lest he would give attempt to overthrow that beautiful temple. This also Marcellinus reports, who though he says that this Georgius was also deadly hated of the Christians, who else might have rescued him; yet he addeth, that his ashes, with the ashes of two others, were therefore cast into the sea, lest if their relicks had been gathered up, churches should be built for them, as for others. But for my part, I rather think that it was not this Georgius, whose name lives in the right honourable order of our knights of the garter, but rather another, whom Tyrius, above cited, witnesseth to have been buried at Lidda, or Diospolis. The same also is confirmed by 4 Vitriac. St. Jerome affirms, that it was sometimes called Tigrida; and while the Christians inhabited the Holy Land, it had a bishop suffragan.

Near to Lydda, or Diospolis, standeth Ramatha of the Levites, or Aramathia; afterward Rama and Ramula, the native city of Joseph, which buried the body of Christ. There are many places which bear this name of Rama; one they set in the tribe of Judah near Thecua, in the way of Hebron; another in Nephtalim, not far from Sephet; a third in Zabulon, which, they say, adjoineth to Sephoris; a fourth, which they make the same with Silo; and a fifth, which is this Rama, in the hills of Ephraim, called RamaSophim, where Samuel lived, and wherein he is buried.

S

From hence to the north, along the coast, are Helon, or Ajalon of the Levites, of which 1 Chron. vi. Apollonia, of which Josephus in his Antiquities, and in the Wars of the Jews. Also Balsalisa (for which Junius, 2 Kings iv. 42. reads Planities Shaliste) they place hereabout in this tribe of Ephraim; but Junius, upon 1 Sam. ix. where we read of the land of Shalisha, findeth it in Benjamin.

On the other side of the mountains of Ephraim standeth Gofna, one of the toparchies or cities of government, the second in dignity, of which the country about it taketh

name.

Salig. tom. 6. c. 4.
See in the tribe of Benjamin,

C. 12. §. I.

Ant. 13. 21. de Bell. Jud. 1. 6.

Then Thamnath-sara, or, according to the Hebrew, Thimnath-serach, one also of the ten toparchies or presidencies of Judæa, which they call Thamnitica, a goodly city and strong, seated on one of the high hills of Ephraim, on the north of the hill called Gaas; which city and territory Israel gave unto their leader Joshua, who also amplified it with buildings, near which he was buried. His sepulchre remained in "St. Jerome's time, and over it the sun engraven, in memory of that greatest of wonders which God wrought in Joshua's time.

In the places adjoining standeth Adarsa, or Adasa, where * Judas Maccabæus, with 3000 Jews, overthrew the army of Nicanor, lieutenant of Syria, near to Gaser, or Gezer, which Joshua took, and hung their king, a city of the Levites. It was afterwards taken by Pharaoh of Egypt, the people all slain, and the city razed: Solomon rebuilt it.

To the east of this place is the frontier city of Jefleti, of which Josh. xvi. 3. otherwise Pelethi, whence David had part of his pretorian soldiers, under the charge of Benaia. Then that high and famous mountain and city of Silo, whereon the ark of God was kept so many years, till the Philistines got it.

To this they join the city of y Machmas, or Michmas, in which Jonathan Maccabæus inhabited, a place often remembered in the scriptures. It standeth in the common way from Samaria towards Jerusalem, and is now called Byra.

Then the village of Naioth, where Saul prophesied; and near it 2 Ephron, one of those cities which Abijah recovered from Jeroboam, after the great overthrow given him. Then Kibtsaim of the Levites, of which Josh. xxi. 22. which Junius thinks to be the same with Jokmeham, of which 1 Chron. vi. 68. As for Absalom's Baal-hazor, which they find hereabout, Junius reads it the plain of Chatzor, and finds it in the tribe of Judah; as Joshua xv. we read of two Chaty See in Benjamin. 1 Macc. ix.

Judg. ii. 9. it is called ThimnathChores, Josh. xix. 50. "Hieron. in loc. Heb.

* Macc. vii. 40.

v. ult.

21 Kings iv. And see Rama in Benjamin.

zors in that tribe, one near Kadesh, ver. 23. and the other the same as Chetzron, ver. 25. towards Jordan.

In this tribe also they find the city of Mello, whose citizens, they say, joined with the Sichemites in making the bastard Abimelech king; adding, that for the building thereof, with other cities, Solomon raised a tribute upon the people. But it seems that Mello, or a Millo, is a common name of a strong fort or citadel; and so Junius, for domus Millo, reads incolæ munitionis; and for Salomo ædificabat Millo, he reads ædificabat munitionem; and so the Septuagint read Taxpav in that place. And without doubt the Millo which Solomon built cannot be that of Sichem, but another in Jerusalem.

The other cities of mark in Ephraim are Taphuach, whose king was slain by Joshua; and Janoach, or Janoah, spoiled by Teglatphalassar; Pekah then governing Israel, with divers others, but of no great fame.

The mountains of Ephraim sometimes signify the greatest part of the land of the sons of Joseph, on the west of Jordan, several parts whereof are the hill of Samron, or Samaria, 1 Reg. xvi. 24. the hill of Gahas, Judg. ii. 9. the hill of Tsalmon, or Salmon, Judg. ix. 48. the hills of the region of Tsuph, or Tsophim, Judg. ix. 5. where RamaTsophim stood, which was the city of Samuel.

The great plenty of fruitful vines upon the sides of these mountains was the occasion that Jacob, in the spirit of prophecy, Gen. xlix. 22. compared Joseph's two branches, Ephraim and Manasseh, to the branches of a fruitful vine planted by the well side, and spreading her daughter-branches along the wall: which allegory also Ezek. xxii. in his lamentation for Ephraim (that is, for the ten tribes, whose

a

Judg. ix. 6, 20. 1 Reg. xi. 27. Vatablus expounds Millo in this place, Locum publicum necessarium civibus Hierosolymitanis atque Israelitis. 2 Kings xv. 29. Josh. xvii. 15, 16.

b Also the hill of Phinehas, where Eleazar the high priest, the son of Aaron, was buried, Josh. xxiv. 33. And the two tops of hills, Gerizzim, where the blessings, and Hebal, where

the cursings were to be read to the people; of which Deut. xi. and xxvii. Josh. viii.

c It seemeth that Jacob in this prophecy the rather useth the word daughters for branches, thereby the more plainly to signify colonies; which in the Hebrew phrase are called daughters of the metropolis, as in Joshua and elsewhere often.

head was Ephraim) prosecutes; as also in his lamentation for Judah he followeth the other allegory of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 9. comparing Judah to a lion. Upon the top of one of the highest of these hills of Ephraim, which overlooketh all the plains on both sides of Jordan, they find the castle called Dok, which they make to be the same with Dagon, of which Joseph. 1. Bell. Jud. c. 2. in which castle, as it is 1 Mac. xvi. Ptolemy most traitorously, at a banquet, slew Simon Maccabæus his father-in-law.

Among the rivers of this tribe of Ephraim they name Gaas, remembered in 2 Sam. xxiii. 30. where, though Junius reads Hiddai ex una vallium Gahasi, yet the Vulgar and Vatablus read Giddai, of the river of Gaas. Also in this tribe they place the river of Carith, by which the prophet Elias abode during the great drought, where he was d fed by the ravens; and after that the river was dried up, he travelled (by the Spirit of God guided) towards Sidon, where he was relieved by the poor widow of Zarepta, whose dead son he revived, and increased her pittance of meal and oil, whereby she sustained her life.

SECT. II.

Of the kings of the ten tribes, from Jeroboam to Achab.

OF the first kings of Israel I omit in this place to speak, and reserve it to the catalogue of the kings of Judah; of whom hereafter.

Touching the acts of the kings of the ten tribes, but briefly, beginning after the division from Judah and Benjamin, now it followeth to speak. The first of these kings was Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, who being a man of strength and courage, was by Solomon made overseer of the buildings of the Millo, or munition in Jerusalem, for as much as belonged to the charge of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and so many of them as wrought in those works. During which time, as he went from Jerusalem, he encountered the prophet Ahijah, who made him know that he was by God destined to be king of

di Reg. xvii. 5.

Israel, and to command ten of the twelve tribes. After this, fearing that those things might come to Solomon's knowledge, he fled into Egypt to Shishak, whom Eusebius calleth Osochores, whose daughter he married; the predecessor of which Shishak (if not the same) did likewise entertain Adad the Idumean, when he was carried young into Egypt, from the fury of David and his captain Joab, which Adad the king of Egypt married to his wife's sister Taphnes, using both him and Jeroboam as instruments to shake the kingdom of Judæa, that himself might the easilier spoil it, as he did; for in the fifth year of Rehoboam, e Shishak sacked the city of Jerusalem, and carried thence all the treasure of David and Solomon, and all the spoils which David took from Adadezer of Soba, with the presents of Tohu king of Hamath, which were of an inestimable value.

е

This Jeroboam, after the death of Solomon, became lord of the ten tribes; and though he were permitted by God to govern the Israelites, and from a mean man exalted to that state, yet preferring the policies of the world before the service and honour of God, (as fearing that if the tribes under his rule should repair to Jerusalem, to do their usual sacrifices, they might be drawn from him by degrees,) he erected two golden calves, one in Dan, and another in Bethel, for the people to worship; (an imitation of the Egyptian Apis, saith f St. Ambrose, or rather of Aaron's calf in Horeb ;) further, he made election of his priests out of the basest and unlearned people. This king made his chief seat and palace at Sichem he despised the warning of the Judean prophet, whom Josephus calleth Adon, and Glycas, Joel; his hand thereafter withered, and was again restored: but continuing in his idolatry, and hardened upon occasion that the prophet returning was slain by a lion, Ahijah makes him know that God purposed to root out his posterity.

:

He was afterwards overthrown by 8 Abia king of Judah, and died after he had governed twenty-two years, whom Nadab his son succeeded; who, in the second year of his reign, together with all the race of Jeroboam, was slain, 81 Kings xi. 12-15.

1 Reg. xiv.

Ambrose on Rom. i.