mighty race from subjecting the surrounding nations to their rule.* The Ammonites, on the south of them, had been replaced by the Amorites (i.e. mountaineers) from the other side of Jordan; while the Moabites and Edomites, still further south, yet held peaceful possession of their territory. So far as can be ascertained, the Giants were confined to their rocky enclosure, while, at the same time, they held sway over the provinces immediately bordering upon it on the south, and the forest region which stretches on the south-east as far as the slopes of the Haŭran. In their inaccessible retreats, protected there by the mighty bulwarks which the volcano had built up around them, they were a continual occasion of dread to all the neighbouring tribes, even to those who were yet exempt from their control. Og, and his chiefs, armed with iron missiles, and entrenched behind those mighty bulwarks, in those intricate and inaccessible fastnesses, were indeed terrible neighbours, and enemies dreadful to encounter in aggressive war. had any of the adjacent powers ventured to assail them. Indeed it is probable that all which even the Egyptian armies had accomplished in their much-vaunted exploits against the Rephaim was to drive them within their fortresses. But now they hear of approaching hosts which awaken unwonted fears in them. For these hosts are in possession of all the Egyptian implements of war; and, besides being stronger and more valiant than the mightiest of the neighbouring tribes (for had they not just vanquished the powerful Amorites, who had held their own for so many generations?) they had all, from their youth up, been severely trained by generals to whom the modes of Egyptian warfare were familiar.

Nor

On the Paran uplands they had received that soldierly training and discipline from men who were well able to conduct it. Joshua and Moses, and the nobles of the people, were familiar with the warlike science that had won such famous victories for the dynasty which was then supreme in Egypt. They had resources which enabled them to obtain from that country the war implements and machines which its science had invented. When they left their settlement in Paran, they marched forward under the inspiration of the loftiest hopes and promises. And half way on their journey, their army had been purged of those who would have discouraged and encumbered them. Moreover, when they reached the borders of Og's territory, they were flushed and exultant with reanimated hopes, for the mountaineers of Gilead had just been defeated by them. And so, as the history intimates, they advanced without any misgivings to their encounter with the terrible chieftain, and with the mighty forces that were controlled by him.

*Osborn's "Egypt," &c.

We know The Presence Which was advancing with them, and Whose aid furnishes the reason why, in this instance also, they proved irresistible. Their Divine Helper, however, wrought through and by means of their own valour and strenuous exertions; and as no visibly miraculous interposition is mentioned in this instance, we may confine our attention to the secondary causes that may be discovered in their defeat of the Bashan chieftain and his forces. All which the researches we are now dwelling on, has disclosed of his power, and of the strength of his position, may be acccepted as testimony to the valour and discipline of the Israelites, and to the resources in their possession at this time. They must surely have been very different from a mere wandering host of Bedouin shepherds, as they are sometimes represented, when we find them going forward to the attack of such a formidable adversary, so entrenched and guarded. And their reasons for their valiant confidence were justified. They "smote Og and all his people:""none" of all his gigantic force "was left to him remaining." "All his cities," also, which were fortified "with high walls, gates and bars," built of that same basaltic rock, and on the same scale of massiveness, which is now visible in the private dwellings, "they took" at that time. There was not one of the "three-score cities (of which the ruins of thirty are now visible from Tell 'Amârah, on the south of the Lejah,') which they took not," besides the unwalled towns on the undulating plain south of their main settlement. And there, in those gloomy massive homes, the Manassites at once established themselves. For the defence of their families, in such a position, it was sufficient for them to leave a small detachment from their tribe; while the great body of them went, in fulfilment of their compact with the brethren by whom they had been just aided, to help in the completion of the conquest on the other side of Jordan.

And if now, or if immediately after their return, they had perfectly finished their work, and wholly extirpated the foes whom they had defeated, they would have been impregnable in their new settlement. But, like their brethren on the west, they allowed many of the people whom they should have utterly driven out, to remain among them. All the forces of Og were vanquished, as the sacred writer expressly states. "But," it is added, "they did not expel the Geshurites, nor the Maachathites: but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwelt among the sons of Israel" (i.e. in the north-east corner of the volcanic district above described), and in time the Manassites, like their brethren on the west, reaped the fruits of their short-sighted policy. Mingled with these heathens in their dwellings, they "learned their works." And their children were plundered and subjected by the very people they had defeated. This same region was among those which had to be recovered, and restored to Israel, by David in his conquests. And we must picture to ourselves another conflict here

between his valiant troops and the dwellers in these wild retreats, that he might reinstate the faithful Manassites in their settlement. These rock cities, with those around the Safáh,* would then form some of the strongest fortresses by which David held his eastern dominions in subjection. There, too, were those garrisons of Solomon which protected the extensive commerce he carried forward by means of the frequent caravans to Damascus and Palmyra, and which added so much to his renown and opulence. And meanwhile another aspect would be gradually thrown over the rude stern dwellings. Midway between the architectural splendour of Jerusalem, and the luxurious dwellings of Damascus, some of their iron ruggedness would be clothed, softened, and adorned by the luxurious culture of the people.

Such was the condition of the country during the brief period of the Hebrew ascendancy; and, as it gradually passed away, while the Syrian power was encroaching on the territory which yet remained to Israel, this was one of the positions of which the Damascus monarch would naturally strive to get possession. This he soon accomplished, and here in fact he was garrisoned, and established as on a fortress outpost, during his control over the trans-Jordanic tribes. In fact, it was one of the chief defences of the Syrian king on the south-west of his territory, as the Lebanon ranges were on the north and direct west, and as the Great Desert was on the east. His territory was not extended southward beyond this limit, except perhaps once for a brief period. For now, advancing towards this southern border was the enlarging kingdom of the Moabites. While Syria was encroaching on the province of Manasseh Moab was absorbing those of Gad and Reuben, and this power was in its zenith when the rule of Assyria was paramount. Thus Moab held all that territory which, increasing in richness as we approach the west, comes in view on either side of the southern prospect from Sulkhad. No part of Syria is more fertile; none was more thickly peopled than those widespreading downs which stand blank and naked on our maps; and the Moabite kingdom, which included it at the period we have now reached, must have been exceedingly powerful and wealthy. It was this kingdom which was the subject of Jeremiah's denunciations; and one of the most interesting results of Mr. Graham's researches is found in his account of Um-elJemâl, "the ancient Beth Gamul, a very large city, and to be compared almost with the modern Jerusalem. It was very perfect" Mr. Graham continues; "and as we walked about among the streets, and entered every house, and opened the stone doors, and saw the rooms as if they had just been left, and then thought that we were actually in the private dwellings of a people who, for 2000 years, had ceased to be a people, we *See Mr. Graham's account of them in Jour. Geog. Soc. Vol. xxviii. p. 237.

felt a kind of awe, and realized, in a manner that we never perhaps could feel elsewhere, how perfectly every tittle of God's word is carried out. . . These cities of Moab, which are still so perfect that they might again be inhabited to-morrow, have been during many centuries unpeopled.. The land about them, rich and fruitful as any in Syria, has long ceased to produce aught but shrubs and herbs, the food of the camel and the antelope."*

If Um-el-Jemâl may be taken as a specimen of the numerous cities on the south which come in view from Sulkhad, we gain an impressive conception not only of the Moabite kingdom at this time, but also of the previous opulence of the Hebrew tribes who had owned this territory and occupied these cities, while at the same time they had exercised rule, as lords paramount, over the Moab and Edomite communities in their neighbourhood. Let us fix our attention steadfastly on their numbers and extent, on the ample resources of their vast provinces, and then connect with this view of them the strong fortresses on the north, which were held by their compatriots, and our conceptions of the national importance of the Israelites, and of the fitness of the ground chosen for the transactions of their great history, will be indefinitely heightened. This ground was over its whole extent, what the highland country on the other side of the Jordan valley was only in its choicest provinces. Rich streams of commerce were continually pouring through the cities built on it, as they flowed on from the Red Sea ports to Damascus and Palmyra, or again from the west, through Bozra, along the road which, as we have seen, led thence to the Persian Gulf. Here, on those broad and fertile pastures, on those richly-wooded hills, beside those sparkling streams, with those great highways running through their cities, was the richest portion of Israel's inheritance. Here some of the most momentous parts of its "mission in the world" were to be fulfilled. Provinces like these were needed for the development of some of the characteristics of the Hebrew nature, for the fulfilment of some of its appointed work. And the entire significance of the history of the chosen people cannot be understood, if they are not distinctly taken into account in our survey of the scene where that history was carried forward.

In this point of view all these regions are full of the deepest interest, and we may gladly welcome the recent additions to our knowledge respecting them. Another use of them is found in the illustrations which they furnish of some of the predictive portions of scripture; but this use must be made in a method differing from that which has been customary. And it must be borne in mind, that we rather infer the fulfilment of

Camb. Essays for 1858. See also Jour. Geog. Soc. Vol. xxviii. p 250-252.

those predictions from the general aspect of the country, than actually witness it in what is seen by us. This distinction will go far to remove many of the difficulties which have recently been suggested (as in Stanley's Sinai and Pales., chap. vi.) in respect of the uses which some expositors of prophecy have made of the actual condition of Scripture Lands as illustrative of the inspired predictions. Let it be granted that the ruins and desolations we now look upon are not those which were in view of the inspired seer-and this must be acknowledged, for they betoken the overthrow of races far later than those to whom his denunciations were addressed-yet his words are illustriously verified by them. The existing ruins imply, or we may say they exhibit, the very overthrow which he predicted. As we have already intimated, much of that massive ponderous architecture which we assign to those early days the Scriptures speak of, does not meet us on the surface: the works of later ages are superimposed on them. The Roman builders, for example, who afterwards wrought here, frequently erected their princely structures on what was a field of ruins when their works were carried forward; and in those ruins, the waste and desolation amidst which their temples and palaces and theatres were raised by them, we discern the fulfilment of the inspired predictions. We think there is reason to regret that commentators on prophecy have not observed this distinction an element of weakness will be withdrawn from their argument when it is regarded.

;

For their use, as well as for the help of those who apply themselves to the embodiment and vivification of the history of Scripture, abundant materials are supplied by these late researches upon ground which was formerly almost unknown. It is true that, at present, it has only been roughly and generally surveyed, and indeed more than this has been hitherto impossible. Travel in some parts of this country is still impracticable, and it cannot be accomplished in any part except with risk and peril. It is now overrun by the most lawless of the Bedouins, and for many generations it will be liable to their incursions. As the " corsairs of the wilderness," they will hang upon its coasts for a long period. But under that improved government of Syria, which cannot be delayed much longer, the land itself must be reclaimed from them, and the traveller will be as secure against these outrages as he is now in western Palestine. Those roads which run directly through their territory show that their ancestors were tamed, or at least made amenable to discipline, as indeed the present generation of them was, in a large measure, during the late Egyptian occupation of the country.

When this is again the case, and the country is thrown open to the deliberate inspection of observers, duly accom