"The name of Hebron does not occur any further in the Old Testament, and not at all in the New. (We find, however, from other sources, that it came into the power of the Edomites, who had taken possession of the south of Judah- -was recovered from them—was afterwards seized by a rebel-recaptured and burnt by an officer of the Roman emperor Vespasian-that at length it fell into the hands of the crusaders, became a Christian bishopric-and lastly, reverted to the Mahometans, in whose possession it has ever since remained, the church which the Christians had built, or at least decorated within the structure around the tombs of the patriarchs, being converted into a mosque.)"-ROBINSON's Researches, vol. ii. pp. 454–457.

"At the south end of the town is a fine pool.

This is the pool, as is supposed, over which David hung the hands and feet of Rechab and Baanah, the murderers of Ishbosheth."-PAXTON'S Letters, p. 143.

"When about three miles from Hebron we turned a little off our road to the west, to look for an old ruin that was said to be worth seeing. This led us on higher ground, and gave us a more extensive view of the country; and I was not a little surprised and pleased at having a fine view of the whole district to the west, embracing a part of the hill country of Judæa, the southern part of the plain of Sharon, and the widespread Mediterranean sea beyond it. I was, in fact, on the highest ridge of the hill country, which was north and south, and could see below me the secondary ridges and hills, which extended about half-way to the sea, becoming lower and lower as they approached the plain -then the plain beyond, and the white sand hills and banks along the shore . . . The view was most extensive and interesting, as I knew that my eyes were ranging over not only a large and rich portion of the inheritance of the tribe of Judah, but also part of the land of the Philistines, those inveterate and powerful enemies of the people of God. Oh, how often has the

district which I now beheld, witnessed the mustering, and marching, and warfare of the Philistine against Israel, and the Israelite against the Philistine!

"We now entered a gently declining valley. The soil did not appear better than usual, but much care and labour had been bestowed on it, and evidences of this increased as we passed through to the south. The stones were gathered off-good stone fences were made along the road-the ground was well set with vines, and for miles we had nothing on either side of the road but a succession of vineyards loaded with the most delicious grapes.

"Surely, thought I, this must be the valley of Eshcol. It was here the spies procured the vine loaded with clusters, which they carried into the wilderness, to the astonishment of the whole camp. If my conjecture was not entirely correct, it was nearly so, if the Jews of Hebron are to be believed; for this, if not the valley of Eshcol, terminates in that valley about a mile from Hebron.

"This valley, through which we passed, became wider and more rich in its fruits until it joined the other valley, which comes in more from the west. This second valley is the widest, has a considerable breadth of level, rich soil, finely cultivated, interspersed with trees, and covered with vineyards. This is called Eshcol, as we learned from the Jews with whom we lodged, and who took us out to see it. About a mile up this valley is pointed out the tree under which they say Abraham received the angels . . . I am, however, slow to believe it . . . that it should have lived until now, does not agree with the great law of mortality, which spares no living thing, neither man nor beast, animal nor vegetable, since death entered the world. These, however, are the plains of Mamre; and the good old patriarch long sojourned, and somewhere on these plains his tent pitched, his altar raised, and his worship went up with acceptance to the God who was 'his shield and his

was

exceeding great reward.' How many generations have passed away since that time! and yet his name is known, is dear to the people of these lands-seeing the memory of the just is blessed."-PAXTON's Letters, pp. 138-140. "I had followed the wandering path of the children of Israel, from the land of Egypt and the house of bondage to the borders of the promised land; had tracked them in their miraculous passage across the Red Sea to the mountains of Sinai, through the great and terrible wilderness that leadeth to Kadesh Barnea;' and among the strong mountains through which I was now journeying, must have been the Kadesh, in the wilderness of Paran, from which Moses sent the ten chosen men to spy out the land of Canaan, who went unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and bare it between two upon a staff.' I followed in the track of the spies . . . though the mountains were as yet stony and barren, they were green and beautiful by comparison with the desert I had left. . . After clambering over a rocky mountain, we came down into a valley, bounded on all sides, and apparently shut in by stony mountains. We followed the valley for more than an hour, finding the land good and well cultivated, with abundance of grapes, vines, and olives, as in the days when the spies sent by Moses entered it. We turned a point of the mountain to the left, and at the extreme end of the valley, on the side of a hill, bounding it, stands the little city of Hebron, the ancient capital of the kingdom of David: but it bears no traces of the glory of its Jewish king. Thunder and lightning, and earthquakes, wars, pestilence, and famine, have passed over it; and a small town of white houses, compactly built on the side of the mountain, a mosque and two minarets, are all that mark the ancient city of Hebron.

"I was conducted to the house of the chief Rabbi. The descendants of Israel were fit persons to welcome a stranger to the ancient city of their fathers; and if

they had then been sitting under the shadow of the throne of David, they could not have given me a warmer reception . . I shall never forget the kindness with which, as a stranger and Christian, I was received by the Jews in the capital of their ancient kingdom . .

"Hebron (the first city in the Holy Land), one of the oldest cities of Canaan, is now a small Arab town, containing seven or eight hundred Arab families. The present inhabitants are the wildest, most lawless, and desperate people in the Holy Land; and it is a singular fact, that they sustain now the same mutinous character with the rebels of ancient days, who armed with David against Saul, and with Absalom against David. In the late desperate revolution against Mohammed Ali, they were the first to draw the sword, and the last to return it to its scabbard. A petty Turk now wields the sceptre of the son of Jesse, and a small remnant of a despised and persecuted people still hover round the graves of their fathers; and, though degraded and trampled under foot, from the very dust in which they lie are still looking to the restoration of their temporal kingdom.

Accompanied by my Jewish friends, I visited the few spots which tradition marks as connected with scenes of Bible history... We entered a vault, containing a large monument, intended in memory of Abner, the greatest captain of his age, the favoured, and for a long time, trusted officer of David, who, as the Jews told me, was killed in battle near Hebron, and his body brought here and buried. The great mosque, the walls of which, the Jews say, are built with the ruins of the temple of Solomon, according to the belief of the Mussulmans, and the better authority of the Jews, covers the site of the cave of Machpelah, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite, and within its precincts are the supposed tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The doors were guarded with jealous care by the bigoted Mussulmans; and when, with my Jewish companion, I stopped for a moment to look up at the long marble

staircase leading to the tomb of Abraham, a Turk came, and with furious gesticulations gathered a crowd around us; and a Jew and a Christian were driven with contempt from the sepulchre of the patriarch whom they both revered. A special firman from the Pasha, or perhaps a large bribe to the governor, might have procured me a private admission: but death or the Koran would have been the penalty required by the bigoted people of Hebron

"About half an hour from Hebron we came to a valley, supposed to be the vale of Eshcol."-Incidents of Travel, vol. ii. pp. 138-140, 145, 155-157, 166.

"As we approached the ancient town of Hebron" (wrote a recent traveller) "called by the natives Khalleel, which signifies 'friend,' and so named in allusion to Abraham's being the friend of God, our attention was unexpectedly arrested by the magnificent vines; and we could easily believe, that, when Palestine was in its glory, one cluster of its fruit might have required to have been borne by two upon a staff.' We were actually in the valley of Eshcol."-Memoir of Mrs. S. L. Smith, p. 164.

"At one hour from Hebron, a blind path went off to the right, leading to Tekû'a; and on it are the foundations of an immense building, which excited our curiosity. We ran thither on foot, leaving our beasts to proceed slowly, and found the substructions of an edifice, which would seem to have been commenced on a large scale, but never completed. They consist of two walls, apparently of a large enclosure; one 200 feet long, and the other 160 feet long, with a space left in the middle of it as if for a portal. There are only two courses of hewn stones above ground, each three feet four inches high; one of the stones measured fifteen and a half feet long, by three and one-third feet thick. In the northwest angle is a well, or cistern, arched over, but not deep. There are no stones nor ruins of any kind lying around, to mark that these walls were ever carried