encountered Achab, and were overthrown and slaughtered: to whom the king of Israel made a most memorable answer, when Benhadad vaunted before the victory; which was, Tell Benhadad, Let not him that girdeth his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off; meaning, that glory followed after victory, but ought not to precede it. In the year following, in the fields, as they say, adjoining to this city, was the same vainglorious Syrian utterly broken and discomfited by Achab, and 100,000 footmen of the Aramites, or Syrians, slain: before which overthrow, the servants and counsellors of Benhadad (in derision of the God of Israel) told him, 1 That the gods of Israel were gods of the mountains; and therefore if they fought with them in the plains, they should overcome them.

Under Aphec, towards the sea, they set the city of Esdrelon, in the plains of Galilee, called also the great field of Esdrelon and Maggedo; in the border whereof are the ruins of Aphec to be seen, saith Brochard and Breidenbach. After these are the cities of m Casaloth, of which 1 Macc. ix. 2. Anem, or Hen-Gannim, of the Levites; and Seesima, or Shahatsima, the west border of Issachar, of which Josh. xix. 22. From hence, ranging the sea-coast, there is found the Castle of Pilgrims; a strong castle, environed with the sea, sometime the storehouse and magazine of the Christians, and built by the earl of St. Giles, or Tolouse.

From the Castle of Pilgrims, the sea maketh a great bay towards the north, and the furthermost shore beginneth mount Carmel, not far from the river Chison, where Elijah assembled all the prophets and priests of Baal, and prayed king Achab, and the people assembled, to make trial, whether the God of Israel or the idol of Baal were to be worshipped, by laying a sacrifice without fire on the altar; which done, the priests of Baal prayed, and cut their own flesh after their manner, but the fire kindled not; while Elijah in derision told them, that their god was either in pursuit of his enemies,not at leisure, or perchance asleep, &c.

1 1 Kings xx. 23.

m Judith i. 8. and vii. 3. 1 Chron. vi. 73. Josh. xxi. 29.

But at the prayer of Elijah his fire kindled, notwithstanding that he had caused the people to cast many vessels of water thereon, by which miracle the people incensed slew all those idolaters on the banks of Chison adjoining.

At the foot of this mountain, to the north, standeth Caiphas, built, as they say, by Caiphas the high priest. It is also known by the name of Porsina and Porphyria, sometime a suffragan bishop's seat. Returning again from the sea-coast, towards Tiberias, by the banks of Chison, there are found the city of Hapharaim, or Aphraim, and the castles of Mesra and Saba, of which Brochard and Breidenbach; and then Naim on the river Chison, a beautiful city while it stood, in the gates whereof Christ n raised from death the widow's only son.

Then Seon, or Shion, named Josh. xix. between the two hills of Hermon, in Issachar; beyond it standeth Endor, famous by reason of the enchantress that undertook to raise up the body of Samuel at the instigation of Saul.

Beyond it stands Anaharath and Rabbith, named Josh. xix. 19, 20. Then Dabarath, as it is named Josh. xxi. 28. or Dobratha, as it is named 1 Chron. vi. 72. This city (which stretcheth itself over Chison) was a city of refuge belonging to the Levites.

Next to Dabarath is Arbela situate, near the caves of those two thieves which so greatly molested Galilee in Herod's time. It joineth on one side to the mountain of Issachar or Hermon, and on the other to the valley of Jezreel; which valley continueth itself from Bethsan, or Scythopolis, the east border of Issachar, even to the Mediterranean sea; two parts whereof are enclosed by the mountains of Gilboa on the south, and by Hermon and the river Chison on the north. In these plains Gideon overthrew the Madianites, and herein, they think, Saul fought against the Philistines, Achab against the Syrians, and the Tartars against the Saracens.

n Luke vii.

• Called Campus Magnus, 1 Maccab. xii. 49. and Harbathæ for Hara

bath. 1 Macc. v. 23. and ix. 2. Judg. vi. 1 Sam. xxxi. Į Kings xx.

SECT. VII.

The half of the tribe of Manasseh.

§. I.

Of the bounds of this half tribe, and of Scythopolis, Salem, Thersa, and others.

THE next tribe which joineth itself to Issachar, towards the south, is the half of Manasseh, on the west side of Jordan. Manasses was the first begotten of Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob. His mother was an Egyptian, the daughter of Putiphar, priest and prince of Heliopolis; which Manasses, with his brother Ephraim, the grandchildren of Jacob, were by adoption numbered amongst the sons of Jacob, and made up the number of the twelve patriarchs.

Of Manasseh, there were increased in Egypt, as they were numbered at mount Sinai, 32,200 able men; all which being consumed in the deserts, there entered of their issues 52,700 bearing arms. The territory, which fell to this one half of Manasseh, was bounded by Jordan on the east, and Dora upon the Mediterranean sea on the west, Jezrael on the north, and Machmata is the south border.

The first and principal city which stood in this territory was Bethsan, sometime P Nysa, saith Pliny, built by Liber Pater, in honour of his nurse there buried, of the same name, which Solinus confirms. Afterwards, when the Scythians invaded Asia the Less, and pierced into the south to the uttermost of Colesyria, they built this city anew, and very magnificent; and it had thereupon the name of Scythopolis, or the city of Scythians, given it by the Greeks.

These barbarous northern people constrained the Jews to fight against their own nation and kindred, by whose hands when they had obtained victory, they themselves set on the Jews which served them, and slew them all. Stephanus makes it the utmost towards the south of Colesyria, and Strabo joins it to Galilee. It is seated between Jordan and the hills of Gilboa, In Aulone ad montes Acrabitenc, saith Ziegler. But I find it in the east part of the valley r`Plin. lib. 5. c. 18.

of Jezrael near Jordan; after that, Jordan straighteneth itself again into a river, leaving the sea or lake Genezareth. Notwithstanding Montanus describes it far to the west, and towards the Mediterranean sea, near Endor, contrary to Stella, Laicstan, Adrichome, and all other the best authors. This city was the greatest of all those of Decapolis; but the children of Manasseh could not expel the inhabitants thereof, and therefore called it Sane, an enemy, or Beth-san, the house of an enemy.

Over the walls of this 4 Beth-san, the Philistines hung the body of Saul and his sons, slain at Gilboa. It had, while the Christian religion flourished in those parts, an archbishop, who had nine other bishops of his diocese numbered by Tyrius, in lib. 14. c. 12. but the same was afterwards translated to Nazareth. The later travellers in those parts affirm, that there is daily taken out among the rubble and the ruins of that city goodly pillars, and other pieces of excellent marble, which witness the stately buildings and magnificence which it had in elder times, but it is now a poor and desolate village.

r

From Beth-san, keeping the way by Jordan, they find an ancient city called Salem; which city, the ancient rabbins, saith Jerome, do not find to be the same with Jerusalem; there being, in the time of Jerome, and since, a town of that name near Scythopolis before remembered; which, if the place of scripture, Gen. xiii. 18. do not confirm, where the Vulgar readeth Transivitque in Salem urbem Sichemorum, (for which others read, Venit incolumis ad civitatem Sechemûm, making the word Shaelem not to be a proper name, but an adjective,) yet the place, John iii. 23. where it is said, that John was baptizing in Ænon near Saleim, may somewhat strengthen this opinion, and yet it is not unlikely that this Saleim, of which St. John speaketh, is but contracted of Shahalim, of which in the tribe of Benjamin, 1 Sam. ix. 4. This word Junius maketh to be the plural of Shuhal, of which we read, 1 Sam. xiii. 17. for as for that which is

Judg. i. Josh. xvii. de Bell. Sac.

Hieron. in Epist. ad Evagr. et in Loc. Hebr.

added out of Cant. vi. 12. of Shulammitis, as if it had been as much as a woman of this Saleim near Ænon, it hath no probability.

Not far from thence, where they place Salem, they find s Bezek, the city of Adonibezek; Josephus calls it Bala : here it was that Saul assembled the strength of Israel and Juda, to the number of 330,000, when he meant to relieve Jabesh-Gilead, against Naash the Ammonite, who would give them no other conditions of peace, than to suffer their right eyes to be thrust out. Near Bezek, is the city of Bethbera, or rather Beth-bara, of which Judg. vii. 24. in the story of Gideon; and then Ephra, or Hophra, wherein Gideon inhabited; in the border whereof stood an altar consecrated to Baal, which he pulled down and defaced; and near it that stone on which Abimelec the bastard slew his seventy brothers, (an heathenish cruelty, practised by the Turks to this day ;) and not far hence, between the village of Asophon and Jordan, Ptolomæus Lathurus overthrew Alexander king of the Jews, and slaughtered, as Josephus numbereth them, 3000; but according to Timagenes 5,000 : after which victory, as Ptolomy passed by the villages of the Jews, he slew all their women, and caused the young children to be sod in great caldrons, that the rest of the Jews might thereby think that the Egyptians were grown to be men-eaters, and strike them with the greater

t

terror.

Towards the west, and on the border of Issachar, they place the cities of " Aner of the Levites, and Abel-Mehola, which Junius, Judg. vii. 22. placeth in Ephraim; it was the habitation of Helisæus the prophet, numbered among those places, 1 Reg. iv. 12. which were given in charge to Baana by Solomon; to whose charge also Tahanac belonged, a place of great strength, which at the first resisted

. This city Bezek, by the place Judg. i. 3. seemeth to have been in Judah, Joseph. Ant. lib. 6. c. 5. 1 Sam. xi.

t Joseph. Ant. 1. 13. C. 21.
"This Aner, Junius upon 1 Chron.

vi. 70. makes to be the same with Tahanac, of which Josh. xxi. 25. Jerome names it from Aner the confederate of Abraham, Gen. xiv. 13. Josh. xii. 17. 1 Kings xiv.