Antioch, which numbered eight hundred thousand inhabitants, on the other, and opening a way from the north end of Syria, not only to the land of Hamath, but also to the countries which environed the Euphrates, the valley in which the river Hamah or Orontes terminated its course, was, and is worthy, as the entrance into Hamath, of being recognised as a heaven-appointed border of that land, which, so soon as it is entered, thus begins to assert or vindicate the title given it by the Lord, "the glory of all lands." The entering in of Hamath from Hor-ha-hor, or the very high mountain pointed out from the sea, opens the way from thence to other places, of which mention is made; and farther Scriptural definitions are given of the north border of Israel, which need here to be repeated. "And this shall be your north border; from the great sea ye shall point out for you Mount Hor; and from Mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad. And the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan : this shall be your north border."1 "Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours; from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be," &c. "This shall be the border of your land toward the north side, from the great sea the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad; Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazar-hatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran. And the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north 1 Num. xxxiv. 7-9. 2 Deut. xi. 24. northward, and the border of Hamath. 991 And this is the north side." "From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath, a portion for Dan."2 These different places to which the way lay, from the sea, through the entrance into Hamath, are, in general, slightly, if at all, noticed by geographers of the Holy Land, or are, as by Calmet, &c. merely said to be towns "on the north border of Israel;" and hence, on the assumption that the terms of the covenant were fully ratified of old, their places have been sought for in the immediate vicinity of the ancient borders, or even, as Hamath in the land of Naphtali, within the old Israelitish possessions. It is not indeed said, or necessarily implied, that all the towns or places here mentioned lay on the frontier of the land, or were themselves bordering towns of Israel. The manner in which some of them are spoken of seems to imply the reverse. The entering in of Hamath manifestly, as repeatedly declared, forms the northern extremity, or border on the sea-coast. But, in the new allocation of the tribes it is written, "From the north end, to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus northward, a portion for Dan." The border of Damascus northward is here named, not as the north border of Israel, but as the limit of a tribe which had its portion beyond it. And the mention of the way to Hamath and other places from the north end, seems plainly to denote their relative position, if not towards the east border, to the south, or within the limits of the land. Of these different names scarcely any one has had a 1 Ezek. xlvii. 15-17. Ibid. xlviii. 1. "local habitation" attached to it by commentators but Berothah alone. And, except of it, scarcely any mention is made of them in Scripture. It may thus be inferred, that as unnamed, if not unknown, they rather lay at no inconsiderable distance beyond Dan, than either near it, or within the old inheritance of any of the tribes. Berothah thus is incidentally mentioned when the distant conquests of David are recorded. When he smote Hadadezer, and recovered his border at the river Euphrates, and established his dominion there, " he took much brass from Berothai, a city of Hadadezer."1 The proper border of Israel extended from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, and from the entering in of Hamath, as men go to Berothah. Berothai and Berothah, in these corresponding passages, pointing to the same locality, seem evidently identical; and as having pertained to David, it as manifestly lay on the borders which he went to recover, or within the inheritance of Israel. This promise was given to the Israelites by the Lord, Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread, shall be yours. From the river Euphrates to the uttermost sea shall your coast be. David did establish his dominion by the Euphrates, and he was followed by thousands of Israel, whose feet did tread its banks, not as captives, but as conquerors; and Berothai was one of the cities which owned his dominion, and yielded up its spoil. The fixing of its site, therefore, may tend, in no mean degree, to the more precise determination of the actual borders of Israel. On the principle of proximity to Palestine, and from the similarity of the name, Beyrout, the ancient Berytus, has been said to be Berothah; and hence an argument has been drawn for fixing the border there. The deri 1 2 Sam. viii. 3, 8. vation which has been given to the word from Beeroth, wells, might seem, if correct, to warrant the appropriation. But the authority of Bochart, as alike high and here unprejudiced, may be freely appealed to; and the incidental testimony which he adduces from the famous Sanchoniathon, himself a native of Beyrout, might be accounted decisive, could the case in other respects admit of a question. We read in Scripture that the Israelites made Baal-berith their god. "Baal-berith, that is," says Bochart, "the idol of Beerith or Berytus, &c. ;" and as Beerith, in the Hebrew form, is always feminine, he thus quotes Sanchoniathon in order to prove that "Beerith, like Astarte and Astergetes, was the name of a goddess, and not of a god." Among them there was one called Elion, that is, the highest, and a woman called Beruth, (that is Berith), who dwelt near Byblus, namely, adds Bochart, Berytus, which was between Byblus and Sidon.' Such evidence, of unusual precision and force in such matters, might have set at rest the question of the origin of the name of Berytus, or Beyrout; which is thus bereaved of its chief claim to the title of Berothah. The name of Beerith,-or Bèrout of the Greeks,whom the Israelites worshipped after the death of Joshua, may hence supply a reason why the Israelites ceased to drive out their enemies before them, and why, therefore, the distance was so great between the reputed Ita hic v Baaλßigid dicamus res ipsa postulat, quia Hebraice berith semper est fœmininum. Proinde deæ non dei nomen fuit apud Phoenices, ut Astarte et Atergates. Quid quod Sanchoniathon ita asserit: Κατὰ τούτους γίνεταί τις Ελιοῦν καλούμενος ὕψιστος καὶ θήλεια λεγομένη Βηρουτ; οἱ καὶ κατῴκουν περὶ Βύβλον, iis aqualis fuit quidam elion, id est, altissimus dictus, et fœmina dicta Beruth, (id est, Berith), qui habitarunt circa Byblum, nempe Beryti, quæ media est inter Byblum et Sidonem. Bochart Phaleg. p. 775. and real borders of the promised land, so that Berytus, though past the one, was far short of the other. It is needless to enlarge on other and more direct proofs that Beyrout is not and cannot be Berothah. Were not its maritime position fatal to its claim, as the north borders of Israel, it would be left far to the south ere a man came over against Hamath. But Berothah, along with other towns, lies evidently inland, as the entering in of Hamath led to them from the great sea, and is not, like Beyrout, on its beach. It was situated in the kingdom of Hadadezer, which stretched along the Euphrates, and of which Phoenicia did not form a portion, and not, like Beyrout, on the Phonician coast, with the kingdoms of Hamath and Damascus intervening. And instead of either reaching the defined north border, or having its place on the opposite side from the sea, near the great river, Beyrout is above a hundred and fifty miles from the north end of the land of Hamath, and still farther from the nearest point of the Euphrates. 1 But on that river itself, near to the termination of the mountains of Amanus on the east, even as they stretch from thence to the great sea on the west, immediately north of the embouchure of the Orontes, there still exists an ancient town, which has a just title to the derivation which has been given to Berytus, without any transmutation, and which lacks nothing that can be needed to warrant its recognition as the Berothah of Scripture. Beer, or the Euphrates, is the Birat of the Arabs, and the Birtha of the Greeks. Beer, in the singular, literally signifies a well, and "in the plural, in Hebrew, beeroth, or in Arabic, birath, wells." It has for this very reason been conjectured, we think, not without cause 1 Nicolas (of Damascus), quoted by Josephus, ant. vii. 5, 2. |