which Gaddi being in Hebrew no more than Gaddita, isignorantly made a name of a place. Arnon also nowhere appears to be the name of a town, but still of a river. Alimis Adrichomius frames of iv 'Aλéμois 1 Macc. v. 26. so that the name should rather be Alema; but Junius out of Josephus reads Mallæ, for this in Alimis; and understanding P Mallæ to be put for Millo, and to be as much as munitio, (as we have shewed touching the Millo of the Sichemites,) he takes this Mallæ to be Mitspah Moabitarum, of which 1 Sam. xxii. 3. As for that Mageth which Adrichomius finds in this tribe of Gad, it is that Mahacath which Moses noteth to be as far as the farthest of Manasses, out of the bounds of this tribe. So also Dathema, of which 1 Macc. v. 10. (which Junius takes to be a Rithma, of which Numb. xxxiii. 18. a place of strength in the territory of the Ammonites,) and in like manner Minnith and AbelVinearum, though by some they be attributed to the Gadites, or to their borders, yet they are found further off. For of the two last we read in Jephtha's pursuit of the Ammonites; seated, as it seems by that place of the book of Judges, the former of them in the south border, and the other in the east border, both far removed from the Gadites. But the chief city of the Ammonites was nearer, and not far from the borders of Gad. It is called in the scriptures sometime Rabbath, as Deuteronomy iii. 11. but more often Rabba. It is supposed to be that Philadelphia which Ptolomy finds in Colesyria; Jerome and Callistus in Arabia. It was conquered by Og from the Ammonites; but, as it seems, never possessed by the Israelites after the P Deut. iii. 14. Josh. xii. 5. a The letters D and R in the Hebrew are very like, so that one is oft mistaken for another; and sometimes without mistaking one is put for another; as, for Rodanim, 1 Chron. vii. we have Dodanim, Gen. x. 4. Other names of this city, according to Stephanus, were Ammana and Astarte; but in this latter perhaps he mistook, which might seem to be the same Astaroth, one of the chief cities r of Og, of which in that which remaineth to be spoken of Manasses. Adrichomius says, it was also called Urbs aquarum, because of the river Jaboc's winding about it, but in the place, 2 Sam. xxvii. whence he gathers this opinion, Junius reads intercepi ab urbe aquam, if we must read with others cepi urbem aquarum, yet it cannot be taken of Rabba itself, but of some fort adjoining. overthrow of Og, but left to the Ammonites; whereupon at length it became the regal seat of the Ammonites, but of old it was the possession of the Zamzummims; which is as much to say, as men for all manner of craft and wickedness infamous. The same were also called Raphaim, of whom was Og, which recovered much of that which the Ammonites had got from his ancestors; who having been first beaten by the Assyrians, and their assistants, (as the Emims in Moab, and the Horims in Seir had been,) were afterward the easier conquered by the Ammonites, as the Emims were by Moab, and the Horims by the Idumeans. Yet did the races of Emoreus, of whom these giants were descended, contend with the conquerors for their ancient inheritance; and as Sehon of Hesbon had dispossessed Moab, so had Og of Basan the Ammonites, and between them recovered the best part of all the valley between the mountains and Jordan. For this Og was also master of Rabba, or Philadelphia; and in the possession of the one or the other of these two Moses and Israel found all those cities and countries which were given to Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh. So that though it were 450 years since that the Zamzummims or Raphaims were expelled, yet they did not forget their ancient inheritance; but having these two kings of one kindred, and both valiant and undertaking men, to wit, Og and Sehon, both Amorites, they recovered again much of their lost possessions, and thrust the sons of Lot over the mountains, and into the deserts. And as the kings or captains of Persia and Assyria (remembered Genesis xiv.) made way for Ammon, Moab, and Edom; so by that great conquest which Moses had over those two Amorites, Og and Sehon, did the Moabites and Ammonites take opportunity to look back again into those plains, and when the Reubenites, Gadites, and Manassites forsook the worship of the living God, and became slothful and licentious, they taking the advantage invaded them, and cast them out of their possessions, and were sometime their masters, sometime their tributaries, as they pleased or dis pleased God; and according to the wisdom and virtue of their commanders. In this city of Rabba was the iron bed of Og found, nine cubits of length, and four of breadth, Deut. iii. The city was taken in David's time, and the inhabitants slain with great severity, and by divers torments. At the first assault thereof Uriah was shot to death, having been by direction from David appointed to be employed in the leading of an assault, where he could not escape; wherein also many of the best of the army perished, and wherein David so displeased God, as his affairs had ill success afterward, even to his dying day. From hence had David the weighty and rich crown of gold, which the kings of Ammon wore; or which, as some expound it, was used to be set on the head of their idol, weighing a talent, which is sixty pound weight after the common talent. In the time of Christians it had a metropolitan bishop, and under him twelve others. The mountains which are described within this tribe and that of Manasseh, with a part of Reuben, are those which Ptolomy calleth the hills of Hippus, a city of Colesyria; and Strabo, Trachones; the same which continue from near Damascus unto the deserts of Moab, and receive divers names, as commonly mountains do which neighbour and bound divers countries: for from the south part, as far northward as Asteroth, the chief city of Og, they are called Galaad, or Gilead; from thence northward they are known by the name of Hermon, for so Moses calleth them; the Sidonians naine them Shirion; but the Amorites Shenir, others Seir; of which name all those hills also were called, which part Judæa and Idumæa; and lastly, they are called Libanus; for so the prophet, Jer. xxii. makes them all one, calling the high mountains of Galaad the head of Libanus. These mountains are very fruitful, and full of good pástures, and have many trees which yield u balsamum, and * 2 Sam. xii. Will. Tyr. Bell. Sac. 13. cap. 12. Strabo 1. 16. Teax is locus asper et salebrosus: whence it ap pears, that Trachonitis regio in these many other medicinable drugs. The rivers of this tribe are the waters of Nimrah and Dibon, and the river Jaboc; others do also fancy another river, which, rising out of the rocks of Arnon, falleth into Jordan. SECT. VI. Of the Ammonites, part of whose territories the Gadites won from Og the king of Basan. THIS tribe of Gad possessed half the country of the Ammonites, who together with the Moabites held that part of Arabia Petræa called Nabathea, as well within as without the mountains of Gilead; though at this time, when the Gadites won it, it was in the possession of Sehon and Og, Amorites and therefore Moses did not expel the Ammonites, but the Amorites, who had thrust the issues of Lot over the mountains Trachones, or Gilead, as before. After the death of Othoniel, the first judge of Israel, the Ammonites joined with the Moabites against the Hebrews, and so continued long. * Jephtha, judge of Israel, had a great conquest over one of the kings of Ammon, but his name is omitted. In the time of Samuel they were at peace with them again. X Afterward we find that cruel king of the Ammonites, called Nahas; who besieging y Jabes Gilead, gave them no other conditions but the pulling out of their right eyes. The reason why he tendered so hard a composition was, (besides this desire to bring shame upon Israel,) because those Gileadites using to carry a target on their left arms, which could not but shadow their left eyes, should by losing their right be utterly disabled to defend themselves; but Saul came to their rescue, and delivered them from that danger. This Nahas, as it may seem, became the confederate of David, having friended him in Saul's time, though z Josephus thinks that this Nahas was slain in the battle, when Saul raised the siege of Jabes, who affirmeth that there were three kings of the Moabites of that name. Hanon succeeded Nahas; to whom when David sent to congratulate his establishment, and to confirm the former friendship which he had with his father, he most contemptuously and proudly cut off the ambassadors' garments to the knees, and shaved the half of their beards. But afterwards, notwithstanding the aids received from the Aramites subject to Adadezer, and from the reguli of Rehob and Maacah, and from bIstob, yet all those Arabians, together with the Ammonites, were overturned; their chief city of Rabba, after Philadelphia, was taken, the crown, which weighed a talent of gold, was set on David's head; all such as were prisoners David executed with strange severity; for with saws and harrows he tare them in pieces, and cast the rest into limekilns. Jehoshaphat governing Juda, they assisted the Moabites their neighbours against him, and perished together. Osias made them tributaries, and they were again by Jotham enforced to continue that tribute, and to increase it, to wit, one hundred talents of silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley; which the Ammonites continued two years. The fifth king of the Ammonites, of whose name we read, was Baalis, the confederate of Zedekiah; after whose taking by Nabuchodonosor, Baalis sent Ismael, of the blood of the kings of Juda, to slay Gedaliah, who served Nabuchodonosor. SECT. VII. Of the other half of Manasseh. THE rest of the land of Gilead, and of the kingdom of Og in Basan, with the land of Hus and Argob, or Trachonitis, (wherein also were part of the small territories of c Ba b Istob, that is, the men of Thob: Thob is a small territory under Arnon hills. Rehob is another between Hazor and Sidon, in the north bound of Canaan, Num. xiii. 22. of which see in the tribe of Asher, Jer. xl. and xli. 2 Chron. xx. xxxvi. xxvi. xxvii. Another territory adjoining to Manasseh, whose limits were confounded with some of these, was that Thishbitis, the country of Elias, as it is 1 Kings xvi. 1. and of Tobias, Tob. i. 2. it lay on the east to the tribe of Nephthali, on the right hand of it, as in Tob. i. 2. and was possessed |