things, it was that Samuel hewed Agag the king of the Amalekites in pieces. And as for Mitspah, whither also Samuel came yearly to give judgment, there also were often the greatest meetings held; as that for the revenge of the Levite's wife against Gibha and the Benjamites, Judg. xxi. 1; and another against the Philistines, 1 Sam. vii. 12. Thither also Judas Maccabæus gathered the Jews, (when Jerusalem was possessed by the heathen,) as it is 1 Macc. iii. 47; in which place this reason of their meeting is added, Quia locus orationi fuerat Mitspæ antea Israeli. Touching this Mitspah, to avoid confusion, it is to be remembered that the scriptures mention four places of this name; Mitspah of Juda, of which Josh. xv. 38; m Mitspah of Gilead, of which we have spoken already in the tribe of Gad; Mitspah of the Moabites, where David for a while held himself, commending his parents to the king of Moab, 1 Sam. xxii. 3; and lastly, this chief Mitspah of the Benjamites. And as in this place the chief meetings were held, both before Jerusalem was recovered from the Jebusites, and also in the time of the Maccabees, as we have said, when Jerusalem was held by the wicked under Antiochus; so also in the time of Jeremy, after the destruction of the temple by the Chaldees, Gedaliah, whom Nabuchodonosor left in Jewry, as governor over those that were left in the land, held his abiding in this place until (to the great hurt of the Jews) he was slain by the treason of Ishmael, one of the royal blood of Juda, as it is Jeremiah xli.

Near unto this Mitspah the scripture mentioneth Bethear, 1 Sam. vii. 11, after called Aben-Hezer, that is, the stone of help; where Samuel pitched up the pillar or stone for a trophy against the Philistines.

Touching Bethel, which, as it seems, was the third place where Samuel held his chief meetings for the ministering of justice, that it was anciently called Luz; and how it was

m It was no other than this Mitspah of Gilead, of which Josh. xi. 8, as appears by that which is added, versus orientem for Joshua notes the three quarters, north, west, and east, to

which he followed the Canaanites; though Adrichomius and others, out of this place, imagine a Mitspah, or Mispha, (as they write it,) in the tribe

of Asher,

taken by the issue of Joseph, (though it belonged to the portion of Benjamin, as it is Nehemiah xi. 31. and Joshua xviii., 22;) and how another city called Luz, Josh. xvi. 2, near adjoining to it, was built by the man of the city which shewed the entrance to the spies, as it is Judges i. ; and of the occasion of the name from Jacob's vision; and how Jeroboam, by erecting one of his calves here, of Bethel (which signifieth the house of God) made it n Beth-aven, that is, the house of vanity, Hosea iv. 15. and x. 5; as also other memorable things of this place; they are so well known, out of the histories of the scripture, that we may well pass them

over.

The territory of Bethel, which at the first belonged to the kingdom of the ten tribes, from the time of the great victory of Abia against Jeroboam, (of which 2 Chron. xiii.) was taken from them, and adjoined to the kingdom of Juda; and so it continued, as appears by the story of Josiah, which performed the prophecies against the altar of Bethel, 2 Kings xxiii. whence those coasts, 1 Macc. xi. 34. are called Apharema, which Greek word signifieth as much as, a thing taken away," to wit, from the ten tribes. It was one of the three seigniories, or prefectures, which Demetrius in his epistle mentioneth as added by him to the dition of the Jews, out of the Samaritan country. A part of it, as appears 2 Chron. xiii. 19, was Hephravin, which, Josh. xviii. 23, is called Hophram, belonging to this tribe of Benjamin.

66

Not far from this Bethel, in this tribe, we find three other cities often mentioned in the scriptures, Rama, Gibha, and Gebah. Of the name Rama, it is noted already in the description of Ephraim, that there were many towns so called, because of their high situation; but whereas they find out Rama in the tribe of Juda, (as it seems, because Matthew ii. it appears that it bordered Bethlehem,) and also out of Brochard and Breidenbach, make Silo to have been

n Borrowing the name of a neighbour town in the confines of the kingdoms of Juda and Israel, between

Hai and Bethel, Josh. vii. 2. and xviii. 12.

See c. 9. sect. I.

called Rama, and find yet another Rama in Zabulon; these three have no warrant in the scripture. Of Rama, in the tribe of Asser, as it seems, we have testimony, Josh. xix. 29; and of another in Nephthalim, Josh. xix. 36; of a third Rama, where Samuel dwelt in mount Ephraim, 1 Sam. xxv.1, which more often is called P Ramatha, and 1 Sam. i. 1. Ramathaim Tsophim; for which the Septuagint have Aramathaim-sophim, taking the article affixed in the beginning for a part of the word, whence they think Joseph of Arimathea, Matth. xxvii. 57, was denominated.

Of a fourth Rama, we read 2 Kings viii. 29. which is Ramoth in Gilead. The first, which is most often mentioned, is Rama of Benjamin, seated, as we said, near Bethel, the uttermost south border of the kingdom of the ten tribes; for which cause Baasha, in the time of Asa, king of Juda, fortified it, to hinder those that did fly from him to Asa. Of this Rama, or Ramatha, I should rather think Joseph was that buried Christ, because it was nearer to Jerusalem, and after the captivity belonged to Judæa, as it appears Esd. ii. 26; wherein that it is joined with Gebah, it is plain that he speaketh of that Rama, with whose stones (after Baasha had ceased to build it) Asa (as it is 1 Kings xxv. 22.) built Gebah adjoining to it, both being in Benjamin. And as Rama was the south border of the ten tribes, so was Gebah the north border of the kingdom of Juda; whence, 2 Kings xxiii. 8. we read, that Josiah, through all his kingdom, even from Gebah, which was the north border, to Beersheba, which was the south border, destroyed the places of idolatry.

The third city Gibha, which was the city of Saul, (the wickedness of which city, in the time of the judges, had almost utterly rooted out this tribe,) Adrichomius confounds with Gebah, making one of two; (as they are evi

P Of this Ramatha, I understand the place I Macc. xi. 34. where it is named for one of the three prefectures which Demetrius yields to the Jews out of the country of Samaria; this lying toward the east to Jericho, and Lydda toward the west, and

Aphærema (of which even now we spake) lying in the midst, between the two other. A sixth Rama it seems there was in the tribe of Simeon toward the south, which Josh. xix. 7, 8. is called Ramah of the south, and otherwise Bahalath-beer.

dently distinguished, Isaiah x. 27.) of which word 9 Gibha, in another form Gibbath, he imagineth Gabaath, another city in this tribe, making two of one. The vicinity of this city also to Rama of Benjamin, appears, Judg. xix. 13, where the Levite with his wife, not able to reach to Rama, took up his lodging at Gibha. By that place of 1 Sam. xxii. 6. it seems that there was in this Gibha some tower or citadel, called Rama, where Junius reads in excelso, for in Rama; but it may be, that the name of the king's palace in this city was Rama, as it seems that in Rama of Samuel, the name of the chief place where Samuel with the college of prophets abode, was Naioth. The great city of Hai, overthrown by Joshua, which, Josh. vii. 2, is placed near Beth-aven, upon the east of Bethel, was in this tribe, as is proved Nehemiah vii. x. xxx. though it be not named by Joshua xviii. for it was burned by him and laid desolate, as it is Josh. viii. 28. in solitudinem in tumulum perpetuum. Another city of chief note, reckoned, Josh. xviii. 25. in this tribe, was Gibhon, the chief city of the Hevites, whose cunning, to bind the Israelites by oath to save their lives, is set down, Josh. ix. whence they were reckoned among the Nethinæi, or proselytes, and were bound to certain public services in the house of God; which oath of saving these Gibeonites, broken in part after by Saul, was by God punished by a famine, 2 Sam. xxi. 1. This Gibeon, or Gibhon, with Almon and Jebah, (of both which we have spoken,) and with Hanothoth, the natal place of Jeremiah the prophet, were said, Josh. xxi. 28, to be given to the Levites by the Benjamites. Near to this Hanothoth was Nob, as appears 1 Kings ii. 26, where Ebiathar the priest, which was of Nob before it was

a Gibha in construction, that is, governing a genitive case, is Gibhath, whence the Vulgar out of the Septuagint read, Josh. xxiv. 33. Gabaath Phinees; for which Junius hath collis Phineasi, (for this word is ofttimes an appellative, signifying a hill,) but Adrichomius, taking notice of this, builds his city Gabaath upon this text,

and placeth it in Benjamin, when as the words adjoined note that this hill was in the mountains of Ephraim.

The word Nethinim, or Nethinæi, is as much as dati, (as it were a Deo dati,) or, as Junius expounds it, dedititii; it is used 1 Chron. ix. 2. and in Esdras and Nehemias often.

destroyed by Saul, is sent to his grounds at Hanothoth. It is reckoned in the tribe of Benjamin, Nehemiah ix. 31; and though in the time of Saul the residing place of the ark was at Kirjath-jearim, yet, by the lamentable tragedy of bloodshed which Saul raised in this place, (as it is set down 1 Sam. xxi. and xxii.) in the judgment of Junius it is proved that the tabernacle was there for a time.

Micmas also in this tribe, Nehemiah ix. 31, was a place of fame, of which Isaiah x. 28, where also he nameth Gallim and Migrom in this tribe. In Micmas Saul had his camp, 1 Sam. xiii. 2, (when he left Gibha to Jonathan,) and there also was Jonathan Maccabæus's abode, 1 Macc. ix. 73. Of Giscala in Galilee Josephus makes often mention; but of any here in Benjamin, which they make the natal place of St. Paul, whence, they say, when it was taken by the Romans, he sailed with his parents to Tharsis, of this I find no good warrant. Other places of less importance I omit, and come to the city of Jerusalem, and the princes and governors of this city; a great part whereof was in the tribe of Benjamin, whence, Josh. xviii. 28, it is named among the cities of Benjamin.

SECT. II.

Of divers memorable things concerning Jerusalem.

AT what time Jerusalem was built (which afterwards became the princess of all cities) it doth not appear. Some there are who imagine that Melchisedec was the founder thereof in Abraham's time. But s according to others, that city, out of which Melchisedec encountered Abraham, (in his return from the overthrow of the Assyrian and Persian kings or captains, when Lot was made prisoner,) standeth by the river of Jordan, in the half tribe of Manasseh, bordering Zabulon, which was also called Salem, and by the Greeks Solima.

Jerusalem (whensoever or by whomsoever built) was a principal city in Joshua's time; yet not so renowned as Hazor, the metropolis (in those days and before) of all the Canaanites.

See in the hither half of Manasseh.