transferred to Damascus, a city better fitting their greatness. After, Rezin became lord of both principalities: and the race of these kings of Syria, (which became so potent, and joined Soba, Damascus, Emath, and the desert of Arabia, with other provinces, into one, under Rezin the second of the Adads,) as it began with David, so it ended at once with the kingdom of Israel. For Ahaz, king of Juda, waged the Assyrian Teglatphalassar against Pekah, king of Israel, and against Rezin, the last king of Damascus ; which Teglath first invaded Damascena, and the region of Soba, and took Damascus itself; and did put to death Rezin the last, carrying the inhabitants captive. This was the second time that the Assyrians attempted Israel: for first Phul Belochus entered the borders thereof, (Menahem governing Israel,) who stopped the enterprise of Phul with a thousand talents of silver; for this Phul Belochus, whose pedigree we will examine hereafter, being scarce warm as yet in his seat at Babylon, which he, with the help of his companion Arbaces, had wrested from Sardanapalus, having besides this king of Syria in his way, who seemed to be a great and strong prince, was content to take the composition of a thousand talents of the king of Israel, for that present time. But his son Teglath, following the purpose of his father Belochus, and finding so excellent an occasion as the war begun between Israel and Juda, Pekah commanding in the one, and Achaz in the other, his neighbour Rezin being also wrapt in that war, and wasted in strength thereby, did willingly accept the offer of Achaz king of Juda, his imprest and entertainment. So first attempting Damascus, which lay in his path towards Israel, he carried it, (as is before remembered,) and then with great ease possessed himself of the cities of Nephthalim, leading with him a great part of the people captive. And his son Salmanassar, whom Ptolomy calleth Nabonassar, after the revolt of Hosea, forced Samaria, and rent that kingdom asunder. So as the line and race of Ninus in Sardanapalus, whom Belochus supplanted; the race and monarchy of the Syrian Adads in Rezin, whom Teglath slaughtered; the kingdom of Israel in Ho

sea, whom Salmanassar overturned, happened near about a time; that of Ninus in the days of Belochus, and the other two in the days of Teglatphalassar and Salmanassar his son. For Sardanapalus perished, Osia ruling Juda; and the other two kingdoms were dissolved, Achaz yet living.

Lastly, The kingdom of Juda itself being attempted by Sennacherib, the son of Salmanassar, in vain, and preserved for the time by God miraculously, was at length utterly overturned: Jerusalem and the temple burnt, an hundred and thirty-two years after the captivity of Israel and Samaria; the destruction of Israel being in the ninth year of Hosea; that of Juda in the eleventh of Zedekiah. Now the emperors of Assyria and Babylon held also the kingdom of Syria, from the eighth year of Salmanassar to the last of Baltassar, whom Herodotus calleth Labynitus; in all about two hundred years. After these the Persians, from Cyrus to Darius their last king, held Syria about two hundred years.

Then Alexander Macedon took this among other provinces of the Persian empire; and his successors the Seleucidæ reigned therein, till it became subject unto the power of the Romans, from whom it was wrested long after by the Saracens, and remaineth now in possession of the Turk, as shall be shewed in due place. Thus much of the nations bordering upon the Israelites, with whom they had most to do, both in war and peace, being the only people whose history in those ancient times carried an assured face of truth.

CHAP. XII.

Of the tribe of Benjamin, and of Jerusalem.

SECT. I.

Of divers memorable places in the tribe of Benjamin, whereof Jericho, Gilgal, Mitspah, Bethel, Rama, Gobah, and Gibha.

OF the tribe of Benjamin, the twelfth and youngest son of Jacob, whom he had by Rachel, there were mustered at

mount Sinai 35,000 able bodies; all which perishing in the deserts, there entered the Holy Land of their issues 45,600 fit to bear arms; and these had their territory on this side Jordan, between Juda and Ephraim. The cities within this tribe, nearest Jordan, are Lod, Hadid, and Ono; of which Lod and Ono were built by Shemed, a Benjamite, 1 Chron. viii. 12.; they were all three reinhabited with Benjamites after the return out of captivity, as is mentioned, Nehem. xi. 35. and Esdras ii. 35. where Adrichomius reading Lod, Hadid, Ono, makes besides Hadid in Nehemiah, a city called Lodhadid. This Hadid, or Chadid, was rebuilt by Simon Maccabæus, 1 Mac. xii. 38.

Samarim, or Tsemaraim, named of Tsemary, one of the sons of Canaan, was another of their cities; and further into the land standeth Jericho, one of the toparchies, and the last of Juda; seated in a most fruitful valley, adorned with many palm trees, and therefore elsewhere called the city of Palms, 2 Chron. xxviii. 15. From the time of h Joshua, who utterly destroyed it, it lay waste until the time of Achab; in whose days Chiel of Bethel laid the new foundation of it in the loss of Abiram his eldest son, and built the gates of it in the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the curse of Joshua, in which, and other respects, Hosea xii. 14. calleth Joshua a prophet. In after-times it was destroyed by Vespasian, and rebuilt by Adrian.

To the south-east of Jericho stood i Halmon of the Levites, of which Josh. xxi. 18. to the south, Bethabara, of which Josh. xv. and xviii.; then that Gilgal, of which there is so much mention in the scripture, where Joshua first eat of the fruits of the land, circumcised all those born in the deserts, and celebrated the passover.

The reason of the name, or rather a memorable application of the etymology of this name, (for it seems by the place, Deut. xi. 30. that the name was known before the coming of the Israelites into Canaan,) is noted Josh. v. 9.

h Josh. vi. 29.

i 1 Chron. vi. 60. This Halmon is called Halemeth, whence they make

a new city Almath, as if this tribe had given five cities to the Levites.

Ob devolutionem probri Ægyptiaci, because their foreskins (the people being there circumcised) were tumbled down the hill; which from thence was called Collis præputiorum. This Gilgal was also called Geliloth, as appears by comparing the places, Josh. xv. 7. and xviii. 17: for it was in the borders of Jordan, of which Josh. xxii. 13; and Geliloth signifieth borders. It stood (though in some distance) directly eastward, over against the two hills Garizim and Hebal, Deut. xi. 29; upon the one of which the blessings, and on the other the cursings were to be read to the people, both being the mountains of Ephraim. Further, for the situation of this Gilgal, it is to be noted, that both it and Mitspah of Benjamin (of which also we read oft in the scripture) were seated about the midst of the length of the land of Canaan; for which reason k Samuel chose these two places, to either of which he came yearly to give judgment to the Israelites; of which two, Gilgal (as is said) was near Jordan on the east side of this tribe, and Mitspah near the west sea, towards the land of the Philistines.

The third place which is named with these two, whither also Samuel used yearly to come, is 1 Bethel; which also was seated in this tribe of Benjamin. But to return to Gilgal, which was the first place where the ark resided after they passed over Jordan, (from whence it was carried to Silo, and thence to Kirjath-jeharim, and at length to Jerusalem;) here in Gilgal it was that Joshua pitched up the twelve stones which were taken out of the channel of Jordan when it was dry, that the Israelites might pass over it; by which story, as it is set down Josh. iv., it appears, that the same day that they passed over Jordan they lodged at Gilgal. At the same Gilgal, to omit many other memorable

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 Bethcar, 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.