river varies much in different places, and at different times of the year. The average breadth has been calculated by Dr. Shaw at nine yards, and the depth at nine feet. In the season of flood, in April and the early part of May, the river is full, and sometimes overflows its lower banks, to which fact there are several allusions in Scripture (Josh. iii. 15; I Chron. xii. 15; Jer. xii. 5; xlix. 19; 1. 44; Ecclus. xxiv. 26). The whole course of the river is about one hundred miles in a straight line, from north to south; but, with its windings, it probably does not describe a course of less than one hundred and fifty miles. Burckhardt says that it now bears different names in the various divisions of its course: Dhan, near its source; Ordan, lower down, near the Sea of Galilee; and Sherya, between that lake and the Dead Sea.

"The plain of Jordan... was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.'-The very valuable discoveries of Dr. Robinson require us to modify very considerably all our previous notions respecting the appearance of the plain of the Dead Sea, before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and also respecting the extent and character of that visitation itself.

It has usually been assumed that the Dead Sea has only existed since the devastation of the cities of the plain;' and the favourite hypothesis of late years has been, that before that time the Jordan flowed through the whole length of the Wady-el-'Arabah to the Gulf of Akabah, eaving the present bed of the Dead Sea a fertile plain. But this, as we now learn, could not have been the case, at least within the times to which history reaches back. Instead of the Jordan pursuing its course southward to the Gulf, Dr. Robinson found that the waters of the Arabah, and also those of the high western desert, far south of Akabah, all flowing northward into the Dead Sea. 'Every circumstance goes to show that a lake must have existed in this place, into which the Jordan poured its waters, long before the catastrophe of Sodom. The great depression of the whole broad Jordan-valley, and of the northern part of the 'Arabah, the direction of its lateral valleys, as well as the slope of the high western desert towards the north, all go to show that the configuration of this region, in its main features, is coëval with the present condition of the surface of the earth in general; and not the effect of any local catastrophe at a subsequent period.'

Where, then, it may be asked, were 'the cities of the plain,' and the country in which they stood? It seems a

necessary conclusion, that although the lake existed previously to their destruction, it then covered a much less extent of surface than at present. The cities which were destroyed must have been situated on the south of the lake as it then existed: for Lot fled to Zoar, which was near Sodom; and Zoar lay almost at the southern end of the present sea. The fertile plain, therefore, which Lot chose for himself, where Sodom was situated, and which was well watered, like the land of Egypt, lay also south of the lake as thou comest unto Zoar. Even at the present day, more living streams flow into the Ghor at the south end of the sea, from wadys of the eastern mountains, than are to be found so near together in all Palestine; and the tract, although now mostly desert, is still better watered, through these streams and by the many fountains, than any other district throughont the whole country.

In the same plain were 'slime-pits,' that is to say, wells of bitumen or asphaltum, which appear to have been of considerable extent. The valley in which they were situated is indeed called Siddim; but it is said to have been adjacent to the salt sea,' v. 3, and it contained Sodom and Gomorrah. The streams that anciently watered the plain remain to attest the accuracy of the sacred historian, but the pits of asphaltum are no longer to be seen. Did they disappear in consequence of the catastrophe of the plain?

Like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.'This is unintelligible as it stands. The meaning is that the plain of the Jordan was so far as Zoar well watered every where, like the land of Egypt or the garden of Eden. As Zoar was at the southern extremity of the Ghor, we wonder that Dr. Robinson did not discover the support which this text would afford to his argument, that the river did not formerly flow on to the Red Sea, or beyond this point. If it had done so, the limit of abundant irrigation would not have been drawn at Zoar as it is in this text; but might have been extended southward, even to the Red Sea. Or Zoar, see the note on xix. 22.

18. Plain of Mamre.'-The note on ch. xii. 6, applies here; the word translated 'plain' being the same in both places. No doubt a tree, and probably a terebinth tree, is meant here. Mamre is the name of the person who is described, in v. 13 of the next chapter, as an Amorite, one of three brothers who were friends of Abraham, and confederates with him in his expedition against the four kings It would probably be correct to translate, dwelt at the turpentine tree of Mamre, which is in [the neighbourhood

of] Hebron.' Sozomen, the ecclesiastical historian, says the tree still existed in the time of Constantine, at the distance of six miles from Hebron, and was famous for pilgrimages and for a great fair to which the concourse gave occasion. Opinions were at that time divided as to the antiquity of the tree; some thought it as old as the creation, and that it was the same under which Abraham entertained the angels; while others supposed that it grew from a staff which one of the angels left in the ground. Both Jews and Christians concurred in regarding it with such extraordinary superstition, that Constantine wrote to direct Eusebius, bishop of Cæsarea, to put a stop to the grosser forms of the idolatrous homage it received, and to throw down the altar which had been erected before it. The emperor, however, directed a church to be built, in which the regular offices of religion might be performed. Sanutus states that the trunk of the terebinth tree was still in being in his time (about 1300 A.D.), and that the pilgrims carried it away in pieces, to which great virtues were ascribed. Sozomen also speaks of a well dug by Abraham, and of certain cottages built by him. The Spanish Jew, Benjamin of Tudela, who was at the place about the middle of the twelfth century, says: On the confines of the field of Machpelah stands the house of our father Abraham, who rests in peace, before which house there is a spring; and in honour of Abraham no one is allowed to construct any building on that site.' These ruins, which are still shown to travellers as the house of Abraham,' seem in fact to be the remains of a small convent. Moreover, the pilgrims and travellers seem to have forgotten that Abraham was a dweller in tents, and does not appear to have ever had a house in Canaan.

— 'Hebron,' properly Chebron (in, in the Greek Xeßpor), stands in an elevated and rocky but fertile district of southern Palestine, 28 miles south of Jerusalem, in 31° 32' 30" N. lat., 35° 8' 20" E. long., at the height, according to Schubert (Reise ins Morgenlande), of no less than 2664 Paris feet above the level of the sea.

It is one of the most ancient cities existing, having, as Moses in

forms us, been founded seven years before Zoan in Egypt (Num. xiii. 22). Its more ancient name was Kirjath-Arba, that is, city of Arba,' probably from Arba, the father of Anak and of the Anakim, who dwelt in and around Hebron (Gen. xxiii. 2; xxxv. 27; Josh. xiv. 15; xv. 3; xxi. 11; Judg. i. 10). But some Rabbinical writers translate the name Arba y, which means 'four,' and thus make it City of the Four,' which they then interpret to mean the four couples they suppose to have been buried there, namely, Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah. It appears to have been in the time of Abraham called also Mamre, probably from the patriarch's Amoritish ally of that name (Gen. xxiii. 19; XXXV. 27; comp. xiv. 13, 28). It has been urged that the place did not receive the name of Hebron till after the time of Moses, and we are referred to Josh. xiv. 15; xv. 13, in proof of this assertion. This has been alleged by some in proof that Genesis could not have been written by Moses, and by others as a mark of the subsequent revision ascribed to Ezra. But all the particulars are compatible with the impression which a comparison of texts would convey, that Hebron was the original Hebrew name of the place, which was subsequently changed to Arba (by a man of that name), but was restored by the Israelites on their entrance into Canaan.

The ancient city lay in a valley; and the two remaining pools, one of which at least existed in the time of David, serve, with other circumstances, to identify the modern with the ancient site, Gen. xxxvii. 14; 2 Sam. iv. 12. Much of the life-time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was spent in this neighbourhood, where they were all entombed; and it was from hence that the patriarchal family departed for Egypt by the way of Beersheba, Gen. xxxvii. 14; xlvi. 1. After the return of the Israelites, the city was taken by Joshua and given over to Caleb, who expelled the Anakim from its territories, Josh. x. 36, 37; xiv. 6-15; xv. 13-14; Judg. i, 20. It was afterwards made one of the cities of refuge, and assigned to the priests and Levites, Josh. xx. 7; xxi. 11, 13. David, on becoming king of Judah, made

Hebron his royal residence. Here he reigned seven years and a half; here most of his sons were born; and here he was anointed king over all Israel, 1 Sam. ii. 1-4, 11; 1 Kings ii. 11; 2 Sam. v. 1, 3. On this extension of his kingdom Hebron ceased to be sufficiently central, and Jerusalem then became the metropolis. It is possible that this step excited a degree of discontent in Hebron, which afterwards encouraged Absalom to raise in that city the standard of rebellion against his father, 2 Kings xv. 9, 10. Hebron was one of the places fortified by Rehoboam, 2 Chron. xi. 10; and after the exile the Jews who returned to Palestine occupied it and the surrounding villages, Neh. xi. 15.

Hebron is not named by the prophets, nor in the New Testament; but we learn from the first book of Maccabees, and from Josephus, that it came into the power of the Edomites, who had taken possession of the south of Judah, and was recovered from them by Judas Maccabæus, 1 Macc. v. 65; Joseph. Antiq. xii. 8, 6. During the great war, Hebron was seized by the rebel Simon Giorides, but was re-captured and burnt by Cerealis, an officer of Vespasian (Joseph. De Bell. Jud. iv. 9; vii. 9). Josephus describes the tombs of the patriarchs as existing in his day; and both Eusebius and Jerome, and all subsequent writers who mention Hebron, down to the time of the Crusades, speak of the place chiefly as containing these sepulchres, for an account of which see the note on ch. xxiii. 19. In the course of time the remarkable structure enclosing the tombs of Abraham and the other patriarchs was called the 'Castle of Abraham;' and by an easy transition this name came to be applied to the city itself; till in the time of the Crusades the names of Hebron and Castle of Abraham were used interchangeably. Hence, as Abraham is also distinguished among the Moslems by the appellation of el Khulil, the Friend' (of God), this latter epithet became, among them, the name of the city; and they now know Hebron only as el Khulil. Robinson's Researches, ii. 456.

Soon after the Crusaders had taken Jerusalem, Hebron also appears to have passed into their hands, and, in 1100, was bestowed as a fief upon Gerhard of Avennes; but two years after it is described as being in ruins (Wilken, Gesch. der Krus, ii. 44; Saewulf, Peregrin. p. 269). In 1167 Hebron was raised to the rank of a bishopric, and the title of bishop of Hebron long remained in the Romish church, for it occurs so late as A.D. 1365. But it was merely nominal; for after the capture of Jerusalem by Saladin in 1187, Hebron also reverted to the Moslems, and has ever since remained in their possession. In the modern history of Hebron the most remarkable circumstance is the part which the inhabitants of the town and district took in the rebellion of 1834, and the heavy retribution which it brought down upon them. They held out to the last, and gave battle to Ibrahim Pasha near Solomon's Pools. They were defeated; but retired and entrenched themselves in Hebron, which Ibrahim carried by storm, and gave over to sack and pillage. The place has not yet recovered from the blow it then sustained.

The town of Hebron lies low down on the sloping sides of a narrow valley (of Mamre), chiefly on the eastern side, but in the southern part stretches across also to the western side. The houses are all of stone, high and well built, with windows and flat roofs; and on these roofs are small domes, sometimes two or three to each house. The streets are narrow, seldom more than two or three yards in width; the pavement, where one exists, is rough and difficult. The bazaars are to a considerable extent covered. The goods in them are thus secured from the effects of the sun and rain, but the streets are rendered gloomy as well as damp. These shops are well furnished, better indeed than those of towns of the same class in Egypt, and the commodities are of a very similar description. The only display of local manufactures is the produce of the glassworks, for which the place has long been celebrated in these parts. The articles manufactured consist chiefly of

glass lamps, many of which are exported to Egypt, and rings of coloured glass, worn by females on the arms. Lord Nugent adds to the articles in which the Jewish inhabitants trade, 'earthenware and coarse cloth, wine which is not bad, oil which is good, and a sort of ardent spirit which is detestable.'

There are nine mosques in Hebron, none of which pos sess any claim to interest, save the massive structure built over the tombs of the patriarchs, an account of which will be found under ch. xxiii. 19. A common Moslem tomb in the neighbourhood of the town passes as the tomb of Abner. He was certainly buried at Hebron; and the head of Ishbosheth was deposited in the same sepulchre, 2 Sam. iii. 32; iv. 12; but there is little evidence of this being the tomb. Nothing at Hebron bears the stamp of high antiquity except the wall which encloses the court wherein stands the mosque over the tomb of the patriarchs, and two reservoirs, for rain water, outside the town. The wall is extensive and lofty, formed of large stones, and strengthened by square buttresses. Dr. Robinson thinks it may be the same which is mentioned by Josephus (Antiq. i. 14; De Bell. Jud. iv. 9. 7), and by Eusebius and Jerome (Onomasticon, s. v. 'Arboch') as belonging to the sepulchre of Abraham. Of the reservoirs, the largest is at the bottom of the valley, just outside the southern gate. It is a large basin, 133 feet square, and 21 feet 8 inches deep, containing 14 feet of water in May, and more or less at other times of the year. It is built of hewn limestone, of solid workmanship, and very ancient date. The other and smaller reservoir is also in the bed of the valley at the north end of the town. It measures 85 feet by 55, with a depth of 18 feet, containing in May 7 feet of water. These cisterns are supplied entirely by rains, and form the main dependence of the inhabitants for water. One of them is without doubt the pool of Hebron,' over which David hanged up the assassins of Ishbosheth.

The present population of Hebron has not been clearly ascertained. The highest estimate makes it 10,000, and the lowest 5000. Most of the inhabitants are Moslems, of fierce and intolerant character. There are no resident Christians. The Jews amount to about one hundred families, mostly natives of different countries of Europe, who have emigrated to this place for the purpose of having their bones laid near the sepulchres of their illustrious ancestors. They have two synagogues and several schools. As usual, they have a quarter of the city to themselves, where the streets are narrow and filthy, and the houses mean.

The environs of Hebron are very fertile. Vineyards and plantations of fruit-trees, chiefly olive-trees, cover the valleys and arable grounds; while the tops and sides of the hills, although stony, are covered with rich pastures, which support a great number of cattle, sheep, and goats, constituting an important branch of the industry and wealth of Hebron. The hill country of Judah, of which it is the chief town, is indeed highly productive, and under a paternal government would be capable of sustaining a large population. That it did so once, is manifest from the great number and extent of ruined terraces and dilapidated towns. It is at present abandoned, and cultivation ceases at the distance of two miles north of the town. The hills then become covered with prickly and other stunted trees, which furnish Bethlehem and other villages with wood.'

Hebron had been rarely visited by European travellers from the latter end of the seventeenth century till about thirty years since. Since then visits to Hebron have been comparatively common. The best accounts of the place have been given by Dr. Robinson in his Biblical Researches, by Dr. Olin in his Travels in the East, by Schubert in his Reise ins Morgenlande, and by Lord Nugent in Lands Classical and Sacred. Notices of less importance may also be found in the respective Travels, &c., of Ali Bey, Irby and Mangles, Poujoulat, Monro, Stephens, Paxton, Lord Lindsay, and Russegger.

CHAPTER XIV.

12 Lot is

18 Mel

1 The battle of four kings against five. taken prisoner. 14 Abram rescueth him. chizedek blesseth Abram. 20 Abram giveth him tithe. 22 The rest of the spoil, his partners having had their portions, he restoreth to the king of Sodom.

AND it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Árioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations;

2 That these made war with Bera king of Sodom, and with Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, and Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar. 3 All these were joined together in the vale of Siddim, which is the salt sea.

4 Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

5 And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in 'Shaveh Kiriathaim,

6 And the Horites in their mount Seir, unto 'El-paran, which is by the wilderness.

7 And they returned, and came to En-mishpat, which is Kadesh, and smote all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites, that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar.

8 And there went out the king of Sodom, and the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Admah, and the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (the same is Zoar;) and they joined battle with them in the vale of Siddim;

9 With Chedorlaomer the king of Elam, and with Tidal king of nations, and Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar; four kings with five.

10 And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; and they that remained fled to the mountain.

11 And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.

12 ¶ And they took Lot, Abram's brother's

son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

13 And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.

14 ¶ And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he "armed his 'trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.

15 And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

17 And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the 'king's dale.

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth:

20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him 'tithes of all. 21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the "persons, and take the goods to thyself.

22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth,

23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich:

24 Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

minated in Western Asia; and we should not wonder if it be ultimately discovered that even the "Shepherd-kings of Egypt were Assyrian viceroys, which discovery would throw great light on several circumstances in the lives of the patriarchs. Be this as it may, we learn that some years before the date at which we are now arrived, an Assyrian force had crossed the Euphrates, and made extensive conquests in Syria. This force appears to have been composed of detachments from the several small

49

nations or tribes which composed or were subject to the Assyrian empire, each commanded by its own melech or petty king. Of these kings, one named " Chedorlaomer, king of Elam," probably Elymais, appears to have been left viceroy of the conquests west of the Euphrates. This chief resolved, in the end, to carry his arms southward, and for this purpose took with him, not only the warriors drawn from his own clan, but those commanded by three other of such "kings," namely, Amraphael, king of Shinar (or Babylonia); Arioch, king of Ellasar; and another called Tidal, who, from his title, " 'king of Goyim," or, if we translate the word, " of peoples," may seem to have ruled a mixed people or a union of small tribes. Although the history only requires the mention of the vale of Siddim, we think it wrong to infer from thence that no other district of southern Syria was involved in the consequences of this expedition. The intermediate country, particularly on the coast of the Jordan and the country beyond, possessed by the Horim of Mount Seir, probably experienced its effects, although we only read that the four commanders made war with the five petty kings of the plain. Being defeated, these five kings were made tributary to Chedorlaomer, and in this state of subjection they remained twelve years. But, in the thirteenth year, some unrecorded circumstances encouraged the kings of the plain to withhold their tribute, in which act we may reasonably conclude that other districts of south-western Syria concurred. The year following, Chedorlaomer and his confederates undertook a new expedition to punish the revolters; and that they did not proceed at once against the kings of the plain, but went to the countries beyond the vale of Siddim, and only noticed it on their return northward, seems to us to give a very clear sanction to our conclusion-that other neighbouring districts were also subjugated by the Assyrians thirteen years before, and participated in the revolt of the thirteenth year. And this conclusion is further strengthened by the fact that the mere incidents of this expedition would seem to have been far more important than what we must otherwise suppose to have been its sole or principal object. Coming from the north, the Assyrian commanders traversed the country cast of the Jordan, overthrowing in their way the gigantic races by which that country appears to have been inhabited. Continuing their progress southward, the invaders smote the Horim who dwelt in the caverns and fortresses of Mount Seir. Where they crossed the Jordan we know not, but we next find them returning northward by, or along the western border of the great valley of the Arabah, reducing the tribes who inhabited the verge of the wilderness of Paran, on the south of Palestine, namely, the Amalekites, and such of the Amorites as abode on the south-western borders of the vale of Siddim. Arriving at last at that vale, the five kings by whom it was ruled went forth to give them battle. But they were defeated, and fled.'

2. These made war.'-This chapter contains the first example recorded in history of a war undertaken with views of foreign conquest. There is nothing to indicate that the war was very sanguinary. It appears that Chedorlaomer made a moderate use of his victory in the first case, as he left the kings of the five cities on their thrones, although doubtless on the condition of paying him an annual tribute. The sequel shows that at this time, when the world was but thinly peopled, the capture and removal of persons was esteemed an important and desirable object.

-Made war,' etc.-Many writers have pointed out this transaction as one of the most improbable in the Hebrew history; but it is one which a person acquainted with the usages or even the history of the East receives without the least hesitation. The ease with which a very large body of men may be thrown into a panic by the night attack of a very small one is familiar in all military history. But the present case needs not such illustration. It rather appears that we form too exalted a notion of the force of the invaders, arising, perhaps, from the ideas of power and magnificence which we connect with the title of king.' But what the kings of this age usually were, and what the general extent of their power, we shall

presently see; and even in our own day too much stress would not, in another case, be laid upon a title which is given equally to the lord of a few hamlets in Africa and to the sovereigns of England or France. Whether the four kings were themselves subject to some greater power for which they acted, as we conceive, or were independent, as some suppose, and only confederated for the purposes of this expedition, the conclusion as to their own condition of petty sovereigns, commanders of their own clans or districts, remains the same, and gives us no reason to suppose that the forces which they conducted were very numerous, or more than relatively formidable. Their strength arose from their association, and then was not such as the five petty kings of the plain were afraid to confront, or the four nomade chiefs to pursue. There is nothing to suggest the idea of a considerable army, either in the circumstances of the time--or even of the present time in the same country -or in the exploits which were performed, which are such as have been performed by small troops during the feudal ages in Europe, or by a still smaller force of Bedouins or Turcomans in our own day, dashing like a storm over a large tract of country thinly inhabited by people dispersed in small and distant communities, with no defence but in themselves, and allowed no time to combine in resistance. If the forces of the three Amoritish brothers bore any proportion to that of Abraham, the whole pursuing party may have consisted of 1000 men; and if we go so far as to suppose the invading kings had 1000 each, making 5000, the defeat of such a body by 1000 Bedouins in open fight is very far from being without example. And Abraham's victory over Chedorlaomer was won, not in open fight, but by a sudden surprise in the night season. See Pictorial History of Palestine, ii. 39.

Sodom-Gomorrah - Admah - Zeboiim-Bela.'— These are the five cities of the plain' which were afterwards doomed to destruction for their iniquity, and which were all destroyed with the exception of Bela, saved to afford a place of refuge to Lot. Sodom and Gomorrah are always so mentioned as to appear the principal of the five, and Bela was probably the least important. For observations on the situation and overthrow of these cities, and on the Dead Sea, see the notes on chap. xix.

'Zoar.'-Properly Tzoar, wy. The text shows the reason why this small town, one of the doomed cities of the plain, was preserved, and why its ancient name of Bala came to be changed to Zoar. It is mentioned again in Deut. xxxiv. 3; Isa. xv. 5; Jer. xlviii. 34, so as to show that it belonged to the Moabites, descended from Lot, and became a place of some consideration. In the time of Eusebius and Jerome it had many inhabitants, and was occupied by a Roman garrison. We afterwards hear of it as a large village, a fortified place, and the seat of a bishopric. The Christian writers during the Crusades scem to have found the place under the name of Segor (which is the Septuagint orthography of Zoar); and they describe it as pleasantly situated, with many palmtrees. Abulfeda repeatedly speaks of Zoghar as a place adjacent to the Dead Sea and the Ghor, and indeed calls the Dead Sea itself the Lake of Zoghar. This is the same name as Tzoar; the apparent difference in Roman types arising from the fact, that the letter y ain in the Hebrew word is treated as mute, but in Arabic is represented by gh. Dr. Robinson (Bib. Researches, ii. 450, 481: 648-651) has much argument to show that Zoar must have lain on the east of the Dead Sea; which seems clear enough from its having been in the territory of Moab; and he thinks that Irby and Mangles have rightly fixed its position at the mouth of the Wady Kerak, at the point where the latter opens upon the isthmus of the long peninsula which stands out from the eastern shore of the lake towards its southern end. At this point Irby and Mangles discovered the remains of an ancient town. Here stones that have been used in building, though for the most part unhewn, are strewed over a great surface of uneven ground, and mixed with bricks and pottery. This appearance continues without interruption during the space of at