THE LAKE FO THE S ations Pr lled Hûleh, in old times bore the name of ards of Samachon, both probably nation,-"The High Lake'." On Lake of ht the third and last conflict of Joshua with After the capture of Ai and the battle of h secured to him the whole of the Battle of of Palestine-a final gathering of Merom. es took place in the extreme north, under the he hereditary title of Jabin', and the name of or, still lingers in the slopes of Hermon, at the in. Round him were assembled the heads of all \ had not yet fallen under Joshua's sword. As hiefs were driven to the Land's End before the he Saxon, so at this Land's End of Palestine were r this last struggle, not only the kings of the north, nediate neighbourhood, but from the Desert-valley of in south of the sea of Galilee, from the maritime plain stia, from the heights above Sharon, and from the still quered Jebus, to the Hivite who dwelt in the valley of a wild boar could get through." mpson.) See Reland's Palestine, p. 262. This .planation of Merom is undoubted. hree explanations are given of Samaon, by which it is called in Josephus Well. Jud. III. x. 7; IV. i. 1.) and 1 later writers. 1. From the Arabic imak, "high," and thus a translation Merom. 2. From the Chaldaic Samak, red," in allusion to its muddy waters, distinct from the clear basin of the Sea Galilee. 3. From the Arabic Samach, a fish." This last, in itself reasonble, becomes improbable from the fact hat it could hardly be given as a dis#nctive epithet, in comparison with the Σ lentiful fisheries of the Lake of Genesareth. 4. From Sabac, "a thorn," ɔ called from the thorny jungle round it. See Lightfoot, Chorograph. Ant. i. 4; i. p. 5.) It is called Sabac in the Babylonian, Samac in the Jerusalem Talmud, by the same interchange as "Jamnia and Jabnia. (Ib. ii. 15.) The name of Huleh, as applied to the lake, is as old as the Crusades. (Robinson, iii. 356.) But as applied to the vicinity, it is at least as old as the Christian era. Josephus states (Ant. XV. x. 3) that Augustus gave Herod Οὐλάθαν καὶ Πανίαda, and Ouλába is clearly the Greek form of Huleh, as Obλos (Ant. I. vi. 4) is of Hul in Genesis x. 23. (Fleischer, in Zeitschrift D. M. G., ii. 428.) If it is called after this Hul, the patriarch, we may compare the tomb of Sitteh Huleh, the Lady Huleh, near Baalbec. It would seem that the whole country is called by this name, Beled-el-Hûleh (See Schwarze, 41), and the Lake, therefore, is probably called from the district, and not rice versa. The Ghwaranieh Arabs on its banks call it the Lake of El-Mallahah (the salt), and so it is called by William of Tyre (xviii. 13), (Newbold, Journ. As. Soc. xvi. 18), possibly from the saline crust which Burckhardt describes on its south-west shores (i. 316). This probably is the explanation of the name of Mellahah given to the clear spring at its northwest extremity, and which was so called as being held by the neighbouring Arabs to be the source of the lake. Schwarze speaks of it (p. 29) as Ain Malka (“spring of the King"). Another name given by the Arabs to this lake, from the fertility of its shores, is Bahr Hit (the Sea of Wheat). 2 Josh. xi. 1. CHAPTER XI. THE LAKE OF MEROM AND THE SOURCES OF THE JORDAN. Judges xviii. 9, 10, 29. "Arise, that we may go up against them for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good. When ye go, ye shall come unto a people secure, and to a large land for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thing that is in the earth. . . . And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first." Matt. xvi. 13. "Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi. |