The lakes and rivers of the Bible

Front matter

CJniv.of 111. Library

Jll l i Ll S (S i -e e 1 it y

FORDS OF THE KISH 0 N

Preface

fertile fields ; from wild beasts of fiercest character, to turtle doves, the gentlest and most sad of birds ; from the eagle as he soars, to the sparrow as he twitters; from behemoth (perhaps the buffalo), to the coneys, the “ feeble folk;” — in a word, through all nature, animate and inanimate, the Bible stamps lessons for eternity upon the objects of time in Palestine. It is the supposition of some, that God, in his holy foresight, constructed the Promised Land so as to fit it to serve such purposes, or to teach such lessons — types and emblems of spiritual things and eternal realities he designed to exhibit in abundance there. Before the Bible was all written, or even before the lives of the patriarchs were led, the country promised to the fathers was adapted to the gracious ends of the Eternal. It became the medium of embodying spiritual things before the eye, that as long as sun and moon endure man may be gathering wisdom among those mountains, or by those streams, just as we gather it from the Bible itself when the Spirit has become the teacher of the soul.

And such is the result of all this, that we can scarcely lift up our eyes in the Land without noticing something to shed light upon the Bible, or to render it at once more intelligible and more precious. Indeed there are many things which cannot be understood except by a reference to the sights, the habits, the climate, or the productions of that country. And if the Book be indeed becoming more ascendant among the sons of men, one reason perhaps is that the Land where it was for the most part composed has been more thoroughly

PREFACE.

V explored, and the results brought to bear upon the written word.

One example will suffice for all. Every reader of the Bible has been perplexed to understand some of the visions of Ezekiel. Their machinery is so complex, and their symbols are so peculiar, that desperate fetches have sometimes been made in men’s attempts to explain their meaning. One of the prophetic visions, however, seems to receive a practical illustration at Jerusalem, which may render it plain to all. He, for example (xlvii. 1), saw waters flowing from the threshold of a house. And it is now ascertained that streams flowed from under the ancient Temple. According to the vision, moreover, they flowed eastward, that is, into the wady Kidron — as the waters of Jerusalem still do — and down that wondrous gorge to the Dead Sea. The increase of the stream, as depicted by Ezekiel, is sometimes realized in that glen ; while the fertility that followed and fringed the flowing waters was a phenomenon as common as such waters themselves. How all that, as predicted, pointed forward to the times of refreshing which awaited the Church ; or rather, the stream flowing on and augmenting evermore, from the Temple to the Dead Sea, whose waters it healed, betokens the progress of truth and the life-giving effects which it produces in our world. Theory after theory may be formed regarding Ezekiel’s vision, but some who have been upon the spot, and looked at the prophecy on the one hand and the scenery of the Kidron on the other, have been irresistibly led to the conclusion that the scenery is the key

VI

PREFACE.

to the prediction. The healing of the waters of the Dead Sea is an emblem of the healing effects of truth in our world.

In the pages which follow an attempt is made to link the explanation of Scripture with the description of the scenes which are visited. The chief interest of many of the events recorded in the Bible gathers round its Rivers and its Lakes. It becomes more and more luminous and vivid in its meaning when studied amid the scenes where its events transpired. *>

The contents of this volume are gathered from many. Dr. Robinson’s “ Researches in Palestine,” —a book which would be exhaustive if it were possible to exhaust the land at all ; Lynch’s “ Narrative of the American Exploring Expedition to the Jordan and the Dead Sea;” Stanley’s “ Sinai and Palestine Van de Velde’s “Narrative of a Journey through Syria and Palestine “ The Land and the Book,” by Dr. Thomson ; Dr. Kitto’s works ; Dr. W. Smith’s “ Dictionary of the Bible,” with many more, have furnished the facts ; and the volume is now sent forth in the hope that it may help to make the Bible at once plainer and more precious, and the salvation which was accomplished at Jerusalem more and more the rejoicing of those who would dwell at last on the banks of that river which will for ever gladden the city of our God.

Introduction,

I. The Fountain-Heads of the Jordan,

I i. Banias— Lake Phiala— Tell el Kady,

Phiala,

III. Lake Huleh, or the Waters of Merom,

IV. From Jisr-Benat-Yacobe to the Sea of Galilee,

V. The Sea of Galilee and its Environs,

VI. From the Sea of Galilee to the Plains of the Jorda

The Valley of the Jermuk,

Beisan, or Beth-slian,

VII. The Dead Sea,

VIII. The Arnon,

IX. The Kishon,

X. The Leontes — the Orontes— the Oytely, etc., ...

The Leontes or Litany,

The Orontes,

The Owely,

The Kurdany,

The Zerka, or Crocodile River, ...

Paga

Contents

viii

Page

XI. The Rivers of Syria, 103

Introduction

“ The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land ; a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills.” Such are the words which were employed to describe the Land of Promise long before the people to whom it was made sure had entered its borders. All who have explored that land with care, or described its climate, its hills, its valleys and streams, agree that the prophet’s announcement is amply borne out by the facts of the case. We are told, indeed, that the number of fountains is prodigious. They are called “ the eyes” of the land, as they constitute much of its beauty ; and they form one main cause of its fertility. The volume of some of these springs is incredible. There are some mountain villages which possess hundreds of fountains sending forth brooks which wind and bubble along the hill-sides, to find their way to the valleys, and spread verdure and fer-

INTRODUCTION.

tility wherever they flow. It is even said that an extensive region — from J oppa to Gaza, and perhaps further south — lies over a subterranean lake or river ; and the theory is countenanced by the fact that all around J oppa, at least, water is found at the depth of from ten to forty feet wherever a well is dug. The sight of fountains and streams occasions a joy to the traveller here such as those who are accustomed to the weeping climate of the West and the North can scarcely understand. Our fertility depends much upon the rain which falls ; that of Syria on the springs which rise, and many hundreds of them may be counted, scattered in rich profusion over the land. The head of the Dog River, and of the River of Beirut ; of the Damur, the Owely, the Zahrany, the Kurn, the Litany, Zahleh, Ainjar, and Mushgarah; the Ras el Ain, near Tyre; the Nahr Uzziyeh, with its tortuous, wild, and wooded gorge; the fountains of the Naamany and Kabery, on the Plain of Acre; the noble fountains of Musheirifeh; of the Kishon, at Jenin, Lejjun, and elsewhere; of the Zerka, near Caesarea ; the Murubbah, in Wady Surar, on the west coast; the Ras, in Sharon; the Ain es Sultan, at Jericho; En-gedi, near the Dead Sea; the springs and streams of Nablous; Solomon’s Pools, Belad, Wady Urtas, with many more, are enumerated as at once crowding and fertilizing the land. Nay, so rife are these fountains, that one a little north of Ruad,— the Arvad of the Bible, — on the shores of the Great Sea, rises up from the depths of the ocean ; and such is the volume of water which ascends to the surface there, that it makes the sea boil like a caldron.

INTKODUCTION.

Further: on the coast near Sidon, and just on the margin of the land as actually possessed by the Hebrews, there is a district which may well be visited for the peculiar abundance of its springs and streams. The ruins scattered around, the rock tombs, and other vestiges of a crowded but long extinct population, might also occupy our attention ; but, keeping in view the rivers of the region, there are two which deserve to be specially noticed. In a wild gorge near the south end of Lebanon a copious spring bursts out, called the Fountain of the Cup. It is the source of the River Zahrany, already mentioned, which has been described as “ the flowery/’ and is large enough to be spanned by a bridge of three arches not far from Sidon. Its snow-cold water was carried to that city in ancient times by means of a canal, which seems to have been enough to have baffled even the boldest engineers of modern times. A channel was hewn in the solid rock, the river near its source was turned into it, and carried downwards to the city, spanning deep ravines upon high arches by the way. At some places the water was led along frightful cliffs, where goats (it is said) could scarcely keep their feet. After running thus for some distance, -another aqueduct from the source of a second river, Er Rahib, joined the former, and the two courses were then led downward by the same line, but the one about fifteen feet above the other. The engineering there is so difficult, and at the same time so perfect, that it should be described in the words of an eye-witness. “ The system of arches,” Dr. Thomson says,* “ by which these works were car-

* “The Land and the Book,” chap. xi.

INTRODUCTION.

ried across the ravines and rivers is still almost perfect, and the cliffs to which they cling are absolutely perpendicular for miles together. As there are no traces of arches by which the water was led across the low plain up to the city, it has been conjectured that the Sidonian engineers were acquainted at that early age with the principle in hydrostatics that water will rise to the level of its source.” In truth, the course of these streams and the works along them prompt us to wonder at the progress made in such things by the men of remotest antiquity. Nothing has yet been discovered to indicate the age of these works. They were old when our antiquity began ; and at some places the wall “ looks like an unbroken crystalline rock, as compact as the mountain limestone above it.”

Moreover, the Eastern word “ Wady” may be said to be now domesticated in the English language. It means a hollow, a valley, or depression, worn or washed by mountain torrents, flowing perhaps only for a few months or weeks in the year. For a short time after rain has fallen, these wadies present the appearance of rushing streams, and a dry channel may suddenly be transformed into a roaring torrent. The Wady Shellal, for instance, “ the valley of the cataracts,” at some seasons well deserves its name ; but, in general, the wadies are dry, and tantalizing to the wayfarer, — the more so because of the traces of water which remain after the current has disappeared.* There are, of course, wadies which are not “ waterless rivers,” but where the streams are fed by fountains, and are therefore perennial, like the

* Stanley’s “ Sinai and Palestine,” chap. i.

INTRODUCTION.

Wady el Ain and the Wady Feiran, in the peninsula of Sinai.

In such a country as Canaan the fervour of sunshine would scorch and wither up all vegetation, and at some places it actually does so : but that fervour is very largely counteracted by the abundance and the copious flow of the streams and fountains of the land ; so that it enjoys a tropical fertility by means of more than tropical supplies of water. In a word, these springs and fountains form one of the signalizing characteristics of the country. There is, moreover, reason to believe that such hidden reservoirs and the supplies which they yield were even more copious in former times than in our age. The visitor to Jerusalem cannot journey far outside the city now without carrying with him a supply of water ; yet we know that so copious was the store in that vicinity in former times, that, in the prospect of an invasion by the king of Assyria, Hezekiah summoned the strength of his land to aid him in stopping the fountains, and diverting the brook that ran in the suburbs of Jerusalem.

One of these fountains, or rather a group of them, is so remarkable that it may here be mentioned as an illustration of the copiousness of the supplies. About thirty furlongs from Tyre stand the pools already referred to, called Ras el Ain, believed to have been the source whence that queenly city was supplied with water. There are four reservoirs at the place, with walls of great thickness, and from 15 to 20 feet high. They were built to raise the water of the fountains sufficiently high to admit of their being conveyed

INTRODUCTION.

by aqueducts to the city. Some carry back their antiquity as far as the days of Solomon, others ascribe them to Alexander the Great; but be their antiquity even greater still, or be their founder who he may, the copious supply of water from these fountains (now used only to turn some mills) attests once more the character of the land. The largest pool is octagonal, and about 80 feet in diameter and 20 in depth ; another pool is 52 feet by 47, and 12 feet deep ; another is 52 feet by 36, and 16 deep. The stones are so large and the walls so thick — in some cases 23 feet — that these fountains may remain for thousands of years to come, unless they be purposely destroyed.

But water under every form, as well as in lakes and streams, is signalized in the East. It is familiarly known that wells have there been famous in all ages. There are some at Gaza not less than 150 feet deep ; and the word Beer, “a well,” enters into the name of many places ; — in short, such stores of the fluid, which is there truly the water of life, became the centres of much that now enters into the history of the land, from Beer-sheba, viz., “ the well of the oath,” famed in Abraham’s day, to the Well of Samaria in that of Christ. At such a spot Eliezer met Bebekah, Jacob met Bachel, and Moses Zipporah. There battles were fought, and matches made in patriarchal times ; and there to this day may patriarchal scenes be seen renewed, fac-similes of those of four thousand years ago. Thither brigands hasten to plunder, and there wayfarers must either watch or fight. There, in short, life in the East may sometimes be studied to far greater advantage than in

INTRODUCTION.

the tent itself. The well at Bethlehem and that of Nazareth, for example, have let travellers know what would never have been elsewhere learned.

But, in addition to all that is real and refreshing in these supplies of water, there are fictitious appearances, as tantalizing as they are lovely— we refer to the mirage. It is sometimes seen in great perfection, and even those who are familiar with the phenomenon in Palestine sometimes find it difficult to resist the impression of reality. We may as well try to grasp a shadow as to reach the mirage, — it flies or it melts as we pursue it. It is not merely the cup, but a whole lake or sea of Tantalus ; and in the East the agonies of thirst are sometimes immeasurably augmented by the deception. How refreshing, after such a phantom-pool, to arrive at the Bas el Ain, the Ain es Sultan, or at En-gedi !

It need scarcely be said that this peculiarity of Canaan has stamped itself largely upon the Bible. Allusion after allusion, by seer, by psalmist, and evangelist, tells how keen was the Hebrew eye in discovering the beauty which lingered around their fountains and their streams. From that outburst of confidence in God, the 46th Psalm, which tells of a river whose streams make glad the city of our God, down to the close of Scripture, where we read of “ a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,” everything betokens the joy of the Jews amid the streams of their land. The peace of believers is compared to the flowing of a river. Mention is made of the river of God’s pleasure. The sorrows of great mourning are compared to the

INTRODUCTION.

rush of a river. A good man is likened to a tree planted by the rivers of water. The Saviour is commended to mourners by comparing him to rivers of water in a dry place. Even the heavenly state is supposed to be rendered more attractive or more intelligible to man by such allusions, for the Lamb is to lead the redeemed to “ living fountains of writer.” All these things enable us to comprehend how fully the Eastern notions of man’s beatitude are connected with the idea of streams and fountains. To be denied a sight of the rivers, floods, and brooks, is to be doomed to misery ; while the emblem of perfect felicity or great prosperity is sought and found in “ judgment running down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” The same taste for beauty, intensified by the climate, which taught one of our poets to speak of him who “ pored upon the brook that bubbled by,” and another to sing of “ the brook that flowed fast by the oracle of God,” and hundreds to make their verses vocal with the praise of many wraters, becomes religion in the case of the sons of Abraham. In later times, at least, the “ places where prayer was wont to be made” were erected by the side of some stream ; and he who does not love to wander by the green margin of brooks and rivers is scarcely prepared to understand these deep, rich, and most appropriate allusions of the Bible.

The reasons for this passionate attachment to waters . are manifold, and need scarcely be referred to again. A traveller from a land of rains is traversing the Wady Easael, to the north of Wady Kelt, near Jericho. The further he descends into its depths, from the high

INTRODUCTION.

lands to the west, the more glowing and stifling do the winds from the Valley of the Jordan become. The air, one says, seems to be on fire, and all around seems calcined. Thistles, grass, flowers, shrubs, luxuriant in themselves while green, are now white as straw or hay, and five or six feet high. All is dead in vegetation, and threatens death to the wayfarer. But at length a strip of green is beheld. A thicket of wild figs, oleanders, thorny plants, and other shrubs, preserves its greenness and vitality even in that gigantic oven. And the cause of that verdant strip is a solitary fountain of living water, which enables those bushes to brave all. that is broiling, and spread their beauties abroad, to bid the panting traveller hope that he also will survive. A little industry can turn the waters of the fountain to account, and nearer the Jordan cucumbers are cultivated by their aid : but both the torrid effects of the unmitigated heat, and the verdant results of the little rill, tell us why brooks are so prized in the land.*

Nor need we wonder at this, when we contemplate the matter under another aspect, and call to mind the effects of thirst in the East. A traveller there once made an experiment for a day in abstaining from the use of water, and has left an account of his feelings upon record. “ I resolved,” he says, “ during one day, to try how long I could endure the cravings of thirst, although we had .... a sufficient supply of not very palatable water. From six in the morning till our noontide meal I was able to abstain without any uncom-

* Van de Velde’s “ Syria and Palestine," voL it p. 309.

(45) 2

INTRODUCTION.

fortable result. At dinner I took just enough to refresh my lips. During the afternoon and evening march the sense of thirst became very painful, and when the sun went down it brought no refreshment ; I became feverish with a feeling of oppression in my throat, a burning pulsation at the tips of my fingers, and felt a general restlessness of the whole system, while every thought of my mind was associated with running or springing water. Before I could reach the halting station I called impatiently for drink .... but it was long before the reaction of the system threw off the effects of the painful experiment.” Where men are exposed to such trials from the want of water, its presence is indeed of more value than gold.

But it is a larger view of the subject, to observe that the queenly cities, from Babylon on the Euphrates, and Nineveh on the Tigris, to Rome on the Tiber, and London on the Thames, and Oxford on the Isis, and Cambridge on the Cam, have all derived their resources, or their strength, like a tree that “ will bud through the scent of water,” from the streams on whose margins they stood or stand. Nay, even Eden needed streams to make its beauty perfect so that from that paradise which we have lost, on to the paradise which we hope will be restored, many a joy is floated into the soul of man by the streams which gladden him by their murmurs, or enrich him by their stores. Could we blot from the Bible all the illustrations which are derived from fountains, and brooks, and streams, and rivers, and water under every variety of title, the redemption plan would still be in itself the same, but the

INTRODUCTION.

Book which describes it would be deprived of many of its beauties, as well as enfeebled in much of its meaning.

And this condescension to man’s weakness, in regard to the form of the Bible, does not appear only in that respect — it characterizes the whole of revelation. What could we know of the Holy One, or that God who is a spirit, unless he were described after the manner of man % Who can even tell us what a spirit is, except by saying what it is not ? Who can convey spiritual impressions into man’s dull mind, except by material emblems, or human adumbrations ? Hence the mind of God is mercifully revealed to us in human language, by means of human deeds, and hopes, and fears, and feelings. Hence the Unchanging One is spoken of as if he could repent, or be grieved, or change. Hence, above all, “ the mystery of godliness,” “ God manifest in the flesh;” for then only could we “acquaint ourselves with God,” when we saw him incarnate in One who was “ the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person.” Upon the same principle, spiritual joys are insinuated into the mind by material emblems;— in the present instance by streams and springs, by dews and fountains. As Palestine was a land proverbial for these, that land becomes a vast commentator on the Bible. It rebukes the idolatry which prompts men to worship the Ganges, the Nile, the Jordan, or the Tiber as a god; but it consecrates the beauty and the attractions which hover around such scenes: they are laid under tribute to Him who is altogether lovely, from whom all beautiful things are emanations, and to whom all such things offer ceaseless

INTRODUCTION.

hymns of praise by the very loveliness which enshrines them.

We mean, then, to wander, through the following pages, by the margin of the streams of Scripture, and study there what Inspiration has recorded for guiding man to glory. There, if anywhere, we may find—

“ Books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

Would the Apocalypse be read with special relish in Patinos ? Has the Epistle to the Romans gladdened many a soul in the city of the popes, though read by stealth, and amid trembling? Then it were no less pleasing to trace the story of Elijah by the Brook Cherith, or of the Baptist by the. Jordan. That, however, is a privilege which few can enjoy in person, and the following chapters are designed to aid in forming a correct idea of some of the lake and river scenery of the Bible. Men have gathered wisdom on the slopes of its mountains. They have disinterred many proofs of the Scripture’s truth from the ruins which are strewed so thickly over the land of marvels. Its naked but once terraced hills ; its fertility, once deemed fabulous, but now amply attested, have all yielded rich and manifold instruction ; and we would now glance at its fountains and streams, to learn wisdom by their margins, or become more reverent amid their solemn memories.

“’Tvvere musical but sadly sweet,

Such as when winds and harp strings meet,”

to traverse the widowed land, and trace its past and

INTRODUCTION. 21

abiding decay in connection with the promises of a glory yet to come.

But before proceeding further, it may be well to glance at the Bible’s own view of the rivers and streams to which it refers.

It speaks, then, in one or two places, of “ The river,” in such a way as to indicate that it refers to the Nile. The word employed is peculiar, and except, in one case, is always applied to the great river of Egypt.

But the Bible uses a different word when it speaks, for example, of the rivers of Babylon (Ps. cxxxvii. 1). That word is descriptive of artificial channels for water, as well as the brooks and streams of nature.

Again : the Bible often employs a generic word for a stream, a brook, or a torrent, temporary or perennial ; and when the stream flows at all seasons, a word to indicate that characteristic is commonly added. To individualize the brooks of certain districts, they are described by some peculiarity in their current, or by the country through which they flow. For example, “ The Brook of the Willows ” (Isa. xv. 7), is believed to be the Wady el Ahsy, which descends from the mountains east of the Dead Sea, and enters it at its south-eastern extremity. The Brook Besor (] Sam. xxx. 9, 10, 21), which means, “ the cold,” enters the Mediterranean not far from Gaza, and the prophet’s narrative shows that it was, at some seasons at least, a considerable torrent. And Kanah is another brook, mentioned in Joshua xvi. 8, as on the boundary between Ephraim and Manasseh. And to name no more, what our translation calls “ The river of Egypt,” (Num. xxxiv. 5, and else-

INTRODUCTION.

where,) is not, as some might suppose, the Nile, but a brook — and the name in Hebrew indicates the fact — which formed the southern limit of the land. It is now called Wady el Arish, from a village of that name, anciently known as Ehinocorura.

It may be added that such valleys as Eshcol, G-erar Zered, and others, are indicated in the Scriptures by a word which means a valley proper, without any necessary reference to flowing water. The last mentioned, or Zered, is called a brook in our translation ; and most probably there was a stream, at least at some seasons, in the valley there, as well as in the others which have been mentioned. It is supposed to be the same as Isaiah’s “ Brook of the Willows,” already noticed. But enough regarding these brooks. We need not further specify that of Sorek, or “ the vineyards or that of Shittim, or “the acacia trees.” They were most probably valleys watered by winter torrents, and dry during part of the year. We pass, therefore, to the unquestionable rivers of the Land of Promise.*

Precedence is here given to the Jordan, and in describing its course the narrative may be divided into seven chapters. The first will include the account of the fountain-heads of the Jordan, and its course to Banias ; the next will describe the appearance of

* The variety of words used by the Jews for rivers or streams indicated their importance. The following are examples:—

Nahar , river ; in the plural, canals.

Jor , applied chiefly to the Nile.

Shichor, Black River.

Jordan , the Descender.

Nachal , a torrent bed.

Peleg , a stream.

Mical, brook.

And many others.

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