gennesareth, we come to the noted cities Capernaum, and, at the north-west corner of the Lake, Choraʼzin.

The Dead Sea, 'in the vale of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea' (Gen. xiv. 3), called also 'the Sea of the Plain' (Deut. iii. 17), probably because produced in the vale of Siddim by the same volcanic action as that to which the lengthened sinking of the Jordan is due, drew the attention of ancient classical writers, who, from its throwing up asphaltum, termed it Lacus Asphalti'tes, and with them, as with the modern Arabs-who, borrowing a name from Lot, designate it Lot's Sea (Bahr Lut)-is a source of mysterious interest and no small amount of fable. The title 'Salt Sea' it deservedly bears, for its waters are so loaded with saline materials that they materially increase the density of the

water, on which account persons who have bathed there have scarcely been able to keep the lower parts of their body beneath

the surface, found the taste very brackish and disagreeable, and on coming to land were covered with a kind of incrustation of salt. In shape the Lake is oval, the breadth of which at Ain Jidy, about midway on its western shore, is nine geographical miles, and its length nearly forty. It is enclosed by cliffs, of which those on the western shore stand about 1500 feet high, and those on the eastern exceed 2000 feet. The immense body of water included has no visible outlet, and appears to owe its diminution solely to the power of the sun's rays, which in so hot a cauldron is very great, and causes an almost constant evaporation, the effects of which are visible in a misty atmosphere. The country round, with one or two exceptions, is a bare desert, burnt by the fires of a scorching sun. Where, however, spring water is found, there also is the greatest luxuriance, as at Ain Jidy and on the Wady Kerek, near the north-eastern end of the sea. Robinson adds his testimony to that of previous writers, to the effect that its waters as well as its shores are unfavourable to animal existence. Neither animal nor vegetable flourishes there, though occasionally a bird may be seen flying above and over the huge heated basin. Molyneux killed some birds which were standing in the water, and saw many shells on the beach.

CHAPTER VIII.

DIVISION AND GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE LAND.

Palestine, which had previously been inhabited by Canaanitish races kindred in their origin with the Hebrews, was, at the command of God, divided by lot among the twelve tribes of Israel, with due regard to their respective numbers. Of these, two tribes and a half were located on the eastern (Numb. xxxii.), and nine tribes and a half on the western side (Josh. xiii. 7) of the Jordan. Considered as a whole, these twelve tribes were the descendants of the sons of Jacob-namely, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Na'phtali, Gad, Asher, I'ssachar, Ze'bulun, Joseph. Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Mana'sseh, became each the founder of a tribe and received a corresponding portion. Thus the number twelve was completed (Gen. xlviii. 5). The descendants of Levi, however, did not receive a separate province, but, instead, forty-eight cities distributed in various parts of the land (Josh. xix. xxi.). Western Palestine was divided at two separate times (xv.-xviii.). The determination of the exact boundaries of each tribe is not without difficulty. In general, however, we may lay them down as follows:-Judah possessed the southern parts of the country, from Jerusalem to

Kadesh Barnea, near the wilderness and the river of Egypt (xv.), giving, either in separate cities or in one large portion, a home within its territory to Simeon (xix. 1-9). North-east from Judah, and bordering on the Jordan, dwelt the tribe of Benjamin (xviii. 11, seq.); and to the north-west of Judah, on the sea-coast, was Dan (xix. 40, seq.; comp. Judges xviii. 29). Immediately on the north of Benjamin and Dan, E'phraim stretched from the Mediterra'nean to the Jordan. On the northwest of Ephraim, the western half-tribe of Mana'sseh occupied the sea-coast (Josh. xvi. xvii). Along the northern frontiers of Manasseh and Ephraim lay the allotment of I'ssachar (xix. 17, seq.). From Carmel, along the sea to the north as far as Sidon, extended the territory of Asher (xix. 24, seq.). Between Asher and Issachar lay Zebulun (xix. 10, seq.), having Naphtali on the north-east (xix. 32, seq.; compare Ezekiel xlvii. 13—xlviii.).

In the days of Rehoboam, Solomon's son, the entire land was divided into kingdoms-a southern (Judah) and a northern (Israel). The northern comprised ten tribes with their territories, extending on the west of the Jordan to Benjamin and Judah, and on the east of this river as far south as the Arnon. The latter consisted merely of Judah and Benjamin (1 Kings xii. 21). These limits, however, must not be rigidly interpreted (29, xv. 17). By far the smaller portion of the land remained with the house of David in Judah, whose population and influence were, however, much augmented, not only by the possession of the capital, with the national temple, priesthood, and religion, but also by the immigration from the territories of Israel of priests, levites, and other persons favourably disposed to the house of David and the ancient faith (2 Chron. xi. 13, seq.).

After the exile in Babylo'nia, the southern part of Western Palestine, or the territory of the former kingdom of Judah, together with all the coast line, received the name of Judah, or Jude'a, from the returning Israelites, who for the most part had belonged to the kingdom of that name. The middle portion of the land from Gine'a and Scytho'polis, on the north, to Joppa and a corresponding point on the Jordan in the south, took from its Samaritan inhabitants the name of Samaria. The northern part bore the name of Galilee (2 Kings xv. 29), and was divided into the upper and the lower. The population of Galilee comprised many heathens besides Jews. Hence it was called 'Galilee (or circle) of the nations' (Is. ix. 1; comp. Matt. iv. 15), and its inhabitants were held in disrepute by the other Israelites (John vii. 52). In the time of our Lord, Palestine was divided into four districts, namely, on the west of the Jordan, Galilee in the north; Jude'a, including Idume'a, in the south; and Sama'ria between them (John iv. 4); on the east of the Jordan, Pere'a, described in Matt. viii. 28 as the other side.' The three other districts are mentioned by name in the New Testament: Then had all the