For Israel fled not that way, but back again to the camp, which lay to the south of i Edumæa, in the desert.

The same places also name Beersheba in this tribe; so called of the oath between Abraham and Abimelech; near unto which Hagar wandered with her son Ishmael.

It was also called the city of Isaac, because he dwelt long there.

While the Christians held the Holy Land, they laboured much to strengthen this place, standing on the border of the Arabian desert, and in the south bound of Canaan. It hath now the name of Gibelin.

The other cities of Simeon, which are named in the places of Joshua and of the Chronicles above noted, because they help us nothing in story, I omit them.

In the time of Ezekiah king of Juda, certain of this tribe being straitened in their own territories, passed to 1Gedor, as it is 1 Chron. iv. 39. (the same place which Josh. xv. 36. is called Gedera and Gederothaima,) which at that time was inhabited by the issue of Cham, where they seated themselves; as also 500 others of this tribe destroyed the relics of Amalek in the mountains of Edom, and dwelt in their places.

The mountains within this tribe are few, and that of Samson the chiefest; unto which he carried the gate-post of Gaza. The rivers are Besor and the torrent of Egypt called Shichar, as is noted in Asser.

SECT. III.

The tribe of Juda.

OF Juda, the fourth son of Jacob by Leah, there were multiplied in Egypt 74,600; all which (Caleb excepted) perished in the deserts. And of their sons, their entered the land of Canaan 76,500 bearing arms. Agreeable to the greatness of this number was the greatest territory given, called afterwards Judæa; within the bounds whereof were the portions allotted to Dan and Simeon included.

i Deut. i.

* Gen. xxi. 31.

As it seems in the land of Juda.

See in the first paragraph of this chapter, in the cities of Dan. Judg. xvi. 3.

And many cities named in these tribes did first, as they say, belong unto the children of Juda, who had a kind of sovereignty over them; as Succoth, Cariathiarim, Lachis, Bethsemes, Tsiglag, Beersheba, and others.

The multitude of people within this small province (if it be meted by that ground given to this tribe only) were uncredible, if the witness of the scriptures had not warranted the report. For when David numbered the people, they were found 500,000 fighting men.

The cities of Juda were many: but I will remember the chiefest of them, beginning with Arad, or Horma, which standeth in the entrance of Judæa from Idumæa; whose king first surprised the Israelites, as they passed by the border of m Canaan towards Moab, and took from them some spoils and many prisoners; who being afterwards overthrown by the Israelites, the sons of Keni, the kinsmen of Moses, obtained a possession in that territory; who before the coming of the Israelites dwelt between Madian and Amalek.

Following this frontier towards. Idumæa and the south, nAscensus Scorpionis or Acrabbim is placed, the next to Arad; so called because of scorpions, which are said to be in that place: from which name of Acrabbim, Jerome thinks that the name of the toparchy, called Acrabathena, was denominated; of which we have spoken in Manasses.

On the south side also of Judæa they place the cities of Jagur, Dimona, Adada, Cedes, Ashna, Jethnam, and Asor, or Chatsor, most of them frontier towns.

And then Ziph, of which there are two places so called; one besides this in the body of Juda, of which the desert and forest adjoining took name, where David hid himself from Saul.

After these are the cities of Esron, Adar, Karkah, and Asemona, or Hatsmon, of no great fame.

Turning now from Idumæa towards the north we find the cities of Danna, Shemah, Amam, the other Asor, or Chatsor, Behaloth, and the two Sochoes; of all which, see

i. 16.

Numb. xxi. 3. Josh. xii. 14. Judg. n Numb. xxxiv. 3. Deut. viii. 15.

Josh. xv. also Carioth, by Josh. xv. 25. called Kerioth: whence Judas the traitor was called Is-carioth, as it were a man of Carioth. Then Hetham the abode of Samson, which Rehoboam reedified. Beyond these, towards the north border, and towards Eleutheropolis, is the city of P Jethar, or Jatthir, belonging to the Levites. In 9 St. Jerome's time it was called Jethira, and inhabited altogether with Christians: near unto this city was that remarkable battle fought between Asa king of Juda and Zara king of the Arabians, who brought into the field a million of fighting men, and was notwithstanding beaten and put to flight; Asa following the victory as far as Gerar, which at the same time he recovered.

Not far from Jether standeth Jarmuth, whose king was slain by Joshua, and the city overturned. Next unto it is Maresa, the native city of the prophet Michæa: between it and Odolla, Judas Maccabæus overthrew Gorgias, and sent thence 10,000 drachmas of silver to be offered for sacrifice.

s Odolla, or Hadullam, itself was an ancient and magnificent city, taken by Joshua, and the king thereof slain. Jonathan Maccabæus beautified it greatly. Then ‹ Ceila, or Keila, afterwards Echela, where David sometime hid himself, and which afterwards he delivered from the assaults of the Philistines: near which the prophet Abacuc was buried; whose monument remained, and was seen by St. Jerome.

Near it is Hebron, sometime called the city of Arbah, for which the Vulgar hath Cariatharbe: the reason of this name they give, as if it signified the city of four, because the four patriarchs, Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were therein buried; but of Adam it is but supposed; and it is plain by the places, Josh. xiv. 14. and xv. 13. and xx. 11. that Arbah here doth not signify four, but that it was the

Judg. xv. 8. 1 Chron. xi. 6. Jun. out of the 1 Chron. iv. 32. notes, that this Hetham, though it were within the bounds of Juda, belonged to Si

meon.

P Josh. xv. 48.

a Hieron. in Loc. Hebr.
r2 Macc. xii. 35.

• Gen. xxxviii. 1. Josh. xii. 15.
t1 Sam. xxiii. 1.

name of the father of the giants, called Anakim, whose son, as it seems, Anak was: and Achiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, (whom Caleb expelled, Josh. xv.) were the sons of this Anak, Numb. xiii. 23. The name of Anak signifieth torquem, a chain worn for ornament: and it seems that this Anak, enriched by the spoils which himself and his father got, wore a chain of gold, and so got this name: and leaving the custom to his posterity, left also the name: so that in Latin the name of Anakim may not amiss be expounded by Torquati.

The city Hebron was one of the ancientest cities of Canaan, built seven years before Tsoan, or Tanis, in Egypt; and it was the head and chief city of the Anakims, whom Caleb expelled; to whom it was in part given, to wit, the villages adjoining, and the rest to the Levites. It had a bishop in the Christian times, and a magnificent temple built by Helen, the mother of Constantine.

Not far hence they find Eleutheropolis, or the free city, remembered often by St. Jerome. Then Eglon, whose king Dabir associated with the other four kings of the Amorites, to wit, of u Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, and Lachis, besieging the Gibeonites, were by Joshua utterly overthrown. From hence the next city of fame was Emaus, afterwards Nicopolis, one of the cities of government, or presidencies of Judæa. In sight of this city, * Judas Maccabæus (after he had formerly beaten both Apollonius and Seron) gave a third overthrow to Gorgias, lieutenant to Antiochus.

In the year 1301 it was overturned by an earthquake, saith y Eusebius. In the Christian times it had a bishop's seat, of the diocese of Cæsarea of Palestine.

From Emaus towards the west sea there are the cities of Nahama, Bethdagon, and Gader, or Gedera, or Gederothaima, of which, and of Gederoth, Josh. xv. 36, 41. Then Azecha, to which Joshua followed the slaughter of the five

u Josh. x. II.

x 1 Macc. ili.

y Euseb. in Chron. Broch. Itin. 6.

z Also I Chron. iv. 39. as is above remembered in the tribe of Simeon.

kings before named, a city of great strength in the valley of a Terebinth, or Turpentine; as the Vulgar readeth, 1 Sam. xvii. 2. whence, as it seems, they seat it near unto Soco, and unto Lebna of the Levites. It revolted from the subjection of the Jews, while Joram the son of Josaphat ruled in Jerusalem; and next unto this standeth Maceda, which Joshua utterly dispeopled.

On the other side of Emaus, towards the east, standeth Bethsur, otherwise Bethsora, and Bethsor; one of the strongest and most sought for places in all Juda: it is seated on a high hill, and therefore called Bethsur, (the house on the rock, or of strength). It was fortified by Roboam, and afterwards by b Judas Maccabæus. Lysias forced it, and Antiochus Eupator by famine; Jonathan regained it, and it was by Simon exceedingly fortified against the Syrian kings.

c Bethlehem is the next unto it within six miles of Jerusalem, otherwise Lehem, sometime Ephrata; which name, they say, it had of Caleb's wife, when as it is so called by Moses before Caleb was famous in those parts, Gen. xxxviii. 16. Of this city was Abessan, or Ibzan, judge of Israel after Jephthah, famous for the thirty sons and thirty daughters begotten by him. Elimelec was also a Bethlemite, who with his wife Naomi sojourned in Moab during the famine of Juda, in the time of the judges, with whom & Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi returned to Bethlehem, and married Boaz, of whom Obed, of whom Ishai, of whom David. It had also the honour to be the native city of our Saviour Jesus Christ; and therefore shall the memory thereof never end.

e In Zabulon of Galilee there was also a city of the same name; and therefore was this of our Saviour called Bethlehem Juda.

From Bethlehem, some four or five miles, standeth The

a Junius for in valle Terebinthi, hath in valle Querceti. Vatablus keeps the Hebrew reading in valle Elah.

b Joseph. 13. Ant. 9. 1 Macc. vi.

c Gen. liii. 48.

d Ruth i.

e Hieron. in Comm. super Matth. c. 2. Matt. ii. 1.