OLiM CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 084 301 781 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924084301781 In Compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 1998 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY NEM' WORKS ON PALESTINE. Palestine under the Moslems. By Guy i.e Strange. With map and numerous plans and drawings. Post Bvo. , ciotli e.\tra, 12s. 6d. Tell el Hesy(Lacliish). By W. M. Ki.inder.s Petkie. With 270 illustrations, etc. Demy 4to. , cloth eNtra, 103. 6d. Xorthern Ajliin. By G. Schumaciiek. With maps, plans, and over 60 illustrations. C rown 3vo., cloth extra, 3s. 6d. LONDON : ALEXANDER P. WATT. THE PALESTINE EXPLOMTIOI EUO : A SOCIETY FOR THE ACCURATE AND SYSTEMATIC INVESTIGA- TION OF THE ARCHAEOLOGY, THE TOPOGRAPHY, THE GKOLOCY AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE HOLY LAND, FOR BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATION. PATRON : HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN. GENERAL COMMITTEE : ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, President. Sir Henry W. Acland, K.C.B., F.R.S. Rev. Henry Allon, D.D. Rev. William Allan. W. Amhurst T. Amherst, E.sy. , M.P. Rev. Joseph Angus, D.D. Duke of Argyll, K.T. Edward Atkinson, Esq., F.R.C.S. J. R. Barlow, Esq. [AMES Kateman, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. Walter, Besant, Esq. (Hon. Sec). Rev. W. F. Birch. Herbert Birch, Esq. Bishop Blvth, in Jerusalem and the East. Rev. E. W. Bullinger, D.D. Marquis of Bute, K.T. Lord Eustace Cecil. T. Chaplin, Esq. ,M.D. Dean of Christchuech. Lord Alfred Churchill. Major C. R. Conder, R.E., D.C.L., Sir John Coode. [M.R.A.S. Major-General Cooke, C.B., R. E. General Sir John Cowell, K.C.B. J. D. Grace, Esq. Rev. W. F. Greeny, M.A., F.S.A. [ohn cunliffe, esq. Rev. Canon Dalton. Duke of Devonshire, K.G., F.R.S. Sir James Douglass, F.R.S. Earl of Ducie. Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, K. P. , K.C.B. F. A. Eaton, Esq. (Sec. R.A.). Rev. C. Lloyd Engstrom. Bishop of Exeter. Ven. Archdeacon Farrar, D.D. H. W. Freeland, Esq. Douglas W. Fkeshfield, Esq. {Ho/!. Sec. K. G. S.]. M. C. Clermont-Ganneau. Francis Galton, Esq., F.R.S. (President of tlie Anthropological Institute). Rev. Cunningham Geikie, D. D. F. Waymouth Gibes, Esq., C.B. Rev. C. D. Ginsburg, LL D. James Glaisher, Esq., F.R.S. (Chair- man of the Executive Committee). Major-General Sir F. J. Goldsmid, K.C.S.I. Lawrence Gomme, Esq. (Director of the Folklore Society). Sir Cyril C. Graham, Esq., C.M.G. Professor J. G. Greenwood. Sir George Grove, D.C.L. Col. G. E. Grover, R.E., F.S.A. H. A. Harper, Esq. Rev. J. C. Harrison, F.R.G.S. Rev. Thomas Harrison. Rt. Hon. the Earl of Harrowby. A. H. Hevwood, Esq. Oliver Hevwood, Esq. Sir Joseph D. Hooker, K. C.S.I. Rev. Prof. Hort, D.D. Prof. Hudleston, F.R.S. Prof. Hull, F.R.S., LL.D. HoLMAN Hunt, Esq. Rev. Christopher Blick Hutchinson (Examining Chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury). Surgeon-General R. F. Hutchinson, M.D. T. B. Johnston, Esq., F.R.G.S. H. C. Kay, Esq. Herr B. Khitrovo. Col. H. H. Kitchener, C.M.G., A.D.C, R.E. E. H. Lawrence, Esq. Right Hon. Sir A. H. Layard, K.C.B. Sir Edmund A. H. Lechmere, Bart., Sir F. Leighton. P.R.A. [M.P. Gen. Sir J. H. Lefroy, C.B.. K. C.M.G. Prof. Hayter Lewis, F.S.A. Bishop of Lichfield. Dean of Lichfield. Bishop of Lincoln. Bishop of Liverpool. Samuel Lloyd, Esq. Col. Locock, R.E. Bishop of London. Rev. a. LOwy, D.D. Rev. Professor Lumby, D.D. D. MacDonald, Esq. John MacGregor, Esq., M.A. Halford J. Mackinder, Esq., M.A. (Reader in Geography in the University of Oxford). Sir Wm. MACKINNON, Bart. Captain A. M. Mantell, R.E. General CoMMnrEE (continued). R. B. Martin, Esq. The Master of Trinity, Cambridge. Henry Maudslay, Esq. James Melrose, Esq. Rev. Prof. Milligan, D.D. Noel Temple Moore, Esq., C.M.G., H.B.M.'s Consul -Genera I, Tripoli. Walter Morrison, Esq., M.P. (//ow. Treasurer). Sir William Muir, K. C.S.I. John Murray, Esq., K. R.G.S. Alexander Stuart Murray, Esq. Sir Charles Nicholson, Bart. , D.C. L., LL.D. Duke of Northumberland. Dean of Norwich. Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney. Henry Ormerod, Esq. Prof. Owen. C.B., F.R.S. Sir J. W. Pease, Bart., M.P. H. S. Perry, Esq. Reginald Stuart Poole, Esq., LL D. Rev. George E. Post, M.A., M.D. Rev. Prof. Pritchard, F. R.S. Rev. Prof. Rawlinson. Henry Reeve, Esq., C. B. P. le Page Renouf, Esq. Rev. James H. Rigg, D.D. Marquis of Ripon, K.G. Bishop of Ripon. W. H. Rylands, Esq., F.S.A. John Robinson, Esq. Bishop of Rochester. Rev. W. H. Rogers, D.D. Lord Rollo. T. Rymer, Esq. Bishop of Salisbury. Dr. Sandreczky. Sir Albert Sassoon, C.S. [. Rev. Prof. Sayce, LL.D. Lord Henry J. M. D. Scott. J. H. Shorthouse, Esq. Viscount Sidmouth. William Simpson, Esq., F. R.G.S. B.\siL WooDD Smith, Esq. Prof. Robertson Smith. William Smith. Esq., LL.D. Rev. John Stoughton, D.D. Rev. W. J. Stracey. Guy le Strange, Esq. Duke of Sutherland, K.G. Sir Richard Temple, Bart., K.C.S.I. William Tipping, Esq. Rev. Henry George Tomkins. Rev. Canon Tristram, LL.D., F.R.S. Herr C. W. M. Van de Velde. The Marquis de Vogo£. General Warren Walker, R. E. Col. Sir Charles Warren, R.E., K.C.B.,G.C.M.G.. F.R.S. Major C. M. Watson, R.E., CM. G. Dean of Wells. Dean of Westminster. Duke of Westminster, K.G. Dr. Percy D'Erf Wheeler, M.R.C.S. Rev. F. E. Wigram. Col. Sir C. W. Wilson. K.C.B., K.C.M.G., F.R.S., LL.D., D.C. L. E. T. Wilson. M.D. Bishop of Winchester. W. Alois Wright, E.sq.. LL.D. Re\-. William Wright, D.D. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. OajVrartw— JAMES GLAISHER, F.R..S. Walter Besant. Thomas Chaplin, M.D. J. D. Grace. F. A. Eaton. Rev. C. D. Ginsbukg. Sir George Grove. H. A. Harper. Prof. Hayter Lewis. John MacGregor. Halford J. Mackinder. Bankers — MESSRS. CouTTS AND Co , 59. Strand. The Union Bank of LfiNDOx. Charing Cross Branch, 66, Charing Cross. Hon. Treasurer — Walter MORRISON, Esq. Hon. Secretary — Walter Bes^nt Esq OJfice, I, Adam Street, Aldelphi, W.C. Assistant Secretary and Draughtsman— TA'R. George Armstrong. Walter Morrison. Rev. Prof. Saycr. William Simpson. Rev. Canon Tristram. Sir Chas. Warren. Major Watson. Sir C. W. Wilson. W. .\LDIS WkIGHT. Rev. W. Wright, D.D. Cheques and P.O. Orders payable to order of George Armstrong. It is particularly requested that all cheques and orders may be crossed Coutts and Co. Post Office Orders may be made payable at Charing Cross. NOTE.—" The Quarterly Statement," a Journal of Palestine Research and Discovery, is sent free to all Annual Subscribers to the Fund of Half-a-Guinea and upwards. THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. First edition (ctu vol., dciiiy 8c'(?J, Oct..^ i88g. Second edition (one voLy demy Zvo.), Dec, i88g. Third edition, revised, iviih notes, errata, and appctidi.x {oiic vol., demy Zvo.), Feb., 1890. FouT^h cditioTi, revised (otu: vol., post tz'o.), Fi-6., j8ci. THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS HY HENRV A. HARPER AUTHOR OF II.LLSTKATED l.l/ITK RS TO MV CHILDREN FHOiM THE HOIV LAND,' ' VVAT.KS IN PALESTINE,' 'gOSHFN TO SINAI,' ETC., ETC., ETC., Auti IMi'liibcr of the ExecKtivc Coiuniittee of the Palestine ExploTation Fund FOURTH EDITION Jlcbiscb, iDith ^otes, ffirrat-a. ani glfrpenlitx LONDON I'KINTED FOR THK COMMITTEE OK THE PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND HV ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1891 0. ^ 2> Z. ' So to delineate the outward events of the Old and New Testa- ment as that they should come home with a new power to those who by long familiarity have almost ceased to regard them as his- torical truth at all ; so to bring out their inward spirit that the more complete realization of their outward form should not degrade, but exalt, the faith of which they are the vehicle — this would indeed be an object worthy of all the labour which travellers and theologians have ever bestowed on the East.' — DEAN STANLEY : Sinai and Palestine, Introduction, p. xxvii. INTRODUCTION During the whole of my long occupatioi'i of the Secretary's chair in the office of the Palestine Exploration Fund, it was a continual cause of trouble and reproach to us that we had produced no book connecting in a popular and vivid manner the work which had been done by the Society with the Bible narrative. Sir Charles \Varren's ' Recovery of Jerusalem,' for instance, admirable as a record of discovery, could not pretend to afford the material for a complete reconstruction of the Herodian city, a thing which must still be postponed until further research has yielded the exact course of the walls, the exact lie of the rock, and the site of the Royal Sepulchres and that of the Temple. Major Conder's books, ' Tent Work in Palestine ' and ' Heth and Moab,' deservedly popular as they are, must be considered as books of travel in the first instance, only showing here and there what riches of Biblical illustration ain be got from the survey of the country by one who knows how to use the materials. Again, my own little books, ' Our Work in Palestine' and 'Twenty-one Years' Work in Palestine,' were intended as a very brief record of research accomplished, and could not do more than touch upon Biblical illustration, though that, and that alone, was the motive, and the reason, and the object of all the Society's work. Many subscribers to the Society constantly, and year after year, urged upon me the desirability of pointing out every quarter, in the Journal of the Society, the Biblical bearing of viii INTRODUCTION. the researches and the discoveries. This I could not do, nor was it possible for anyone to do, and for many reasons. First of all there are many lines followed out which lead to nothing, as when days and weeks are spent in searching for the Second A\'all, and nothing is found except — say— an old Crusading church ; or when pages and pages of the Journal have to be occupied with the details connected with a Byzantine pave- ment, which may be — or may not be — that constructed by Constantine round his Basilica of the Anastasis ; or, again, when a new group of tombs has been discovered, and must be sketched, planned, and described at length ; or when a build- ing has been found which may prove on examination by architects, or may not prove, to have been a synagogue ; or when among the ruins on a hilltop pillars and capitals, which ma)- prove architecturally and historically important, are found ; or when among the heaps of broken pottery over some old site there are picked up pieces which, by their form and orna- mentation, may connect the place definitely with history. Who is to say, as the record goes on from day to day, what bearing this or that discovery may prove to have upon the Bible. It must be remembered that the Bible is a collection of books covering a very long period of time ; but that, though many of the ruined sites in the Holy Land are undoubtedly of extreme antiquity — even dating from before the conquest by Joshua — it is rare indeed to find anything can be clearly pro- nounced to be older than the time of Herod. Therefore, when such a discovery is actually made, it becomes of the greatest possible importance — witness the Moabite Stone and the Phcenician inscription at the Pool of Siloam and the masons' marks on the foundation-stones of the Temple. Such discoveries illustrate the Old Testament history in a way which at once strikes the most ignorant reader. But they are rare indeed. On the other hand, researches which seem as they INTRODUCTION. go on to produce little indeed that can be directly connected with the Bible may be really revealing to us little by little the whole ancient life of the country, and giving back to us the long- vanished past. Thus, it is only by a scientific and exact survey of the whole country that the old topography can be recovered. Conder alone has rescued from oblivion more ancient sites than all other travellers put together. It is by carefully and patiently observing and noting the manners and customs of the most conservative people in the world that those of their ancestors may be learned and illustrated. The legends, lan- guage, traditions, songs and stories of the modern Syrians, furnish a continual commentary on the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. The study of the fauna, the flora, the geology throws light on many obscure points ; the archi- tecture and arts of the past connect ancient Syria with the countries about it. Indeed, one of the most valuable results of research is the modern discovery — it is nothing less — of the fact that Syria and its occupants were at no time isolated, but were always in relations more or less intimate with the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Hittites, and all other nations around them. Little by little — here and there by aid of an unexpected flash of light — we are recovering ancient Syria. As the past gives up its secrets they may be placed in columns parallel with those of the Old Testament, and, lo ! they are found to fit exactly. One thing, however, is as yet wanting. We have never yet found an ancient Israelite library. On the site of Ur of the Chaldees, for instance, we have found all the records of the past clearly written, to be read by any who have the skill. There are the sacred hymns, the songs of the people, their leases and contracts, their laws, their tariffs, everything to show the daily life of the city. In Syria this discovery remains to be made. Somewhere — in the vaults beneath the Temple which have never yet been explored ; INTRODUCTION. under some Tell, one of the mysterious mounds in the South Country, perhaps, there lie stored up for future ages, if the present age does not discover them, the ancient Books of the Hebrew people written in the Phoenician character — the Books of the Things Left Out — those Books which shall supplement the Chronicles and bridge over the time between the fall of the kingdom and the rising of Judas Maccabseus. When the Memoirs of the Survey were published, the few people — only five hundred in all — who could get that great work saw for themselves how great was the mass of material collected by the indefatigable hand of Claude Conder, whose name will never be forgotten as the Surveyor of the Holy Land. Then the cry for some such popular connection of the Memoirs with the Bible became louder and more per- sistent. Here a new difficulty arose. The man who could write such a popular book must possess certain necessary qualifications. He must have travelled in Palestine — not, that is, gone on a tour, but actually travelled in the old sense, which did not mean lying down in one place at night and going on again in the morning. This qualification ex- cluded all but a very few. Next, he must possess an intimate knowledge of the Book to be illustrated. Now, it is quite certain that those who really know the Bible are very few indeed. I have had exceptional opportunities of proving the amount of such knowledge possessed by the average man or woman, and I boldly assert that anything approaching to a real knowledge of the Bible. is rare indeed, even among those who every day teach from it. One, for instance, a serious and deeply religious lady, who may stand for many, confessed to me once that though she read in the Bible every day she only read the Epistles of St. Paul. Portions of the Bible are read and studied constantly, and the rest is neglected. Also, with the decay of the Puritanic spirit has decayed to a great INTRODUCTION. extent the old fashion of looking to the Old Testament history for examples of conduct and lessons in faith. Unless I very much mistake the signs of the times, the last twenty years have seen a great decline, chiefly due to this cause, in the study of the Old Testament both in its historical and its prophetic Books. On the other hand, the Bible is now read and studied by many who formerly never thought of consult- ing it, and with objects not dreamed of in those days. It is now known to be an invaluable help in the study of the past ; the student of Egyptian and Assyrian history would be lost without it. The ancient books are full of Ethnological history. The science of religion is found, in a new sense, to be based upon the Bible. The history of ancient civilization is inex- tricably connected with the historical portions of the Bible. And, again, those who love to consider the doubts and per- plexities of humanity and to reflect on the conduct of life, are never tired of reading those portions of the Old Testament which contain the Doubtings of the Man of Uz, the Hymns of King David, the Proverbs of his son, the words of Koholeth the Preacher, and the most impassioned of all Love Songs. But with the light of modern discovery the historical portions will now be read with an entirely new interest. If we no longer take Sisera and his fall as a lesson designed for every man in all ages, we may, and shall, still read the story with reference to the map, and study the campaign literally and exactly as if it were Wellington's campaign in the Peninsula. There are, however, many left who will continue to find such lessons in the history ; these will be greatly helped in taking the lessons home to themselves by the new reality which can be thrown upon the narrative. The third qualification necessary for one who should add a new commentary capable of being read and understood by all, is the power of writing popularly and vividly. INTRODUCTION. All three qualifications appeared to the Committee to be possessed by the author of the following pages. Mr. Henry A. Harper has been a traveller, not a tourist ; not once, but twice, his feet have lingered over these holy fields. He is an artist who has painted the lands of Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt ; he has a profound knowledge of the Bible and a deep love for every portion of it ; his reading is not limited to St. Paul on the one hand nor to the Book of Job on the other. He knows every part of the Bible. He has been for a great many years an active member of the Committee of this Society. And, finally, he has shown in his ' Letters to my Children from the Holy Land ' how well he can illustrate with pen and pencil the scenes of the Bible. In this new work, therefore, the author has attempted a thing hitherto untried. He has taken the sacred history as related in the Bible step by step, and has retold it with explanations and illustrations drawn from modern research and from personal observation. He has, in short, written a book which we hope will prove that long-desired popular connection of scientific exploration with the subject which exploration was intended to illustrate. It is, I hope, needless to point out that Mr. Harper in this volume speaks for himself, and not for the Committee. If therefore, there be any who should difier from him in con- clusions or opinions, in points of topography or points of doctrine, they will be so good as to remember that they differ from the author, and not from the Committee of which he is a member. WALTER BESANT, Hon. Sec. Palestine Exploration Fund, I, Adam Street, Adelphi, Oct. s,th, 1889. PREFACE TO FOURTH EDITION The three Library Editions of this work being ex- hausted, the Committee of the Palestine Fund have determined to publish the book in a cheaper form. The whole book has been again revised ; a few illustrations are left out, but man)' new notes added. The Author begs to thank his many correspondents who have written to him in such kindl}' terms. All corrections suggested he has endeavoured to carry out. H. A. H. PREFACE At the request of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund the writer has attempted to compile a simple account of the valuable discoveries made by the ofificers of the Fund in Palestine, as well as some of the equally valuable dis- coveries made by the Egyptian Exploration Fund, the two American Expeditions, and the latest travellers. The critic is warned that the writer does not pretend to literary skill — the arduous life of a landscape-painter has given him little time to cultivate the sister art of literature. He has endeavoured to write a simple book, for simple folk who love their Bible. To these he trusts this work will be of use. The warmest thanks of the writer are due to the Chairman and the gentlemen of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund for the use of their published works and their unstinted assistance in every way; to the able Assistant Secretary, Mr. George Armstrong, who is intimately acquainted with every inch of the land of Palestine, the writer's very best thanks are due — in short, without Mr. Armstrong's assistance in correcting the Arabic names, and other valuable suggestions, the writer could not have completed this work. PREFACE. To Walter Besant, Esq., the Hon. Secretary of the Fund, the writer is most deeply indebted for kind encouragement, for valuable suggestion, for help ever cheerfully given, and now, not least, for his valuable In'.roduction. Biblical critics will doubtless discover mistakes — in so large a subject and on which so many opinions exist, the writer can- not hope that he has escaped error ; but if any mistakes are pointed out, he will gladly profit by the corrections in future editions of this work. The list of principal works consulted closes the book : but as for many years the writer has studied the works of most Bible students, it would be impossible to name his indebtedness. In short, the merits of the book belong to others, its faults and failings to H. A. H. Ci.nr Mouse, Mii.i-ord-o\ Sea, Hants. CONTENTS CHAPTER I'Ai.K I. FROM TllF. CALL OI- ABRAHAM TO THE DKATII OF JOSM'II 1 11. ISRAEL IN EGYI'T 6l III. JOSHUA 142 IV. THE HOOK OF JUDGES I74 V. THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL 2O4 VI. THE SECOND HOOK OF SAMUEL 234 VII. THE FIRST HOOK OF KINGS 266 VIII. THE SECOND HOOK OF KINGS 318 IX. THE FIRST HOOK OF CHRONICLES 36S .\. THE SECOND HOOK OF CHRONICLES 380 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS LAKE OF gi;n\ksari;th ^ THE 'edge' oi- 'riiE deseri 82 THE LROAD I'ASS NEAR 'aIN HAWARAII 94 WADV TAlYIliEH 97 NAGB BL'DEKAII 99 THE GREAT I'LAIN Or EL MARKtLi - lOl RAS SUl'SAEEH, ' SINAI,' AND PLAIN Ol- ER RAIIAH I lO NAWAMIb 113 STONE CIRCLE NEAR llESIIHON I24 STONE GATE OF UNnERGROUXD CITV 12J COLUMNS 12S AIR-HOLE 129 OBSERVERS 142 DEniR -• 175 THE VALLEV Ol" MICH.MASII 2l8 TOMB OF NICODEMUS 208 VIEW FROM JENIN, LOOKING NORTH ACROSS THE PLAIN OF ESDRAELON 270 SAMARIA 315 MAP F.ltJ of Rook The Bible and Modern Discoveries. CHAPTER I. FROM THE CALL OF ABRAHAM TO THE DEATH OF JOSEPH. HE Bible is the Word of God — the Sword of the Spirit. At the same time it is permitted to man, by the exercise of the faculties given him by his Creator, to explain, by re- search, patient investigation, and travel, passages which otherwise might be dark, with every sympathy for ' honest doubt.' Yet this book is written for those who love the Bible ; who see in it God graciously revealing Himself to man ; who find in it His gracious plan of Redemption, and find also in it God's Magna Charta for the poor, which, if acted up to, would prevent any and all of the wrongs they often suffer. If, too, this Word of God were only read, studied, and acted up to, all those terrible divisions of Christianity which so scandalize the world would disappear. 2 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. To rightly understand the Word, we must first remember that it is an Eastern book, written in Eastern lands — full of Eastern thought, all customs spoken of Eastern ; hence the necessity for investigation in those lands, by the spade and pick, by study of monuments, language, customs, by close examination of the ground, in order that the full meaning of its pages may be understood. Some may say that Biblical discoveries are but the dry bones of religion ; but the prophet of old, when moved by the Spirit of God, found that the breath of the Spirit could wake even the dry bones into life, and that they stood upon their feet a great army clothed with flesh and vigorous with life. A very dear friend of my own — a splendid explorer, a great traveller — was at heart, in secret, an unbeliever in the sove- reignty of God. Circumstances compelled him to explore Palestine. To understand the country he found he must read the Book; and reading it in the full blaze of light which custom and country threw on it, he found that Jesus was indeed his Saviour. He brought the full power of his able mind to bear on all he saw, on all he read ; and in humble, grateful adoration he bowed before his God and Redeemer. He rests in the little Protestant cemetery on Mount Zion. Though dying at an early age, he was yet full of joy, thankful that he had been brought to that land, the study of which had removed all his doubts and had placed his feet upon the rock. There had been no sudden, violent change; all had been noiselessly accomplished : it had descended out of heaven from God. We may say, in one respect, that the minds of all great men resemble the revealed mind of the Great Creator ; that is, in patience. Look at all great lives : the settled purpose ; the steady holding to it. Abram is a fair type of all those men whose work God honours. They take Him at His word. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 3 The world may say they ' venture ' ; that they are ' enthusiasts ' ; but He blesses their faith and their work. Let us look at the lessons of Abram's life. In Gen. xi. 31 we first find his name : he is living with his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in 'Ur of the Chaldees.' His father leaves Ur, and, accompanied by all his family, goes to Haran. True, we know St. Stephen says, in the Acts of the Apostles vii. 2, that God had appeared to Abram ' before he dwelt in Haran,' and had told him to go out of the land of the Chaldseans ; but the outward sign of this was that he accom- panied his Tather Terah. ' " Ur of the Chaldees " has been found, the ruins of its temples excavated; some of its engraved gems may be seen in the British Museum. The place is now called Mugheir, on the western side of the Euphrates, on the border of the desert west of Erech '* — low down near the Persian Gulf, and not the ' Ur ' of most Biblical maps, near Haran. The name ' Ur ' is Semitic for Accadian eri, 'city.' The worship of ' Ur ' was that of the Moon-god. We may note here that Abram's original name is found on an early Baby- lonian contract tablet, written Abu-ramu, or Abram, ' the exalted father.' Sarah is the Assyrian sarrat, ' queen.' Milcah, the daughter of Haran, is the milcat, ' princess.' The Accadian inscriptions of which I speak are as yet the oldest in the world. Until these inscriptions were found and read, scholars placed both Ur and Haran in wrong localities. Haran, the place to which Terah emigrated, was the frontier town of Babylonia, commanding both the roads and the fords of the Euphrates. The word Haran means ' road.' This road was well known ; for Sargon I. of Accad had swept along it on his great expedition to the West. He. has left his image on the rocks of the Mediterranean coast, and he * Prof. Sayce, 'Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments,' 1888, PP- 44. 4S- I — 2 4 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. even crossed the sea to Cyprus. Abram here would be brought into contact with Semitic traders, as it was the great caravan road to Damascus and Egypt. In his early days he would be well accustomed to business. Do we not see his business habits coming out later in his transactions with the children of Heth (Gen. xxiii. i6), when his possession of the field was ^ made sure' (verse 17) ? We have in the British Museum seals of jasper, cornelian, and other hard stones, dating before his time. These seals were for stamping deeds. At Haran, Abram may have seen the armies of Chedorlaomer as they passed on their way to their distant conquests — armies which thirteen years later he was to engage in conflict and defeat. And now Terah dies, and the direct call comes — to leave his ' father's house . . . unto a land I will show thee ; and I will make of thee a great nation, and bless thee . . . and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed ' (Gen. xii. 1-3). Obedient to the call, he goes, taking with him Lot and all his family, 'not having,' as St. Stephen says, 'so much as to set his foot on ' (Acts vii. 5) of the land. He is no Jew, remember. He is Abram, ' the Hebrew ' ; that is, ' the man who has crossed ' the river Euphrates. Let us see if we can trace his route. Probably, as Dean Stanley thought, he crossed the Euphrates at Bir ; then a fertile track would lead him straight on. He must take that fertile track, and not the others suggested ; for had not he and Lot sheep, 'flocks, and herds, and tents'? (Gen. xii. 4, 5). Thence by Aleppo to Damascus. We may dismiss the various Arab tradi- tions which say he ruled as king in the latter city. And now, crossing the Pharpar, he must needs ascend the hills of Bashan, leaving on his left hand ' Argob,' now called El Lejjah, that stony, barren region ; from the heights he would see Lebanon, and Hermon, known then under its name of Shenir, the ' Shining ' ; and from some height hereabout would get his FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM 10 DEATH OF JOSEPH. 5 first view of the promised land : he would see Gennesareth and all the land of Galilee — places so full of Him who said, 'Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and He saw it.' Dean Stanley remarks of the views from hereabouts : ' the finest he had ever seen in this part of the world.'* This is still the caravan route : thence onwards, crossing the Jabbok, now called the Zerka, he might cross at the fords of Damieh, just below the junction of Zerka and Jordan ; thence by the easy road of Wady Far'ah to Shechem GENNESARETH. He is now in the 'land of Canaan' (Gen. xii. 5), which word means 'lowlands'; it originally meant only the coast, but in time the word was used to express the whole of Pales- tine. At Shechem the promises of God were renewed (Gen. xii. 7) ; and over the uplands he goes to Bethel ; again builds an altar, and journeys ' towards the south ' (ver. 9). Now, the south, called in Hebrew ' Negeb,' was the southern * ' Sinai and Palestine.' 6 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. limit of what afterwards became the land of Judah, held at this time by the Philistines — a land subject to periodic droughts, and hence famine. Why, even in 1870, owing to a drought, the Philistine country was almost depopulated, the inhabitants having gone to Egypt for food. The pastures of those Bethel hills would soon be exhausted and not fit for winter quarters, exposed as all the country there is to cold winds, snow and hail. In 1875 the cold there was most trying, and hence I imagine why Abrara went south, as there he would find better winter quarters. But the patriarch, who had seen the civilization of Babylonia, was now to come face to face with the culture of Egypt. He does not intend to stay permanently, but to ' sojourn there ' (ver. 10). He must have gone in the cool season, for then the short desert can be crossed; and from the south he would go by the central road, known in the Bible by the description of ' the way of Shur.' The Hebrew word used means a 'road,' 'a beaten track'; it is often translated ' the king's highway.' Traces of this road were found in 1878 by the Rev. F. W. Holland, on his fifth visit to Sinai Desert.* The road is really a continuation of the caravan route from Hebron and Beersheba. He found wells and ancient ruins, large numbers of flint flakes and arrow-heads. Here I must digress for a moment. The word ' Shur ' is said, by competent scholars, to mean 'wall.' There is plenty of proof that the ancient Egyptian kings built a ' wall ' to keep out the incursions of the Bedawin. If this is right, then the passage in Gen. xxv. 18 has this meaning: 'The wall that is before Egypt as thou goest toward Assyria.'! The earliest discovered mention of this wall| is in an ancient papyrus, of * Palestine Fund Quarterly Statmient, January, 1884, pp. 5- 13. t 'Kadesh Barnea,' Trumbull, pp. 44-58. t That there was a ' wall ' of defence on the borders of Egypt and Philistia is, I think, proved by Egyptian papyri. The extent or limits of that wall is a very open question. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 7 the twelfth dynasty, now in the Berlin Museum. It was closely guarded : there were ' watchers uport the wall in daily rotation.' Papyrus and inscriptions show us the Egyptian officers writing down the names of any who sought to pass the wall into Egypt ; so strict were their instructions that the names and numbers of the strangers are reported to the king. A papyrus, now in the British Museum, known as ' The Two Brothers,' shows us the state of affairs ; it tells of a Pharaoh who sent two armies to take a fair woman from her husband, and then to murder him. Another papyrus, in Berlin, records how the wife and children of a foreigner were taken from him by a Pharaoh. These extracts will show us why it was that Abram was in such fear on entering into Egypt, and why he wished Sarai to conceal the truth. It happened as he foresaw, and ' the princes of Pharaoh saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh ' (Gen. xii. 14, 15). But how was it that Abram had no need of an inter- preter? And how was it that these Egyptians 'beheld the woman that she was very fair ' ? (Gen. xii. 14). ' Abram entered Egypt during the reign of the Hyksos, or Shepherds.' The Egyptian word is kik shasu, ' prince of the Shashu,' or ' Bedawin.' They were a Semitic race, which had driven out the native Egyptian kings, who had taken refuge in Memphis* and Thebes. These shepherds reigned over the fertile Delta ; they had adopted Egyptian state, and they spoke a Semitic language, though they copied many Egyptian words ; for they called their king Pharaoh, from Egyptian fir-aa,-\ 'great house.' So the palace gave its name to the king ; just as we now say ' the Porte,' or gate, when we mean the Turkish Sultan. In short, these Hyksos, the foreigners, had adopted the customs of pure Egyptian culture. Now as to the veil. * Mariette Bey thinks the Hyksos conquered the country even as far as Memphis, f Sayce. 8 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. After a careful examination of thousands of inscriptions and representations of the daily life of Old Egypt, in the various temples, I cannot recall one in which a woman is represented with a veil. Wilkinson remarks that ' the ancient Egyptians were not as other Orientals, who secluded their women.'* But in the inscriptions we see them in all their feasts and pubhc rejoicings and daily life. We can see all the mysteries of the toilette of an Egyptian beauty. She has her eyebrows painted — ' beauty spots ' put on — hair dressed in various fashions ; but never a veil. If, therefore, Sarai wore one in Haran (which I doubt), she would, in deference to Abram's desire to do nothing to attract much attention, leave it off before entering Egypt. This question of veils will come up again. One thing is clear : she did not wear one.f All happened, then, as Abram had feared ; and ' Pharaoh and his house are plagued with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife' (Gen, xii. 17). She is released. And see how honourably Pharaoh behaves. No revenge : he restores the wife, and ' commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and all that he had ' (ver. 20). That king listened to the Voice — to the hand of God. Do not the Apostle's words apply here ? ' Of a truth, I perceive God is no respecter of persons. But in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted with Him ' (Acts X. 34, 35)- Though Abram fell, yet there was life in him — ever struggling upwards. Eg3'pt was going downwards. Better to be the crushed blade of grass which, though bent and feeble, yet has life, than the polished stone which, though it crushes the blade, is but itself dead. We can only repeat the words of Holy * ' Ancient Egyptians,' Wilkinson. t No veils are worn now by the Bedawln women in the ' Ncgeb,' and in the country round Beersheb.i. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 9 Writ : ' Abram believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness ' (James ii. 23). The patriarch, now with Lot, goes ' «/ oul of Egypt' (Gen. xiii. i). This is a true description ; for to go to the ' Negeb ' would be, indeed, to ascend into the hill country. They go back to Bethel. There Abram ' called on the name of the Lord.' Then comes the strife with the herdsmen. Lot chooses the plain which he saw; for he 'beheld the plain of Jordan ' (Gen. xiii. 10). A fact of importance, as we shall see hereafter. Abram goes to Mamre — Hebron ; and while there comes that great invasion of Chedorlaomer and his confederate kings. The ' kings ' or ' sheikhs ' of Sodom and the plain had been subject to this mighty monarch, but had rebelled ; and now comes that wondrous march. Starting from Elam, below Babylon, he follows the course of the river Euphrates, on the east bank, to Haran — high up north ; then crosses the fords, and, turning, taking or passing Kadesh of the Hittites, on to Damascus ; through Rephaim, the land of giants, Bashan, Moab ; further on crushing the Horites, in Mount Seir ; turns west to El Paran, now the station of Nakhl, in the desert, having swept the Gulf of 'Akabah ; thence turning to Kadesh, the oasis, he sweeps through the country of the Amalekites and Amorites ; to Hazezontamar, the Engedi, and thence through the passes. So, having cleared his flanks, he goes through to the vale of Siddim. The kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the kings of the vale, oppose him ; he defeats their array — some fly to the mountains, some fall in the ' slime ' or bitumen pits — while he carries Lot and all the accumulated plunder away. This vale of Siddira seems ever to have been full of slime-pits. The Egyptians got the bitumen with which they embalmed their dead from here; and even to this day 'pits' exist. Dr. Merrill, of the .American Survey, counted in one place a row of thirty-one, and in another row twenty ; they are from 10 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. three to six feet deep, and he says more can be traced.* The Arabs have an old tradition that they were dug for mihtary purposes, and relate how a king once fell into them, and that a powerful Jeivish prince rescued him. This, to say the least, is curious. Pits or ' ditches ' are mentioned as having been dug when Jehoshaphat warred against Moab (2 Kings iii. 16). Dr. Merrill adds : ' I took special pains to see if there were any marks of water having been conveyed from one to another, but could discover no such traces. In this series there are thirty-one pits in the longest line, and twenty in the other. The line probably extended somewhat farther towards the Jordan, but the pits in that direction have been obliterated in some way. Indications of their use might be developed if cuttings could be made in them ; but the heat was great, and I could not ask our men to dig in the baked earth under a sun that raised the mercury to 120° or more.' On page 227 Dr. Merrill remarks, 'What the "slime pits" of Gen. xiv. 10 were I do not understand.' Dr. Chaplin, so long resident in Jerusalem, writes me : ' My Bedawy guide, an Adwan, told me they were called " the pits, or hiding-places of Zair," and were intended for the conceal- ment of cavalry, i.e., Bedawln horsemen, a purpose which they are admirably adapted to serve ; the two converging lines north of Nimrin forming, in conjunction with the southern line, a strategical position which I (who am no soldier) should think would be of great importance in the Arab style of warfare.'t * ' East of the Jordan,' Merrill, p. 225. + In the Quarterly Statement for January, 1890, will be found an able letter from W. Simpson, Esq. He says these ' pits ' appear to. resemble some which are found in Persia and Afghanistan, called ' Karaize,' and used for storing water. The Rev. James Neil (Quarterly Statement, April, 1890) describes these ' pits ' as he saw them, and adds that this network of water-pits, stretching across the whole vale, naturally completed the rout of FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH, ii Some who escaped came and told Abram, who, secure in the highlands at Hebron, had not felt the shock of the invader; he armed his 'trained servants' (Gen. xiv. 14), with his allies, Aner and Eshcol, for his heart yearned for Lot, his nephew. Aner and Eshcol would also have their contingents, for the Hebrew text says they were ' lords of a league ' with Abraham. All had friends to rescue or avenge. Down the passes they go ; soon up the valley, or ghor, on the track of the invader ; and after about four days and nights of swift marching, see his camp — Chedorlaomer's army, spoilt by conquest, hampered with spoils and captives, demoralized by feastings, thinking they had conquered all foes, keeping a loose night watch — as all Eastern armies have ever done, from those days to Tell el Kebir — subject, too, as all Eastern armies have ever been, to sudden panic. Then came the night-attack in flank and rear — had not Abram ' divided himself against them by night'? (Gen. xiv. 15) — not deficient in strategy; ' turning movements ' were known to him. The huge array fell in each other's way ; a defeat followed — ^just like those of Xerxes in after-years ; the victor pursues them to Hobah, near Damascus, rescuing Lot, his goods and women — to receive on his return the congratulations of that mysterious personage, Melchizedek. Here we note the grandeur of Abraham's conduct. He declines to take anything for himself : ' Lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich' (ver. 23). And yet — like every good commander, thoughtful of his men — he says for the young men, the men who went with him, ' Let them take their portion ' (ver. 24). The promise to Abram is again renewed ; then he the retreating armies of the five kings. In the May number of the Theo- logical Monthly Mr. Neil gives full details as to his discovery, which really solves the question how the 'cities of the plain ' were supplied with water. 12 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. has ' a deep sleep ' and ' an horror of great darkness ' (ch. xv. 12) : he is told his 'seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs '; that they shall be afflicted four hundred years, and that afterwards they shall come out with great substance ; that he shall be buried in peace, and that in the fourth generation they shall come hither again — ' for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full' (ch. xv. 16). What a wonderfnl revelation ! for as yet he had no son. In the 1 8th verse follows the covenant the Lord made with Abram : ' Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.' These words define the borders of the Promised Land, north and south. The question, however, arises, What is ' the river of Egypt ' ? Here great confusion has crept in through an unhappy translation both in the Authorised Version and the Revised Version. AVhat is called 'river' should be 'brook,' or, better still, ' torrent.' In 2 Kings xxiv. 7 it is called ' the brook of Egypt'; in Joshua xv. 4, the Revised Version also translates the word ' brook of Egypt.' The borders of the Promised Land never touched the Nile. This ' brook,' or ' torrent ' of Egypt is now known as Wady el 'Arish ; few travellers have explored it. Let us quote some. Mr. G. J. Chester,* speaking of his journey from ' San ' — the Zoan of the Bible — to the border, says : ' Evening coming on, I again encamped near the seashore, and the next morning arrived at the Wady Fiumara, or dry torrent-bed of " El 'Arish," so strangely and misleadingly termed in the Authorised Version " the river of Egypt." The town, or rather village, of clay houses, stands between the desert and the sea, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile from the latter. . . . To the west of the entrance of the wady, close to the seashore, are the remains of some ancient houses. * Palestine Fund Quarterly Statement, July, 1880, p. 158. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 13 Occasionally in winter, when heavy rains have fallen amongst the mountains inland, the wady of El 'Arish is temporarily a turbulent rushing torrent. ... El 'Arish, or rather the wady at that place, is the natural boundary of Egypt, and appears as such in many maps.'* He notes that on the road he travelled old cisterns and wells abounded, and ruins of old cities. The late Rev. F. W. Holland left some most interesting notes of a desert journey from Nakhl to Ismailia.t He explored and mapped the true course of Wady el 'Arish. He found numerous small watercourses leading into this great wady. At one watering-place (' El Hathirah ') ' there are five bad wells and one good, which is very deep :' near this ' a stream and three or four shallow wells with troughs. Great beds of rushes betoken the presence of water, and we had to pick our way through these on account of small streams.' Many ' flint flakes and broken pottery were found.' He frequently notes ' streams and rushes.' Wady el 'Arish has been traced from the Mediterranean Sea to Nakhl ; it is really more than one hundred miles in length, and so is justly and truthfully called by the sacred historians 'ihe brook'' or ^torrent' of Egypt. At its source, near Nakhl, Holland describes it as ' a large barren plain with no trees,' and he further on adds that the Alluvial Plain is so scored by watercourses as to be very bad ground for travelling, and says in wet weather this upper portion must be quite impassable. Professor Palmerj shows how two great valleys drain the mountain plateau of the Tih Desert, and how they ' combine their streams, and then, flowing into ^^'ady el 'Arish, are carried on to the Mediterranean.' * Thestarting-point of the /;-i?/£K/ boundary between Egypt and Palestine is about midway between El 'Artsh and Gaza. — Palestine Fund Quarterly Statement, October, 1886. + Palestine Fund Quarterly Statement, January, 1884. X ' Desert of the Exodus,' vol. ii., pp. 288, 289. 14 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. Dr. Trumbull thus describes the wady :* ' The extended watercourse known as Wady el 'Arish, which runs northwards through the Desert of the Wanderings, dividing it into eastern and western halves, may be said to separate the Desert of the Wanderings on the east from the Desert of Shur on the west.' The name El 'Arish means 'boundary' or 'extremity.' Some scholars consider that in ' Nakhl ' — the name of the Egyptian fortress in mid-desert — we really have the word ' torrent,' while others derive the word from the Arabic ' Nakhl ' — ' palm- trees.' ' Egypt proper is bounded definitely enough on the east by a line drawn from El 'Arish to 'Akabah.f The wady dries up in the hot season, but after rain it is a narrow and rapid stream. The Archduke Ludwig of Austria, J in de- scribing this wady, says : ' It still brings water down from the hills. It may be crossed either close to the seashore or at a shallower spot not far distant.' He adds that the Alluvial Plain ' is so scored by watercourses as to be very bad ground for travelling.' Enough has been quoted to show how true was the ex- pression 'brook' or 'torrent' of Egypt, and that it should never be confounded with the Nile. So this, the southern frontier of the Promised Land, is seen to be a well-defined gorge, or wady, which reaches from the Great Sea westward to Nakhl, and continues to 'Akabah on the Red Sea. If we look at 2 Chron. ix. 26, we read: 'Solomon ruled over all the kings from the river {i.e., Euphrates) even unto the land of the Philistines and the border of Egypt.' The writer there did not confuse the ' brook ' with the Nile, as so many Biblical com- mentators do now. Listening to the advice of Sarai, Abram now takes Ha^ar, * Trumbull, ' Kadesh Barnea,' p. 115. + McCoan, ' Egypt as it is.' % ' Caravan Route between Egypt and Syria.' FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 15 the Egyptian maid, as wife. She, being dealt with harshly by Sarai, fled, and is found by the angel by ' ///« fountain in the way to Shur ' (Gen. xvi. 7). The only note of the position of this fountain is that ' it is between Kadesh and Bered.' Bered has not been identified, though some maps put the name in without question ! Kadesh has been found, and will be spoken of hereafter. The fountain must have been well known, for it is called //le fountain, and so would be on the middle or 'Shur' road from Palestine to Egypt. Palmer thinks he has identified it with a place now called ' 'Ain el Muweileh'* Near the junction of Wady el 'Ain and Guseimeh there are wells overflowing with water. The hills about are covered with ruins. Other travellers say that it is still called by the Arabs ' the Well of Hagar,' and they point out a rock chamber which they call ' the House of Hagar.' It is about twelve miles west from Kadesh ; its Hebrew name, as we know, is Beer-lahai-roi, 'the well of the living one, who seeth me.' 'Ishmael,' her son's name, means 'God heareth.' God, the merciful God, had seen the trials and heard the cry of the poor Egyptian wife. She returned to her home, and bare her son ; let us hope Sarai was kind to her. Long years pass ; Ishmael is thirteen years old, and the promise of the son by Sarai is still unfulfilled. At ninety-and-nine years of age, the Lord God again appears, and gives that wondrous command : ' Walk before Me, and be thou perfect' (Gen. xvii. i). His name and that of his wife are changed; the name of the promised son is given ; he is to be called Isaac, and from him a great nation is to come. And then we have that beautiful Eastern idyl of Abraham sitting in the tent door, in the heat of the day, when three strangers appear. True to all the claims of hospitality, so sacred to the Eastern races, Abram and Sarai find water and prepare food. It is too much the fashion of * ' The Desert of the Exodus,' Prof. Palmer, vol. ii., p. 354. 1 6 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. writers of the present day to sneer at the hospitality offered now in the East, and say it is because they expect greater gifts in return ; that has not been my experience. The Western races might still learn a lesson from the Bedawin, who, knowing not the law, are yet ' not forgetful to entertain strangers ' (Heb. xiii. 2) ; many a poor gift has warmed my heart when far away. And one felt the ' brotherhood ' of man, perhaps, more there than in the crowded city. And now the time is near at hand for the fulfilment of the long-delayed promise, and Sarai, behind the tent curtain in the women's compartment, had been listening to the conversa- tion with the strangers, and when they named the time of the birth, she laughed (Gen. xviii. 12); and the son, remember, long before was to be named Isaac, that is, ' to laugh ' (Gen. xvii. 19). She only followed Abraham's example, for Gen. xvii. 17 shows he 'laughed' We all know that wondrous story of Abraham pleading for the guilty cities of the plain. Abraham, after all, is left in doubt ; if there were ten righteous men, the cities would be saved (Gen. xviii. 32). We must now examine the position 'of the cities of the plain,' and see if the commonly accepted notion is true, that the 'Dead Sea' covers their sites. At first let us note that the ' Dead Sea ' is not a Biblical term ; that sea is always called in the Bible ' the Salt Sea,' or the ' Sea of the Plain,' or the ' East Sea,' to distinguish it from the Mediterranean, which is always spoken of as 'the Great Sea westwards.' We noted before that Lot, standing on the Bethel hill, ' saw ' ' the Valley of the Jordan.' From no hill there, except one called by the Arabs 'the Hill of Stones,' can any view of the Jordan Valley or Dead Sea be seen ; and what can there be seen is the northern end of the Dead Sea, the Jordan Valley, and the river running like a blue thread through the green plain. The hills of Engedi shut out completely all view of the FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. }'j southern end of the sea ; but, as I before said, the northern end, where the Jordan runs in, and about two or three miles of the sea, can be seen. I have wandered over all the Bethel hills and tested this question. The cities wc7-e destroyed, but how ? ' Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven : and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and that which grew upon the ground ' (Gen. xix. 24, 25). The whole country then and now is bituminous ; the cities were built of the soil of the plain. Like the builders of Babel, ' they had brick for stone, and slime (bitumen) for mortar ' (Gen. xi. 3). The ' fire from heaven ' was lightning — truly a fire from God ! Cities, corn, grass, all took fire, and ' the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.' How extremely local the destruction was we can see in that Zoar, one of the cities of the plain, was not touched, at Lot's intercession. He says he 'cannot escape to the- mountain'; the city is ' little,' and ' near.^ Again, when ' the morning arose,' Lot, his wife and children are led out ; and ' the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar ;' so the time of his flight is between dawn and sunrise. Again, look at Abraham at Mamre, not twenty miles off : he hears nothing, sees nothing, though he is full of anxiety, till, 'early in the morning,' Abraham got up to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he looks toward Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. xix. 27, 28), and sees the smoke. He had heard nothing, felt nothing, before. Had it been, as some say, an earthquake, why, Palestine would have shaken to its centre to make that deep depression. Geology proves — as, in fact, anyone can see — that the deep depression of the valley and the Dead Sea must have existed from prehistoric times, when in long ages past the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea were united through the Wady 'Arabah, and the whole plain was an inland sea. But we do not rest on these proofs alone. In Deut- 1 i8 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. xxix. 23 it is written: 'And the whole land thereof is brim- stone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the Lord over- threw in His anger, and in His wrath.' Nothing here about a sea covering the sites ! And again, Deut. xxxii. 32 : ' For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah : their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter.'* And St. Peter (2nd Epistle ii. 6), speaking of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah hy fire, remarks, ' turning the cities into ASHES.' One final remark : From Mamre, or Hebron Hills, no view of the Dead Sea can be got — the Engedi hills bar the view ; but there is a dip, or gap, which would enable smoke to be seen if it arose at the northern end of the sea. Poets may write of 'That bituminous lake where Sodom flamed,' but many things of Milton have been accepted as Bible truth with as little foundation in fact. And what of the so-called ' apple of Sodom ' ? Here, again, in the Bible I find it only speaks of the 'vine,' that its clusters are 'bitter' — nothing about a tree or shrub. And none of the proposed 'trees' satisfy me. There is another mention of the ' vine ' when the sons of the prophets went into the valley and gathered some 'gourds,' and shred them into the pot, and then found the pottage bitter, and cried, ' O, thou man of God, there is death in the pot !' and the prophet Elisha cured the pottage (2 Kings iv. 39-41). And why hunt for an ' apple,' when there is in the desert, growing on the little hillocks, a 'vine,' much like a melon-vine for foliage, and bearing a fruit the size of a lemon, which is lovely to look at, but death to taste, as all Bedawin * Note Zephaniah ii. 9, ' IMoab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Amnion as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a per- petual desolationi' See also Jer, xlix. iS. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 19 know ; and well I remembar their horror when they saw me gather some, thinking I was about to eat them ! This fruit has a thick skin, and inside is full of pips, which are very bitter. They dry, and are hard enough then to bear all the dangers of travel, for I have some still in my cabinet. Here, again, poets have led the world astray. There has always been a mountain of rock salt at the south end of the Dead Sea ; and there must always have been salt fields and marshes near it. The ruins at the south end are small and insignificant, but at the north end there is a remark- able group of tells — ' ruined heaps ' ; in fact, it is covered with ruins — sites of cities that existed in the days of Joshua. For the north end is fertile ; five important sites have been found. Tell-Iktanu, one of these sites, has no meaning in Arabic. Dr. Merrill* suggests it is from the Hebrew word Katan, ' little,' or ' little one ' ; and he is supported by great authorities. The name ' Zoar ' in early days was ' Bela ' (Gen. xiv. 2). Zoar is mentioned in connection with Moses (Deut. xxxiv. 3), and in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Edrisi — an Arab writer — speaks of small ships plying on the Lower Jordan and the Dead Sea itself. Again, Abraham goes south between Kadesh and Shur, and he sojourned in Gerar. This place has been identified with ' Umm el Jerrar.'t The valley is about 200 yards wide. At the time of Major Conder's visit there was a large encamp- ment of the Terabin Arabs in the valley. He could neither see nor hear of 'wells.' There were many 'cisterns.' No wells nearer than Beersheba — no springs, though they are marked on many maps ; but the Arabs, who are numerous, supply them- selves with water by digging in the bed of the valley until they come to it. This valley really drains an immense area, as its " ' East of Jordan,' pp. 235-239. f Conder, Quarterly Statement, July, 1875, pp. 162-165 ; January, 1881, p. 38. 2 — 2 20 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. head is close to Hebron, thence by Beersheba to the sea, a dis- tance of over 60 miles. No ruins visible ; a dozen cisterns, and scattered about are heaps of pottery ; but a little south of this is an enormous mound, crescent-shaped, 100 yards in diameter, covered with broken pottery — its present name, Tell-Jemmeh. Later travellers speak of the country as undulating, a chalky soil, covered with grass. Many Arabs and their cattle about. Cultivated plots with barley, melons. In Wady Sheri'ah there are many wells. In a circle of two miles, twenty-four wells are marked in the great map issued by the Palestine Fund. The Philistine King of Gerar, Abimelech, takes Sarai, but, warned by a dream, returns her to Abraham, at the same time reproaching him for his want of truthfulness. And Abimelech claims that his is 'a righteous nation' (Gen. xx. 5). He gives back the wife, with many gifts. Isaac is born. When he is ' weaned ' there is a great feast, '\^'ith us, children are weaned early ; not so with Easterns. A ' man child ' is often given the breast till the end of his fourth or fifth year — a favourite child sometimes not weaned till its seventh year ! It would seem, from all considerations, that Isaac was five years of age when weaned. This explanation gives point to our Lord's remark, ' Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.' Ishmael, the son of Hagar, mocks at the feast (Gen. xxi. 9-15) ; so Abraham, taking 'bread and a bottle of water,' puts it on Hagar's shoulder, and sends her away with her son. She wanders in the wilderness of Beersheba. The water spent, the boy exhausted, she casts him under one of the shrubs the ' Retem ' — little broom bushes which grace the desert, and which every traveller knows are often the only shelter and shade from the burning sun. It has often been my lot, when worn out with fatigue, to seek shelter in this way. I may here remark that Gerar was well known to the Egyptians. Its name FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 21 appears in the list of Thothmes III. as ' Kerara.' I do not think there are any grounds for identifying Gerar with Gaza, as is done by some writers. The position of Gaza does not fit in with the Bible narrative, and that, apart from everything else, is a sufficient objection. One reason why all these wells are so difficult to find is the great objection the Bedawin have to show the oases. That there are more wells in the desert of Shur than are known to travellers I am convinced. Twice in my own wanderings in the desert have I been taken — after giving a solemn promise not to tell — to water. Once it was a lovely spot — a deep, pure pool, with palms growing near, papyrus and other rushes rank and rich — I gathered some ot the papyrus, which I still have — grass and flowers. This is not marked in any map. In the other case, shallow pools of water were existing in the rocks — natural holes. Ishmael grows up and dwells in the ' wilderness of Paran,' becoming an 'archer' (Gen. xxi. 20). It is a common mistake to think that the Bible term ' wilderness ' has the same mean- ing as ' desert.' It is not so. ' Wilderness ' really means a place or region which wild beasts inhabit. The wilderness of Paran lies south of the ' way of the Red Sea,' which ' road,' or ' way,' is now called the ' way of the Haj,' for it is the route taken by the Mecca pilgrims on the way past 'Nakhl.' Ishmael, in short, was a Bedawy, and he takes a wife out of Egypt, which would be quite near ; easily, he might get an Egyptian wife from any of the Egyptian colonies which then existed close by, and where they worked the various mines of copper and turquoise. There is a life-like scene between Abimelech, the King of Gerar, and Abraham, because of a well of water. As I before noticed, ' wells ' would draw a settled population, and disputed proprietorship of land would follow. ' The land ques- tion ' has ever been a difficulty. The well is given up, and called Beersheba — a name famous for evermore with the history 22 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. of Israel. Its meaning, ' the well of the oath,' records the covenant with the king. Abraham, ever thoughtful, plants a 'tamarisk' (R.V.) grove there, for shade. This is a life-like touch, for only those trees would grow in such a locality. Beersheba is now called Bir Seb'a. Palmer" found two wells filled with water, one dry, and traces of four others. The dry one was built of fine solid masonry, and in good condition. The west side of the valley was banked up with a wall of ancient masonry, to prevent the valley falling in. The hill- sides are covered with ruins. The country around is a fine rolling plain or down, broken up by torrent-beds, in spring covered for miles with grass, flowers, and shrubs. The Arabs say the pasture is usually so rich that the grass and herbage grow up to the knees. When Palmer visited it, there had been a drought, and the whole pasture-land was burnt and bare as the desert. In Abraham's time it was not, probably, the deserted country it now is, for Palmer found, not far off, old, very old houses, nearly in perfect preservation, built often of hewn stones — especially the lintels and doorposts — circular in form. These houses were about seven or eight feet in diameter. Flint arrow-heads and other relics were found — stone circles, cairns. Every hill is covered with ruins. Palmer even found beams of acacia-wood. No trees now exist. He found 'grainery pits' — in short, am.ple proofs that at some early period this region was thickly inhabited. Many of its people may have been Horites, and Hved in caves. But enough here has been said to show that there were good reasons why Abimelech's servants were so jealous of Abraham founding new settlements. In later days, as we shall see, this region was even more densely populated. In January, 1884, Professor Hull,t with the exploring party * ' Desert of the Exodus,' pp. 387-390. T ' Mount .Seir.' FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 23 sent by the Palestine Exploration Fund, visited Beersheba. At the time of his visit, the wady in which the ' wells ' are situated was a watercourse, owing to rains, and the wells only a few yards from the torrent. The old well-sinker knew that the chances of a constant supply were greatest in the low ground which borders a wady, and that the water from the wady itself would find its way by percolation into the well. Yet these wells are at a sufficient elevation to prevent the torrent-water, which is usually turbid, from getting direct access to the water in the wells. Great judgment was shown in the selection of the site — great skill in workmanship to cut out of the limestone rock wells of such depth and excellence. Major Conder'"- says the depth of the large well is over forty-five feet, lined with rings of masonry to the depth of twenty-eight feet, and he dis- covered that the masonry is not ancient. Fifteen courses down he found a stone with an inscription in Arabic dated 505 a.h. — that is, in the twelfth century — showing that it was then restored. The country is strewn with ruins of wells and foundations of buildings ; lines of fo::ndations mark the ancient city — lines half a mile in extent when Canon Tristramt visited it. The vast uneven plateau, almost green, was pastured over by thousands of goats, horned cattle, and camels. Several Arab encampments were in sight, and, moreover, there were large portions of unfenced land cultivated with corn by the Arabs. Wheat and barley are here grown. The land is ploughed or scratched, each piece lying fallow two years, and sown the third year. Rope marks worn by the water-drawers have worn deep flutings in the limestone. No less than 143 flutings were counted, the shallowest four inches deep. Marble troughs were lying about, and all day long Bedawin and their wives were drawing water and filling skins. There are traces * 'Tent Work,' p. 96. t Tristram, ' Land of Israel,' p. 369. 24 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. of pillars of an ancient open roof over the well. The whole country is now treeless. Flowers of crocus, blue iris, and crimson ranunculus abound, and for creatures there are sand- grouse and plover, with flocks of the great crane, a few ruffled bustards, and herds of gazelles. Abraham 'sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.' That is the whole hint of time. Then ' God did prove Abraham.' He is told to offer Isaac in the land of Moriah. They go three days, and see the place afar off. It would be a good three days' travel to get to Mount Moriah at Jerusalem. They would see it ' afar off" ' coming over the ridge at Beth- lehem ; and this one fact, to my mind, quite destroys the efi"orts of some to identify ' Moriah ' with Mount Gerizim ; for, coming from the south, the latter mountain cannot be seen at all until you are crossing the watershed and quite dose to Gerizim. What a test to Abraham's faith ! Through this son ' all the nations of the earth ' were to be ' blessed,' and yet he is told to sacrifice him ! (Gen. xxii. 2). Abraham would be quite familiar with the customs of the dwellers in Canaan, who hesitated not to sacrifice their first-born to their false gods, and so, 'to prove him,' the Almighty says, 'Will you do as much for Me ?' His faith stood the test. The ram offered in his stead, father and son return to Beersheba. Sarah would seem to have been dwelling, because of her great age, in the more sheltered and settled town of Hebron, and Abraham has now to encounter the greatest earthly sorrow which falls to the lot of man— Sarah dies (Gen. xxiii. 2). Abraham 'comes' to weep for her. He was not present at her death, and now, as a 'stranger and sojourner' (ver. 4) he has to ask of the children of Heth for a burying-place. What a truly Eastern scene now follows ! As a ' mighty prince ' (ver. 6) he is treated with the greatest courtesy ; he is offered his choice of any sepulchre ; he returns courtesy for courtesy; he 'bowed himself to the FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 25 people of the land,' or, as the account says later on, ' bowed himself down ' (ver. 1 2). All representations of ' bowing down' in Egyptian or Assyrian sculptures show that the bowing was to the ground, and not, as too many ' pictures ' represent, a stiff right-angle bend. Let us stick to the Bible. The stiff bow may be Persian ; it never was Egyptian, Assyrian, or Syrian. He buys the field and cave of ' Ephron the Hittite,' which fact proves that the Hittite was holding possession in Canaan. Abraham gives the price — ' current ' money. A deed of some sort was drawn up, for the ' field,' cave, and trees were ' made sure'* (ver. 17) to Abraham. His early business training in Ur and Haran here comes out ; we know that his descendants have not forgotten this early lesson. The only plot of the ' Promised Land ' he ever lives to possess is a field and a tomb. * Note how legal the statement : ' The field of Fiphron, which was in Machpelah, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in t'ae field that were in all the borders round about were made sure.' To this very day it would be necessary in buying a field in Palestine, if you \vished to have entire possession, to buy also the trees, for the custom of the country is, that the land often belongs lo one proprietor, and the trees to another. Abraham bought up all rights. We have noted the very exact and legal nature of Abraham's purchase of the cave, field and trees at Mamre. Since those words were written, Mr. Flinders Petrie has shown in London an Egyptian will found by him at Kahun, or, as the town was known 4500 years ago, Illahun. It consists of a settlement made by Sekhenren, 2550 B.C. This will is short, written on papyrus, perfectly legal, a model to lawyers of our time. The testator settles upon his wife, Teta, all the property given him by his brother for life, but forbids her in categorical terms to pull down the houses ' which my brother built for me,' although it empowers her to give them to any of her children that she pleases. A ' lieutenant,' Sibu, is to act as guardian of the infant children. This remarkable document is witnessed by two scribes, with an attestation clause that might almost have been drafted yesterday. It is remarkable, too, as showing that women could acquire and exercise rights of property in old Egypt. We may now cease to wonder at the exactness of Abraham's deed with Ephron. 26 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. The trusty servant goes charged to find a suitable wife for Isaac. A devout man, he prays to God for guidance (Gen. xxiv.), and when the daughters of the city come out to draw water, he sees a damsel ' fair to look upon ' — no veil here. She kindly gives water to the servant and his camels. Her generosity is rewarded by the rich gifts. ' Straw and pro- vender' is given to the camels. The message given, she is quite willing to go, though her relations wish for the usual ten days of rejoicing. The girl, however, agrees with the servant's urgent request, and starts at once with her nurse. The long journey is nearly over. By Hagar's Well (Gen. xxiv. 62) Isaac has been dwelling, out, coming south, he sees the long train of camels. At the same time Rebekah sees her future lord, and out of modesty or coquetry takes her veil and covers herself. Her shy maidenly nature now asserts itself ; she may have seemed bold before, but her true nature is now revealed. Abraham now sends his other sons, by his new wife and concubines, to 'the East country' (Gen. xxv. 6). Where? To the land of Seir, Mount Hor, or to Teman — who can say ? Abraham dies. He is buried with his wife in the Cave of Mahpcelah. The son of promise and the son of the bond- woman join in his funeral rites. Isaac goes back to ' Hagar's Weir (ver. 11), while Ishmael dwelt in ' Havilah ' (ver. 18), on the way to Shur. This ' Havilah ' could not have been that described in Gen. ii. ir, 12. That is spoken of as where the best gold was found ; but this ' Havilah ' of Ishmael was I think, that gold region known so well to the Egyptians, and from which perhaps he got his wife. Rebekah's two sons are different : one a hunter, fond of meat ; the other a ' plain man,' fond of tent life, living, as Arabs who are out of the track of caravans now do, on milk or FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 27 vegetable diet. Palmer says : ' The Arabs of the Tih, or this south country, live almost entirely on milk ;' and the red lentil is still a favourite food for the poor in Egypt, as every traveller knows. Many a time I have seen my Arabs prepare this dish, though they will eagerly eat it fresh and uncooked. The hasty Esau — probably unfortunate in his hunting — sells his birthright, so little does he value it, and its spiritual promises and privileges. For a full meal of bread and pottage he ' despised his birthright ' (Gen. xxv. 34). The 'plain man ' had lived his quiet life, looking after his flock and herds — as did his forefathers — living on simple food ; his best dish red lentil porridge, the ' red ' being the better kind. The lentil is boiled, then olive-oil, and sometimes pepper, is mixed with it — it was then and is now a favourite dish. Barzillai brought some lentils as a gift fit for a king to David (2 Sam. xvii. 28). This pottage is a sustaining healthy food in the East, fit for simple folk, as is the porridge of Scotland. The usual summer drought compels Isaac to move to Gerar. The king, 'Abimelech' — whose name was evidently given by the Philistines of that time to their kings, just as Pharaoh was the Egyptian title— receives him ; but Isaac is warned not to go down to Egypt. His was not the same strong nature as his father's, and probably he would not be able to withstand the temptation of Egyptian worship and custom. This king does not take away Rebekah from her husband, and reproves Isaac for his want of trust in him, his host. Isaac plants corn, and has a wondrous increase, even in that productive land which only requires water to yield its ' thirty or hundred fold.' His flocks and herds increase, and he pays the usual penalty of prosperity : ' the Philistines envied him ' (Gen. xxvi. 14-35) j they foresee a possible political danger. Ownership of land again ! The wells hastily dug by Abraham had been stopped 28 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. up and filled with earth. These ' wells,'* I imagine, were like those dug now by the Arabs in Sinai, ' ponds ' eight or ten feet deep; they tap surface springs and collect rain-water. Isaac reopens them. They go further into the valley and find, by digging a spring of ' living ' water, a prize indeed. This will not dry up in the hot summer, hence the strife with the herds- men of Gerar. The patriarch names it Esek ('contention '), and, leaving it, digs another, and probably found the same ' living ' water that is still more fiercely contended for, for he calls it Sitnah ('enmity'); he removes and digs another: the Philistines strove not for that, so he called it Rehoboth (' room '). Palmerf remarks that the name Rehoboth, being in the plural, may apply to any of the valleys in which he places the present Ruheibeh. In this wady he found wells, one ancient, the troughs and other masonry being of immense proportions, and seemingly of very great antiquity. One of the troughs is round, the other circular, cut in blocks six feet by five feet by six feet. This he thought was the well of Isaac. There are many ruins about, remains of a large town. When he visited Ruheibeh the well was partly filled up with debris. On the sloping sides of Wady el Bir, near there, are ruins, numerous wells, reservoirs and cisterns. Again, near is a small wady or valley, now called Bahr bela mi (the waterless sea);! on its left, a small valley, which he thinks is undoubtedly the Sitnah of Isaac. Isaac goes to Beersheba, builds an altar, and calls on the name of the Lord. The promise is renewed to him ; he has a peaceful interview with the king and his * It has been found that a great underground stream flows down the valley past Hebron, then southwards to Beersheba, and so passes Gerar to the sea. The Arabs, to-day, make excavations — 'pits.' Probably the ' wells ' dug by Abraham were of this description. See Quarterly State- ment, 1881, p. 38. + ' Desert of the Exodus,' vol. ii., pp. 290, 383, 3S5. X 'Desert of the Exodus,' vol. ii., p. 385. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 29 captains. They have a feast to ratify their friendship. It must have been a ' temperance ' feast, for they ' rose betimes in the morning,' renewing their oath of friendship, and the visitors go back to Gerar. Esau, carrying out his contempt of his birthright, makes a marriage which causes grief to his parents. And then comes the story of Jacob's deceit, under his mother's guidance. Esau, though a worldly man, was yet generous, frank, self-forgetful, and he had a blessing, too, and though for a time he hated his brother, yet we know how frankly he forgave him in the end. The orthodox religious world is too often like Jacob, timid and wily. Though he had the birthright, yet he had great sorrow. The Bible relates facts, and does not extenuate or excuse the bad deeds of good men. Jacob is sent away from home to Padan-aram. The long way from Beersheba to Bethel is passed ; he halts at this place to sleep ; he would know its history ; he lays his head upon a stone. It would not be difficult to find one on those stony hilltops at Bethel, covered as they are with boulders. He takes the stone and erects it as a pillar, and pours oil on the top of it (Gen. x.xviii. 18). This menhir, or 'long stone,' is the simplest and perhaps the oldest of human monuments ; it is the parent of the obelisk, and was the earliest method of marking a famous place. It was used by the Canaanites. Many still exist ; one in Moab, called Hajr el Mansub,* has a name identified radically with the Hebrew word translated ' pillar ' in the Bible ; and here one may perhaps say a few words on the ridiculous theory that the ' Coronation Stone ' in Westminster Abbey is the veritable stone Jacob set up, said to have been in the Temple of Solomon, then by Jeremiah brought to Ireland. AVe are to believe that it was the 'throne of David,' that Solomon 'placed it in the Temple as the chief corner-stone.' It is * Conder, ' Heth and Moab,' p. 253. 30 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. only necessary to mention these assertions — argument is use- less.* Jacob goes on his journey, arrives at a well where the sheep are lying about. The stone is rolled over the well-mouth, and it being ' high day,' it is time the cattle should be gathered together for food and water. So Rachel comes with her father Laban's sheep. She is pointed out to Jacob, who rolls away the stone and kisses the damsel. That she should have been sent with the sheep proves that she was of tender age — from seven to ten years, not older. All Eastern customs prove, as may be seen to-day, that only young girls of that age are allowed to tend the sheep, or go alone. Rebekah, in her case, remember, went ' with the daughters of the city.' Eastern customs are unchangeable. Jacob kisses the child, and loves her at once. It is a case of love at first sight. She is not of a marriageable age, and so the man proposes to wait seven years for her. This is the simple explanation of the puzzle. Jacob serves the seven years, and then is tricked — he has to serve another seven. In time he wishes to go away. Laban refuses consent. Jacob, still wily, gets the better of his father-in-law, whose own sons grumble. So, after consulting with his wives Jacob ' stole away unawares.' He passes over the river — which must be the Euphrates ; probably at the same ford which Abraham crossed — and 'sets his face to the mountains of Gilead.' After a seven days' chase, he is overtaken by Laban, who reproaches Jacob for so secretly departing, urging he would have liked the usual feast and rejoicing; but his main ground of complaint is that Jacob has stolen his 'gods.' It would seem that Jacob was ignorant of the theft by Rachel. A search is made. Rachel, pleading illness, refuses to rise from the camel-furniture, under which she has hidden the ' Tera- * It has been, in fact, proved to be of the kind of stone most common in Scotland. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 31 pliim.' The word is obscure; it is in the plural, and implies images — probably of human form. Laban seems to have attached great value to them, for he calls them his 'gods.' And yet, in Gen. xxiv. 49-53, we are told that he believed in the true God. They would seem to have had something to do with magic. They are afterwards often mentioned in Jewish history. Jacob is very wrath, and details his twenty years of hard service ; how that he was responsible for everything ; how that the drought by day, and the frost by night, destroyed his sleep (Gen. xxxi. 40) ; that he served fourteen years for his wives and six for his flocks, having his wages changed ten times. It is a purely Eastern scene. The high excitement, the loud wrangle, the vigorous gesticulation, can be seen now when Arabs meet. But after the storm a calm. Jacob again puts up a menhir — ' pillar ' — and tells his brethren to gather stones and make a heap, and then they ' did eat ' by the heap — the usual solemn ratification of peace, to this day existing. The heap is called Galeed (ver. 48), which seems a play or pun on the word Gilead, which means ' stony,' or ' a rocky region.' It is also called Mizpah (' the watch-tower '). And they make a compact that neither will pass that heap to injure the other. Laban departs. Then the angels of God meet Jacob, who calls the place Mahanaim (' the two hosts '). The Septuagint says, where Israel ' saw the camp of God encamped.' Many have been the attempts to identify this place. Canon Tristram* thinks he has found the place in Birket Mahneh, where there are five fine ponds — 'Birket' — and some ruins. Dr. Merrill, of the American Survey, does not accept this place. Mr. Laurence Oliphant thinks, after an examination of the country, that Canon Tristram is more likely to be right than Dr. Merrill ; while Major Conder says the site is 'unsettled.' He gives many reasons. Jacob was going to Edom to meet Esau * ' Land of Israel,' p. 474. 32 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. (Gen. xxxii. 3). He had sent messengers, and they had re- turned, hearing that Esau was conning with 400 men. Jacob, afraid, divides his party, passes his wife Leah and flocks over the ford of Jabbok, while he remains on the other side (ver. 22, 23). Then there is that wonderful wrestling with the angel, and Jacob calls the place Peniel, which means 'face' or 'appearing ' of God. This ' Peniel ' would seem to have been a ridge, for Jacob passed over it as the sun rose ; and Conder''' suggests that the high summit of the hill now called Jebel Osh'a is the place. In Murray's map a valley called Faneh is marked. If this is correct, the Arabic word would be a good translation of the Hebrew, Penuel. Jacob no doubt was going on the old pilgrim-road to the north. And we find from Josh. xiii. 26 that Mahanaim is noted as opposite the border of Debir — 'the edge of the ridge.' Mahanaim was near a wood, for Absalom was killed there. The slopes of Mount Gilead are clothed with woods of fine oak. As to the site of Mizpeh, it is remarkable that close to a village called Siif, near Jerash, there is still existing a finef group of rude-stone monu- ments, showing it was once a sacred centre. And it is curious to note how closely dolmen centres in Eastern Palestine are connected with the early history of Israel. It is the case at Nebo. Gilgal, Bethel are clearly mentioned as places where menhirs once stood. If Sdf be the Mizpeh of Gilead, we do there also find a rude-stone centre in the Galeed of Jacob. If we are unable to fix with absolute certainty the position of Mahanaim, it is different with the ' ford ' over which Jacob passed his flocks. The Jabbok, now called the Zerka (' blue river '), has been well explored by competent travellers. They describe it as a fine stream running between sandstone banks — a stream which has many cascades, the slopes of the gorge * t Heth and Moab,' p. 179. t Ibid., p. 243. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 33 clothed with oleander, and having here only one ford, or, rather, only one practicable. Here was the meeting with Esau, whose wild retainers would be crowding the opposite slope. The cautious Jacob keeps his most dearly beloved Rachel and Joseph 'hindmost,' giving them a chance of escape if Esau were not friendly. He bowed himself to the ground seven times — a very great mark of humility. All his fears were groundless. The injured Esau saw only his brother, ran to meet him, embraced him, and fell on his neck and wept ! They both wept. Brotherly love and long absence had swept away all angry feelings. They only remembered they were brothers. Twins in birth, they are united again. Again comes out the cautious nature of Jacob. Esau offers to go before him, or, when that is declined, to leave some of his men. That, too, is declined ; so Esau returns on his way to Seir, while Jacob goes to Succoth, builds a house, and makes booths for his cattle. It is evident Succoth was on the main route from Central Palestine to Eastern Gilead, for he was on his way to Shechem. Burckhardt found a ruin east of Jordan called Sukhat, and that ruin is in the territory of Gad, in which we know Succoth was placed. It was probably near the Jabbok ford, and on the main road, for Gideon pursued the Midianites to Succoth, and past Penuel. Jacob passes on in peace to Shechem, again probably follow- ing the route of Abraham. He buys a parcel of ground and erects an ' altar ' — not a menhir this time. It seems somewhat strange that nowhere in the Old Testament is it stated that Jacob dug a well here, and yet the distinct statement of the Samaritan woman establishes the fact (St. John iv. 12). All traditions — of Jews, Samaritans, Moslems, and Christians — agree in this. The whole history of Jacob shows his caution. Buying the field, he would have the right to dig a well, and so would avoid all the quarrels his father had had; and his 3 ^4 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. practical wisdom was never more shown than in thus securing a possession in this the garden of Canaan. It became his homestead, while his flocks could roam on the plain now called El Mukhnah. Many springs exist all around, but he feared trouble, lest the natives should quarrel with his sons when the flocks and herds wanted water. This well is probably the deepest in Palestine. Originally it is believed to have been 150 feet deep. Rubbish has, however, fallen in ; but when I was camped there in 1875, on dropping a stone down, it was many seconds before I could hear the splash. Three granite columns were lying on the ground, and there was a ruined arch. The masonry extends down the well about twenty feet ; after that the shaft is bored through the rocL The Palestine E.xploration Fund, in 1879, proposed to clear it of rubbish and build a low stone wall around it. Plans were drawn. The design was frustrated, and the site was bought by the Greek Church. However, in 1881 a most interesting discovery was made by Rev. C. W. Barclay.* In a letter to the Palestine Fund, 17th May, he relates how he had often visited the place. But on this occasion, with his vs-ife, they clambered down into the vault, when he chanced to notice, a few feet from the opening, a dark crack between the stones. They removed some stones and earth, and were then able to trace part of a curved aperture in a large slab of stone. They cleared more earth and stones, and soon distinguished the circular mouth of the well, though it was blocked by an immense mass of stone. Calling in aid two men who were looking on, with considerable labour they managed to remove it, and the opening of the well was clear ! There was the ledge on which, doubtless, the Saviour rested ; there were the grooves in the stone caused by the ropes by which the water-pots were drawn up. The next day they com- * Quarterly Statement, July, 1881, p. 212. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF yoSEPH. 35 pletely laid bare the massive stone which forms the mouth. It is of hard Hmestone, in fair preservation. The exact measure- ments are given. A boy was lowered to the bottom. It was found to be sixty-seven feet, and then there was a large accu- mulation of rubbish. In 1866 it was seventy-five feet, and Captain Anderson, of the Survey party, had a narrow escape, for he fainted away, and was insensible for some time on the stones at the bottom. The difference of depth shows what amount of rubbish had been thrown in in those few years. According to Jerome, the noble Lady Paula found a church round about Jacob's Well, which she entered. The Bordeaux Pilgrim, who visited Gerizim 333 A.D., speaks of ' plane-trees,' and a bath supplied with water from the well, but no church, though other writers do mention it. Bishop Arculf, in 700 A.D., saw the church, and sketched it. It was, however, destroyed before the Crusaders' time. Doubtless, the heaps of ruins, which in 1875 I found scattered about, belonged to that ancient church. As I before said, the cautious patriarch dug this well, hoping to escape quarrel with the people of the land. We all know how all his hopes were frustrated. The sad story of Dinah, and the revenge of her brothers, force him to leave ; but so great was the terror round about them that none pursue, and Jacob goes on to Bethel — burying under the oak at Shechem the ' strange gods ' (Gen. xxxv. 2-4), the Teraphim, stolen by Rachel, and the rings in their ears. They purified themselves, and changed their garments. Why was this ? Jacob, with all his faults, and weak towards his family, still clung to the Lord God ; he goes to Bethel, and again builds an altar. Rebekah's nurse dies, and is buried below Bethel, under the oak (ver. 8). No more hint as to the grave. There are no oaks there now. Again Jacob erects a ' menhir,' pouring out a drink-offering and oil (ver. 14). It is remarkable how often this is noted of 3—2 36 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. him. They journey on. Benjamin is born ; and Rachel, the dearly-loved wife, dies, and is buried in the way to Ephrath — Bethlehem (Gen. xxxv. 19). He set up a ' pillar ' over her grave. That ' pillar ' has long disappeared, but has been re- placed at various times by different buildings. Jerome, in his account of the pilgrimage of Santa Paula, says she 'stood beside the tomb of Rachel.' The Bordeaux Pilgrim, 333 a.d., says : ' From Jerusalem, going to Bethlehem, on the road on the right hand is a tomb, in which lies Rachel, the wife of Jacob.' A tomb still exists, but it is merely an ordinary Moslem wely- tomb, a small building, twenty-three feet long by twenty feet high, a roof, a dome plastered over with mortar. There must have been a large arch at one time. Traces of other arches can be also seen. Pilgrimages are still made to it by the Jews. The walls are covered with names — many Hebrew. This is, again, one of the few places in the Holy Land in which Jew, Mohammedan, and Christian traditions agree. Though some have thought Rachel's sepulchre was north of Jerusalem, I pre- sume to say that no one who knows the country would so place it. The Bible says : ' There was still some way to come to Ephrath' (ver. 16). The Hebrew word translated in A.V. ' some way ' really means 'a little way,' and this agrees with the position of this present tomb. 'Then Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder' (Gen. xxxv. 21). We get this name Eder again in Joshua xv. 21, when it is spoken of as one of the towns of Judah in the extreme south, on the borders of Edom. Eder means ' tower of the flock.' The traditions of 700 a.d. and 867 A.D. place it near Bethlehem. In the Jewish Mishna it is also placed not far from Bethlehem. The Targum of Jonathan adds, ' which is the place where shall be revealed the King Messias in the end of days.' There is a ruin called by the Arabs ' The Ruin of the Sheepfold,' and the Survey party men- FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF yOSEPH. 37 tion this, and add, ' Walls, cisterns, vaults, and tombs — prob- ably early Christian ruins.'"' Another Rabbinical tradition appears to refer to the same place. It is about four and a half miles from Bethlehem. The mediseval site can be recognised close to the so-called ' Shepherd's Plain.' East of Bethlehem there exists a small chapel, pillars, and ruins of a larger build- ing. There is no spot in the country about so well fitted for an encampment. Jacob goes to his father at Mamre (ver. 27) — Hebron. Isaac dies, and Esau and Jacob bury him (Gen. xxxv. 29). We can now speak of the Cave of Machpelah. In modern times two very competent observers have been allowed to enter the mosque at Hebron — Dean Stanley, with the Prince of Wales; later. Major Conder, with the Royal Princes, in 1881. First, let us note who is buried there : Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah. Jacob buried Leah (Gen. xlix. 31); there he also was buried (Gen. 1. 13). This is the last Biblical mention of the Cave of Machpelah. It is strange that St. Stephen should say they were buried at Shechem (Acts vii. 16). Josephus says the monuments existed in his day. They were of ' beautiful marble, and admirably worked.' The Bordeaux Pilgrim, a.d. 333, describes the monuments. We shall see that the stones are older than Herod. Hebron is very old : 'built seven years before Zoan in Egypt ' (Numb. xiii. 22). The terebinth, or oak, was shown in the days of Josephus, and still the name lingers, for the field below the building is still called ' Field of the Terebinth.' The sanctity of the place has ever been venerated by Jew, Christian, and Moslem. There were great objections raised when the Prince of Wales wished to enter the mosque, which, from its form, shows it to have been a church of the Byzantine period, afterwards made into a •^ ' Survey Western Palestine,' Jerusalem Sheet, and Conder, Quarterly Statement, 1876, p. 98. 38 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. mosque. In this mosque are shown the so-called tombs. Each is enclosed in a chapel, or shrine, closed with gates. In differ- ent recesses are shown the shrine of Abraham and Sarah. The latter had a pall over it. No one was allowed to enter, it being the tomb of a woman. The Prince was allowed to enter the shrine of Abraham after a prayer by the chief of the forty guardians of the mosque, who said, ' O friend of God, forgive this intrusion.' The so-called tomb was a coffin-like structure, six feet high, built of blasted marble or stone, hung with three carpets, green and gold. In the area of the mosque are placed the tombs of Isaac and Rebekah. The same rule of exclusion applied to Rebekah's tomb. In recesses are the tombs of Jacob and Leah. They were not allowed to enter the tomb of Isaac, on the plea that he was of a jealous disposition. No tomb shown of Rachel or Ishmael, as one might expect from Moslems. But how as to the embalmed body of Jacob, which may be supposed to be intact ? The only hint of the sacred cave was a small circular hole about eight inches across, of which one foot above the pavement was built of strong masonry, but of which the lower part was of the living rock. This cavity appeared to open into a dark space. The guardians of the mosque believed it to extend under the whole platform. Here, undoubtedly, is the ancient Cave of Machpelah. Sometimes a lamp is let down into this opening, for the guardians say, ' The saint likes to have a lamp at night' Moslem and Christian together for 600 years held this sanctuary, and no attempt was made to explore the cave ! Thus far Dean Stanley. Other accounts have been given ; they are not considered trustworthy. What did Major Conder see in 1881 ?■■ * 'The Princes' Visit to the Holy Land,' Conder, pp. 5-27, Palestine Exploration Fund. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 39 He was able to take a plan, to measure the walls. Some of the courses of stones, he says, are in average height 3 feet 7 inches ; the longest stone seen and measured was 24 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 8J inches in height ; the thickness of the walls between tlie buttresses, 8^ feet ; the height of ancient wall, 46 feet average. A modern wall is built on the top. The cave was not entered. It is below the floor. There were three known entrances, but they were flagged over, and, of course, were not allowed to be broken, as that would be a desecration. The sheikh of the mosque described the cave as being double, which agrees with the original name, Machpelah ('division in half). No historical notice of the building of the great wall is to be found. In the Middle Ages the cave was always spoken of as ' the double cave.' At one point is a shaft. A lamp was lowered, and a chamber seen about fifteen feet below that of the mosque. The four walls could be seen. It is said to lead to the western cave. The doorway was also seen. That closely resembled the doorways which give access to ancient rock-cut tombs in Palestine. The cave probably resembled many of the rock-cut sepulchres in Palestine, with a square antechamber quarried, and two inner sepulchral chambers ; and at some later time access has been made through the roof, now the floor of the present mosque. A Greek inscription was noticed, built into the wall — an invo- cation to Abraham to bless and protect certain individuals. It probably dates from the time of Justinian. No modern explorer has ever been allowed to enter the cave. Major Conder and Sir Charles Wilson think that the masonry of the wall is of the same date as that of the wall of the 'Wailing Place' at Jerusalem, and certainly Herodian. It is, however, curious that Josephus, who speaks of the building as existing in his day, should, if built by Herod, not have 40 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. noticed its erection when he spoke of so many buildings Herod did build. Jacob dwelt in the land of Canaan. Joseph, living as a shepherd with his brothers, a lad of seventeen years old, tells his father of the evil doings of Reuben, his brother. His father loved him more than all the others, ' because he was the son of his old age.' He shows his want of judgment in making Joseph a 'coat of many colours.' The dress of the ordinary shepherd would be a short under-garment, like a shirt, confined at the waist by a leathern girdle ; a long cloak of camel-hair, or a tanned sheepskin, as often worn now by shepherds ; a short garment like a jacket ; a simple head-covering like a hand- kerchief, fastened round the head by a cord of camel-hair dyed black. This head-dress is now called keffiyek. The corners can be drawn across the mouth and fastened at the back in the cord. This head-covering is most useful in the East, as it thus protects the mouth and nostrils from dust or hot wind. The ' coat of many colours ' might be described as a gentleman- farmer's coat — longer than the usual shirt, with pendent sleeves, and made of fine linen or silk, in stripes of many colours, just as may be seen to-day on a well-to-do farmer or sheikh. Joseph has dreams. Boy-like, he tells his brothers. No doubt he was somewhat puffed up by the distinction of dress and extreme fondness of his father, who appears to have been dwelling near Hebron. Jacob sends his sons away to Shechem, to the plot of land he had bought, probably to get them away from evil associates, and for better pasture for the flocks. He sends Joseph to Shechem to find out how they are going on. It would be a long journey if on foot, as it seems to have been. He found them not. ' Wandering in the field ' (Gen. xxxvii. 15) — probably the ' very parcel of ground bought' by Jacob — he is seen by a man, who tells him he had overheard them say, FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 41 ' Let us go to Dothan ' (ver. 17). If you were to ask a native of Shechem to-day, ' Where is the best pasture-ground for sheep?' he would tell you, ' Dothan.' Because there would be better pasture there than at Shechem is, I think, the reason they moved on. He goes after them ; they see him 'afar off.' Here is a touch of local truth ; for, after climbing the high hill north of Samaria, which would be Joseph's route, he would then descend the steep northern slope of the ridge, and at Dothan would be easily seen afar off. His figure would tell against the sky-line. They recognised his figure and dress, sharp-sighted, as all Arab shepherds are to-day. They have often distinguished and told me who was coming, when I required my opera-glass to tell if their statements were correct. They cry to each other, 'The dreamer cometh !' (ver. 19) and propose to slay him ; but Reuben, of whose evil deeds Joseph had told, would not allow it. Reuben was not altogether bad. One would have said, out of revenge, he would have been the one to do the laid ill. He proposes they should cast him into a pit, meaning that he might deliver him and restore him to his father. This pit was empty, and had no water — the usual sort of pit or pond dug even now by Arabs and shepherds to get rain-water, perhaps ten feet deep, with sloping sides, and not that stone well pictures will persist in representing. The incorrect art given in pictures, especially for the young, is a fruitful source of error. The old masters have much to answer for in their pictures of Christ, and moderns, too, are not exempt from blame. Everyone who draws sacred subjects should take care and study the text, and not be hke a popular artist — now dead — who, when asked to illustrate a Bible, agreed, but asked his publisher to send round the book he was to illustrate ! They sit down to eat, and, behold ! a caravan — Ishraaelites coming from Gilead with spicery, and balm, and myrrh, going 42 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. to Egypt (ver. 25). This caravan was on the well-known route, taking, as usual, a convoy of those articles used in the embalming of bodies in Egypt. These men are called Midianites, probably coming from Damascus, which has always been the great emporium of the East. Joseph is sold to them for twenty pieces of silver (ver. 28), and they go on their way. Reuben would seem to have been away at the moment; he is full of grief; he knew of his past sin, and naturally thought suspicion would rest on him. The Midianites would soon be out of sight, as they would go their usual route through the plain of Dothan westward. They would traverse the maritime Plain, and so take the ' way of the Philistines ' to Egypt ; for the Midianites and the Children of the East held sway in this region up to the time of the Judges, which is also stated on Egyptian inscriptions. And now again comes a bit of purely Eastern deceit : they kill a he-goat, dip the coat belonging to Joseph in the blood, and they bring it themselves (ver. 32) to their father ! The poor old man recognises it ; his grief is unbounded. The torn garments, the bandage of sackcloth, are all Eastern marks of sorrow. He says, ' I will go down into the grave unto my son, mourning' (ver. 35), and yet he was deceived. Objectors to the Bible have often said it excuses the bad deeds of its so-called saints, and represents them as committing grave offences ; but read what is written of Jacob ; because the Bible is true and relates faithfully the dark sins of good men, it never excuses them. Jacob deceives his father ; what are the consequences ? He has to fly from his home ; he has to suffer heat and cold and loss of sleep for his wife, and he is deceived ; his wages are changed ten times ; his own favourite wife steals from her father things he values, and which are a snare to her. He hopes for peace at Shechem, and takes great precautions ; but his sons cause him great trouble ; his dearly-beloved wife FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 43 dies • his eldest son Reuben dishonours him. He has a favourite son ; his own brothers sell him as a slave, and deceive their father, and see without any compunction his great grief. Through all his life he suffers at the hands of others from deceit. Do not the words of Moses apply here, ' Be sure your sin will find you out' (Numb, xxxii. 23)? The Midianites arrive in Egypt ; he is sold in Zoan, or Tanis — now called San, a city which worshipped Set, or Baal ; for though the Hyksos had become Egyptians, they yet regarded Set as the chief object of their worship. Zoan at this time was really the civil capital of Pharaoh, and stood near the western ■hmit of his land. Potiphar, to whom Joseph was sold, was apparently chief officer of Pharaoh's guard, probably the chariot corps, for on this frontier the chariot guard was stationed. The name Potiphar is a purely Egyptian name, meaning ' the gift of the risen one,' or, as others* translate it. ' devoted to the Sun- god,' both meanings being the same. Joseph prospers in the house ; he is made overseer. In the many Egyptian inscriptions all over Egypt we can see the ' overseer ' represented, now directing the labourers in the field ; now taking account of the crops, writing down on tablets the goodly store of goods ; introducing what strangers might come to the master, or directing punishment to offenders — all was in the hands of the overseer ; and does not the Bible say Potiphar left all to Joseph ? The youthful, handsome Hebrew overseer is assailed and tempted by Potiphar's wife. Either her husband did not quite believe her, or he saw that the Lord was with Joseph; therefore, he did not put him at once to death, but placed him in prison, where the king's prisoners were put. But the Lord never forsakes His own servants. They may have sore trials ; but the man who could say, ' I cannot do this wickedness, and sifi against God' (Gen. * ' Dwellers on the Nile,' W. Budge, p. 86. 44 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. xxxix. 9), was not deserted in his hour of bitter trial by his God. There is still existing a papyrus on which is written what is called ' The Tale of the Two Brothers,'* a story before the times of Joseph, written at considerable length — telling how a wife of the elder brother assailed the younger one, who fled ; she then accused him to her husband, who sought to kill him ; but he was warned, and the Sun-god protected him. The brother in time learnt the truth, and killed his wife. This, and much more, is related in the old story, of which the full account can be read in the pages Of Brugsch. The captain of the guard of the prison makes Joseph an overseer really of all the prisoners. The real piety, the transparent honesty and uprightness of Joseph, were felt by this captain, who probably had known the accused in his long years of service with Potiphar ; for Joseph was seventeen years old when sold, ' two full years ' in prison, and ' thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh King of Egypt ' (Gen. xli. 46). So it follows he must have been about eleven years in Potiphar's house. He had risen from the position of a slave to be so that he could say, ' Saving my master, there is none greater in this house than I ' (Gen. xxxix. 9). It was not a sudden fancy Potiphar took to him, but the result of long years of honest service. Doubtless so important a man would be well known to the captain of the prison, and we see from his conduct that he felt Joseph had been falsely accused. Two men especially are mentioned as being put in his charge — the chief butler and the chief baker. We know not what their crimes were, but they each dream, and are sad because ' there is none that can interpret ' (xl. 6) — that is, being in prison, they had no access to the professional ^ Brugsch, 'History of Egypt,' i., pp. 309-311 ; also quoted by Sayce. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 45 magicians, or wise men. Joseph tells them that ' to God alone belong interpretations.' But he asks them to tell him. He tells the chief butler that in three days he will be restored to favour. The cupbearer's office, as we can see on the inscrip- tions, was one of honour. It was near the king's birthday, and it was common to have rejoicings on that day. It was con- sidered holy. And, as now, amnesties for past offences were granted ; all Joseph asks is that his case may be mentioned to Pharaoh. He knows his innocence, and doubts not he could prove it if tried. The cupbearer promised, but forgot ! He would be in those scenes of feasting which are so fully represented on the Egyptian inscriptions, so perhaps it was no wonder this man forgot in courtly apartments the promises he had made in prison. The air of courts has ever been a difficult one to live in. The chief baker, reassured by the good news for his fellow- prisoner, tells his dream. He says he dreamt he was carrying three baskets of white bread — bread for Pharaoh — on his head, the uppermost basket holding 'all manner of baked meats' — all kind of food, that is. At Thebes we see ample picture representations of baking : one man is carrying on his head a long basket, on which are placed rolls of bread, while others are engaged in the various processes of cake-making, cooking lentils, making macaroni on a pan over the fire, kneading the dough, or preparing the oven. The birthday of Pharaoh comes. The explanation given by Joseph comes true. The cupbearer is restored to favour — the other executed. In the inscriptions we have ample representations of Egyptian justice. The goddess Thmei* — which appears to have been the origin of the Hebrew Thummin, this word, according to the Sep- tuagint, meaning ' truth ' — is always represented ' having her * Wilkinson, ' Ancient Egj'ptians,' p. 205. 46 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. eyes closed, showing, as Plutarch says, 'that justice ought neither to be accessible to bribes, nor guided by favour or affection.' Rich or poor, ignorant or learned, were placed on an equal footing, and it was the case, not the person, upon which judgment was passed. In fact, Egyptian laws seem to have been dictated by a scrupulous regard to justice and humanity. And very rarely was the death punishment inflicted. This being so, it would seem that the chief baker must have been guilty of some great crime. Pharaoh has two dreams, which the magicians and wise men cannot interpret. The cupbearer then speaks of Joseph. When there is an opportunity of bringing himself into im- portance by helping Pharaoh out of his difficulty, he can remember the Hebrew. Joseph is sent for. He is brought hastily 'out of the dungeon.' But before he is fit to appear before the king, he is ' shaved,' and changes his raiment. Here, again, the monu- ments offer us many illustrations.* Egyptians only allowed their hair to grow during the times of mourning. To neglect the hair was considered dirty. When a man of low station is represented, he is always drawn with a beard. The head was shaved, only a few locks being left. Priests shaved the whole body every three days. In many tombs have I seen representa- tions of the barber at work. There is a hymn in praise of learn- ing, where the hard work of the barber is contrasted with the easy work of the scribe. It is translated by Dr. Birch : ' The b.irber is shaving till evening.f When he places himself to eat, he places himself on his elbows. He places himself at street after street * Wilkinson, ' Ancient Egyptians,' p. 326. t ' Records of the Past,' viii., p. 148. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 47 lo seek afier shaving. He wearies his hands to fill his belly, as bees feed by their labour.'* Joseph is brought before Pharaoh. The great man says he has heard of him, that he can interpret dreams. Joseph says, ' it is not in him, but God.' His faith, his trust in God, stands every test. The dreams are told — that of the kine, of the ears of corn. Dr. Birch has seen a reference to the seven cows of Athor pictured in the Book of the Dead ; and the Egyptian word ' reed-grass,' there used, is now used in the Revised Version, instead of 'meadow,' as in the Authorized Version. The dreams are interpreted. Joseph says, ' God showing what He is about to do.' He then gives the king advice. Pharaoh consults with his advisers. Courtier-like, they agree with the king, and Joseph is ' set over all the land of Egypt ' (Gen. xli. 41) ! From the dungeon to a palace at one bound ! ' Pharaoh took off his signet-ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand' (Gen. xli. 42). That is, he invested him with the royal signet-ring — the seal by which the royal assent was given to all state docutnents. Joseph then would get the king's secretaries to write any decree he inight like to dictate, Avould then rub ink with his finger on the seal, press it on the papyrus roll, and it was a decree. Such is the custom to-day. My permit to enter the convent of Mount Sinai is ' sealed ' in exactly the same manner. Then he is given ' vestures of fine linen.' So perfect was Egyptian linen, that a piece found at Thebesf has 152 threads in the warp, 71 in the woof, to each inch. A piece from Memphis is as fine again ; this is also covered with hiero- glyphics so finely drawn that the lines are with difficulty * Old Egyptian razors are to be seen in the Boulak Museum, and also ia the British Museum. f Wilki son, ' Ancient Egyptians,' pp. 73-83, 139- 48 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. followed by the eye, and there is no appearance of the ink having run. ^Vhen held up to the light — an ancient way of proving fine cloth — no knots, or breaks — as seen in our best cambric — are to be found. Many Egyptian stuffs have various patterns worked into them by the loom, quite independent of those produced by dyeing. A gold chain is given him. Nothing is more remarkable than the knowledge the ancients had of gold, and how to work it. At Beni Hassan in the early tombs there are representa- tions of goldsmiths : one with a blowpipe is blowing a fire for melting the gold; others are making rings; it is being weighed, a scribe writing down its value ; gold is being washed ; while walking about is the superintendent directing the workmen. At Thebes are other representations, one especially of a man with a blowpipe, with tongs in one hand, blowing a fire — the fireplace has raised cheeks of metal to confine the heat. Great skill may be inferred, quite apart from the Bible statements. In the history of Abraham we read of earrings and bracelets. Quantities of gold ornaments have been found in tombs dating back as far as 3930 years ago. We can also see that they understood how to crush quartz to powder, and wash it. The whole processes are represented. The second chariot is also given to the new ruler. The words ' bow the knee ' offer some difficulty. Some think they should be translated 'bow the head'; but, for the Hebrew word given, ' bow the knee ' is a good translation. Joseph is given a new name, which in Egyptian is Za-pa-unt-pa-aa-ankh, 'governor of the district of the place of life'* — that is, the fertile district of the Delta, where these things took place. He marries a wife, daughter of the priest of On, the Heliopolis of the Greeks. In Hebrew this city is also called Beth-shemesh, words having the same meaning, ' the city of the sun.' It had * 'Fresh Light,' Sayce, pp. 51, 52. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 49 also a civil name, An ; its sacred name, Pe Ra. It was the priest city, the great university of the empire ; it was, in short, the centre of Egyptian religion. Nothing now remains but a solitary obelisk reared by a prince of the twelfth dynasty, a thousand years before the daughter of its priest became the wife of Joseph. All happened as God had revealed to Joseph. There were the seven plenteous years, and he stored the corn ; he has two sons ; he calls them by names showing he had not forgotten his early faiih ; and then the dire famine comes. Famine was a rare occurrence in Egypt, but, dependent as the whole land, and especially the Delta, is upon the river Nile, a low Nile, of course, means a bad year. There are records of famine, for Ameni, an officer of King Usertasen I., has engraved at the entrance of his tomb at Beni Hassan — tombs which we know were of a date long before the time of Joseph — that ' No one was hungry in my days, not even in the years of famine ;* for I had tilled all the fields of the district of Mah up to the southern and northern frontiers. Thus I prolonged the life of its inhabitants, and preserved the food which it pro- duced. No hungry man was in it. I distributed equally to the widow as to the married woman. I did not prefer the great to the humble in all that I gave away.' Records exist of a seven years' famine caused through the river faihng in 1064 A.D., under one of the Caliphs. Still another record on a tablet at El Kab, Southern Egypt— and that is thought to be the famine in Joseph's time— of a noble- man called Baba. It runs thus : ' When a famine arose lasting many years, I distributed corn to the city each year of famine.' The date of this inscription agrees with the date scholars assign to Joseph. These inscriptions, anyhow, prove this much : that famine was not unknown ; and we must remember that it is only * ' The Dwellers on the Nile,' W. Budge, p. 86. 4 50 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. of very recent date that the cities of the Delta have been found, and not yet have the inscriptions been read. Theo- logians were misled as to the position of the cities reigned over by the Pharaoh who was patron to Joseph. Discoveries come thick and fast* and I think there are good grounds for hoping that ere long more confirmation, more light, will be thrown by excavation and reading of the inscriptions. Now all nations came to Egypt for corn ; it was ever the granary for the ancient world. Jacob, living in Canaan, ' saw there was corn in Egypt ' (Gen. xlii. i) ; that is, it was a matter of common knowledge. The caravans would spread the news. * On p. 64 of first edition of this book I remarked, ' Discoveries come tliick and fast, and I think there are good grounds for hoping that ere long more confirmation, more light, will be thrown by excavation, and reading of the inscriptions.' When I wrote those lines I knew that Professor Sayce had gone to Egypt, and that midway between Minieh and Assiout one of the most extraordi- nary and unexpected arch.-eological discoveries of modern times was made in Upper Egypt. The mounds of an ancient city, now known as Tell-el- Amarna, have been explored, and wonderful results gained, which com- pletely overthrow much of modern criticism, which is too often an attempt to overthrow the Bible. Among the Tell-el-Amarna tablets, now in London and Berlin, are some from the Babylonian King Burna-buryas, 1430 B.C. Many are the de- spatches from Egyptian officers in Palestine and Syria. They throw an un- expected light on the inner history of the country in the age when ' the Canaanite was still in the land,' and show that the literary infiuence of Babylonia in the age before the Israelitish conquest of Palestine was great. Professor Sayce read a paper on these discoveries in London last July. Ere long we may hope he will publish to the world the full results of his investigations. We can now only say that these tablets relate to Palestine to the Philistines, to the Hittites, and help to clear up the legends of Manetho. This discovery should stimulate us to excavate some of those great mounds in Southern Judaaa, and, doubtless, other important ' finds ' will reward the explorers. The majority of the Tell-el-Amarna letters have been published They prove to be letters from Syria and Mesopotamia, and by Asiatics-they are therefore SemUic, perhaps Hittite— to Egyptian kings. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 51 He would see the camels laden with corn passing on their routes, both on ' the way of Shur ' and on ' the way of the Philistines.' He sends his sons. They see no fear ; they go in a large company. We may note, by the way, that though Joseph's actions towards the people of Egypt appear at first sight harsh, yet Gen. xlvii. 25 shows that the people of that land were grateful. One who had known adversity and had been so true could not be unkind. And their words, ' Thou hast saved our lives,' must be taken in their full meaning of gratitude. Jealously guarded as the great wall of Egypt was, the governor would be soon told of the arrival of this Semitic band. Inscriptions show what care was exercised. We read of the great precautions taken to prevent strangers crossing the frontier, ' unless they brought cattle, or came to hire them- selves for service.' These rough shepherds are brought before the ruler, and 'bowed down themselves with their faces to the earth.' Inscriptions in plenty show this sort of thing done. Joseph knew them. They ?— they in their wildest dreams never thought of connecting their sold brother with this great ruler. To digress a litde : I have often spoken of ' the wall and forts ' which guarded this, the most open frontier of Egypt, the side from which all the great invasions came. The proof of its very early existence is to be found in a papyrus obtained by Lepsius, and now in the Berlin Museum. That celebrated man translated it— its date of the twelfth dynasty— the ' old ' Egyptian empire long before the days of the Hyksos invasion. This papyrus tells how Sineh, or Saneha, an Egyptian traveller, went eastwards. As he went, he came to this frontier wall, ' which the king had made to keep off the Sakti.' ' There were watchers upon the wall in daily rotation.' In the night 4—2 52 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. he eluded the sentries, and wandered into a dry and thirsty land. His story is told as follows : ' Thirst overtook me in my journey ; My throat was parched ; I said, This is the taste of death.'* He, however, escaped, and settled in Edom, won and married the daughter of the prince of that country, and finally, returning to Egypt, was received with honour by the king. Chabas and Ebers agree as to this early date of the wall. In another papyrus in the British Museum, of the nineteenth dynasty, the wall is again mentioned, in the report of a scribe of an effort to recapture two fugitive slaves, who had fled to the eastern desert, and who, before he could overtake them, ' had got beyond the region of the wall, to the north of the Migdol (tower) of King Seti Mineptah.'t ' Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.' He speaks harshly to them, tells them they are ' spies ' (Gen. xlii.). In the past years they had learnt truthfulness— they tell him they are ' twelve brethren.' Had they not been truthful, they could have said ' ten,' for they might have supposed that he, the Egyptian, as they thought him, could know no better. He appears not to credit their statement, and declares they shall not leave Egypt unless the younger brother of whom they spoke is brought, and Simeon is left bound as hostage. They had sorrowed for their sin, for see how Reuben reminds them of it, and says Joseph's ' blood is required.' We have this custom of ' blood calling for blood ' existing amongst the Arabs of to-day : travellers often sneer at what they call the cowardice of Arabs, who, in a fight, will make a great noise, but object to shed blood ; it is because, if a man is slain, * See Trmnbull's 'Kadesh Barnea,' pp. 46, 47, and the authorities there quoted. + Brugscli, ' History of Egypt,' ii., pp. 138-3S9. FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 53 there can never be peace between the tribes again unless the man who killed him is slain by the avenger. Every traveller in the desert can tell of some fugitive from his tribe because of this ' blood feud.' How the Egyptian steward must have rejoiced when told to put back the money in their sacks ! He would not know the reason, but intrigue is always grateful to an Eastern. Again poor Jacob has sorrow — he sorrows with- out hope ; but the pressing necessities of famine compel them to go again to Egypt, and, after a great struggle, Benjamin goes with them. They take presents, so the ' famine ' only apphes to the failure of the corn crop (Gen. xliii. 11). Arrived in Egypt, Joseph is told of it. They explain how the money was found. The Eastern steward does not speak the truth, and from his lying lips it comes badly that God had given them the money. They are treated as favoured guests, and dine ' at noon ' with Joseph. The state and glory with which he is surrounded has not deadened his heart. He is obliged to leave ' to weep.' They marvel at the arrangements of the dinner. Again the steward is told to hide the money, and (ke ' cup ' — a silver cup — is put in Benjamin's sack. They are overtaken. Now the steward must have thought he had them for good — fke cup is found* Their sorrow is great. Was there ever a more touching story told than that by Judah (Gen. xliv. to end of chapter) ? Joseph can restrain himself no longer, but, weeping, he reveals himself. But how tender is his speech ! how he tries * The steward says : ' Is not this (the cup) in which my lord drinketh, and whereby he indeed divineth?' Cups were u.sed for magical purposes from very ancient limes. Then they had inscriptions on them, supposed to have magical influence— water or wine being poured into such cup was sup- posed to be affected by the inscription ; poison was to be detected, or health restored, by the use of this mngical cup. The steward is only speaking as an Egyptian would naturally speak. 54 THE BIBLE AMD MODERN DISCOVERIES. to take away remorse from them ! ' God did send me before you to preserve life,' is his comment on their sin (Gen. xlv. 5). He tells them of the famine that is yet to come — ' five years ' more. They are to come to him. But now, ' go in "haste" to my father, and bring him.' Simeon had been released from his bonds — had he been the cruel adviser ? It would seem so from his nature, as depicted in Gen. xlix. 5, 6 ; if so, he had been punished by his bondage. Joseph, though kind, is yet just. The great king hears the news and is pleased. He gives his own royal commands in the matter. ' Wagons ' are to be sent with rich presents. In the Egyptian inscriptions ' chariots ' are constantly represented ; we can see exactly how the horses were harnessed. Sir Gardner Wilkinson says : ' There is no instance of a representation of a chariot with more than two horses, nor any representation of a carriage with shafts., drawn by one horse ; a pair of shafts has been found, and a wheel with six spokes. There is but one representation of an Egyptian y^z^r-wheeled car, and that was used for religious purposes.'* The travelling carriage was usually drawn by two oxen. We can see a repre- sentation of that at Thebes, but there the occupants are women, and attended by a woman. f In the British Museum there is a representation of a chariot drawn by a pair of mules. With this light, we can form some idea of the sort of ' wagon ' sent for Jacob. It is quite clear from the text that this convoy must have taken the middle or ' Shur road ' out of Egypt — that road por- tions of which were found by the Rev. P". Holland J — for, in Gen. xlvi. i, we read that ' Israel came to Beersheba,' that he * ' Ancient Egyptians,' pp. 3S1-384. + Wilkinson, p. 385. X Quarterly Statement, January, 1884, pp. 4-14. Holland says : 'The discovery of this road is regarded as of the greatest importance.' FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 55 ' rose up from Beersheba,' and with the Uttle ones, women, etc., went in the 'wagons.' These chariots would not be able to come further, because of the hilly nature of the ground. In Gen. xlvi. 28, we read that ' he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to show the way before him unto Goshen.' M. de Naville, in his able work on 'Goshen,'* remarks that ' Goshen ' ' belonged to a region which as yet had no definite boundaries, and which extended with the increase of the people over the territory they inhabited. The term " land of Rameses " applies to a larger area.' And further, 'The Septuagint, writing of Heroopolis, says it is in the land of Rameses, not Goshen.' The Hebrew text (quoted above) ' is vague, but the Septuagint is more precise ; they desire to record the tradition of their time and to fix the place where father and son met together. That place is Heroopolis.' The father and son met. How simple is the Bible story ! Joseph ' wept a good while ' while he fell on his neck — the Eastern mode of embrace between men, first kissing one side of the neck and then the other. Joseph, ever thoughtful, advises his father what to say to Pharaoh ; for though amongst the Hebrews it was ever an honourable occu- pation to feed sheep, yet ' shepherds were an abomination unto the Egyptians ' (Gen. xlvi. 34). Wilkinsonf remarks, on the different classes into which Egyptian society was divided, that the Egyptian aristocracy looked upon those who attended cattle as following a disgraceful employment. That would be the reason why Joseph recommended Goshen, because they then would avoid the native Egyptians, as well as get good land for pasture ; probably, too, as we see from the text, Pharaoh's cattle were kept there. The region named is still the best land for grazing. Then, too, we must remember that the native Egyptians had good reason to hate ' shepherds,' for the Hyksos, * Egyptian Exploration Fund, 'Goshen.' t 'Ancient Egyptians,' vol. ii., pp. 168, 169. 56 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. or Shepherd Kings, had conquered their land. In Upper Egypt, which was at this time held by native Egyptians, all the inscriptions delight in caricaturing the ' appearance of shep- herds.' All happened as Joseph had foreseen. How touching are those words of Jacob, ' Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life ' ! Ah ! yes, he got the coveted birth- right by deceit, but sorrow had tracked his steps all through. Though a pardoned sinner, the evil consequences of his sin ever followed him. After seventeen years in the land of Egypt, Jacob dies ; his great dread is that he would be buried in Egypt. As the thoughts of every old man go ever back to the time of his youth, Jacob thinks of the burial-place of his fathers. Joseph swears he will do his wish, and, after blessing Joseph and his sons, he calls his own sons together, that they may hear his last words. And though it does not lie in the scope of this work to dilate on the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis, yet I presume to think the tenth verse is so commonly misunderstood that I trust a few words may not be considered out of place. The sceptre is not to depart from Judah ' //// Shiloh come.'* The Jew never held the sceptre of the world. Even in the reign of Solomon the country ruled over was small as compared to the empire of Egypt or Assyria. And what was it compared to Alexander or Rome ? But to the Jew was given the true sceptre of the world, that he should be selected by God to be the nation to whom He revealed Himself He was to hold it ' till Shiloh come ' — Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, the Saviour — then ' unto Him shall the obedience of the peoples be.' Then the true sceptre — the knowledge of God— passes from the Jew and be- comes the common property of mankind. St. Matthew (xii. 21) saw this when he said, ' In His name shall the Gentiles trust.' He was to be 'the Light to lighten the Gentiles' (Isa. xlix. 6), * Dr. Munro Gibson, in his 'Ages l>erore Moses.' FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 57 and when those Greeks came to PhiUp, and were introduced by Andrew and PhiUp to Jesus, the prophecy was fulfilled — it had begun its more glorious fulfilment — for did not our Lord say, ' The hour is come that the Son of man should be glori- fied'? (John xii. 20-23). Jacob dies, and, by Joseph's order, is embalmed. The whole process of this Egyptian custom is amply depicted on the Egyptian monuments. We there read that it was done by members of the medical profession. The Bible says ' physi- cians.' The number of days of mourning given accords with that of Scripture — seventy — forty of which the Bible expressly says were taken up by the embalming process. Nothing is more completely shown on Egyptian monuments than the feasts — the mourning rites — for the dead. They are on all the tombs from Ghizeh to Abu Simbal, and are well depicted in the pages of Dr. Ebers.'" With a large company of Pharaoh's servants and great state, 'chariots and horsemen,' 'a very great company,' the embalmed body is taken to ' Atad,'f a threshing-floor. So it would be at the commencement of the hill ranges, for threshing-floors J were usually in such a position. This place has not been identified; but from the text we can see that the Egyptians stopped here. The hill-passes would not be practicable for chariots, and Gen. 1. 13 says: 'His sons carried him into the land of Canaan, * 'Egypt.' + It is interesting to note that here we have a proof that Moses wrote the Book of Genesis. The passage runs, 'Wherefore the name of it was called Abel Mizraim, zuhich is beyond Jordan.' Many have been the attempts to identify ' Atad ' on the eastern side of Jordan, forget- ting that Moses, writing, as he did, from the eastern bank (he was never allowed to cross the Jordan), would naturally speak of the western bank as ' beyond Jordan.' Had the Book of Genesis been written, as some German and other critics profess to think, by later hands, they, living on the western bank, would not have described the place as Moses did. i See Tonikins' ' Life and Times of Abraham.' 58 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. and buried him in the field of Machpelah.' From Beersheba to Hebron the country is hilly compared to the flatter land of the ' way of Shur ' — ' the way ' I believe this mourning caval- cade to have passed, for then you enter the limestone region impassable to chariots. When Joseph returns to Egypt, his brethren fear that now the father is dead he will avenge himself. The nobleness of his nature shines forth still brighter, and he ' comforted them ' (Gen. 1. 2i). Joseph lives to a ripe old age, and goes the way of all flesh ; but, like his father, his thoughts are with that land God has promised to Abraham and his seed. He dies — is embalmed — 'he is put in a coffin in Egypt' How is this ? Why was he not taken to Hebron ? The Egyptian monuments give us the clue: The sway of the Hyksos Pharaohs was now being challenged by the native kings of IVlemphis and Thebes ; troubles were on the border ; the great man of the Hebrews was dead ; his brothers — master herds- men to Pharaoh — were of no political account, so why should the body be so honoured as to have a state funeral in Canaan ? Objections have sometimes been made to the Biblical account of Jacob's entry into Egypt, on the plea that a few people entering a land so populous as Egypt would surely not be taken into account. Now, though we have not as yet dis- covered on the monuments any direct reference to the recorded events given in the Bible, yet who that has seen, as I have done, those half-faded picture representations of a Semitic tribe entering Egypt, which are at Beni Hassan, can doubt the care that was taken to note the arrival of foreigners and their doings ? It is just possible that the records may yet be found; but when we see how carefully Rameses II. effaced all records of these Hyksos and their doings, even recutting the sphinxes at Tanis, we must admit there is but little hope of finding such FROM CALL OF ABRAHAM TO DEATH OF JOSEPH. 59 inscriptions. And yet explorers in despair one day are full of joy at discovery the next. Let us have patience. The inscription at Beni Hassan of which I speak was at one time thought to be a record of Jacob's entry, but clearer light has shown that it is of the date 2354 — 2194 B.C. — long before Jacob. Dr. Ebers and others give full details, and thus describe the picture : ' The earhest representation that has yet been met with of a Semitic race. These, conducted by their prince, Absha, crave admission into the district of Mah. The governor of the dis- trict receives the strangers with caution, for his scribe is pre- senting him with a deed, or tablet, on which the number of the travellers — thirty-seven — is inscribed. The Semilics are bring- ing gifts of eye-pigment (antimony), with a roe-deer and a gazelle. The men are armed in various manners — one in particular has a piece of wood for flinging, a kind of boomerang — and they have bows, lances, and a target ; women on foot, and children on an ass, with another ass to carry the weaver's beam and shuttles, accompanying the tribe. A minstrel strikes the lute in honour of their ceremonious introduction. The sharper features of the Semitic race are clearly distinguished from those of the Egyptians. Elegant ornamental patterns are to be seen on the dresses of the Semitics. In other pictures in the same tombs, among the soldiers, we see red-haired men in a peculiar garb, and these, too, seem to belong to the Semitic tribe. It is remarkable that among the Jews in Egypt to this day blonde hair is not uncommon, while among the Arabs, or Fellahin, it is extremely rare, and in the time of the Pharaohs it roused the utmost aversion ; for red was the colour of Seth, or Typhon, and red-haired people (particularly among the hated foreign interlopers of Semitic origin) were looked upon as Typhonic."'' * Dr. Ebers, 'Egypt,' ii., pp. 172, 173. 6o THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. These tombs at Beni Hassan are full of priceless records of the past. However able descriptions of them may be, they yet fail to satisfy those whose good fortune it has been to study the original works. ^I'his family chapter of Jewish history closes in gloom. A coffin holds all that remains of the Jewish ruler. And now in that gloom and sorrow must the Israelites wait Their champion dead, the curtain falls, not to be lifted for many a year. All is silent as the tomb. CHAPTER II. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. In Exod. i. 6, 7, we read: 'And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty ; and the land was filled with them.' Such is the brief record of the three hundred and fifty years which intervened between the close of the book of Genesis and this of Exodus. But see how the historian emphasizes the growth of the nation from the family. They are ' fruitful,' ' increased abundantly, ' multiplied,' ' waxed exceeding mighty,' ' the land filled with them,' anticipating, as it were, the cavils as to their numbers of later ages. During those three hundred and fifty years, as far as the Bible is concerned, the history of Israel is told no further. The dark veil is only lifted to tell this much. The Egyptian monuments, as at present read, tell us nothing of them ; but we must bear in mind one or two facts. It is only of late years that Egyptologists have had their attention directed to the true position of the land of Goshen. The discoveries of De NaviUe and others have come thick and fast There is yet much more to be discovered in that part of the Delta. Who that knows Egypt will not recall the mud villages of the present Fellahin, built nearly always on mounds — the ruined heaps of ancient temples and towns? I have sketched many a miserable village of to-day that is perched on 62 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. the top of an old temple ! This fact alone adds to the difificulty of exploration ; for, unless you can get the inhabitants to remove, how are you to explore ? They have no idea that explorations are conducted in the cause of science. They tell you they know better, and that the real reason is that you are searching for hidden treasure. It is the 'Arabian Nights' again. ' Your books, or Jinns, have told you where the men of old hid their wealth. The knowledge is lost to the true believer, but the infidel, by his dark arts, knows of the place.' It is not only the Fellahin who think and say this. Witness the conduct of the pasha whom M. de Naville speaks of. A huge stone was found — a monolith. The pasha ordered it to be broken up, on the idea that it contained gold ! As I before said, intelligent explorers have been so late in the field. Why, in 1884 De Naville found in a village close to Zagazig — that important junction of the railway — a thick slab of red granite, sculptured on both sides with figures and inscriptions of the thirteenth dynasty, then used as a corner-stone at the end of a street ! He found also a tablet of black granite, bearing the name of Ptolemy Philadelphos, which is richly covered with figures and inscriptions ; it was then lying in a pond, and used by Fellahin women as a slab on which to wash their linen !* Bridges and palaces have for long ages past been built from the ruins of the ancient temples, and when used all inscriptions erased ! Then, too, who has not seen, when examining temples in Egypt, that all the inscriptions above-giound were erased by the different conquerors of the land ? Why, in the very gardens of Ismailia is a sphinx of the Hyksos period, which was recut and all Hyksos inscriptions erased by Rameses II. In 1888 M. de Naville announced further discoveries at Bubastas. 'That this place was an important Hyksos settle- ment is what no one suspected, but it is a fact conclusively * See De Naville's reports to Egyptian Fund. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 63 established by the work of the present season. Two black granite statues, the head of one nearly perfect, of the un- mistakable Hyksos type ; the lower half of a seated statue of an unknown king, also of Hyksos work ; and a fine red granite architrave, engraved with the cartouche of Apepi, the most famous of the Hyksos kings, have been discovered.' ' In digging to the southward of the Hall of Osokon I., we found, first, the head-dress of a colossal statue in black granite. The type of the face is Hyksos, the sunken cheeks and the project- ing mouth being exactly like those of the Tanis sphinxes. A statue of a Hyksos king wearing the insignia of Egyptian royalty is certainly unique.' Another more important statue was found. The inscriptions give the name and titles of an absolutely unknown king. The inscription describes him as the worshipper of his ka {i.e., his ghost or double). This inscription was shown to the Mohammedan official in charge of the Boulak Museum. He at once said, ' That is the Pharaoh of Joseph. All our Arab books call him Reiyan, the son of El-Welid.' The statue shows the left thigh foreshortened, and clad in the striped shenti, or folded kilt. The king, in addition to his cartouche, is styled the ' Good God ' and the ' Son of Ra.' The identification of the learned Mohammedan official must be received with extreme reserve, but the identity of the two names is very extraordinary. ' Ra ian ' may be read ' lan-Ra,' and is curiously like the name of the Hyksos launus quoted by Josephus from Manetho. That Joseph served a Hyksos king has long been accepted by the majority of Egyptologists. Other discoveries show that the Temple of Bast, after being enriched by the Hyksos kings, and before being rebuilt by Rameses II., was yet flourishing in the time of the Restora- tion. The discoveries are too numerous to mention here. The 64 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. results are splendid, and more facts will undoubtedly be soon brought to light. ' The name which Arab tradition gives to Josephus's Pharaoh is all but identical with the name discovered. The tradition says that the Hamites, who peopled Egypt, had been for some time ruled over by women, in consequence of which kings from all quarters were lusting after their land. An Amalekite king named El-Welid invaded it from Syria, and established his rule there. After him came his son, in whose time Joseph was brought to Egypt. It is hard to believe that so striking a coincidence should be due to mere chance.'* Josephus preserves a fragment of Manetho, an Egyptian writer of the third century before Christ, which fragment gives an account of what the Egyptian priests of that day taught as to the Israelitish race; but Manetho confuses the Israelites with the Hyksos, and in one case makes them the rulers of Egypt, and in another account calls them ' captive shepherds.' His dates are all wrong, for he speaks of the building of Jerusalem at a time thirty-seven years before Abram came out of Haran ! It is this Egyptian priest who also says that the Israelites were expelled because they were leprous and unclean. This so-called history of Manetho is a priestly jumble. The curious can read the whole story in Josephus, ' Against Apion.' But if we have no records as yet of the Israelites in the long blank of Bible history, we have a good deal of Egyptian history on the monuments. I will follow here Professor Sayce :t ' The expulsion of the Hyksos conquerors of Egypt, while it brought oppression and slavery to their Semitic kindred who were left behind, inaugurated an era of conquest and glory for the Egyptians themselves. The war against the Asiatics, which had begun in Egypt, was carried into Asia, and under * Times, April 6, 7, i8S8. t ' Fresh Light,' pp. 56, 57. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 65 Thothmes III., and other great monarclis of the eighteenth dynasty, the Egyptian armies traversed Palestine and Syria, and penetrated as far as the Euphrates. The tribes of Canaan paid tribute ; the Amorites or " hilhnen " were led into captivity, and the combined armies of Hittites and Phoenicians were defeated in the Plain of Megiddo. On the temple walls of Karnac at Thebes, Thothmes III. (u.c. 1600) gives a list of the Canaanitish towns which had submitted to his arms. Among them we read the names of Zarthan and Beroth, of Beth-Anoth and Gibeah, of Migdol and Ophrah, of Taanach and Ibleam, of Shunem and Chinneroth, of Hazor and Laish, of Merom and Kishon, of Abel and Sharon, of Joppa and Achzib, of Beyrut and Accho, of Heshbon and Megiddo, of Hamath and Damascus. One of the conquered places bears the curious name of Jacob-el, " Jacob the God," while mention is made of the Negeb, or " Southern district," which afterwards formed part of the territory of Judah. ' Two centuries later, when the troublous times which saw the close of the eighteenth dynasty had ushered in the nine- teenth, the same districts had again to be overrun by the Egyptian kings. Once more victories were gained over the powerful Hittites in their fortress of Kadesh on the Orontes, and over the tribes of Palestine. Seti I., the father of Rameses XL, records among his conquests Beth-Anoth, or Kirjath-Anab (" the city of grapes " — Josh. xL 21), in the south, as well as Zor or Tyre. Rameses II. himself, the Sesostris of the Greeks, battled for long years against the Hittites on the plains of Canaan, and estabhshed a line of Egyptian fortresses as far north as Damascus. The tablets which he engraved at the mouth of the Dog River, near Beyrut, still remain to testify to his victories and campaigns. Representations were sculptured on the walls of Thebes of the forts of " Tabor in the land of the Amorites," of Merom and of Salem, and the capture of the 66 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. revolted city of Ashkelon was celebrated both in sculpture and in song.' We shall afterwards see how these great conquests were but preparing the way for the Israelites. A new epoch arises for that nation, as we see from Exod. i. 8 : ' Now there arose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph.' To understand the full meaning of this, we must again turn to Egyptian monuments; they show us that the Hyksos invaders were not expelled until after long contests, in which victory sometimes inclined to the invaders, sometimes to the native kings who had taken refuge in Upper Egypt. Professor Maspero, on the 3rd of June, 1886, unrolled in Cairo, at the museum at Boulak, some precious mummies ; amongst others, that of ' Sekenen-Ra, prince of the Thebaid, who headed the great national parties in the armed rising known as the War of Independence, and thenceforth assumed the title of king, so ranking as the first national Pharaoh of the seventeenth dynasty. This prince is best known by the part which he plays in that precious fragment of legendary romance called " The First Sallier Papyrus," now in the British Museum. Of the War of Independence, and the fate of the three heroes of the family of Taa, of which Sekenen-Ra is the first, very little is known, except that the war lasted many years, and ended (about B.C. 1703) in the final expulsion of the foreign (Hyksos) conquerors. It is therefore extremely interesting to learn that the mummy of Sekenen-Ra bears evidence of a violent death, the head and face being covered with wounds. The inference is, of course, that he died upon the field of battle.'* After this king arises Seti I., whose mummy has also been found and unrolled, and photographs of whom can be seen in any shop-window. Then comes the great Rameses II. These * Academy, July 24, 1886. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 67 mummies* were found in a tomb at Thebes, long concealed ; but in 1879 Maspero saw a tablet which had been got from an Arab, caused this Arab to be arrested, and after some time the secret hiding-place was divulged. The daring explorers were let down by ropes into a deep pit, where, in a chamber, they found boxes of statuettes, bronze and terra-cotta jars, alabaster vases and also in a chamber eighteen huge mummy- cases. There was Seti, ' who drew his frontiers where he pleased,' Rameses the Great and other Pharaohs of the Theban dynasties. Investigations gave the explanation as to why these mummies had been taken away from the royal tombs and placed in this obscure hiding-place. In the times of Rameses IX. tombs had been rifled, and others damaged. An inquiry was held, and some of the delinquents were brought to justice. The 'Abbott' and the ' Amhert' papyri give accounts of the proceedings in full, and the confession of one of the criminals. As disorders progressed in the kingdom, and the power of the monarchy declined, it appears to have been determined to move the royal remains from the royal tombs and place them in this concealed hole. And so it is that we in these days can look upon the face of that king ' who knew not Joseph,' and his predecessors and successors ! The struggle Seti had with his enemies, and the character of his conquests, are shown on many a monument. At Thebes we see him represented with his mace, striking prisonersof-war, a group of whom are kneeling before him ; there is the negro with his woolly hair, ring in ear; the Assyrian with his long wig; undoubted Semitics and other races, all holding hand aloft, craving mercy. In the splendid ruins of Abydos we see this king again offering homage to his god, or triumphing over his enemies, all telling of war. And then Rameses II. The whole land of Egypt is * See Appendix, 'History of Ancient EgyiJtian Art,' Terriot and Chipiez, voi. ii. s— 2 68 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. full of his doings. Was it likely so proud a king would tolerate in his midst and close to his most vulnerable frontier a subject nation, allied by blood to those Semitic Hyksos kings his ancestors had such fierce battles with ? How politic his advice to his people was ! (Exod. i. 9, 10) : ' Behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we ; come now, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass i/iai when tliere falleth out any war they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.' This was the ' cry ' with which the astute king went to his people. ' The country is in danger !' He appeals to Egyptian patriotism, reminds them, too, of past trouble, and suggests that it might occur again. Politicians have never been at a loss for reasons when they wished to act unjustly. The wolf found that the lamb fouled the stream, though he did drink the water below the com- plainant ! And yet Pharaoh had some truth on his side of the argument. All that was happening was in the controlling hand of God, though kings thought then, and think still, that they rule the world. Acting, then, on the advice of Pharaoh, ' they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.' A study of the Egyptian monuments shows us well what that meant. The stick, the bastinado, had its native home in Egypt, and the barbarous way in which it was applied is shown on many temples. For some crimes as many as a thousand blows were ordered. And yet old authorities tell us that 'an Egyptian blushes if he cannot show numerous marks on his body that evince his endeavours to evade his duties.'* ' The bastinado was inflicted on both sexes.' In the Beni Hassan tombs we see a man held down on his dice by two figures, another hold- ing his heels, while an official rains blows on his naked back. '' 'Ammianus Marcellinus,' see Wilkinson, vol. ii., p. 211. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 69 Another picture representation shows two boys — one being brought by the officer, stick in hand, before the master or steward ; another boy is appealing for mercy to an official, who is rejecting him. Also at Beni Hassan we see a woman bas- tinadoed on her back — women generally sat. In a tomb at the Pyramids we see a superintendent beating a workman, who, with another man, is polishing a slab of granite. At Thebes frequent pictures of the same punishment are to be seen. All Egyptian inscriptions tell the same story, and Egypt is un- changed. Those who witnessed the making of the Suez Canal saw the ant-like swarm of workmen — Fellahin, taken by force from their villages — filling the baskets wifA their hands, then hurrying with their loads up the banks to shoot the rubbish ; or saw the Nile barges with the forced corvee coming from Nubia and the Soudan, the men packed like sardines in a box ; or, later on, saw those men working in the sugar-fields of the late Khedive — saw them with loads of cane on shoulder, hurried at a trot into the sugar-house, two living streams of men — one loaded, the other unloaded— and saw the task- masters with corbash or heavy thong in hand, standing at given distances on either line. And then, if from fatigue, or what not, the burden-carriers lagged, down on their naked backs came the lash ! I have seen men who had fainted and fallen down, merely dragged on one side, a bucket of Nile water dashed over them, and then left to recover or die. Or go and see at night the tired multitude (in one instance I saw 10,000) lying about in groups— no roof but the sky and the quiet stars, which look on a scene like a horrid battle-field There lie figures contorted in the strangest manner, seeking rest for the poor weary body. A few groups are gathered round poor fires, trying to warm themselves, for, after the cruel toil of the day and the burning heat of an Egyptian sun, few have any cloaks or wraps to shelter them from the chill night-dews. Coughing •JO THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. comes all around, and then ever and anon rises in the still air that strange pathetic song in the minor key, of some poor soul singing, ' Ya Ali I Ya Ali !' an invocation to a favourite saint.* See all this, and then you could the better realize what those terse words in the Bible meant: 'The Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour : they made their lives bitter' (Exod i. 13, 14). An amusing instance of the unchangeable nature of Egyp- tian habits and types is that remarkable figure carved out of sycamore-wood found by Marriette Pasha. It is now in the museum at Boulak. It was shown to me by the discoverer. It represents a high official of mature age and proud bearing, carrying in his hand his staff of office. The face expresses great determination. When the Fellahin who were digging for Marriette came upon it they with one voice shouted out, ' Sheikh-el Belad !' ' Here's our magistrate !' It is the exact type of that official of to-day. We may take it as a settled fact that Rameses II. was 'the oppressor,' and we will therefore briefly examine some of the monuments of that king and his father, Seti I. Rameses I. reigned a very short time ; but under Seti the empire waxed all-powerful, and his son, Rameses II., if possible, made the empire still greater. A few facts, taken almost at random, will enable us to better understand the verses (Exod. i. 12-14). On the north wall of the temple at Karnak we see Seti I. returning victorious from an expedition into Syria. He is in his chariot. Before him go long lines of captives of different types. Arms tied behind their backs, ropes round their necks, they are led on, to be stopped by a Suez Canal ! Yes ; Seti had ordered a canal to be made ; full accounts of it are given, and the rejoic- ings on its opening.f * In Palestine the common expression day or night from the people is 'Va Allah!'— 'Oh God!' f The reader can see representations of all this in Wilkinson. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 71 Priests and princes kneel by the side of the canal and offer the victorious king homage and gifts. An inscription on this interesting picture calls the canal the ' cut through.' Verily, there is nothing new under the sun ! Another picture on the walls of Thebes is very interesting. Here are represented captives working in the brickfields. We see men going to the river to get the Nile mud. One figure is represented breast high in it, with his load on his shoulder. Then there is the great heap of mud on the land. Men are filling baskets with it, and carrying it away ; while others are engaged with wooden frames pressing the mud into shapes, just as can be seen in a modern brickfield. The bricks made, men carry them away on boards. These boards are slung by a pole over the shoulders. Others are piling the soft bricks into heaps, allowing air-.space between. Then, on the same wall, we see labourers engaged in building. Men are bringing loads on their backs, while others are stooping to work. But ever present, ever vigilant, stands the task-master with his rod, and the official with his lash ! Sometimes the head official sits and looks on while the labourers work ; but the lash always — even when the people represented are art workmen, and carving inscriptions or sphinxes — down coines the lash on their naked backs !* It would take a volume to describe all these representations. Seti and his son, Rameses, were the great builders of all public works in Egypt. Not only, therefore, had the Israelites to build ' cities,' but there was ' all manner of service in the field ' —canals, fortifications, temples, ' store cities ' (R.V.). We may not be able to identify the Israelites in the pictures, but we see how those works were done. The eleventh verse specially mentions ' treasure cities,' ' Pithom and Raamses.' Here again we touch very firm ground, as we shall see later on ; but we must follow the line of the Bible story. * Ebers, 'Egypt,' vol. ii., p. 21. 12 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. Next comes the cruel edict of the jealous king : The male children are to be destroyed. To haughty conquerors such as Rameses, whom all the inscriptions delight in representing as trampling on his opponents^ this would doubtless appear a very light thing. But the ' midwives fear God,' and evade the edict. Here I cannot but relate what happened to me in the Desert of Sinai. I had been staying with a Bedawin tribe. The favourite wife of the sheikh was ill. I had a considerable reputation as a Hakeem, or doctor, from some cures I had effected, and my own men always told the tale — with additions ! I was ' medically consulted.' The affair was strange, because I was told I could not be allowed to see the afflicted woman ; so I declined to act unless I saw her tongue ! Eventually, in the presence of the midwife of the tribe, I was allowed, and for- tunately saw what was the matter — a sharp touch of fever. I cured the woman, and the midwife, anxious probably to increase her own knowledge, became very friendly. She was a fearful old hag. One day, talking with her, I expressed my surprise at the ifSN fe7nale children running about the tents, for the very young children were all in a state of nature. She told me Bedawin women rarely had female children ! Very strongly I told her she was not speaking the truth, and that she would not get the information she desired from me unless she did. After some time she then said : ' This happened.' The ' this ' was an ugly motion of the thumb and finger, with a still uglier twist at her throat, which explained that the female babe was strangled ! Too many women in the desert would doubtless be an encum brance — another mouth to feed, and little food to be got Was this a relic of old times ?* I know not. But Pharaoh's order * In Palestine at the present day there is great rejoicing when a son is born, but if a girl the opposite. Laurence Oliphant speaks of a woman pitching her child out of the window when she discovered it was a girl, and ISRAEL IN EGYPT. was different. The 7nale was then to be thrown into the river — the daughters saved : they would be useful as slaves or for the harem. Moses is born and put in the ark of bulrushes, and the compassionate princess saves his life. He grows up an Egyptian outwardly ; but he had been taught by Ais mother (Exod. ii. 8) and doubtless taught the promises of God — told of the promised inheritance. Also, he was 'learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds ' (Acts vii. 22). Yet his heart yearned for his suffering brethren. Up to this time he appears to have been living at Pharaoh's court — probably at Tanis, away from Goshen. But when forty years old he visited his brethren, and, seeing one suffer wrong, indignation overcame him, and he slew the oppressor. The story was told, and Moses had to fly. He fled to the ' land of Midian.' Why there? Egyptian inscriptions help us. He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, so he would well know that it was useless to try to escape to Palestine by the ' way of the Philistines.' That was barred by the great wall and its garrisoned forts, and he, a fugitive, had no pass- port. The same reasons applied to the ' way of Shur.' That would lead him past those Egyptian colonies and mines in the Desert of Sinai, of which we shall have more to say. There was only one route possible — the ' way of the Red Sea.' He must have taken that, and, so escaping all danger, gets to the end of the Gulf of 'Akabah and into Midian, that land of which Captain Burton tells us in his 'Land of Midian.' He looks and is dressed as ' an Egyptian.' For did not the daughters of the priest think so ? (Exod. ii. 19). He marries, and lives the hfe of a shepherd. How did he get that news of the twenty- third verse of the second chapter—' that the King of Egypt died ' ? In the fourth chapter, fourteenth verse, we are told the poor thing was a cripple for life. He saw the child limping about, and on inquiries found the cause. 74 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. ' Aaron cometh forth to meet thee' (Exod. iv. 14). So his brother in Egypt must have known of his abiding -place. Moses would be safe in Midian, for every bit of the Sinai Desert was well known to the Egyptians, and under their sway. But in Midian Moses was over their frontier. The bondage of the children of Israel is made more bitter, and then ' they cry' unto God; and the ever-loving God ' had respect unto them ' (Exod. ii. 23-25). Moses is given various proofs of God's power and gracious intentions towards Israel ; and the man who modestly says he is ' not eloquent,' and ' slow of speech,' goes on his great mission. He must have been glad to get away from his shrew of a wife ! Moses and Aaron re- turn to Egypt, tell their mission to the ' elders '; all the ' people believed,' 'and worshipped.' The great leaders go before the new Pharaoh; his haughty answer is, 'Who is the Lord?' These Egyptian despots, in all their native inscriptions, as- sumed that title to themselves ! 'I'he intervention of Moses only angered Pharaoh, and he ordered that the burden of the Israelites should be increased. Let us now see what modern discovery has to tell us of Pithom and Rameses. And here we must turn to those deeply interesting discoveries of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, a sister society to the Palestine Exploration Fund. The labours of the able explorers of the first-named society, Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie and M. de Naville, like those of the Palestine Fund, wonderfully light up the pages of Scripture.* They show how little the Delta is known, though the great traveller Lepsius did years ago suggest the true site of Pithom. Every traveller in Egypt has noticed the mounds about twelve miles from Ismailia, in Wady Tumilat ; the Arabic name being Tell el Maskhilta ('the mound of the statue'), because a statue of Rameses II. was found there, sitting between the * ' Pithom,' Egyptian Exploration Fund. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 75 two solar gods, Ra and Turn. Near this mound, close to the earthworks thrown up by Arabi's soldiers, runs a work called by the Arabs ' The Canal of the VVady.' It is now a marsh, full of reeds ; but it marks the site of that old canal of Seti of which I have spoken. Here, also, are remains of a thick wall, built of large bricks. M. de Naville then gives an account of the excavations. Amongst other things found was a square area, enclosed by enormous brick walls, containing a space of about 55, 000 square yards. This space contained the ruins of a temple. The monumental inscriptions 7aere destroyed. Then come strange buildings of thick walls of crude brick, joined by thin layers of mortar. The walls were well built, having a thickness of from two to three yards ; the surface smooth. Many other chambers were found. These were the undoubted storehouses, or granaries, in which the Pharaohs stored the pro- visions necessary for armies about to cross the desert. They were border forts. The Hebrew translation in our version, ' treasure cities,' should be 'storehouses.' The Septuagint calls them 'fortified cities.' Inscriptions found prove undoubtedly that these ' cities ' were built by Rameses II.— the Pharaoh of the oppression. Now, the city is called in the Bible ' Pithom.' The Egyptian words are Pi Tum— ' the city or abode of Turn.' Now, ' Tum ' was one of the solar gods worshipped by the king ; so in this case he calls the ' city,' or storehouse, by the name of his god ! Many most valuable objects and inscriptions were found- one, for instance, a portion of a sphinx. There is a fragment of an inscription : 'The Lord of Theku, of Succoth.' This name occurs again. A portion of another inscription reads : ' His obedient son has dedicated to his father Pithom, the abode of the festivals of the king— the divine offspring of Ra.' 76 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. Another : ' The first prince of Sept, the I,ord of the East, the head of the prophets of Turn — the great god of Succoth,' etc. This ' Sept ' is often called the ' Lord of the East.' A longer inscription reads (it is to King Rameses) : ' I am pleased with what thou hast done, my son who loves me ! I know thee ; I love thee ; I am thy father. I give thee everlasting joy and an eternal reign. Thy duration is like my duration on my throne on earth. Thy years are like the years of Turn. Thou risest like the god of the two horizons, and thou illuminest the land. Thy sword protects Egypt ; thou enlarges! thy frontiers. All the prisoners made by thy gallant sword are brought to Egypt from .Syria, from Ethiopia, from the Tahennu, from the Shasu,* from the islands of the sea. King Rameses — living eternally.' Was it likely that kings vaunted like this would think much of the treatment of a nation of shepherds— a helpless crowd, with no political power or leaders ? M. Naville carries his proofs further. He found a fragment on which was written, 'The good Recorder of Pithom' (Pi Turn). This fragment has been brought to England. And now mark another discovery. Speaking of the bricks of which the huge 'storehouse ' is built, he says : ' Many of them are made with straw, or with fragments of reeds, of which traces are still to be seen ; and some are of Nile mild, without any straw at all.'-\ What is the meaning of ' no straw,' of these ' fragments of reeds ' ? We must go back to the Bible again, and see how Pharaoh orders that the people are to have ' no straw ' given to them ; they are to gather it themselves. Yet they are to make the same quantity of bricks. ' The taskmasters hated them, saying. Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.' We have seen what those task-masters were in the Egyptian inscriptions, and we may be sure they did not * Bedawin. t ' Pithom,' M. Naville. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 77 spare the stick ; for we read ' they were beaten.' ' The officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh,' and tell of the oppression, and speak of the cruel conduct. The despot tells them : ' Ye are idle, ye are idle.' He sneers at their religion, and their condition is made worse. Let us look more closely into the meaning of the words ' straw ' and ' stubble.' The Hebrew word translated ' straw ' means ' cruslied or broken straw,'=-' like our chopped hay. The ' straw ' in its natural state has another Hebrew word, which in our version is called ' stubble.' Now, crushed straw was the only kind used in brick-making. Major Conder shows how even noiv it is so used in Palestine. ' The bricks are made in spring by bringing down water into ditches dug in the clay, when chopped straw is mixed with the mud ; thence the soft mixture is carried in bowls to a row of wooden moulds or frames, each about ten inches long by three inches across. These are laid out on flat ground, and are squeezed full, the clay being then left to harden in the sun.' This is a most accurate picture of the way bricks were made in the times of the Pharaohs, as is shown by the inscriptions. Really one can see in the Egypt of to-day something of what must have happened when the children of Israel ' were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw' (R.V., Exod. v. 12), for some of the very poorest of the huts in which the Fellahin live are made of Nile mud, mixed with fragments of straw, of rush, grass, bits of stick, anything to bind the mud together. These modern 'bricks ' are like flat cakes; they are dried in the sun on the * ' "Crushed straw " is called " Tibn " in Arabic ; it is not broken or cut by any implement, but broken by the o.\en treading out the corn ; it can in Palestine be had all the year round, as it is stored up in dry cisterns, and then a pile of loose stones is erected over the mouth. Horses are fed on Tibn and barley mixed.'— Note by Mr. G. Armstrong. 78 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. rubbish-heaps outside the villages. Children, women, men, may be seen collecting these scraps of straw ; so also every particle of cattle dung is collected, mixed with these frag- mentary bits of straw or stick, dried in the sun, and used for fuel. Again, in the sluggish waters of the Delta rushes of every kind flourished ; for it was here that the papyrus grew, and still grows, and not in that rapid Nile at Cairo, of which travellers speak when they express their surprise that no papyrus grows now.* The photographs taken by M. Naville for the Egyptian Fund show brick chambers of a huge size — in the lowest course the bricks are well made ; in the higher courses, rough straw and rushes in the bricks ; last courses, neither ! What a confirmation of the Bible history ! (See Exod. v. 7-19.) We have seen that the Pharaoh Rameses II., who ordered the death of the male children, and from whom Moses fled, was dead — that his successor still further increased their burdens by carrying on the great works in brick which his father had commenced. Do the Egyptian monuments tell us anything of him — this hard son of a hard father? His name is Meneptah. Brugsch Bey gives one record of him, and it furnishes a striking proof of the manner in which the nomads (that is, those who were sons of the desert ; Bedawin, as we call them ; ' Shasu ' they are called by the Egyptian scribes) sought sus- tenance for themselves and their cattle in the rich pastures of Egypt. The papyrus is a report from a high Egyptian official to the king : ' Another matter for the satisfaction of my master's heart. * ' Papyrus still grows in the Jordan Valley, on the coast near Sidon, in the Zerka.' — Major Conder. It is a great mistake for writers to say the plant ii now extinct. I have found it in the Sinai desert. — H. A. H. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 79 We have carried into effect the passage of the tribes of the Shasu from the land of Aduma (Edom), through the fortress of Mineptah Hotephima, which is situated in Thuku, to the lakes of the city Pi-tum of Mineptah Hotephima, which are situated in the land of Thuku, in order to feed themselves and their herds on the possessions of Pharaoh, who is there a beneficent sun for all peoples.' This sort of immigration was what had alarmed Rameses, 'lest they' (the Israelites) 'join also unto our enemies and fight against us ' (Exod. i. 10). The ' Thuku ' mentioned in this writing is by Brugsch Bey translated 'Succoth.' M. Naville'" considers the region this tribe was allowed to occupy is ' Etham.' It is called by various names in the papyri. He shows that these immigrants were allowed to occupy some of the good pasture assigned to the Israelites, and that the signs used prove it to have been a border land, which agrees with what is said of ' Etham ' — that it was 'in the edge of the wilderness.' 'Etham was a region, not a city,' for we read of ' the wilderness of Eiham ' in Numb. xxxiii. 8. The papyri call it ' the land of Atuma,' and it was occupied by nomads (Bedawin) of Semitic race. The question now arises. Where was Pharaoh when Moses and Aaron had their various interviews with him ? Writers on this subject have made many suggestions, but the Bible is clear. If we turn to Psalm Ixxviii. 8, we find it written : ' Marvellous things did He in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.' Now, this was where Pharaoh was holding his court, a distance of about thirty miles from Goshen. This was, therefore, the distance Moses and Aaron had to traverse. Egyptian records show that the Pharaohs often resided there, especially when they had affairs of state in hand with the Semitic peoples in the Delta. At the * See Reports to Egyptian Exploration Fund. 8o THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. time in question the disaffection''' of the Hebrews was in itself a good reason for the royal residence being fixed at this place. Of the present state of Tanis, Dr. Ebers remarks :t ' Many of the remains of the cities and temples that have come down to us from the period of Egypt's splendour are of greater extent and in better preservation, but no ruins excel these in picturesque charm. . . . The city must have been a large one, and one of the most splendid residences and centres of culture in the kingdom. Only in Thebes are there so many and such large monuments of hard granite to be found; but of all the magnificent buildings which once stood here, not even the ground-plan can be recognised. The great sanctuary erected by Rameses II., Pharaoh the Oppressor, has crumbled into dust. Granite pillars with palm-leaf capitals, colossi, and no less than twelve broken obelisks, lie by the side of less important monuments in grand confusion on the earth. An Arabic legend relates that the Pharaohs were giants, who could move the mightiest masses of rock with a magic rod ; but if it needed giants to erect these monuments, it must have required the will and the strength of a god thus to overthrow them.' Such is the present state of that city in which the haughty * ' In certain papyri of the eighth year of Meneptah one contains a letter written by an Egyptian in Syria to a friend at Rameses ; it runs : ' " At the moment of writing, I am alive and well, so do not be anxious about me ; but I want to hear the news as to your welfare every day ; and I may add that I expect very soon to rejoin you at Pa Rameses. Mer- amen.'' ' An undertone of apprehension pervades these lines, which is stated plainly in another communication : ' " Such is the state of affairs with us to-day, but no one knows what will happen io-monovt." ' —Cenluiy Magazine, September, 1889, p. 713. 'We see by I his that the ferment among the Hebrews was exciting anxiety in the minds of the Egyptian people. They Haw that the Hebrews were about " to strike." ' + 'Egypt,' i., p. 97. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. Pharaoh received the messengers from God. It was a fa%'Ourite residence of his father, Rameses II., for he had so many wars on that frontier with Semitics. Dr. Ebers says : 'Venerable papyrus-rolls contain the accounts of the task- masters of the Hebrews, as rendered to the overseers, and show us how unremittingly the officers watched the labourers, and endeavoured to promote their material comfort. The officials praise the neighbourhood of Tanis and the fertility of Goshen in words of rapture.' Pictures at Thebes have already shown us how bricks were made, and the inscription tells us these prisoners were ' to make bricks for the new buildings of the provision-houses or granaries of the city of Amon.' By the side of the second picture it is written, ' Prisoners brought by his majesty to labour at the temple of his father Amon.' A third inscription celebrates the vigilance of the task-masters, and the gods are entreated to reward the king, for remember- ing them, with wine and good food. An overseer calls out to the people, ' I carry the stick ; be ye not idle !' ' It is impos- sible to study these pictures without thinking of the oppression of the Hebrews.' The cry of the overseer is but the echo of Pharaoh's words, ' Ye are idle ! ye are idle !'* The king refuses to let the people go. Plagues follow, the last, when ' there was a great cry in Egypt,' for all the firstborn were smitten with death. Now in haste Pharaoh urges them to go ; the Egyptians also, ' for they said. We be all dead men.' The dough is taken without being leavened; the Israelites borrow! 'jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment,' and the huge array of captives set off, ' from Rameses to Succoth ' (Exod. xi.). Not only the Hebrews, but a mixed multitude — ' flocks and herds, and very much cattle.' ' The host hurried on to the eastward, executing, apparently. * Ebers' ' Egypt,' i., p. 103. f R.V, reads 'asked.' S2 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. in one day a march of twelve to fifteen miles. They reach the district of Succoth, and camp within its limits, to the west of Pithom. There is no more likely place for this encampment than the neighbourhood of Kassassin, where there is abundance ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 83 of forage and water. . . . Meeting with no molestation or pursuit, they continued their march on the following day, and encamped at Etham, at the eastern end of Wady Tumilat. . . . So the route of the Israelites must have been near the present town of Ismailia, at the head of Lake Timsah.' Here the desert presents, in consequence of its slight elevation above the bottom of the wady, a better defined ' edge.'='= It is just here where the land route to Palestine begins, and was so used as a route by the Bedawin before the days of the present Suez Canal. We must not forget that the chariot corps — ' creme de la creme ' of the Egyptian army — was stationed at Tanis ; it could there the better guard the frontier. But a new command comes from the Lord God : that the array was to ' turn.' They had been told not to go ' the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said. Lest peradventure the people repent zvken they see war' (Exod. xiii. 17). Had they gone that direct route, they must have 'seen mar,' and plenty of it, too, for the chariot corps would have been well on their flank, and in their front the great fortified wall ;'l and, moreover, Philistia at this time was under the sway of Egypt. None but a powerful array of trained soldiers could have had any hope of cutting their way through all these warlike forces of the enemy, and the Israelites were a frightened mob of captives, just liberated from hard bondage, with coward minds and frightened hearts. This ' turn ' gave Pharaoh courage. He thought they were ' entangled in the land,' and here I will quote what I have previously written on this part of * Sir J. W. Dawson, ' Egypt and Syria,' p. 59. t Poole, ' Cities of Egypt,' p. 66, says : ' There stood on the eastern border of Egypt from the days of Abraham the fortresses carefully con- structed on principles we are pleased in our ignorance to call modern, with scarp and counter-scarp, ditch and glacis veil manned by the best troops, the sentinel on the ramparts day and night.' 6—2 84 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. the subject, for, on re-examination of the whole route, I see no reason to alter it :* ' They now marched to encamp before " Pi-hahiroth," be- tween Migdol and the sea (W«r against "Baal-Zephon." "Pi- hahiroth" means "edge of the sedge," or "where sedge grows"; Baal-Zephon, " the Lord of the North." This latter was across the sea, and probably the high peaks of " Jebel Muksheih "+ were in view. But have we any reason to believe that the " Red Sea " extended in those days as far as " I^ke Timsah " ? Yes, plenty of proof Egyptian records show how at that time the " sea " extended to that place. They tell how a canal was made to connect the Nile with that sea, and give an account of the rejoicings on the opening of the canal The "sea" has retreated owing to the elevation of the land. Proofs are in plenty from recent geological surveys, and now we can under- stand with a clearer eye what the prophet Isaiah means when he says (chap. xi. 15) : " And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea, and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod." "Egyptian Sea " — it could never have meant that which now ends at Suez, but one which all records prove extended to Lake Timsah. Sluggish, yes ; for it was " weedy " or " reedy." And here let me say there is no warrant, according to the best scholars, in calling the sea in question " Red Sea." The Hebrew words are clear, and mean " sea of reeds " or " sea of weeds," when they describe the " sea " the Israelites crossed. This, again, is a most powerful confirmation of the view that at one time the present Gulf of Suez extended to Lake Timsah.' Pharaoh thought that, hemmed in by that 'sea,' the Israelites would be at his mercy; so he makes 'ready his * 'Goshen to Sinai,' Sunday Magazine. t Jebel Muksheih ii the prominent northern point of ihe Jebel er Rabah. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 85 chariot,' and takes his chariot guard — 600 chosen chariots — 'and pursued after the children of Israel.' He overtakes the multitude, who see their danger : the desert towards Jebel Attaka, with its steep cliffs, in front ; the ' sea ' on their left hand. They murmur at Moses, ' Were there no graves in Egypt ?' They remind him of their fears, their cowardly fears : ' It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness !' The pursuit continued, for ' Pharaoh drew nigh '; but the Lord orders that the people ' go forward,' and the promise is that they shall cross the sea on ' dry ground.' The host of Israel is led by a ' pillar of fire ' by night, a 'pillar of cloud' by day. Eastern armies have from time immemorial been led by ' cressets ' of fire at night ; Alexander so led his troops. The Mecca caravan of to-day is led by ' cressets ' of fire borne aloft. This is now done to escape the heat of the sun. But the pillar of cloud was now in the rear (Exod. xiv. 19) of the Israelites, showing its bright face to them, but darkness to the Egyptians. So those troops still pursuing would be as if in a fog ; they would dimly see the fugitives moving on, but be ignorant of their own exact position. They, in the darkness caused by the cloud,* would not see the waters. The Egyptian host is ' troubled,' and, as old versions of the Bible read, ' their chariot wheels were bound,' or 'made them to drive heavily.' Yes, because the wind which had caused the sea to go back was changing by a miracle. So the water, percolating through the sand, would make the whole a quicksand ; and ' when the morning appeared ' the Egyptians saw their dangerous position, tried to fly — it was too late ! they were all swallowed up ;t and ' Israel saw the great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians.' * ' It was a cloud and darkness to them ' (Exod. xiv. 20). t Professor Sayce (' Fresh Light,' p. 63) says Pharaoh did not perish, and that he was alive three years later. 86 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. ' Egyptian records tell us that at this time the then Pharaoh had had to meet a serious invasion of Libyans and other peoples on the west.' This is probably why he had so weakened his garrisons at Tanis that he only had the chariot corps. I have already spoken of the great discovery of royal mummies, and told how Seti, Rameses and many other royal bodies have been found. The mummy of Meneptah is missing ! Though no mummy of Meneptah is found yet, in the Boulak Museum we can look upon his sculptured face, which, if the artist does not belie him, shows him to have been a weak, irresolute man, such as the Bible narrative suggests — puffed up by his grandeur ; for he wears on his head a double crown, that for Upper and Lower Egypt* One thing is, * Since this book was written the well-known American writer, John A. Pain, has written a most valuable article in T/ie Century magazine for Sep- tember, 1889, in which he shows from many Egyptian inscriptions that the records do tell of the sudden death of the eldest son of the then reigning Pharaoh. So true is it that new facts are being brought to light every day, and every added fact goes to prove the extreme accuracy of the Biblical account. He relates how Meneptah came to the throne when an old man ; that he then had a son of his old age. This son when eighteen years of age he as- sociated with himself in the government of the land. The tomb of this son has been discovered at Thebes — unfinished. Many inscriptions speak of the decease of this son. At Gebel Silsilsis some tablets represent the royal group ; one shows the king Meneptah offering an image. The inscription below relates : ' The Heir to the throne of the whole land, the Royal Scribe, the Chief of the Soldiers, the great Royal Son of the body begotten, beloved of him (Set), Mer-en-ptah — deceased.' On a statue of Rameses occurs this inscription : 'All life— permanence— purity— health— to the Heir to the Throne- over the two lands— the Royal Scribe— the Chief of the Soldiers— great Royal Son — the sam . . . Mer-en-ptah — deceased.' ISRAEL IN EGYPT. S7 however, clear from the monuments — that it was long ere any Egyptian expeditions across the border were undertaken ; and this in itself would imply that the empire was weakened from some cause known to the Egyptians, and which they wished to conceal. Those best able to judge say that the explorations in the Delta, Tanis, and other towns, have as yet only touched the fringe of possible discovery. It is an interesting fact that Zoan, the Tanis of Pharaoh, was built seven years after Hebron, and from its name must have Another : ' All victory and might to the Heir to the Throne— the Royal Son, Mer-en-ptah — deceased.' On the side of a statue of Meneptah occurs this remarkable inscription : ' He who governed Egypt in behalf of his father Set! — Meneptah de CEASED.' Compare this with the Bible statement : ' The Lord smote the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne.' Other inscriptions, too numerous to quote here, all tell the same story. ' The broken-hearted father ever afterwards exhibited a weakness, a want of energy ; blinded by the shadow of death, bleeding from his fresh wound of bereavement, though frenzied with rage against those who had brought calamity on him, he made ready his chariot and all the chariots of Egypt and pursued after escaping Israel.' ' It is often asserted that the Egyptians naturally would not confess a misfortune, and that their antiquities afford no trace of the first-born son of Pharaoh, brought low under the last of those ten judgments which liberated Israel. . . . May this not be due rather to our dulness of vision? Is not their ingenuous testimony on record, and waiting only for our unerring dis- cernment ?' 88 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. been built by Semitics. No trace of 'Zoati' exists; Tanis was built over it, and city after city has been built over the ruins of that. We also see that ' Hyksos inscriptions on sphinxes are always in a line down the right shoulder, never on the left. This honouring of the right shoulders by Semitics was followed by the Jews '; the Egyptians, on the contrary, when they wished to show honour, inscribed on the left shoulder ; but they were usually indifferent. It will be seen that we totally disagree with those theories which would make the Israelites cross the Gulf of Suez. To my mind the whole of that theory is unsound ; contrary to the position assigned in the Bible to the land of Goshen ; entirely destroyed by M. Naville's discovery of Pithom, which sets all doubt at rest. Theologians had read Josephus, and, misled by the Letopolis which he speaks of, thought it meant Heliopolis, near Cairo. Hampered by this vital mistake, they overlooked the Bible statements as to Zoan and Goshen, and have led the world astray. The Israelites had crossed by a miracle, and then ' went three days in the wilderness and found no water.' Had they crossed at Suez, three hours would have taken the host to the ' Wells of Moses '; but crossing about Lake Timsah, they would have to go ' three days ' before they could reach that oasis. Why should it be thought necessary that Pharaoh and his host descended a steep bank into a fearful chasm ? His chariot-wheels could not have driven down it, and it was really when they ' drove heavily ' that the soldiers found out where they were, and turned to fly. Had the Bible been read more closely, this popular idea of Suez would never have gained credence. Let us examine the oasis — called by Europeans ' The Wells of Moses.' They are not 'wells,' but 'springs.' The' Arabic "Ayun Musa' — 'Springs of Moses' — is a true definition. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 89 There are seventeen pools, or ' ponds '; but ' about a dozen perennial springs of various sizes rise through the soil, some into rudely-walled wells, others into wide pools or basins, and furnish a tolerable abundance of somewhat brackish, yet fairly palatable water, that from the larger springs being the least impure. There are also a few small water-holes of little or no use for drinking purposes.' Water from each well was examined by the Ordnance Survey party.* The largest spring ' contained a small deposit of bog iron ore,' ' saltish, and also bitter, too strong for use.' Water from the other ' springs ' fairly good. There is never any lack of supply, and before the days of the ' Sweet-water Canal ' to Suez, that town depended chiefly for its supply of ' sweet water ' on ' 'Ayfln Miasa.' It will here be well to notice how Europeans have ever described water. ' Sweet water ' means our ' fresh water,' or drinkable water ; ' living water ' our ' spring water '; ' bitter water ' our ' brackish ' water. Before we leave these springs let us sum up what the recent Biblical gains have been. The true starting-point of the Exodus, with the city of Pithom, has been found. Then, also, that the Hebrew words translated in the Authorised Version do not mean 'Red Sea,' but 'Sea of Reeds.' Also we have found that 'the tongue of the Egyptian Sea' at the time of the Exodus extended to the present Lake Timsah : that owing to the elevation of the ground that ' sea ' ' dried up,' and left lakes of brackish water, through which the present Suez Canal runs ; that the Israelites crossed ' the Sea of Reeds ' somewhere near Lake Timsah, and then went ' three days' journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah ' (Numb, xxxiii. 8). They had come to Marah, and find the ' waters of Marah ' bitter. We have seen that these '' Mfisa ' springs are ^ bitter,^ that they have a deposit of Iwg iron ore in some., and others are * Ordnance Survey of Sinai. 90 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. ' lirackish.' Trees grow at this oasis ; but what the tree was that God ordered Moses to cast into ' the waters ' (Exod. xv. 25), of that we have no clue. Now Exodus calls the wilderness into which the people went after crossing by the miracle the ' wilderness of Shur,' whereas Numbers calls it the ' wilderness of Etham.' Is there a contradiction here ? No. ' Etham is another name for the great wall of Egypt. Dr. Ebers was the first to catch a glimpse of this truth. Both Ebers and Brugsch show that the Etham of the Hebrew text is identical with the Khetam of the Egyptian monuments. The word is a common name for " fortress " or " closure.'' Brugsch shows that the " Egyptian texts " speak only of towns and forts on the frontier. Hence the Khetam of Zor is the border, barrier, or closure of Mazor, toward the Eastern desert, or, as the Hebrews would designate it, the " Etham which is in (or at) the edge of the wilderness." Many papyri refer to these fortifications. Brugsch gives one : A father writes of his son's recall to the boundary of his own land (when the son had started out, like Sancha, beyond " the frontier wall which the king had made to keep off the Saki "). " My son, who was on his way to Phoenicia, I have caused to return towards the Khetamu " (" the fortifications ") " with his companions to re-efiter Egypt.' ' When Seti I. returned to Egypt after his campaign in the north and east, he is shown passing through the open gates of the fortifications, and crosses the bridge which spans the great canal, where he is welcomed by the priests and princes. The inscriptions show that he is passing the famous " Khetam of Zor," the border barrier of Mazor. Ebers remarks, " This Karnak inscription is of the greatest significance and import- ance."* Inscriptions too numerous to mention tell the same * See Ebers' ' Egypt,' vol. ii., pp. 19-21, where bas-relief of Seli and Canal is given. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 91 Story. It is not without interest that we find that the cry of the people to Rameses is, " May he hve for ever." Here is the " God save the King " of i Sam. x. 24, and which is echoed in every land of a king to-day.' ' The Egyptians called this border barrier indifferently by their own name Anboo, or Khetamoo, the wall or the fortifica- tions. The Hebrews called it indifferently by their own pure Hebrew name, " Shur (the wall) which is before Egypt," and by the Hebraized Egyptian name, " Etham (the fortifications) at the edge of the wilderness." Naturally, therefore, the desert which was just beyond the great wall was known to the Hebrews indifferently as "the wilderness of Shur" or "the wilderness of Etham." '* The recent discoveries I have glanced at enable us to clear away a host of mistakes. The radical error of all writers on the Desert of Sinai has been, that they were influenced by the idea of the Israelites crossing at Suez. This hampered them so that no account of the desert and its oases, as we find them, could be made to fit in with the sacred text. This gave a loophole for so much cavil and doubt. The Israelites are about to plunge into the desert. What are its general features ? Do we get any help from the Bible ? The Bible is almost silent as to the mountain character of the Sinai Desert. Exod. xxxii. 12 does speak of 'the mountains,' and when Elijah fled into the desert (i Kings xix. 11) we are told that ' a great and strong wind rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord.' In Psalm cxiv. 4 we read, ' The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.' The Bible does speak of the ' great and terrible wilderness '; but that does not explain the moun- tainous character. So it will be well to explain that Sinai Desert is chiefly a mountain district. This fact alone would * Dr. Trumbull. 92 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. be enough to frighten the Israelites, accustomed as they were to the flat land of the Delta, for none of those people had seen Palestine. The popular idea of the desert may be stated thus : ' Yellow sand, green palm-trees, blue sky.' It is, moreover, thought that the desert is ' flat.' Really, there is very little sand ; the palm-trees grow in the oases, and the land is not flat ! Even where sand exists, it is rarely yellow, chiefly gray or white. The Desert of Shur, on which the Israelites had now entered, is a rolling plain — a ' raised beach ' near the sea, then a gravelly tract doited with ridges and hillocks of drifted sands. Low terraces and knolls, shrubs and herbs, dot the expanse and give pasturage to the camels of the Bedawin. Watercourses — dry in summer — cross the plain from the Tih range to the sea. They are called ' wadies ' by the Arabs. These ' watercourses ' are often more than a mile across. Wady Sudur — the first great wady you pass — is much dreaded by the Arabs. I found it very difficult to get them to camp here. I wanted to sketch. The Arabs dread floods, for if a sudden storm breaks over the Tih range, the water rushes down with great force, to lose itself in the sea, on your right hand. The fragments of palms and water-worn boulders show how frequent these floods are. The Rev. F. Holland on one occasion had to ford Wady Sudur knee-deep, and large tracts of ground are often submerged. When I crossed, the mud in the bed of the stream was wet, and the camels slipped very much. It was here that Professor Palmer, Captain Gill and Lieutenant Charrington were murdered by Arabi's adherents. The route across this desert plain is well marked by a score or more of parallel trails. These trails dwindle as they approach the raised terraces, and cross the wady by one or two gaps. All the travelling hereabouts is easy. Somewhere on these trails the Israelites must have passed. Wady Sudur is about ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 93 twenty miles from "Ayun Musa.' Though the bushes and shrubs are frequent, yet the general character of the ground is stone or pebbles, worn smooth by the driving of the sand during the ' sand ' storms, or ' gravel ' storms, which are so frequent in this region, and so much dreaded by Arabs and travellers, for it is not possible to get shelter. It was my lot to be caught in a very bad one on this plain. I will quote again my own remarks : ' A bright morning with high wind, cold, soon passing into a gale. Dark clouds like the darkest thunder-storm coming up with the wind. The frightened camels refuse to proceed, so they are made to kneel down, and their legs are securely tied together. They groan and roar with fright. We lie down, covering mouth and nostrils. The darkness increases ; flash after flash of lightning tears down. I hear no thunder. There is no rain. The whole air is full of fine sand, while the desert looks like a sea of gravel and sand torn up by the fury of the wind, which is now hot. Hours pass. I note, and make rapid sketches as well as I can ; but feeling as if death is very close. The figures of men and camels are almost covered. Some poor beast, in its agony, breaks a rope and struggles to its feet : we are forced to pull it down again. Night comes on ; the storm continues. About three o'clock next day all is ended — peace reigns, a sweet rainbow spans the sky. With weary, exhausted bodies, we set ourselves to collect our belong- ings, to eat some bread, and drink water which is full of fine sand. Sand has got into everything.'* Did the Israelites know the ' Khamseen ' ? Yes, for it is common enough in the Delta. The trail goes on : we cross Wady Werdan, a broad wady like Sudur, with water-worn boulders, but a dry bed. Then the valley closes in. The ground is broken up by low hills on either side, and there is * Stcnday Magazine. 94 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. a sort of broad pass, in which there are two or three stunted palms and two shallow pools of undrinkable water — it is rare to find water in these pools, though they are called ' 'Ain Hawarah.' The host must have passed here, as the nature of ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 95 the ground proves. AVriters hampered by the Suez theory have thought ' 'Ain Hawarah ' was the ' Marah.' As I have suffi- ciently shown, it won't fit in with a single part of the Bible story. On to Elim the host of the Israelites go. In the Authorised Version it is said, ' There were twelve wells of water ' ; the Revised Version more properly translates the word into ' springs.' In Wady Gharandel, the ' Elim,' which we now reach, the valley is well defined, and when I was there on two occasions I found a delightful stream of water running through it — the stream small, but fed by springs, many of which I found out some distance up the wady. The water was good. There are bushes in plenty, and groups of the stunted palms of the desert. Birds sang in the bushes, and low down the glen there were pools, like as in a Scotch burn, where the water dashed and rippled over the stones ; festoons of forget- me-nots and masses of maidenhair fern hung on the banks ; water-fowl rose from some of the pools, which led on into a jungle of rank growth and marshy ground ere the stream fell into the sea. This, I think, must be the ' Elim ' where the ' three score and ten palm-trees "■' grew. Wt find from the text that the Israelites stayed here a month (see Exod. xvi. i). In this wady, and on the slopes of the hills about, there is pasture, and the people would get some needed rest after all the excitements they had gone through. The account in Exodus also says : ' They encamped there by the waters.' It seems to me there is a meaning in the ' encamped ' which marks a longer stay than the word ' pitched.' Bedawin still often 'camp' at a place for months, while the pasture and water holds out The word 'pitched,' I take it, means a shorter stay. Some writers suggest that the next camp — that by the ' Red Sea ' — was that the Israelites went straight on * How rare palm-trees were in (his desert when the Israelites crossed we see by their counting them at ' Elim.' 96 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. down AVady Gharandel to the sea. If so, then their march would be over the tangled jungle I have spoken of to reach a beach, where there is no room, and where the waves often dash at the base of the great hill called by the Arabs Jebel Hamniam Farun, from which issue the hot springs called the ' Baths of Pharaoh.' There is no road or track of any kind possible. ' It is just possible for an active man to clamber along the fallen debris at the foot of the cliffs,'* so this suggested route may be dismissed as impossible. So we will cross the stream and take what is really the main track to Sinai. We cross, then, the Plain of el Gargah, and reach Wady Uscit, about six miles from Gharandel, a broad valley, with a few palms and bushes, and three small brackish springs. Very seldom do Bedawin drink this, as the good water of Gharandel is so near. Many writers have sought to identify ' Useit ' with the Elim of the Bible. I cannot bring myself to believe Moses would leave such a fine oasis as Gharandel for the poor pools of Useit. This wady does run to the sea, but at some distance down is quite impassable to camels, and quite impassable for a host. We may dismiss that as a route for the Israelites. Then, seven miles further on, another wady, also running to the sea — a wild gorge, equally impassable to camels and difficult for a pedestrian. That may be dismissed. The scenery here is very grand, though the hills are wild and strange in form. Now we come to Wady Shebeikeh (the ' valley of the net '), a labyrinth of chffs, often quite vertical, but splendid scenery for an artist. Now we come to a most critical point. It is, I think, quite evident that hitherto we may be sure we have been on the route of the Israelites ; but now the road or track divides, one going straight on, the other turning. The straight track goes through Wady * Reports of Sinai Expedition, Ordnance Survey. WAPY TAIYinitll. 98 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. Hamr, the other down Wady Taiyibeh. Which did the Israehtes take ? Here the Bible helps us most completely. In Numb. xxxiii. lo we read: 'And they journeyed from Elim, and pitched by the Red Sea.' So down AVady Taiyibeh they must have gone, as we have shown already. The other wadies are impassable, and Wady Taiyibeh is broad and open. This verse in Numbers is most invaluable. Had critics, who have sought to throw doubt on the Bible narrative, known the country, they would not have sneered at the 'ignorance of Moses,' they, forsooth, being so much wiser than the divinely-inspired leader ! But why did Moses take the lower route ? For the best of all reasons. The main route (which the Bible shows he did not take) leads to Wady Nasb, Serabit-el-Khadim, and Maghara. What if it did? Why, there were the well-known mines, colonized and worked by Egyptians, held by garrisons of soldiers, with strong positions and passes ! And so Moses, ' skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians,' evades all this mining country — turns the flank of it, so to speak — and, lead- ing the host to the Red Sea, puts a mountain barrier between the coward host and the Egyptian ganisons and miners ! This single fact, gained from a knowledge of the country and the statements of the Bible, entirely destroys the elaborate argument of those who say, when speaking of these mines at Serabit-el-Khadim and Maghara, and the impossibility of pass- ing them, that ' the unprejudiced will see in it (the existence of these Egyptian mines) another proof that the peninsula was never visited by the departing Israelites i'* I think I am right when I say that the writer of these words has never himself visited the Sinai Desert, and he cannot have noticed the passage in Numb, xxxiii. lo. I have no intention of further noticing the book I have quoted. It is a fair sample * J. Baker Green, LL.B., 'The Hebrew Migration from Egypt' NAGL BUDERAH, 7 — 2 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. of the 'reasonable proofs'! Those who object to the Bible account of the Exodus make objections to the truthfulness of Moses ! When they know as much of the desert as he did, then, perhaps, their remarks will alter, and be of more value. It does not He in the scope of this work to describe these Egyptian mines. They have been explored by many scientific travellers — their inscriptions copied. I visited them myself, and obtained some fine turquoise from them. The whole country bears evident traces of a long Egyptian occupation, the mining belt being about twenty-five miles square. This mining region also helps us much in the further route of the Israelites, and disposes of many of the suggested routes writers thought the children of Israel took. I will only mention one — that from Wady Shellal by the Nagb Buderah. This latter is an abrupt cliff or precipice of sandstone, about a hundred feet in height. The name Buderah derives its origin from the tribe of Arabs who first made the path passable. Major Macdonald, who years ago reworked the mines, improved it ; but before that it must have been impassable. Even now my loaded camels found difficulty in ascending, and how could the Israelites, with their huge array, their flocks and herds and their wagons, have gone over it ? Wagons ! Well, they must have had some conveyances for the ' tents ' or ' booths,' for the baggage — the ' spoils ' they borrowed from the Egyptians ; and for proof of wagons read Numb. vii. There ' six covered wagons and twelve oxen ' are spoken of in v. 3. ' Wagons ' are repeatedly mentioned in this same chapter. These must have been brought from Egypt, and the route to Wady Taiyibeh would offer no obstacles. They might have been rude, if you will — probably they only had two wheels, for in all Egyptian inscriptions there only occurs o?ie representation of a wagon with four wheels. They could not have taken them over Nagb Buderah, even in its improved state, so we will return to Wady Taiyibeh, and pass down it to the sea. The cliffs are very fine ISRAEL IN EGYPT. — beautiful, I may say. Some fine palms grow near pools of water. These pools are exquisite in colour, but brackish to the taste. The track is broad and easy. You reach then the great plain of El Markha. On that plain water is found at two places, but it is bad. The plain is about sixteen miles long, THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. and four to five miles broad. Cliffs on your left hand, sea on the right, bushes of desert growth in plenty ; but the heat is usually very great, and the blasts of air come hot from the Red Sea. The effects were very fine when I crossed the plain, but the heat was ' steaming ' — hot vapours, giving beautiful effects, but a climate like the Turkish bath. A careful reconsideration of all the arguments of experts leads nie to think that this is the 'Wilderness of Sin' (Numb, xxxiii. ii, 12), and here it is that 'manna' is given for bread and quails for 'flesh.' The ' manna ' was to come in the morning when ' the dew that lay was gone up,' the quails in the ' evening.' The point of the miracle of quails lies, I think, in this : quails migrate at night in Egypt. I have often noted this. When expecting quails at the time of their usual migration, I have walked over a lentil- field late in the evening with my dogs and found none. Next morning at dawn, before sunrise, I have gone over the same field, and the quails rose at every step. The Israelites would know this, for this bird is common in the Delta. By a miracle God had brought those quails by some wind across the Red Sea, so that the tired birds 'came up and covered the camp.' We may note here that a second miracle of quails afterwards happened ; and in Psalm Ixxviii. 26, 27, it is expressly referred to ' an east wind and a south wind,' and the tired birds fell ' in the midst of their camp.' Having short wings, these birds can only fly a short distance. But the ' wind ' in the text would be a ' Khamseen,' and so, again, they would be blown by it, and drop near the camp. Here also we see the wisdom of Moses in making that flank march which enabled him to avoid all the Egyptian mines, as the people were ripe for revolt. They sighed for the ' flesh-pots ' of Egypt, and, despising their freedom, looked back on the days of their captivity with longing eyes ! The manna divinely sent could not have been that gum which now at certain seasons of the year drops from the tamarisk-tree. This is produced by the prick of an insect. It is collected ; ISRAEL IN EGYPT. about 700 pounds weight is the whole yield in the peninsula. It will not keep even when put in tin vessels, but runs to a gummy liquid ; at least, that is my experience. Dophkah and Alush are the next camps mentioned ; there is no satisfactory identification of these. As to the duration of the camps, Numb. ix. 15-23 shows that the Israelites rested when the cloud remained on the tabernacle. ' Whether it was a day, two days, a month, or a year,' this disposes of a common error, that the Israelites were always on the move ; they lived, in short, as do the Bedawin of to-day, camping sometimes for months at the same place. Not only did they make these prolonged halts at their camps, but they sometimes made nig/ii marches, as we see from verse 21. What a scene it must have been when the Israelites moved at night ! Only those who have seen the Mecca caravan can, I think, realize it, going, as Arabs say, through a desert where there was only ' He ' (that is, Allah). The late Sir Richard Burton" well describes a night march : ' At half-past ten that evening we heard the signal for depar- ture, and, as the moon was still young, we prepared for a hard night's work over rough ground covered with thicket. Dark- ness fell upon us like a pall. The camels tripped and stumbled, tossing their litters like cock-boats in a short sea. It was a strange, wild scene ; the black basaltic field was dotted with the huge and doubtful forms of spongy-footed camels, with silent tread, looming like phantoms in the midnight air; the hot wind moaned, and whirled from the torches sheets of flame and fiery smoke ; whilst ever and anon a swift-travelling Takht- rawan, drawn by mules and surrounded by runners bearing gigantic Mashals,t threw a passing glow of red light upon the dark road and the dusky multitude.' * Burton's ' Pilgrimage to Mecca.' f A cresset. The Pasha's cressets are known by their smell — a little in- cense being mingled with the wood. By this means the Bedawin discover the dignitary's place. i04 THE BIBLE A14D MODERN DISCOVERIES. Such would be the scene while the host of Israelites marched by night, led by the pillar of fire, through the wilderness, either to escape heat or to avoid their many enemies — the Amalekites, Edomites, or Amorites. As to their water supply on these marches, they again, I think, did as caravans do now : the beasts of burden would carry the water-skins, which would be filled up at the different oases. The host goes on to Rephidim, which I think we must accept as being the Wady Feiran. The objection may be made, ' But how about Wady Mokatteb and the Sinaitic writings ?' — a most interesting subject. I found these writings all over the peninsula; some are on granite, which shows skill in cutting: the mass are, however, on sandstone. They number thousands ; but, in spite of the Rev. C. Foster,* I do not think the Israelites had anything to do with them. Professor Palmer and all authorities entitled to credence say the same. Various are the ideas about them, some thinking they are early Christian, because the cross comes in often; but the cross was a well-known heathen sign. Go to the British Museum, and look on the statue of Samsi Vul, King of Assyria, B.C. 825 : on his breast he wears this ^. The vestments of the priests of Horus, the Egyptian god of light, are marked "j". At Thebes, in the Tombs of the Kings, royal cows are represented ploughing, a calf playing in front. Each animal has a "j" like this marked in several places on it. M. Rassam has found buildings at Nineveh marked with the Maltese cross. Osiris, as well as Jupiter Ammon, had for monogram a "j". Dr. Schliemann, writing of the cross, says : ' It is the most ancient of all religious emblems, but as an emblem of Christianity it came into use after Constantinc.'' Dean Burgon, writing of the catacombs at Rome, says : ' I question whether a cross occurs in any Christian monument of the first four centuries.' The cross * ' Sinai Pliotcgraphed.' ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 105 is found marked on Phrenician monuments before Christ 1600 ! Niebuhr rightly sums up Constantine's motive in adopting the cross as a Christian emblem : ' His motives in establishing the Christian religion are something very strange indeed. The religion there was in his head must have been a mere jumble. On his coins he has " the unconquered sun " ; he worships Pagan deities, consults the soothsayers, holds heathen super- stitions ; yet he shuts up the temples and builds churches.' No ; there is no warrant for saying the cross is a Christian emblem ; before a.d. 300 ' the Christian emblems were the fish, the anchor, the ship, i/ie dcve, the palm branch.'* The cross as a Christian emblem was brought in when Pagan Rome adopted politically some Christianity, and so became Papal Rome ! For some days past the grandest of all the Sinai mountains, Jebel Serbal, has been showing his many peaks over the hills — by some Middle Age writers thought to be the Mount of God — but only explore the difficult passes by which you approach Serbal — passes quite impassable for a host, difficult even for a Bedawin, with no plain at all at the foot of the lower ranges which lie at its base ! Grand, imposing as it is, as an artist I can never speak in sufficient praise of its grandeur. Yet it could not be the Mount of the Law. Wady Feiran, the Rephidim, is a fine pass with incessant twists and turns, with a grand cliff at either side, and leads to the greatest of the Sinai oases. But does not the Bible say that ' there was no water ? Yes ; there is no water for many miles. Professor Palmer has well summed up the whole argument : ' We should not expect a mere desert tribe, such as Amalek was, to sally forth in well-organized troops to meet the advancing hosts of Israel while the latter were yet in the comparatively open wilderness. Their immediate impulse on the first intimation of the enemy's approach would be to collect ''■' Major Conder in letter to author. io6 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. around their wells and palm-groves, and concert measures for protecting these their most precious possessions. When the hostile body had encamped within a short distance of the oasis, they would, no doubt, watch for an opportunity of attacking them unawares, in order to take them at a dis- advantage before they could establish their camp or recover from their fatigues. Such would be the tactics of the modern Bedawin, and such, it appears from the Bible account, was the nature of the opposition which Israel encountered at Rephidim. They had "pitched in Rephidim," but the wells were defended, and they were obliged to halt on the outskirts of the fertile district, "and there was no water for the people to drink." Disappointed and fatigued, they " murmured against Moses, and said. Wherefore is this, that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst ?" The miracle of striking the rock released them from this dif- ficulty, and, as we are told, immediately afterwards, " then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim " (Exod. xvii. 8).' But it is a significant fact that in Wady Feiran, immediately before the part of the valley where the fertility commences, I discovered a rock which Arab tradition regards as the site of the miracle. This rock, which has never before been noticed by travellers, is called Hesy el Khattatin, and is surrounded by heaps of pebbles placed upon every available stone in the immediate neighbourhood. These are accounted for as follows : ' When the children of Israel sat down by the miraculous stream and rested, after their thirst was quenched, they amused themselves by throwing pebbles upon the sur- rounding pieces of rock. This has passed into a custom, which the Arabs of the present day keep up, in memory of the event. It is supposed especially to propitiate Moses, and anyone having a sick friend throws a pebble in his name, with the assurance of speedy relief* * 'Desert of the Exodus,' i., pp. 15S, 15c. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 107 To the Bedawin of to-day Feiran is a real paradise. I can sympathize with them. When we approached the oasis, my men burst out into loud songs in its praise. Through the broad wady there runs a small stream, giving life and verdure all round, for here grow over five thousand palm-trees ; the date palm, too — not that wild desert one — bushes of tamarisk,''' Sidr trees ; patches of corn, maize, or tobacco, irrigated by the Shad(if. The dates grown here are the finest in all the Egyptian territory. Birds sang and doves cooed in the trees. There is a small permanent village of Bedawin to guard and tend the trees, for each tree has its owner, who has to pay a tax on its produce to the Egyptian Government. The oasis has one great drawback, being liable to sudden floods. The Rev. F. Holland saw one which swept away in a moment a whole encampment of Arabs, their flocks and tents, and he narrowly escaped. On a hill are ruins of an old Christian village and remains of two churches ; while in the cliffs are innumerable caves or cells, burrowed out by hermits in olden time. Tombs abound. There are paths made to Serbal — paths of huge boulders, some clamped with iron bars,\ showing that a large population, possessing great engineering skill, once existed here. Old writers speak of ' fairs,' held once a year ; but, fertile as the wady now is, surely it must have been more so in old days, and very different, for I found many buildings of sun-dried bricks — bricks made from mud. Where did that come from ? Well, in Feiran, as well as in other wadies, you will see 'Jorfs,' as the Arabic has it — banks of sedimentary deposits, in which you can find shells of //•«/i-7<:/ai'i'r mussels. I have found these shells in more than one wady.j What does * The tamarisk is a tree as well as a bush. There are fine specimens of it in Sinai ; even in England I know of some very fine trees of tamarisk. f Proofs exist that iron ore^zs, known and worked by Egyptians in Sinai. % I found quantities of these shells in the old mines at Maghara. From the heaps in which they lie, it would seem they were used as food by the miners. io8 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. that prove ? Why, that at some time quiet lakes of fresh water existed here. Something happened, and the lower end gave way ; the water ran off. These floods cut their way through the soft bed of the old lakes, and left these banks, ' Jorfs.' I hazard no conjecture as to when this took place, but many facts show that the Desert of Sinai is now more barren than it was in ancient days, and it is becoming more so. Why ? Well, the Bedawin of Sinai have to pay taxes to the Egyptian Government, and that tax is ordered to be paid in charcoal. To get this they must cut down trees. I have seen the long array of camels carrying this charcoal tax, and then did not wonder that timber is becoming scarce. Old men speak of trees in certain wadies, where none now exist ; and yet in many have I seen splendid groves of acacia and other timber trees, and therefore cease to wonder at the size of the planks used in the tabernacle, for Exod. xxxvi. 21 tells us, 'Ten cubits was the length of a board, and a cubit and a half the breadth of each board.' Rain, too, must have been frequent — indeed, it is so now — for in Psalm Ixviii. 9 it says, ' Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine inheritance when it was weary.' On one occasion I filled up my water-skins from rain pools in the granite rocks, in an apparently waterless wady.* Dews are very heavy, often soaking the tents. We read of 'dews' in Exod. xvi. 13; Numb. xi. 9. These and many other facts lead me to the conclusion that at the time of the Exodus the Sinai Desert was more fruitful far than now. Three thousand years of neglect ; for after the Exodus the Egyptians would seem to have abandoned all their mines, and the country has been left to the Arabs, who, as a rule, only destroy. Later on we shall examine some of the proofs of ancient settled habitations in the whole region. * More than once I was forced to halt from rain, and Holland once gave mc a graphic account of an ascent of Sinai he made in a snowstorm. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 109 A difficulty must now be faced : the Bible says, ' For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness : and there Israel camped before the mount' (Exod. xix. 2). Professor Palmer remarks : ' Now, if Jebel Mtisa be Sinai, it could hardly be reached in a single day's journey by any large host with heavy baggage. From Feiran the road is broad and open enough as far as the Nagb Hawa ; but the laden camels must make a detour of some six or eight hours by the valley which comes in a little lower down to the left, namely Wady es Sheikh . . . but when they had come to that pass which forms, as it were, the gate of the Sinai district, they may be fairly said to have reached " the' desert of Sinai." The words "and there Israel camped before the mount " seem to me to imply a separate operation, and I should be inclined to interpret the passage thus : They were departed from Rephidim, or Feiran, and had reached the wilderness of Sinai — that is, the Sinai district at the mouth of the Nagb Hawa — and here they began to look out for a suit- able place for a permanent camp. The spot chosen was the plain of Er Rahah, " And there Israel camped before the mount." ' He also points out it is quite possible Moses and the elders took the short route through the pass, leaving the host to go the longer route. The professor and Sir Charles Wilson did this. I did it years after, and got to Jebel Musa, walking, some hours before my camels. The host may also have travelled as Bedawin do : march six or eight hours, then rest, and pursue their journey in the evening. Again, I have more than once done a ' forced march ' in this way, and with- out much fatigue traversed ground that usually occupies two days' march. It is most tempting to try to describe Sinai — 'Ras Sufsafeh'; but it has been done so thoroughly by the Ordnance Survey 1 ^ m ISRAEL IN EGYPT. party, and by Professor Palmer, that I must pass it, only remark- ing that ' Sinai ' is a chain of mountains with many peaks, end- ing with a grand bluff, which fronts the plain of Er Rahah. It may be impossible to prove that Ras Sufsafeh be Sinai ; but the difficulties in the way of proving /Aaf are of no moment compared to the difficulties attaching to the other mountains suggested — such as Serbal, Umm Shummur, or Mount Hor : none other but the one named fits in with the Bible narrative. No other mountain in the peninsula has a J>/atn at its foot where a multitude could encamp ; no other mountain has vegetation in its front on which flocks and herds could feed, as the Bible tells us they did at Sinai ; and if we go to Arab traditions, all are in favour of Ras Sufsafeh. Difficulties which the student at home may feel are no difficulties to one who has explored this region of Sinai ; and the opinion of all those scientific observers of the Ordnance Survey was that Ras Sufsafeh was the ' Mount of God.' Accurate survey of the plain of Er Rahah shows it to be 400 acres in extent ; and when the open wadies near and surrounding are taken into account, there are in all 940 acres of excellent standing ground in front and in full view of Ras Sufsafeh (which is the Arabic name of the bold bluff or cliff which fronts the plain). Im- possible to ascend is the bluff in front ; easy at either side; and this would explain why, when Moses and Joshua were descending the mount, they did not at first see the multitude and the camp, and why Joshua — the soldier — thought there was a noise ' of war in the camp.' Moses had keener ears, and said, 'It is the noise of them that sing' (Exod. xxxii. 17, 18). In the matter of the Tables of the Law, art has led the world astray. Michael Angelo represents Moses as a strong athlete, struggling with two heavy tombstones, so to speak ; yet the least knowledge of Hebrew would prove that those stone tablets the writing of which was ' the writing of God,' would 112 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. really be very small — not so large as a page of this book. Go to the British Museum and look on those Deluge Tablets, and see how much could be written on a small surface, and no longer think that Middle Age art was right, but study your facts in the light of the Bible. We call ' the Law ' the ten commandments ; the Hebrew original calls them ' the ten words.' The command is there given to leave Sinai — for the host to enter the Promised Land. Though led by the pillar of fire and cloud, yet Moses asks Hobab to be as ' eyes ' to them, he knowing all the desert. This selection had far-reaching conse- quences (as we shall see in Judges). They go through the ' great and terrible wilderness ' to Paran, a region well known (Gen. xiv. 6; xxi. 21). They went by 'the way (or road) of the mountain of the Amorites,'and then on to 'Kadesh-barnea' (Deut. i. 19). The first station after Sinai was Kibroth-hat- taavah. Palmer thought he had found this in Wady el Hebeibeh, where a bit of elevated ground is covered with small enclosures of stones, and on a hill near an erection of rough stones, surmounted by a white block of pyramidal shape. He and Drake explored this camp, found old fireplaces, in which were charcoal, and outside the camp stone heaps, which he says could be nothing else but graves. The place is called by the Arabs Erweis* el Ebeirig ; and Arab tradition says a Hajj caravan pitched their tents here, and then were lost in the Tih Desert. Later travellers do not consider this question settled. The desert into which the Israelites moved is now called Badiet et Tih — ' the desert of the wanderings.' Shut in on one side by the Edomites, on the other by the Amalekites, and in front by the Amorites — a very desert country indeed, but having (so Drake told me) wadies in which grass grew high. Scattered all over the peninsula are rude-stone build- * See ' Desert of the Exodus,' Palmer, vol. i., p. 257. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. "3 ings, which the Arabs say were erected by the Israelites to protect themselves from mosquitoes. They call these stone buildings naiuamis ; but this word really only means ' a shelter for huntsmen.' I have explored many. They are rude in construction, circular at base, rising like a cone, and having a very small entrance-door. None of them are near springs. They must have been built before the Sinaitic inscriptions, for the Ordnance Survey party found inscriptions on the ruins of some nawamis. It is suggested they belonged to those very people of Amalek who fought with Israel in Rephidim (Exod. xvii. 8). Stone-circles like the so-called Druidical circles are frequently found. Also ' cup-markings ' cut in rocks with rude tools, foot and sole marks, and old rock sculptures ; and these are quite apart from the so-called Sinaitic inscriptions. There are many enclosures consisting of a low wall of stones, with thorny acacia inserted. These are called ' hazeroth,' or fenced enclosures. It would be about the middle of May when the Israelites moved into the Tih. A second miracle of quails occurs. The tired birds, instead of flying high, flew 'two cubits' — about three feet — above the ground, so that they could easily be captured. The people were smitten with plague, and the place was called Kibroth-hattaavah (' the graves of lust ') (Numb. xi. 34, margin). From thence they 114 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. journey to Hazeroth, and thence to Kadesh-barnea. Many have been the attempts to find the latter place, so important in the history of the wanderings. Dr. Robinson, the celebrated traveller, thought he had found it ; but the position he located for it would have been untenable from a military point of view, and would have exposed the Israelites to attacks from every quarter. The Rev. John Rowlands, familiar with the country, at a third attempt had the good fortune to find the oasis, now called 'Ain Kadis. This name is the exact Arabic form of the Hebrew Kadesh. On his way he identified ' S'beita ' as the site of the ancient Zephath. Mr. Rowlands thus describes the place : ' The rock is a large single mass, or a small hill of solid rock, a spur of the mountain to the north of it rising immedi- ately above it. It is the only visible naked rock in the whole district The stream when it reaches the channel turns west- wards, and after running about three or four hundred yards loses itself in the sand. I have not seen such a lovely sight anywhere else in the whole desert— such a copious and lovely stream.' He gives many proofs of its identity with Kadesh. I give a few ; ' It lies at the foot of the mountains of the Amorites (Deut. i. 19). It is situated near the grand pass or entrance into the Promised Land by the Beer Lahai-Roi well, which is the only easy entrance from the desert to the east of Jebel Halal, and most probably the entrance to which the Hebrews were con- ducted from Sinai towards the Land of Promise. A good road leads to this place all the way from Sinai. A grand road, still finer, I was told, by broad wadies, goes from 'Ain Kadis to Mount Hor. The locality answers, in every respect, to the description given of it in Scripture.'* * Appendix, Robinson's ' Researches.' ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 115 Professor Palmer tried hard to find this place. He was misled by an Arab, a sheikh, the very man who years after betrayed Palmer to his death. To the skill and perseverance ot an American traveller, Dr. Trumbull, we owe the rediscovery of Kadesh. After a charming account of the difificulties put in his way by the Arabs, he says :* ' Wady Qadees is an extensive hill-encircled, irregular- surfaced plain, several miles wide ; it is certainly large enough to have furnished a camping-ground for Chedorlaomer's army, or for all the host of Israel. . . . About the middle of Wady Qadees is an extensive water-bed of unusual fertility for the desert. Rich fields of wheat and barley covered a large portion of it. . . . There were artificial ridges to retain and utilize the rainfall for irrigation. We saw a large grain- magazine dug into the ground. . . . The lintel of the door- way of this granary was a large tree-trunk, larger than we should look for in the desert nowadays.' He found pits, cisterns, cairns, and circles of stone, low stone walls, like low dams, such as described by Robinson and Palmer — the ' little plantations ' of olden times. Then came ' a rough stone-covered plain.' The mid-day heat intense. Dazzling chalk hills ; desolation all around after three hours. They turned an angle of the hills, ' and then the long-sought wells of Qadees were before our eyes.' ' It was a marvellous sight ! Out from the barren and desolate stretch of the burning desert waste we had come with magical suddenness into an oasis of verdure and beauty unlocked for and hardly conceivable in such a region. A carpet of grass covered the ground. Fig-trees laden with fruit nearly ripe enough for eating were alone the shelter of the southern hillside. Shrubs and flowers showed themselves * ' Kadesh Bainea,' pp. 269-272. 8—2 Ii6 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. in variety and profusion. Running water gurgled under the waving grass. We had seen nothing like it since leaving Wady Feiran, nor was it equalled in loveliness of scene by any single bit of landscape of like extent even there.' He notices the rock described by Rowlands, and gives further details : 'A circular stone well, stoned up from the bottom with time-worn limestone blocks, was the first receptacle of the water. A marble watering-trough was near this well, better finished than the troughs at Beersheba, but of like primitive workmanship.' A second well, another marble trough, a basin or pool larger than either of the wells. All water seemed to come from subterranean springs under the rock. ' Camel and goat dung, as if of flocks and herds for centuries, trodden down with the limestone rock, so as to form a solid plaster bed.' ' Another and a larger pool lower down the slope was supplied with water by a stream which rippled and cascaded along its narrow bed from the upper pool ; and yet beyond this, west- wards, the water gurgled away under the grass as we had met it when we came in, and finally lost itself in the parching wady from which this oasis opened. The water itself was remarkably pure and sweet, unequalled by any we had found after leaving the Nile. ' There was a New England look to this oasis, especially in the flowers and grasses and weeds, quite unlike anything we had seen in the Peninsula of Sinai. Bees were humming there and birds were flitting from tree to tree. Enormous ant-hills made of green grass seed, instead of sand, were numerous. As we came into the wady we lad started up a hare, and had seen larks and quails. It was, in fact, hard to realize that we were in the desert, or even near it.' Such the long-sought-for oasis, the ' En-mishpat, which is Kadesh,' where Chedorlaomer halted (Gen. xiv. 7) ; where ISRAEL m EGYPT. 117 Israel ' abode many days' when the people ' chode ' with Moses ; where he ' smote ' the rock with his rod ; where the ' water came out abundantly' ; where Miriam died ; where Israel waited for the return of the spies, and to which those spies brought back the ' cluster of grapes ' which they cut at Eshcol, and to which after thirty-eight years of wandering the host returned. No place in the Bible narrative so ai rests the attention, after the ' Mount of God,' as this Kadesh. It is a common mistake to think that 'Eshcol' was near Hebron. ' Eshcol ' means a ' bunch of grapes.' The discoveries of Palmer prove that the Negeb, or south country, was near, and the whole of that region shows indisputably that grapes were then grown. The discovery of Kadesh has other consequences ; it shows us that the Israelites did not use the ' 'Arabah ' as their main camping-ground. That great wady, surrounded as it was by their enemies, would have been no safe camping-ground for them ; but stopping at Kadesh, and the desert near, they would be out of the track and in defensible positions. ' So also the traditional Mount Hor must be recognised as an impossible Mount Hor.'* The Israelites, frightened by the report of the spies, rebel, are punished, and then the awful fiat goes forth : ' Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness.' Blind to all warning, they presume to 'go up into the hilltop,' are defeated, and ' discomfited even to Hormah.' The word means ' banning,' and is identical with Zephath. This has been identified by Palmer with ' S'beita,' and he discovered close by the ancient ' watch tower ' (which again is the meaning of the Hebrew word). This tower is on the top of a hill. The ruins are primeval, though there are more recent fortifications. From this fort the Amorites and Canaanites most likely issued * ' Kadesh Barnea,' p. 320. THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. to attack Israel. The Arabic words used for the valley near the mountain mean ' the ravine of the Amorite,' and the moun- tains themselves are called by a word meaning ' head ' or ' top' ' of the Amorites.' The wanderings begin in Numb, xxxiii. The list of stations is given. An examination of some of the names will give a clue as to why they were chosen. Rithmath, a name coming from ' retcm,' a broom bush, probably means valley of broom bushes. Kadesh, ' holy place,' its original name, En-mishpat (Gen. xiv. 7), ' well of judgment ' ; Kadesh Barnea, its newer name, ' the land of moving to and fro,' or ' wandering,' or ' shaken.' Then Rimmon parez, ' the pome- granate breach.' Libnah, ' whiteness,' probably from the white poplar-trees growing there. Rissah, 'dew.' Mount Shapher, 'the mount of beauty ' or of ' goodliness.' Mithcah, 'sweet- ness,' in reference to the water. Hashmonah, ' fatness,' ' fruit- fulness,' where to this day there is a pool full of sweet living water with abundant vegetation around. Bene-Jaakan, or, as in Deut. x. 6, ' Beeroth of the children of Jaakan,' ' the wells of the children of Jaakan,' probably the wells which the Jaakanites had dug on their expulsion by the Edomites from their original homes (Gen. xxxvi. 27; i Chron. 1-42). Jotbathah, 'good- ness,' and Ebronah, probably ' fords.' The other names are either derived from peculiarities of scenery or else from special events, as Kehelathah, 'assembling'; Makheloth, 'assemblies'; Haradah, ' place of terror.'* We have already seen from the text that the Israelites often camped for lengthened periods, contrary to the common idea. They must have lived in touch with tribes — for instance, the Bene-Jaakan. They had money, for they offered to buy 'meat' and 'water.' And Deut. ii. 28, 29 tells how they had done this with ' the children of Esau which dwelt in Seir, and the Moabites which dwelt in Ar.' * Dr. Edersheim. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. iig Moses, when he sent messengers to the King of Edom, ask- ing permission to pass through his land, calls Kadesh ' a city in the uttermost of thy border.' He appeals to the king that he would let ' thy brother Israel ' pass through. He touchingly tells of their past troubles, and of the Divine deliverance, but Edom haughtily refused — came ' out with a strong hand ' — that is, in force he held the passes which would have given the Israelites easy access to the Promised Land. So they ' turned away from him ' — reading this, how is it possible that the traditional Mount Hor can be the place of Aaron's grave ? It was not until the days of Josephus, fifteen centuries after Aaron's death, that the mountains near Petra were thought to be the place of this funeral. Read the Bible, and leave tradi- tion alone, then I think it will be admitted that this commonly accepted site does not fit in with the text. The true site of Kadesh being found helps us to the true Mount Hor. The Hebrew form of words to describe this mountain are Hor,''' ha Har, literally, Mountain, ' The Mountain.'! It does not say it was the highest. Just as we have seen that Jebel Serbal, though higher and grander than Musa, is not the ' Mount of God.' Is it Hkely that after Israel had asked permission to enter Edom, and been met with a refusal, they would march into the very heart of the country, camp close to its capital, and then bury Aaron in the mountain close by ? ' Moreover, the Bible record shows that when the Israelites moved from Kadesh Barnea to Mount Hor, they alarmed the King of Arad, in the land of Canaan, as if they were advancing threateningly north- wards, and in consequence he came out against them in force. It has been a puzzle of puzzles for commentators to explain * The word ' Hor,' mountain, is also used for Hevmon. See Numb, xxxiv. 7, 8. t Dr. Trumbull, 'Kadesh Barnea.' 120 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. why that king should have supposed that the IsraeHtes were coming towards him when they were really going from him, as they must have been doing if Jebel Neby Hartin (the tradi- tional Mount Hor) was their destination. . . . And in addition to all the other reasons for rejecting these claims, it should be considered that since the stretch of Edom was on both sides of the 'Arabah, the 'Arabah itself, northwards of the lower extremity of Mount Seir was within the territory of Edom, hence it could not have been entered by the Israelites.'* Deut. X. 6 gives another name to 'the mountain' on which Aaron died — 'Moserah.' Now, within a day's march of Kadesh is a remarkable mountain called ' Moderah,' rising by itself alone from a plain. It stands on the boundaries of Edom, of Canaan, and the Wilderness of Paran — the very verge of the Land of Promise. All the border wadies run to it and the plain. Every traveller who has seen it appears to have been struck by its remarkable isolation. Robinson calls it a ' lofty citadel.' Professor Hull thinks the traditional Mount Hor at Petra is the site, but one of the reasons he gives fails to commend itself to my mind ; ' We may well suppose the eyes of the high-priest of Israel were allowed to rest themselves upon the hills of Judea, ere he resigned his priestly robes, and prepared himself for his resting- place, perhaps in the little cave which is covered by a Moham- medan shrine.' Measure on the map a straight line from Petra to Hebron ; you will find it eighty miles or about. What human eyes could see objects at that distance ? and, further, how could he then have seen over those heights at Hebron ? What Bible warrant is there for thinking Aaron had a view of the Promised Land ? Anyhow, he would see very little of it from Petra. ' Dr. Trumbull, 'Kadesh Earnea.' ISRAEL IN EGYPT. The Israelites had received the refusal of the KingofEdom ; they must,' therefore, make a detour to reach Wady 'Arabah below, where the army of Edom was placed. Deut. x. 7 tells us they 'journeyed into Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of waters.' On their way they were attacked by the King of Arad. Then Israel vowed a vow to destroy those cities, and years after did so, and gave the place the name of Hormah — ' utter destruction.' Future examination of that country will show how faithfully they fulfilled their vow, and how desolate it still remains. No Bedawin will camp there, though massive remains of cities, old wells and aque- ducts exist. The Bible narrative, I think, is clear ; that the Israelites never entered the Wady 'Arabah, except when they traversed that part near Ezion-geber, when they compassed Mount Seir. The pilgrim host has to go on through the 'way of the Red Sea,' and were discouraged ' because of the way.' Fiery serpents punish the people. The desert near Ezion-geber (the giant's backbone) is intensely hot, bare of vegetation, desolate, rough, and visited by terrible sand-storms — pre-eminently ' that great and terrible wilderness ' of which Moses afterwards reminded the people. Travellers say snakes are common. Bedawin say the same. ' Some are marked with fiery spots and spiral lines,' evidently belonging to the most poisonous species. The brazen serpent is called saraph — ' fiery ' — so we may infer that the expression describes rather the appearance of these ' fire snakes ' than the effect of their bite.* Then they go to Ije Abarim, ' the passages,' or ' hills of the passages,' by which they were approaching the wilderness of Moab, thence to the valley of Zared, which name means ' willow,' and corresponds to the Arabic sufsdfeh, the name still * Edersheim. 122 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. of a wady which here forms the boundary between Edom and Moab. They are not to touch Moab, so they remove and go north, passing through the wilderness of Moab, till they come to Arnon. They ' pitched on the other side of Arnon.' Why ? Because the country is a high tableland 3,200 feet above sea- level, and cut into two districts by ravines of stupendous size by the Mojib, the Arnon, and the Zerka. Canon Tristram estimates the width of the valley through which the Arnon flows at three miles, and its depth 2,150 feet, at its greatest depth — a good reason why the host stopped. They would cross it higher up in the wilderness. Then we get a reference to a lost book, ' the book of the wars of the Lord.' Was this 'book' a record of war songs sung over camp-fires just as Bedawin do to-day ? It seems most likely. They went on to ' Beer,' where a well was dug, thence to Mattanah, which ' we may easily recognise as the great Wady Waleh, with its rude- stone monuments and brook. Nahaliel, " the valley of God,'' is the gorge of Callirhoe, above which on the north stands another great group of both menhirs and dolmens, and thus Bamoth Baal falls into place as the ridge south of the stream of Wady Jideid, now called the " Crucified One," which presents a group of more than a hundred rude-stone monuments. The Israelite journey was thus in a straight line to Pisgah, and their camps were at distances equal to those which the Bedawin accomplish on an average in their moves. Each great brook is mentioned, and the line is that which a large body of men must of necessity take on account of the absence of water on the flat plateau further east.'* Now they got their first view of the Land of Promise, for they looked towards Jeshimon, that waste west of the Dead Sea. The Israelites send messengers to Sihon, asking permission to pass through his country, promising to eat nothing, to drink * Major Conder. ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 123 no water from the wells without payment, and to go on the king's highway doing no damage, in short. The messengers return with his refusal, and tell of his approach with his army ; but these Israelites are no longer of the same cowardly hearts as their fathers ; they joyfully go forth to meet him, and at Jahaz the hosts come into conflict, and he is completely defeated, and they possess all his land. He had risked his all on one battle, and had lost — at Jahaz, by some identified with Muhatel el Haj. On a hill are ruins of a town, also of a fort. Sihon chose a strong position ; but the Israehtes take the land from Arnon to Yabbok. This latter river, now called the Zerka, would indeed give a strong frontier to Ammon. It is a winding stream, with bold and rocky cliffs ; on its hill-slopes massive ruins ; old canals for water irrigation, sometimes ex- tending for five or eight miles, and showing great engineering skill. All record is lost as to who made these works. Israel took all the cities and Heshbon, which was the capital of Sihon. Its position is on a ' vast tableland, on the brow of which, to the west, the crest is a little elevated, and to the eastwards of it a slight depression of three or four miles in extent, beyond which the rounded hills rise 200 feet, and gently slope away to the east. In the centre of this depression is a small hill, perhaps 200 feet high, but entirely isolated, with a small stream running past it on the east. This is Heshbon. The hill is one heap of shapeless ruin, while all the neighbouring slopes are full of caves, which have once been occupied — turned into use as habitations. The citadel hill has also a shoulder, and a spur to the south, likewise covered with ruins.'='= In 1882 a thorough examination of the ruins of Heshbon was made by Major Conder and Captain Mantell. Those officers report that the ruins of the capital of Sihon consist of shapeless mounds, of hewn stones, and pillars of a later period. * Canon Tristram, 'Land of Moab.' 12^ THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. A good view is to be got over the great Belka plateau, and from the high top, west of the ruins, the Jordan Valley becomes visible. On this hilltop they found the oldest stone monuments * A hi. * ' 1 as yet found in Syria. Cromlechs were numerous. The centre of these monuments appeared to be on the rounded summit, west of Heshbon. Ruins of a cairn, with a circle of stones of ISRAEL IN EGYPT. 125 moderate size surrounding it — the circle forty feet in diameter. Lower down the hill another circle, 200 yards in diameter, consisting of two rows of stones, with an interval of eight feet between them. Outside this circle, north, south, and west, cromlechs of every size and form. Twenty-six were clearly recovered, and other fallen ones noticed. A very fine one exists on the north, near the foot of the spur, which rises 800 feet above the wady. This specimen, found and photographed by Lieutenant Mantell, has a table-stone measuring nine feet by eight feet, supported by two very square standing stones, and measures five feet six inches in the clear under the table- stone. On the plateau, north-east of the central cairn and circle, is another fine cromlech of equal dimensions. These two are the largest and most lofty ; the average height of the standing stones being about three feet, with a table-stone five feet square. There is a second group of cromlechs on the north side of Wady Hesban, about a mile away. All these are so placed (sixteen in number) as to obtain a view of the hill east of them ; and all are placed on the east slope of the hill, none on the west. All this points to the fact that Heshbon was a sacred mountain, and that the cromlechs were built facing it in positions whence the sacred centre might be seen with the sun rising behind it. Circular stones are found in the top-stones of the Heshbon group. Possibly they may be connected with the use of the cromlechs as altars, either as receptacles for blood or for fire. Circular holes are found in the live rock, close to the cromlechs. Rock-cut chambers are found in connection with these crom- lechs; they are generally three to five feet long, three feet broad and high ; some others six to seven feet long, evidently tombs. They are excavated in detached rocks ; the cromlechs occur in connection with ancient towns. Flint instruments are found on the flat ground, none on the hills. 126 THE BIBLE AND MODERN DISCOVERIES. Moses then sent to spy out Jazer, and they found ' the place was a place for cattle.' Green sites of ancient towns exist here — Umm Jauzeh, with a copious spring ; Safut and another. Jeremiah speaks of a ' Sea of Jazer,' but there is no trace of a lake. Ruins of a town called Beit Zer'ah are near, and here begin to rise the wooded uplands of Gad. In a few short verses Moses relates the history of this successful campaign, when, for the first time, this new race of Israelites saw 'cities.' Their fathers were dead in the wilderness ; their sons were of stouter hearts, and ' cities ' no longer appalled them. They ' utterly destroy ' every inhabited city. Having so far cleared their flank, they now turn to meet a new enemy — Og, King of Bashan, and his army — the only remaining type of 'the giants.' His ' cities ' are spoken of as ' fenced with high walls, gates and bars, besides the unwalled (or country) towns, a great many.' The victors sweep up to Hermon, capture all the tableland, and all the cities of the kingdom. This region in the Bible is called 'Argob,' 'a heap of stones.'* Let us examine its present condition. ' It would be difficult to men- tion a spot in civilized lands which could be compared to this ancient region in regard to its wild and savage aspect. It is one great sea of lava. The lava-bed proper embraces about 350 square miles ; its average height above the surrounding plain is perhaps twenty feet, but it sends out black promon- tories of rock into the surrounding plain. There are few open- ings into the interior. Roads had to be excavated to the towns situated in Argob (now called Lejjah, "a place of refuge"). The surface of this "Argob" is almost black, and has the appearance of the sea when it is in motion beneath a dark, cloudy sky ; but this sea of lava is motionless, its great * Schumacher, ' Across the Jordan,' does not agree with the usually ac- cepted site of Argob, and proposes to place it on the slopes of Bashan. See p. 45. ISRAEL IM EGYPT. 127 waves are petrified. In cooling the lava cracked and split, so there are great fissures and chasms which cannot be crossed. Often this lava-bed is broken into hillocks, and between them, and also in the rolling plains, are many intervals of soil, which is of amazing fertility. The country is full of extinct craters, too many to number. The whole lava region embraces several thousand square miles, extending to the Haurin Mountains. The region is not waterless. In many places are copious living fountains, with abundant water, cool and sweet. Ruins of towns abound. The Arabs say in the Hauran, which includes Argob, there are quite a thou.sand.'* It would require a whole volume to describe the ruins which Stone Gate of 1Tn