3. But the most striking and characteristic feature of PhiCornfields. listia is its immense plain of cornfields, stretching from the edge of the sandy tract right up to the very wall of the hills of Judah, which look down its whole length from north to south. These rich fields must have been the great source at once of the power and the value of Philistia; the cause of its frequent aggressions on Israel, and of the unceasing efforts of Israel to master the territory. It was in fact a "little Egypt." As in earlier ages the tribes of Palestine, when pressed by famine went down to the Valley of the Nile, so, in later ages, when there was a famine in the hills of Samaria and the plain of Esdraelon, the Shunammite went with her household " and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years'." In that plain of corn, and those walls of rock, lies the junction of Philistine and Israelite history, which is the peculiarity of the tribe of Dan'. This region is what the kings of Sidon regarded as "the root of Dan"." These are the fields of "standing corn," with "vineyards and olives" amongst Contact them, into which the Danite hero sent down the "three hundred jackals"" from the neighbouring hills. In the dark openings here and there seen from far in the face of those blue hills, were the fortresses of Dan, whence Samson "went down"" into the plain. Through these same openings, after the fall of Goliath, the Philistines poured back and fled to the gates of Ekron, and through these the milchkine, lowing as they went, carried back the Ark to the hills of Judah. In the caves' which pierce the sides of the lime with Dan. besieging immediately before the destruction of his army? The name, the situation, and the strength of the position perfectly agree. (Compare Joshua xv. 42.) 2 Kings viii. 2. 2 With the exception of the events of Samson's life, the history of the southern portion of Dan is too closely interwoven with that of Judah to be further developed. In one instance the Talmud speaks of the houses of a particular city (Baalath), belonging to Judah, and the fields to Dan. (Schwarze, p. 138). So at Hebron the city belonged to Levi, and the fields to Judah: Josh. xxi. 11, 12. 3 See note C. "Shualim," Jud. xv. 4. 5 Jud. xiv. 1, 5, 7. 61 Sam. vi. 12; xvii. 52. 7 That both these caverns were in this direction is implied by the context. Samson, after the slaughter at Timnath, "went down into the cleft' of the 'cliff' Etam," and there concealed himself till he was "brought up" by the Philistines. (Judges xv. 8, 13.) David fled from Gath to the cave of Adullam, and all his father's house went down from the hills of Bethlehem to visit him there. (1 Sam. xxii. 1.) Adullam is also fixed by Joshua, xv. 35, to be in the Shephelah, that being the word rendered 'valley' in verse 33. For the probable identification of these caves, see Van de Velde, ii. 140, 157. 66 stone cliffs of Lekieh and Deir-Dubban on the edge of the plain, may probably be found the refuge of Samson in the cliff" Etam, before his victory with the jawbone; as afterwards of David in the cave of Adullam. It is not often that on the same scene, events so romantic have been enacted at such an interval of time, as the deeds of strength which were wrought in this plain by him, "before whose lion ramp the bold Askalonite fell," and those of our own Cœur de Lion. Plains. with Egypt Gaza Desert. 4. As these plains form the point of junction and contrast with the hills of Judah on the west, so they form a Level point of junction and similarity with the wide pastures of the Desert on the south. This free access from the wilderness to the unprotected frontier of Philistia is what Contact in more recent times has always attached its fortunes more or less to those southern regions. was and is the frontier city of Syria and the south-west, as Damascus on the north-east; and standing as it does on its solitary eminence with no protection but its surrounding sand and mud, it was unable to restrain the advance of any enemy from that quarter. Hence the frequent march of the Egyptian kings through the low country.' Hence the possession of this plain by the Edomite Arabs, who, taking Eleutheropolis for their capital, occupied it under the name of Idumæa, during the period of the Herods. Hence the insecurity of these parts at the present day from the unchecked incursions of the Bedouin tribes; reproducing a likeness of the desolations, which, probably from the same cause, befell this same region at the close of the Jewish monarchy. "O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee that there shall be no inhabitant, and the sea coast shall be dwellings and 'cisterns' for shepherds, and folds for flocks'." Idumæa. II. The corn-fields of Philistia, as we advance further north, melt into a plain, less level and less fertile, PLAIN OF though still strongly marked off from the mountain- SHARON. wall of Ephraim, as that of Philistia was from the hills of Judah and Dan. This is" Sharon," a name of the same root as that used to designate the table-lands beyond the Jordan 1 Zeph. ii. 5, 6. ("Mishor"), and derived from its smoothness-that is, apparently, its freedom from rock and stone'. Like the Philistine plain it is divided into the "Ramleh," or sandy tract along the seashore, and the cultivated tract further inland, here called "Khassab," the "reedy;" apparently from the high reeds which grow along the banks of some of the streams which here fall into the Mediterranean; one of them always having borne that name "Kanah" or the "reedy." It is interspersed with corn-fields and thinly studded with trees, the remnants, apparently, of a great forest which existed here down to the second century'. Eastward the hills of Ephraim look down upon it-the huge rounded ranges of Ebal and Gerizim towering above the rest; and at their feet the wooded cone, on the summit of which stood Samaria. But its chief fame then, Pasture- as now, was for its excellence as a pasture-land. Its land. wide undulations are sprinkled with Bedouin tents and vast flocks of sheep; the true successors of "the herds which were fed in Sharon," in David's reign, under "Shitrai the Sharonite"," and of "the folds of flocks," which Isaiah foretold in "Sharon," as the mark of the restored Israel. Probably this very fact, then as now, rendered it insecure, and therefore unfrequented by the Israelites of the mountain country above; at any rate during the whole period of the Old Dispensation no one historical name or event is attached to this Dor. district. The only town that marked the region in Dor, and Naphath early times is Dor, with its surrounding district of "Naphath-Dor';" and this was in the hands of the Canaanites; their furthest southern settlement; the southernmost of that line of seaport towns which extends henceforth in regular succession along the coast as far as Aradus, or Arvad. Its situation, with its little harbour enclosed within 1 Like the Greek word apeλhs. (See Appendix.) 2 Joshua xvi. 8; xvii. 9. In the Gemara (Shevith, fol. 38, 4, reeds are mentioned as the special mark of streams. (Reland's Palestine, p. 306.) * Είτα δρυμος μέγας τις, Strabo, xvii. Apuuos is the same word by which the LXX have translated "Sharon," in Isa. lxv. 10, certainly not from its real mean ing, and therefore probably from this well-known feature by which to them it was chiefly distinguished. See Chapter V. p. 249. 51 Chr. xxvii. 29. 6 Isaiah lxv. 10. 7 Josh. xi. 2 ("borders") xii. 23 ("coast"); 1 Kings iv. 11 ("region"). For the word Naphath, see Appendix. the wild rocks rising over the shell-strewn beach, and covered by the fragments of the later city of Tentura, is still a striking feature on the desolate shore. Cæsarea. With But it was the fate of Sharon, as of some other parts of Palestine, after centuries of obscurity to receive a new life under the Roman Empire. From being the least distinguished tract it rose in the reign of Herod almost to the first importance. On a rocky ledge, somewhat resembling that of Ascalon on the south, and Dor on the north, rise the ruins of Cæsarea, now the most desolate site in Palestine. Like the vast fragments of St. Andrew's in Scotland, they run out into the waves of the Mediterranean sea, which dashes over the prostrate columns and huge masses of masonry; but, unlike St. Andrew's-unlike in this respect to most Eastern ruins-no sign of human habitation is to be found within the circuit of its deserted walls, no village or even hovel remains on the site of what was once the capital of Palestine. his usual magnificence of conception, Herod the Great determined to relieve the inhospitable barrier which the coast of his country opposed to the Western world, by making an artificial port, and attaching to it the chief city of his kingdom. The divergence of Eastern and Western ideas is well illustrated by the contrast between this Roman metropolis and those native capitals of Hebron, Jerusalem, Shechem, and Samaria, which we have already examined. Whatever differences distinguished those older cities from each other, they had this in common, that they were all completely inland. To have planted the centres of national and religious life on the sea-shore was a thought which never seems to have entered even into the imperial mind of Solomon. Far away at Ezion-Geber on the Gulf of Akaba, was the chief emporium of his trade. Even Jaffa only received the rafts which floated down the coast from Tyre'. To describe the capital as a place "where shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass by," is not, as according to Western notions it would be, an expression of weakness and danger, but of prosperity and security. But in Herod this ancient Oriental dread of the sea had no existence. 11 Kings ix. 27; v. 9. 2 Isaiah xxxiii. 21. He had himself been across the Mediterranean to Rome, and on his alliance with Rome his own power depended; and when, after his death, his kingdom became a Roman province, the city which he had called by the name of his Imperial patron, was still continued as the seat of the Roman governor, for the same reason as that which induced him to select the site-its maritime situation. From that sea-girt city, Pontius Pilate came yearly across the plain of Sharon, and up the hills, to keep guard on the Festivals at Jerusalem. In the theatre, built by his father,-looking out, doubtless, after the manner of all Greek theatres, over the wide expanse of sea,-Herod Agrippa was struck with his mortal disease'. Connection of Sharon and Cæsarea with The chief, indeed the only important link which Cæsarea possesses with Sacred history, is that which is at once explained by the fact of its being the seat of government. Of all the regions of Palestine there is none which is so closely connected with the Apostolic history as this tract of coast between Gaza and Acre, and especially the Apostolic neighbourhood of Cæsarea. After the first few years history. or months of the Church of the Apostles, the scene of their labours was removed from the ancient sanctuaries of their race "in Judæa and Samaria" to "the uttermost parts of the land." Partly, no doubt, the half Gentile cities of the coast were more secure than the centres of national fanaticism in the interior; partly in the growing consciousness of the greatness of their mission, these vast Gentile populations had for them an increasing attraction, powerful enough to break through the old associations which had at first bound them to the scenes of their country's past history and of their Lord's ministrations. Philip, after his interview with the Ethiopian pilgrim on the road to Gaza, "was found at Ashdod, and passing through preached in all the cities till he came to Cæsarea"," and there with his four daughters he made his home'. Peter "came down" from the mountains of Samaria "to the saints which dwelt at Lydda; and all they that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him and turned to the Lord:" and "forasmuch as Lydda Acts xii. 21; Josephus, Ant. XIX. viii. 2. 2 Acts viii. 26, 40. Acts xxi. 8. |