dently distinguished, Isaiah x. 27.) of which word 9 Gibha, in another form Gibbath, he imagineth Gabaath, another city in this tribe, making two of one. The vicinity of this city also to Rama of Benjamin, appears, Judg. xix. 13, where the Levite with his wife, not able to reach to Rama, took up his lodging at Gibha. By that place of 1 Sam. xxii. 6. it seems that there was in this Gibha some tower or citadel, called Rama, where Junius reads in excelso, for in Rama; but it may be, that the name of the king's palace in this city was Rama, as it seems that in Rama of Samuel, the name of the chief place where Samuel with the college of prophets abode, was Naioth. The great city of Hai, overthrown by Joshua, which, Josh. vii. 2, is placed near Beth-aven, upon the east of Bethel, was in this tribe, as is proved Nehemiah vii. x. xxx. though it be not named by Joshua xviii. for it was burned by him and laid desolate, as it is Josh. viii. 28. in solitudinem in tumulum perpetuum. Another city of chief note, reckoned, Josh. xviii. 25. in this tribe, was Gibhon, the chief city of the Hevites, whose cunning, to bind the Israelites by oath to save their lives, is set down, Josh. ix. whence they were reckoned among the Nethinæi, or proselytes, and were bound to certain public services in the house of God; which oath of saving these Gibeonites, broken in part after by Saul, was by God punished by a famine, 2 Sam. xxi. 1. This Gibeon, or Gibhon, with Almon and Jebah, (of both which we have spoken,) and with Hanothoth, the natal place of Jeremiah the prophet, were said, Josh. xxi. 28, to be given to the Levites by the Benjamites. Near to this Hanothoth was Nob, as appears 1 Kings ii. 26, where Ebiathar the priest, which was of Nob before it was

9 Gibha in construction, that is, governing a genitive case, is Gibhath, whence the Vulgar out of the Septuagint read, Josh. xxiv. 33. Gabaath Phinees; for which Junius hath collis Phineasi, (for this word is ofttimes an appellative, signifying a hill,) but Adrichomius, taking notice of this, builds his city Gabaath upon this text,

and placeth it in Benjamin, when as the words adjoined note that this hill was in the mountains of Ephraim.

The word Nethinim, or Nethinæi, is as much as dati, (as it were a Deo dati,) or, as Junius expounds it, dedititii; it is used 1 Chron. ix. 2. and in Esdras and Nehemias often.

destroyed by Saul, is sent to his grounds at Hanothoth. It is reckoned in the tribe of Benjamin, Nehemiah ix. 31; and though in the time of Saul the residing place of the ark was at Kirjath-jearim, yet, by the lamentable tragedy of bloodshed which Saul raised in this place, (as it is set down 1 Sam. xxi. and xxii.) in the judgment of Junius it is proved that the tabernacle was there for a time.

Micmas also in this tribe, Nehemiah ix. 31, was a place of fame, of which Isaiah x. 28, where also he nameth Gallim and Migrom in this tribe. In Micmas Saul had his camp, 1 Sam. xiii. 2, (when he left Gibha to Jonathan,) and there also was Jonathan Maccabæus's abode, 1 Macc. ix. 73. Of Giscala in Galilee Josephus makes often mention; but of any here in Benjamin, which they make the natal place of St. Paul, whence, they say, when it was taken by the Romans, he sailed with his parents to Tharsis, of this I find no good warrant. Other places of less importance I omit, and come to the city of Jerusalem, and the princes and governors of this city; a great part whereof was in the tribe of Benjamin, whence, Josh. xviii. 28, it is named among the cities of Benjamin.

SECT. II.

Of divers memorable things concerning Jerusalem.

AT what time Jerusalem was built (which afterwards became the princess of all cities) it doth not appear. Some there are who imagine that Melchisedec was the founder thereof in Abraham's time. But s according to others, that city, out of which Melchisedec encountered Abraham, (in his return from the overthrow of the Assyrian and Persian kings or captains, when Lot was made prisoner,) standeth by the river of Jordan, in the half tribe of Manasseh, bordering Zabulon, which was also called Salem, and by the Greeks Solima.

Jerusalem (whensoever or by whomsoever built) was a principal city in Joshua's time; yet not so renowned as Hazor, the metropolis (in those days and before) of all the Canaanites.

See in the hither half of Manasseh.

Adonizedek, whom Joshua slew, was then king of Jerusalem. That it was belonging to the Jebusites it is manifest; for how long soever they held it before Moses's time, they were masters and lords thereof almost four hundred years after him, even till David won it; and therefore in all likelihood it was by the Jebusai (the children of Jebusæus, the son of Canaan) built; after whom it was called Jebus. And so much did that nation rely on the strength of the place, as when David attempted it, they bragged that their lame, and blind, and impotent people should defend it.

David, after he had, by God's assistance, possessed it, and turned out the Jebusites, gave it an exceeding great increase of circuit; strengthened it with a citadel or castle, and beautified it with many palaces and other buildings, changing the name from Jebussalem, the city of the Jebusites, to Jerusalem, which the Greeks call Hierosolyma. After David's time. u Solomon amplified, beautified, and strengthened it exceedingly: for besides the work of the temple, which was no less admirable than renowned among all nations, the palaces, gates, and walls could not any where in the world be exampled; and besides that, it had an hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, the women and children not accounted. The ditch had sixty foot of depth, cut out of the very rock, and two hundred and fifty foot of breadth, whereof the like hath seldom been heard of, either since or before.

After the death of Solomon, and that the kingdom of the Jews was cut asunder, * Shishac king of Egypt, and his predecessor, having bred up for that purpose Adad the Idumean, and Jeroboam, Solomon's servant, and both married to Egyptians, the state by the one disturbed, by the other broken, Shishac first invaded the territory of Juda, entered Jerusalem and sacked it; and became master, not only of the riches of Solomon, but of all those spoils which David had gotten from Adadezer, Tohu, the Ammonites,

t 2 Sam. v. 6.

"Jos. cont. App. 1. 1. Strabo, Geog. 1. 16.

x 2 Chron. xii.
y 2 Kings xiv.

and other nations. It was again sacked, and a part of the wall thrown down by Joas king of Israel, while Amaziah the twelfth king thereof governed Juda.

up

Not long after, Achaz, the fifteenth king of Juda, impoverished the temple, and presented Teglatphalassar with the treasures thereof: and a Manasseh, the son of Ezekiah, the son of Achaz, by the vaunts made by Ezekiah to the ambassadors of Merodach, lost the remain and the very bottom of their treasures. It was again spoiled by the Babylonians, Joakim then reigning. But this ungrateful, idolatrous, and rebellious nation, taking no warning by these God's gentle corrections and afflictions, but persisting in all kind of impiety, filling the city even to the mouth with innocent blood, God raised that great b Babylonian king, Nabuchodonosor, as his scourge and revenger, who making this glorious city and temple, with all the palaces therein, and the walls and towers which embraced them, even and level with the dust, carried away the spoils with the princes and people, and crushed them with the heavy yoke of bondage and servitude full seventy years; insomuch, as Zion was not only become as a torn and ploughed-up field, Jerusalem a heap of stone and rubble, the mountain of the temple as a grove, or wood of thorns and briers; but (as Jerome speaketh) even the birds of the air scorned to fly over it, or the beasts to tread on that defiled soil.

Then seventy years being expired, according to the prophecy of d Daniel, and the Jews, by the grace of Cyrus, returned, the temple was again built, though with interruption and difficulty enough, and the city meanly inhabited, and without walls or other defences, for some sixty and odd years, till e Nehemiah, by the favour of Artaxerxes, rebuilt them. Then again was the temple and city spoiled by Bagoses, or Vagoses, lieutenant of Artaxerxes; after, by fPto

lomæus I.; then by Antiochus Epiphanes; and again by Apollonius his lieutenant. By Pompey it was taken long after, but not destroyed nor robbed; though Crassus, in his Parthian expedition, took as much as he could of that which Pompey spared.

But the damages which it sustained by the violence of sacrilegious tyrants, were commonly recompensed by the industry or bounty of good princes, the voluntary contribution of the people, and the liberality of strangers. Before the captivity, the people of the land, through the exhortation of godly kings, made many and large offerings to repair the temple of Solomon. The wrong done by Ptolomæus Lagi to the second temple, was requited by the bounty of his son Ptolomæus Philadelphus. The mischief wrought by Antiochus Epiphanes and his followers was amended partly by the great offerings which were sent to Jerusalem out of other nations. Finally, all the losses, which either the city or temple had endured, might well seem forgotten in the reign of 8 Herod, that usurping and wicked, but magnificent king, who amplified the city, new built the temple, and with many sumptuous works did so adorn them, that he left them far more stately and glorious than they had been in the days of Solomon.

SECT. III.

Of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

IN this flourishing estate it was at the coming of our Saviour Christ Jesus; and after his death and ascension it so continued about forty years: but then did Titus the Roman, being stirred up by God to be the revenger of Christ's death, and to punish the Jews' sinful ingratitude, encompass it with the Roman army, and became lord thereof. He began the siege at such time as the Jews, from all parts, were come up to the celebration of the passover; so as the city was then filled with many hundreds of thousands of all sorts, and no manner of provision or store for any such multitudes. An

8 M. T. C. pro Scylla.