place is also called m Sittim; which word, if we should interpret, we should rather bring it from- cedars than from thorns, with Adrichomius and others. It was the wood of which the ark of the tabernacle was made.

Toward the east of these plains of Moab, they place the cities Nebo, Baal-meon, Sibma, and Hesbon, the chief city of Sehon and Elealeh, and Kirjathaim, the seat of the giant Emim. Of the two first of these Moses seems to give a note, that the names were to be changed, because they tasted of the Moabites' idolatry. For Nebo (instead of which Junius, Isai. xlvi. 1. reads Deus vaticinus) was the name of their idol-oracle, and Baal-meon is the habitation of Baal. Of the same idol was the hill Nebo in these parts denominated, from whose top, which the common translators call Phasgah, Moses, before his death, saw all the land of Canaan beyond Jordan. In which story Junius doth not take Phasgah, or Pisgah, for any proper name, but for an appellative signifying a hill: and so also Vatablus, in some places, as Numb. xxi. 20, where he noteth, that some call Pisgah that top which looketh to Jericho and Hair, as it looketh to Moab; which opinion may be somewhat strengthened by the name of the city of Reuben, mentioned Josh. xiii. 20, called Ashdoth-Pisgah, which is as much as Decursus Pisgæ, to wit, where the waters did run down from Pisgah. In the same place of Joshua there is also named Beth-peor, as belonging to Reuben; so called from the hill Peor, from whence also Baal, the idol, was called Baal-peor, which, they say, was the same as Priapus; the chief place of whose worship seems to have been Bamothbaal; of which also Josh. xiii. in the cities of Reuben; for which, Numb. xxii. 41. they read the high places of Baal, (for so the word signifieth,) to which place Balak first brought Balaam, to curse the Israelites.

m Numb. xxv. 1. Exod. xxv. 10. n Numb. xxxii. 37. Gen. xiv. 5. Numb. xxxii.

• Exod. xxiii. 13. Nomen deorum alienorum ne recordamini, ne audiatur in ore tuo. Psal. xvi. 4. Non assumpturus sum nomina eorum in

labeis meis. Hosea ii. 17. Amovebo nomina Bahalimorum ab ore ejus. What name they used for Nebo, it doth not appear; Baalmeon it seems they named sometime Baiith, as Isai. xv. 2. and sometime Bethmeon, Isai. lviii. 23.

§. 3.

Of divers places bordering Reuben, belonging to Midian, Moab, or Edom.

THERE were besides these divers places of note over Arnon, which adjoined to Reuben; among which they place Gallim, the city of Phalti, to whom P Saul gave his daughter Michal from David: but Junius thinks this town to be in Benjamin, gathering so much out of Isaiah x. 29. where it is named among the cities of Benjamin. With better reason, perhaps, out of Numb. xxi. 19. we may say, that Mathana and Nahaliel were in these confines of Reuben, through which places the Israelites passed, after they had left the well called Beer. Then Diblathaim, which the prophet 9 Jeremiah threatened with the rest of the cities of Moab.

Madian also is found in these parts, the chief city of the Madianites in Moab; but not that Midian, or Madian, by the Red sea, wherein Jethro inhabited for of the Madianites there were two nations, of which these of Moab became idolaters, and received an exceeding overthrow by a regiment of twelve thousand Israelites, sent by Moses out of the plains of Moab, at such time as Israel began to accompany their daughters. Their five kings, with Balaam the soothsayer, were then slain, and their regal city, with the rest, destroyed. The other Madianites, over whom Jethro was prince, or priest, forgat not the God of Abraham their ancestor, but relieved and assisted the Israelites in their painful travels through the deserts, and were in all that passage their guides. In the south border of Moab, adjoining to Edom, and sometime reckoned as the chief city of Edom, there is that Petra, which in the scriptures is called Selah, which is as much as Rupes or Petra. It was also called Jochtheel, as appears by the place, 2 Reg. xiv. It was built (saith Josephus) by Recem, one of those five kings of the Madianites, slain, as before is said; after whom it was called Recem. Now they say it is called Crae and Mozera.

The soldans of Egypt, for the exceeding strength there

PI Sam. xviii. 9 Jerem. xlviii.

r Isai. xvi. 1.
s Lib. 4. Ant. 7.

of, kept therein all their treasures of Egypt and Arabia; of which it is the first and strongest city; the same, perhaps, which Pliny and Strabo call Nabathea, whence also the province adjoining took name; which name seems to have been taken at first from Nabaioth, the son of Abraham by Keturah. For Nabathea is no where understood for all Arabia Petræa (at least where it is not misunderstood) but it is that province which neighboureth Judæa. For Pharan inhabited by Ismael, whose people Ptolomy calleth Pharanites, instead of Ismaelites, and all those territories of the Cusites, Madianites, Amalekites, Ismaelites, Edomites, or Idumeans, the lands of Moab, Ammon, Hus, Sin, and of Og king of Basan, were parts of Arabia Petræa; though it be also true, that some part of Arabia the Desert belonged to the Amalekites and Ismaelites: all which nations the scriptures in 1 Chron. v. calleth Hagarims, of Hagar.

This city Petra Scaurus besieged with the Roman army; and finding the place in show impregnable, he was content, by the persuasion of Antipater, to take a composition of money, and to quit it. Yet Amasias, king of Juda, (after he had slaughtered ten thousand of the Arabians in the valley called Salinarum), won also this city. St. Jerome finds Ruth the Moabite to be natural of this city. In the time when the Christians held the kingdom of u Jerusalem, it had a Latin bishop, having before been under the Greek church. It is seated not far from Hor, where Aaron died; and on the other side, towards the north, is the river of * Zared or Zered, by which Moses encamped in the thirtyeighth station. Adrichome describeth the waters of Memrim, or rather Nemrim, in his map of Reuben, not far hence, and between Zared and Arnon; and so he doth the valley of Save; but the waters of y Nimra, or Beth-Nimra, (for which it seems Adrichomius writ Nemrim,) refreshed the plains of Moab: and the confluence of those waters of

I Chron. v. 19, 20. "Gul. Tyr. 20. Bell. Sac. 3. * Numb. xxi. Deut. ii. 13.

y Numb. xxxii. 3. Josh. xiii. 27. Isai. xv. 21.

Nimra are in the tribe of Gad. Save also cannot be found in this place, that is, to the south of Arnon, and under Midian. For after Abraham returned from the pursuit of the Assyrian and Persian princes, the king of Sodom met him in the valley of Save, or Shaveh, which is the King's Dale, where Absalom set up his monument, as it seems, not far from Jerusalem. And at the same time Melchizedek, king of Salem, also encountered him. But Abraham coming from the north, and z Melchizedek inhabiting either near Bethsan, otherwise Scythopolis, in the half tribe of Manasseh, or in Jerusalem, (both places lying to the west of Jordan,) could not encounter each other in Arabia: and therefore Save, which was also called the King's Dale, could not be in these parts.

§. 4.

Of the Dead sea.

NOW, because the sea of Sodom, or the Dead sea, called also the lake of Asphaltitis, and the Salt sea, (in distinction from the sea of Tiberias, which was fresh water,) also the sea of the wilderness, or rather the sea a of the plains, is often remembered in the scriptures, and in this story also; therefore I think it not impertinent to speak somewhat thereof: for it is like unto the Caspian sea, which hath no outlet, or disburdening. The length of this lake Josephus makes 180 furlongs, (which make twenty-two miles and a half of ours,) and about 150 in breadth, which make eighteen of our miles, and somewhat more. Pliny makes it a great deal less. But those that have of late years seen this sea, did account it (saith b Weissenburg) eight Dutch miles (which is thirty-two of ours) in length, and two and a half of theirs (which is ten of ours) in breadth. Of this lake, or sea, Tacitus maketh this report; Lacus est immenso ambitu, specie maris, sapore corruptior, gravitate odoris accolis

z Gen. xiv.

a So Junius reads for the Hebrew, Haraboth every where, and so also the edition of Vatablus, Deut. iv. it hath mare solitudinis, as also 2 Kings xiv. 25. the reason of this name seems to be, because it joins to the plains

of Moab, which are called Harboth-
Moab, Deut. xxxiv. 1. as also we have
Cesuloth in Ḥarbath, that is in the
plains, to wit, of Zabulon, 1 Macc.
ix. 2. whence Adrichomius imagines
a city in Zabulon called Araba.
b Deser. Ter. Sancta.

pestifer: neque vento impellitur, neque pisces aut suetas aquis volucres patitur, incertum unde superjecta ut solido feruntur, periti imperitique nandi perinde attolluntur, &c. "That it is very great, and (as it were) a sea of à cor"rupt taste; of smell infectious, and pestilent to the bor"derers: it is neither moved nor raised by the wind, nor "endureth fish to live in it, or fowl to swim in it. Those "things that are cast into it, and the unskilful of swimming, well as the skilful, are borne up by this water. At one "time of the year it casteth up bitumen; the art of gather"ing which, experience (the finder of other things) hath "also taught. It is used in the trimming of ships, and the "like businesses."

66

as

And then of the land he speaketh in this sort: "The "fields not far from this lake, which were sometime fruit"ful, and adorned with great cities, were burnt with light"ning; of which the ruins remain, the ground looking "with a sad face, as having lost her fruitfulness: for whatsoever doth either grow, or is set thereon, be it fruits or "flowers, when they come to ripeness, have nothing within "them, but moulder into ashes." Thus far Tacitus. And it is found by experience, that those pomegranates, and other apples, or oranges, which do still grow on the banks of this cursed lake, do look fair, and are of good colour on the outside; but being cut, have nothing but dust within. Of the bitumen which this lake casteth up, it was by the Greeks called asphaltitis. Vespasian, desirous to be satisfied of these reports, went on purpose to see this lake, and caused certain captives to be cast into it, who were not only unskilful in swimming, but had their hands also bound behind them; and notwithstanding, they were carried on the face of the waters, and could not sink.

§. 5.

Of the kings of Moab, much of whose country within Arnon,

Reuben possessed.

OF the kings of Moab, whose country (within Arnon) Reuben possessed (though not taken from Moab, but from Sehon the Amorite) few are known. Junius in Numbers