naanites stretched along the Phoenician shore. Sidon, Arca, Simyra, Arad, or Arvad, announce themselves as the respective capitals of the Sidonians, Arkites, Zemarites, and Arvadites, four of the twelve families of the Canaanites; while Jebilee, or Gibili, has ever retained its ancient name as the capital of the Giblites.

From simply reversing the order of the Itinerary of Antoninus, (corresponding with that of Jerusalem), and introducing from Ptolemy's Geography the name of a single city, (not included in the Itinerary, as it lay five miles to the west of the road which it denotes), the reader may perceive what light is thrown by heathen records on the position of those lands which remain to be possessed. What and how extensive they there are, may thus be seen at a glance, the distance being marked in Roman miles.

Thus from the south much land remained to be possessed; and it can only be beyond these regions that the real northern border lies. They embrace the whole of the Phoenician coast, to the north of Sidon, from the southern extremity of Lebanon to the termination of the Anzeyry mountains, or all Lebanon and the hill country to the entrance into Hamath, which necessarily lies beyond all the land of the Canaanites.

That the territories of these Canaanitish nations met, even where their capitals were farthest separate, may

be manifest from the facts, that the great Sidon, as it is denominated by ancient geographers as in Scripture, was situated near to the one extremity of Lebanon, and Arca on the other; and that the Sidonians and Arvadites had each a portion of the city of Tripoli.

The site of Arca (of which more in the sequel) is undoubted; the testimonies of Ptolemy and Antoninus, of Willerm, archbishop of Tyre, and of Dr Shaw and Burckhardt, &c., correspond precisely concerning it. In the Itinerary it is placed, as above, at the distance of eighteen miles from Tripoli, and by Burckhardt at about five hours and a half, which, at the usual rate of three miles an hour, is the same. It was a strong and wealthy city at the close of the eleventh century; and its inhabitants at first feared not to assault marauding crusaders.

That it was the capital of the Arkites is equally clear. According to the tradition of the ancients, Willerm says, it was built by Archcus (or Arkeus) the seventh son of Canaan, from whom it took its name.1 Bochart, in his account of the Canaanites, states in positive terms, as beyond question, that the Arkites possessed Arka, or Arca, a city situated in Lebanon, of which mention is made by Ptolemy and Josephus. In it, according to Macrobius Sturnal, lib. i. c. 27, was the temple of Venus Archites.2 As Hamath, another chief city of the Canaanites, owned the sovereignty of Solomon, so also, as Josephus testifies, did Arca, where one of his governors was stationed, who had the sea-coast about Arce. Its ruins were visited by Dr Shaw, who terms it the city of the Arkites, the offspring of Canaan; and he mentions, in like manner, Simyra as the seat of the Zemarites.1 "All the Sidonians, all the land of the Canaanites, Will. Tyr. Hist. p. 737. 2 Boch. Phaleg. p. 305.

3 Josephus Ant. viii. 2, 3. Shaw's Travels, p. 327, edit. Oxford, 1738.

and the Giblites" that remained and still remain to be possessed, thus occupied successively and conjointly the Syrian and Phoenician coast for the space of 219 Roman miles, exclusive of the land, pertaining to these cities, that lay to the south of Sidon and the north of Laodicea.

Instead of limiting the northern border to Dan, the needful proof may be given, that before reaching the entrance into Hamath, or ascending the mountain from whence it has first to be seen, much land, as that word came worthily from the mouth of the Lord, remained to be possessed.

Wherever the children of Israel entered the land of their enemies to keep it as their own, they changed the names of the cities. But all these names remaining unchanged declared at once their Canaanitish origin, and that the time is yet to come when all these lands shall actually form a portion of the inheritance of Israel.

But in the interior of the country, as well as along the Phoenician coast, much land remained to be possessed after Dan had become a city of Israel.

Syria of Damascus" bordered with ancient Israel on the north, and beyond it lay the land of Hamath. "The border of Damascus," "the border of Hamath," manifestly denote not the cities, between which an extensive region, containing several noble cities, intervened;' but the borders of these two countries or kingdoms, which touched each other, and which embraced wide extended territories.

1 These cities, with their respective distances, are noted in the itinerary of Antoninus. From Damascus to Abila, 18 Roman miles; from Abila to Heliopolis (Baalbec), 38; from Heliopolis to Lybon, 32; from Lybon to Laodicea (ad Libanum), 32; from Laod. to Emesa, 18; from Emesa to Arethusa, 16; from Arethusa to Epiphania, or Hamath, 16or, in all, 170 miles. Vide in Chalcidina, et Cælosyria, Itiner. Antonini Augusti, pp. 11, 12. Edit. Amstetodami, 1619.

1

2

Damascus was the metropolis of a kingdom, and the head of Syria. Though Hadad-ezer was defeated by David, his successors reigned at Damascus as kings of Syria, for ten generations, and Israel had not long the mastery over Syria. It was laid waste, and Samaria was grievously besieged by the king of Syria, who reigned at Damascus; and "Israel was delivered into the hand of Hazael, and into the hand of Benhadad, his son, all

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their days." Strabo speaks of the renowned region, as well as of the noble city of Damascus. Numerous coins exist which show that in the times of the Cæsars, it was "the metropolis of the Damascenes," and the metropolis of the colony of Damascus-the name of the country being Damascene." Not only does Hamath lie on its farther side from Israel's ancient border; and not only did David and Solomon exercise a sovereignty over it, and seek their "borders" far beyond it, but such is the change to be yet wrought by one word of promise, that the southern border of Dan, in the land yet to be possessed, is fixed on the border of Damascus NORTHWARD, whereas its north border (which antiquarians are so fearful to pass) anciently lay on the south border of Damascus. Beyond that renowned region ample space must be found for a whole tribe of Israel, when the land shall overflow for the multitude of men.

'Isa. vii. 8.

'Nicolas (of Damaseus) quoted by Josephus, Ant. vii. 5, 2.

32 Kings xiii. 3.

6

4 Η Δαμασκηνη χώρα, διαφέροντας επαινούμενη εστι δε και ἡ Δαμασκός πολις αξιόλογος σχεδόν τι και επιφανεσταη τε ταυτη κατα τα Περσικα. Damascenus ager apprime nobilitatus. Damascus urbs est insignis, omnium fere nobilissima, quæ in ea sunt regione, Persis vicina, Strabo, p. 1074.

5 Nummi hujus civitatis plures prostant-augusti ▲AMAEKHNON Damascenorum: Commodi MHTPOÑOAENC AAMACKHNON, Metropoleos Damascenorum: Caracalla KOAṆNIAC AAMACKOT MHTPOП. Coloniæ Damasci metropolis, &c. Cellar. Geograph. Ant. tom. ii. p. 270. • Ezek. xlviii. 1.

Hamath was the capital of the Hamathites, one of the families of the Canaanites, all whose lands, though not possessed at the death of Joshua or in past ages, pertain to Israel by promise. It formed a part of the kingdom of Israel, though not of the land which the seed of Jacob occupied as their own in full possession. Not only did Solomon build store-cities in Hamath; but Jeroboam recovered Damascus and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel. He restored THE COAST OF ISRAEL from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the plain.1

Hamath and its land, once a kingdom, thus pertains to the promised inheritance. In that region the Euphrates approaches comparatively near to the Mediterranean; and as these form "the sides east and west," the portion of a tribe calls for comparatively larger bounds from south to north. "From the north-end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goeth to Hamath, Hazar-enan; the border of Damascus northward, to the coast of Hamath; for these are his sides east and west, a portion for Dan." Conjoined as the north-northward (or far north) is with the northern border of Damascus, and the border of Hamath, the north-end of the Israelitish inheritance, when it shall all be their own, may not, or rather cannot, come short of the north-end of that land, which once owned the supremacy of Israel, and formed a part of its coast as a subjugated country; and which bore the name of a family of the Canaanites, -as its ancient capital still does,-all whose land Israel was finally to possess.

Hamath, as Josephus states, was called Epiphania by the Macedonians. Jerome says that it received that name from Antiochus, by which it was afterwards known to the Greeks and Romans. He marks its site as near