northernmost part, and were seated in Phoenicia, I will begin with these three, taking Asher for the first; of which tribe yet before I speak, I must admonish the reader touching the names of places in this and the other tribes to be mentioned, that he remember that many names, by reason of the divers fancies of translators, are diversely expressed; so that to the unskilful they may seem diverse, when they are one and the same; the reason of this diversity (as by those learned in the Hebrew I am taught) is, partly, because the ancient editions of the Hebrew want vowels, the old translators imagined other vowels than now the Hebrew editions have; and partly, because the ancients expressed or omitted divers consonants, otherwise than the latter think fit.

SECT. III.

The tribe of Asher.
§. I.

The bounds of the tribe of Asher.

THE Asherites, descended of Asher, the son of Jacob by Zelpha, the handmaid of Lea, were increased while they abode in Egypt to the number of 41,500 and odd persons, all men above twenty years of age, and able to bear arms at the time when they were mustered by Moses at mount Sinai; all which number perishing in the deserts, there remained of their issues, besides women and children, 53,400 bodies fit for the wars, which passed the river of Arnon into the plains of Moab; and, after the conquest of Canaan, had for their portion that part of Phoenicia, from Zidon and the fields of Libanus, unto Ptolomais Acon along the sea-coast, containing thirty English miles, or thereabouts; and from the midland sea to the east border, some twelve miles; though Antoninus makes it somewhat larger. This part of Canaan was very fruitful, abounding in wine, oil, and wheat, besides the balsamum, with other pleasant and profitable commodities; according to that prophesy, Asser pinguis panis; concerning Asher, his bread shall be fat; and he shall give pleasures for a king.

k

§. 2.

Of Zidon.

THE first city seated on the north border of the territory of Asher was Zidon, which Joshua calleth the great Zidon, both for strength and magnitude. The Greeks and Q. Curtius make Agenor the founder thereof; and m Justin derives the name from the abundance of fish found on those shores; whereof it hath been called Zidona. But that it was far more ancient, n Moses, Joshua, and Josephus witness, the same being founded by Zidon, the eldest of Canaan's sons; and so strong it was in Joshua's time, as neither did himself attempt it, neither could the Asserites, or any of their successors, master it ; but it continued all the time of the judges and kings, even unto the coming of Christ, a city interchangeably governed by their own princes or other magistrates; though, according to the warnings and threats of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremy, Ezekiel, and Zachary, it was often afflicted, both by the enemies sword and by the pestilence.

Zidon is seated on the very wash of the Phoenician sea, which is a part of the Mediterranean or midland sea. It hath to the north the city of Berythus and the river Leontis; and to the south, Sarepta or Sarphat, which standeth between it and Tyre; the distance between which two great and famous cities, to wit, Zidon and Tyre, is 14,000 paces, saith P Seiglerus; but Vadianus makes it 200 furlongs, and so doth Weissinbury, in his description of the Holy Land, both from Strabo; which 200 furlongs make twenty-five miles. This difference of distance, as well between these two known cities, as all the rest, make it over-difficult to devise any new scale to the map and description of the Holy Land.

What kings it had till Agenor's time, there is no memory; the story which Zeno the philosopher, who was a Zidonian, wrote thereof, being by time consumed and lost. It seemeth to be more ancient than Tyre, which was also

m Justin. 1. 18.

n Gen. x. Joseph.

• Isa. xxiii. Jer. xlvii. Ezek. xxviii.

and xxxii, Zach. ix.

P Palaest. Seig. f. 19. Vadian. Phoen. f. 278. Strab. 1. 16.

r

built by the Zidonians. For as 9 Strabo noteth, Homer, speaking of Zidon, neglecteth the memory of Tyre, because it was but a member of Zidon, and a city subject to the kings thereof; though it be true, that in after-times it contended with Zidon for primacy, and became far more renowned, opulent, and strong. From Zidon had Solomon and Zorobabel their principal workmen, both in timber and stone, for the building of the temple. For as it flourished in all sorts of learning, so did it in all other mechanical arts and trades; the prophet Zachary calling them the wise Zidonians The city was, both by nature and art, exceeding strong, having a castle or citadel on the north side, standing upon an unaccessible rock, and compassed by the sea; which, after the citizens became Christians, was held and defended by the knights of the Dutch order: and another castle it hath on the south side, by the port of Egypt, which the Templars guarded. It also sent many other colonies, besides that of Tyre, into places remote; as unto Thebes and Sephyra, cities of Boeotia in Greece.

t

Strabo and s Pliny give the Zidonians the invention of glass, which they used to make of those sands which are taken out of the river Belus, falling into the Mediterranean sea, near Ptolomais or Acon; and from whence the Venetians fetch the matter of those clear glasses which they make at Murana; of which St. Jerome and Pliny: Zidon insignis artifex vitri, Zidon vitrariis officinis nobilis; "Zidon a "famous glass-maker, or a skilful worker in glass-houses.”

They were in religion idolaters, (as the rest of the Canaanites,) worshippers of Baal and u Astaroth; which idols,

Strab. 1. 16.

r Zach. ix. 2.

• Plin. 1. 5. c. 9.

It seems that even in Joshua's time they practised glass-making; whence Junius for misbrephoth maiim, which, ad verbum, is as much as combustiones aquarum, reads fornaces vitrarias, Josh. xi. 8. as it seems, because these furnaces were where there was store of water, either for the moving of the bellows by the force

of the water, or for other necessary uses. But there are others that take them for salt-pits, and others again for hot-baths.

The form of Astoreth (or Astarte) seemeth to have been a sheep; for, Deut. vii. 13. the word in the plural number signifieth sheep; and this may confirm Augustine's opinion, that Astarte was Juno; for the form of her husband, Jupiter Hammon, was a ram.

RALEGH, HIST. WORLD. VOL. II.

:

though common to the other of the issue of Canaan, (as Pineda gathers out of 1 Sam. xxxi. 10. and Judges x. 6.) yet especially and peculiarly were accounted the gods of the Zidonians; as appears 1 Kings xi. 5. in the story of Solomon's idolatry, where Astaroth is called the god of the Zidonians; and 1 Kings xvi. 33. in the story of Achab, the chief worshipper of Baal, where it is said, that he, marrying Jezabel, the daughter of the king of the Zidonians, worshipped their Baal. Divers Baals, and divers Astaroths, in their idolatries they acknowledged, as it appears by the plural names of Baalim and Astaroth, 1 Sam. xii. 10. and elsewhere for even the name Astaroth, as I am informed by a skilful Hebrician, is plural; the singular being Astoreth: whence, Judges ii. 13, the Septuagint read éλάrpevσav Taïs άoтápтas; "they worshipped the Astartes." The occasion of this their multiplying of their Baals and Astoreths may be diversely understood; either in respect of the diversity of the forms of the images, or of the worship in divers places, or of the stories depending upon them, which (as fables use to be) were doubtless in divers cities diverse. Augustine, Quæst. 16. in Judg. thinks Baal and Astarte to be Jupiter and Juno. For the Carthaginians (which were Tyrians) call Juno by some such name as Astarte. Tull. 1. 3. de Nat. Deorum, making divers goddesses of the name of Venus, expounds the fourth to be Astarte; whom he makes to be born of Tyrus and Syria, and to have been the wife of Adonis. As also Macrob. 2. Saturn. cap. 21. says, that Adonis was with great veneration commonly worshipped of the Assyrians. And Jerome, upon Ezekiel viii. 44. notes, that Thammuz (whom there the idolatrous women are noted to bewail) is the name of Adonis among the Syrians. So that it may seem, that in the worship of Astarte, or Venus, they did bewail her husband Adonis: as also the Grecians did in their songs of Adonis, x " Mourn for Adonis the fair, dead "is Adonis the fair!" Howbeit, others in that place of Ezekiel, not without good probability, expound the mourning for Thammuz to be the mourning for Osiris, in the

* Κλαίετε καλὸν Αδωνιν.

sacrifices of Isis; whose loss of her husband Osiris was as famous, in the Egyptian idolatry, as, with the Grecians, Venus's loss of Adonis. And to this agreeth that which Plutarch hath, de Iside et Osiride; that Osiris with the Egyptians is called Ammuz; which word may seem to be the same with Ezekiel's Thammuz. But howsoever these Zidonians were thus anciently fostered with the milk of idolatry, yet they were more apt to receive the doctrine and gospel of Christ, after his ascension, than the Jews, who had been taught by Moses and the prophets so many years; whereof our Saviour, in Matthew and Luke; y Woe be to thee, Chorazin! &c. for if the great works, which were done in thee, had been done in Tyrus and Zidon, they had repented long agone, &c. But I say unto you, It shall be easier for Tyrus and Zidon at the day of judgment, than for you.

It received a Christian bishop with the first, who was afterwards of the diocese of Tyre. But in the year of our redemption 636, it fell into the hands of the Saracens, and continued in their possession till Baldwinus the First, then king of Jerusalem, in the year 1111. by the help of the Danes and Norways, who came with a fleet to visit the Holy Land, and took port at z Joppa, it was again recovered, the commandment thereof being given to Eustace Gremer, a nobleman of that country. And again, in the year 1250, it was re-edified and strengthened by Lodowick, the French king, while he spent four years in the war of the Holy Land. a Lastly, in the year 1289, it was reconquered by the Saracens; and is now in possession of the Turk, and hath the name of Zai.

§. 3.

Of Sarepta, with a brief history of Tyre in the same coast. SAREPTA, or, after the Hebrew, Sarphath, is the next city southward from Zidon, between it and the river called Naar, or Fons hortorum Libani, (of which more hereafter,)

y Matth. xi. 21, 22.

2

Tyr.11.Bell. Sacr.14.Vitriac.c.27.

a

Niger Postellus.

飛