himself. You find here four places at which the water rises. From those separate sources it is conveyed by little rivulets into a kind of basin, and from thence is carried by a large subterraneous passage down into the pools. In the way, before it arrives at the pools, there is an aqueduct of brick pipes, which receives part of the stream, and carries it by many turnings and windings, about the mountains, to Jerusalem." -MAUNDRELL'S Journey, &c. pp. 88, 89.

"At all the corners (of the pools) there are flights of steps descending into them. The water is pure and delightful. Of the great antiquity of these splendid reservoirs there can be no doubt, and there seems every probability that they are the work of Solomon. This pleasant valley, being so near the spot where his father David fed his sheep, would be always interesting to the king. It is highly probable that, besides other purposes, these cisterns were intended to water rich gardens in their vicinity; and in the lower parts of the valley, at present covered with ripe crops of waving grain, there would be a splendid situation for the gardens, and orchards, and nurseries of fruit-trees, which the preacher describes. In Josephus this place is called Etham. We refreshed ourselves at a fountain close by, said by tradition to be the spring shut up, the fountain sealed,' to which the Church is compared in the song. It was usual in former times to cover up the well's mouth for the sake of the precious living water." Mission to the Jews, pp. 176, 177.

"Etam, or Etham," Josephus tells us, was the name of that place where the pleasure-gardens of King Solomon were situated; and Holy Scripture would teach us to look for the gardens in the neighbourhood of the pools, which were constructed with a view to the gardens. It is a most gratifying fact, that not only has the name of this interesting locality been perpetu

1 A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse: a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.-Canticles iv. 12.

ated among the natives to this day, but the very spot is still marked by gardens, the largest and most luxuriant that are to be met with in the whole of the mountain region of Judea. The three pools of Solomon, on the road to Hebron, are situated at the head of a valley named Wady Etân, and the aqueduct, which derives its supply of water from three tributary fountains, has its proper commencement below the lowest of these pools, from whence it runs along the western side of Wady Etân to Bethlehem. In the bed of the valley, below the aqueduct, is another copious fountain, Ain Etân,' and around this fountain are the gardens just mentioned.

"The distance of these gardens of Etham from Jerusalem is stated by Josephus at fifty furlongs, which exactly coincides with the existing gardens."—WILLIAMS's Holy City, pp. 413, 414.

H

CHAPTER IV.

TOWNS IN THE SOUTH OF JUDÆA.

TEKOA-HEBRON-JUTTAH-ZIPH-CARMEL-MAON-ADORAIM

BEERSHEBA.

TEKOAH, OR TEKOA. (TEKU’A.)

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"AND Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, . . . Come to the king, and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth." -2 Sam. xiv. 2, &c. (See whole passage.)

"And Rehoboam built cities for defence in Judah. He built even . . . Tekoa . . ."-2 Chron. xi. 5, 6.

"And they arose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah.. Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper."-2 Chron. xx. 20.

"And next unto them the Tekoites repaired; but their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord."-Neh. iii. 5, 27.

"O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem : for evil appeareth out of the north, and great destruction." -Jer. vi. 1.

"The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa. . .”—Amos i. 1. (1 Chron. xi. 28, xxvii. 9.)

"Tekû'a lies on an elevated hill, not steep, but broad on the top, and covered with ruins to the extent of four or five acres. These consist chiefly in the foundations of houses built of squared stones. At the northeast part are the remains of a large square tower or castle, still the highest point of all. Near the middle of the site are the ruins of a Greek church; among which are several fragments of columns, and a baptismal font. . . . There are many cisterns excavated in the rocks; and not far off is a living spring, from which our Arabs brought us fine water. . . . The high position of Tekû'a gives it a wide prospect. On the south . . .

....

deep valley runs off towards the Dead Sea. The view in this direction is bounded only by the level mountains of Moab, with frequent bursts of the Dead Sea, seen through the openings among the rugged and desolate intervening mountains.

". . . Here then are the remains of the Tekoa of the Old Testament; whence Joab called the wise woman' to plead in behalf of Absalom; and which, fortified by Rehoboam, was afterwards the birth-place of the prophet Amos, and gave its name also to the adjacent desert on the east.

...

"Eusebius and Jerome describe Tekoa as lying twelve miles from Jerusalem, and six miles from Bethlehem towards the south; and the latter further remarks, that from Bethlehem he had Tekoa daily before his eyes. About A.D. 765, Tekoa . . . was a Christian place, and had a church; and in the time of the crusades it was still inhabited by Christians, who afforded aid to the crusaders during the siege of Jerusalem. In A.D.

1138, Tekoa was sacked by a party of Turks from beyond the Jordan; . . . whether it ever recovered from this blow we are not informed; nor do we know anything further as to the time of its abandonment.”ROBINSON'S Researches, vol. ii. pp. 182—184.

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"THEN Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord."- -Genesis xiii. 18.

"And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba, . . . and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. . . and Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And the field and the cave therein were made sure unto Abraham, for a possession of a burying place, by the sons of Heth."-Genesis xxiii. 2, 19, 20. (See whole chapter.)

"And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre,