sepulchre, effectually to block up the entrance, and secure the sacred corpse of the deceased, both from the indignities of his foes and the officiousness of his friends.

VI. A funeral feast commonly succeeded the Jewish burials. Thus after Abner's funeral was solemnised, the people came to David to eat meat with him, though they could not persuade him to do so. (2 Sam. iii. 35.) He was the chief mourner, and probably had invited them to this banquet. Of this Jeremiah speaks (xvi. 7.), where he calls it the cup of consolation, which they drank for their father or their mother; and accordingly the place where this funeral entertainment was made, is called in the next verse the house of feasting. Hosea calls it the bread of mourners. (Hos. ix. 4.) Funeral banquets are still in use among the oriental Christians.1

The usual tokens of mourning, by which the Jews expressed their grief and concern for the death of their friends and relations, were by rending their garments, and putting on sackcloth (Gen. xxxvii. 34.), sprinkling dust on their heads, wearing of mourning apparel (2 Sam. xiv. 2.), and covering the face and the head. (2 Sam xix. 4.) They were accustomed also in times of public mourning to go up to the roofs or platforms of their houses, there to bewail their misfortunes, which practice is mentioned in Isaiah xv. 3. and xxii. 1. Antiently, there was a peculiar space of time allotted for lamenting the deceased, which they called the days of mourning. (Gen. xxvii. 41. and 1. 4.) Thus the Egyptians, who had a great regard for the patriarch Jacob, lamented his death threescore and ten days. (Gen. 1. 3.) The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. (Deut. xxxiv. 8.) Afterwards among the Jews the funeral mourning was generally confined to seven days. Thus, besides the mourning for Jacob in Egypt, Joseph and his company set apart seven days to mourn for his father, when they approached the Jordan with his corpse. (Gen. 1. 10.) In the time of Christ, it was customary for the nearest relative to visit the grave of the deceased, and to weep there. The Jews, who had come to condole with Mary, on the death of her brother Lazarus, on seeing her go out of the house, concluded that she was going to the grave, to weep there. (John xi. 31.) A similar custom obtains to this day in Upper Egypt. We read no where of any general mourning for Saul and

1 Harmer's Observations, vol. iii. p. 19.

2" We arrived" (at one of the villages of Elephantina, an island in the Nile) "just in time to witness a coronagh or wailing for the dead. A poor woman of the village had that morning received the melancholy intelligence that her husband had been drowned in the Nile. He had been interred without her knowledge, near the spot where the body was found; and she, along with several of her female friends, was paying the unavailing tribute of lamentation to his departed shade." (Richardson's Travels, vol. i. p. 355.) "One morning," says the same intelligent traveller, "when standing among the ruins of the antient Syene, on the rocky promontory above the ferry, I saw a party of thirteen females cross the Nile to perform the lugubrious dirge at the mansions of the dead. They set up a piteous wail on entering the boat, after which they all cowered up together, wrapt in their dirty robes of beteen. On landing, they wound their way slowly and silently along the outside of the walls of the antient town, till they arrived at their place of destination, when some of them placed a sprig of flowers on the grave, and sat down

his sons, who died in battle; but the national troubles, which followed upon his death, might have prevented it. David indeed and his men, on hearing the news of their death, mourned and wept for them until even. (2 Sam. i. 12.) And the men of Jabesh-gilead fasted for them seven days (1 Sam. xxxi. 13.), which must not be understood in a strict sense, as if they eat nothing all that time, but that they lived very abstemiously, eat little, and that seldom, using a low and spare diet, and drinking water only.

How long widows mourned for their husbands is no where told us in Scripture. We find it is said of Bathsheba, that when she heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for him (2 Sam. xi. 26.); but this could neither be long nor very sincere.

The Jews paid a greater or less degree of honour to their kings after their death, according to the merits of their actions when they were alive. Upon the death of their princes, who had distinguished themselves in arms, or who, by any religious actions, or by the promotion of civil arts, had merited well of their country, they used to make lamentations or mournful songs for them: from an expression in 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. Behold, they are written in the Lamentations, we may infer that they had certain collections of this kind of composition. The author of the book of Samuel has preserved those which David composed on occasion of the death of Saul and Jonathan, of Abner and Absalom; but we have no remains of the mournful poem, which Jeremiah made upon the immature death of the pious king Josiah, mentioned in the last-cited chapter: which loss is the more to be deplored, because in all probability it was a masterpiece in its kind, since never was there an author more deeply affected with his subject, or more capable of carrying it through all the tender sentiments of sorrow and compassion, than Jeremiah.1

silently beside it; others cast themselves on the ground, and threw dust over their heads, uttering mournful lamentations, which they continued to repeat at intervals, during the short time that I witnessed their procedure." (Ibid. vol. i. p. 360.) Mr. Jowett witnessed a similar scene at Manfelout, a more remote town of Upper Egypt. Christian Researches, p. 162.

Jahn. Archeologia Biblica, pp. 289-302. Harwood's Introduction, vol. ii. pp. 129-152. Stosch, Compendium Archeologiæ Economica Novi Testamenti, pp. 121-132. Brunings, Compendium Antiquitatum Græcarum, pp. 388-400. The subject of Hebrew sepulchres is very fully discussed by Nicolai, in his treatise De Sepulchris Hebræorum (Lug. Bat. 1706. 4to.), which is illustrated with several curious plates, some of which however, it must be confessed, are rather fanciful.

No. I.

GEOGRAPHICAL INDEX

OF THE

PRINCIPAL PLACES

Mentioned in the Scriptures, especially in the New Testament.

[Referred to, in page 11. of this Volume.]

**On account of the very great uncertainty attending the ascertaining of the situation of the majority of places, incidentally mentioned in the Old Testament, this index is chiefly restricted to the principal places and countries which occur in the New Testament. It is compiled from the labours of Calmet, Wells, Schleusner, Dr. Whitby, M. Anquetil, Dr. Hales, and other writers who have treated on sacred geography1, and particularly from the Travels in Palestine of Dr. E. D. Clarke, Mr Buckingham, the Rev. James Connor, and of Dr. Robert Richardson, who explored various parts of the East during the years 1816-1818, in company with the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Belmore..

1 The notices of the seven cities of Ephesus, Laodicea, Pergamos, Philadelphia, Sardis, Smyrna, and Thyatira. are derived from Smith's Survey of the Seven 65

VOL. III.

ABANA, a river of Damascus, mentioned by Naaman. (2 Kings v. 12.) Are not Abana and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Probably this river is a branch of that part of the Barrady, or Chrysorroas; which derives its source from the foot of Mount Libanus, towards the east, runs round Damascus and through it, and continues its course till lost in the wilderness, four or five leagues south from that city.

ABARIM, Mountains of. See p. 47. of this volume.

|

Abel-Shittim before the Hebrew army passed the Jordan, under Joshua. (Numb. xxxiii. 49. xxv. 1.) Here the Israelites fell into idolatry, and worshipped Baal-Peor, seduced by Balak; and here God severely punished them by the hands of the Levites. (Numb. xxv. 1, 2. &c.) This city is often called Shittim only. (Antiq. lib. iv. cap. 7. and v. 1., and de Bello, lib. v. cap. 3.) ABILENE. See page 16. supra. AсCHо. See PTOLEMAIS.

ACELDAMA, a place without the south wall of Jerusalem, beyond the river of Siloam. It was called the Potter's Field Matt. xxvii. 7. 10.), because they dug thence the earth of which they made their pots; and the Fuller's Field, because they dried their cloth there; but being afterwards bought by that money by which the high priest and rulers of the Jews purchased the blood of the holy Jesus, it was, by the providence of God so ordering it, called Aceldama, that is, the field of blood. (Acts i. 19. Matt. xxvii. 7, 8.)

ABEL, Abel-beth-Maacha or Abel main, a city in the northern part of the canton allotted to the tribe of Naphtali. Hither fled Sheba the son of Bichri, when pursued by the forces of king David; and the inhabitants, in order that they might escape the horrors of a siege, cut of Sheba's head, which they threw over the wall to Joab. (2 Sam. xx. 1418.) About eighty years after, it was taken and ravaged by Benhadad king of Syria. (1 Kings xv. 20.) About two hundred years after this event, it was cap- ACHAIA, in the largest sense, compretured and sacked by Tiglath-pileser, who hends Greece properly so called. It is carried the inhabitants captive into As-bounded on the west by Epirus, on the syria. (2 Kings xv. 29.) This place was subsequently rebuilt; and according to Josephus, became, under the name of Abila, the capital of the district of Abilene.

ABEL-MEHOLAH was the native country of Elisha, (1 Kings xix. 16.) It could not be far from Scythopolis. (iv. 12.) | Eusebius places it in the great plain, sixteen miles from Scythopolis, south. Not far from hence, Gideon obtained a victory over the Midianites. (Judg. vii. 22.)

ABEL-MIZRAIM (the mourning of the Egyptians), was formerly called the floor of Atad. (Gen. 1. 11.) Jerome, and some others after him, believe this to be the place afterwards called Bethagla, at some distance from Jericho and Jordan west.

east by the Ægean Sea, on the north by Macedonia, on the south by Peloponnesus. This seems to be the region intended when Saint Paul, according to the Roman acceptation mentions all the region of Achaia, and directs his second Epistle to all the saints in Achaia.(2 Cor. xi. 10.) Thus, what is Achaia, in Acts xix. 21. is Hellas, that is, Greece. (Acts xx. 2.) Achaia, strictly so called, is the northern region of Peloponnesus, bounded on the north by the Gulph of Corinth, on the south by Arcadia, on the east by Sicyonia, and, on the west by the Ionian Sea. Of this region CORINTH was the capital.

ACHMETHA. See ECBATANA,

ACHOR, a valley in the territory of Jericho, and in the canton of the tribe of Benjamin, where Achan was stoned. (Josh. vii. 24.)

ACKSHAPH, a city belonging to the tribe of Asher. The king of Ackshaph was conquered by Joshua. (xii. 20.) Some writers are of opinion, that Ackshaph is the same as Ecdippa, on the Mediterranean, between Tyre and Pto

ABEL-SHITTIM was a town in the plains of Moab, beyond Jordan, opposite Jericho. According to Josephus, Abel-Shittim, or Abela, as he calls it, was sixty furlongs from Jordan. Eusebius says, it was in the neighbourhood of Mount Peor. Moses encamped at Churches of Asia, pp. 205-276. Bishop Newton's Dissertations on the Prophecies, vol. ii. pp. 166-174. The Rev. H. Lindsay's Visit to the Apocalyptic Churches (in 1815), in the Christian Observer, vol. xv. pp. 190, 191. See also Stosch's Syntagma Dissertationum Septem de Nominibus totidem Urbium Asiæ, ad quas D. Joannes in Apocalypsi Filii Dei Epistolas direxit. 8vo. Guelpherbyti, 1757.

lemais; others, that Ecdippa is descri- | in the half-tribe of Manasseh, within bed in Josh. xix. 29. under the name Jordan. of Achzib, The Arabs call a place, three hours north from Ptolemais, Zib, which is the place where formerly stood Ecdippa. It is probable that Ackshaph and Achzib are but different names for the same town. Mr. Buckingham, who visited this place in January 1816, found it a small town situated on a hill near the sea, and having a few palm-trees rearing themselves above its dwellings.

ADMAH, or ADAMA, one of the five wicked cities destroyed by fire from heaven, and afterwards overwhelmed by the waters of the Dead Sea. (Gen. xix. 24.) It was the most easterly of those which were swallowed up; and there is some probability, either that it was not entirely sunk under the waters, or that the subsequent inhabitants of the country built a city of the same name on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea; for Isaiah, according to the LXX, says, God will destroy the Moabites, the city of Ar, and the remnant of Adama. (Isa. xv. ult.) 'Αρω το σπέρμα Μωαβ και Αριηλ, και το καταλειπον "Αδαμα.

ADRAMYTTIUM, a maritime town of Mysia, in Asia Minor, for which Paul embarked in his first voyage to Italy. (Acts xxvii. 12.)

ADRIA is mentioned in Acts xxvii. 27., where, it is to be observed, that when Saint Paul says, that they were tossed in Adria, he does not say in the Adriatic Gulf, which ends with the Illyrian Sea, but in the Adriatic Sea, which, according to Hesychius, is the same with the Ionian Sea; and therefore to the question, How Saint Paul's ship, which was near to Malta, and so, either in the Lybian or Sicilian Sea, could be in the Adriatic? It is well answered, That not only the Ionian, but even the Sicilian Sea, and part of that which washes Crete, was called the Adriatic. Thus, Ptolemy says, that Sicily was bounded on the east, ύπο του Adptov, by the Adriatic ; and that Crete was compassed on the west, ύπο του 'Aopiarikov TEλayovs, by the Adriatic Sea: and Strabo says, that the Ionian Gulf, μepos ist Tov vvv Adpiov λeyoμevov, is a part of that which in his time was called the Adriatic Sea. (Whitby.)

ENON, or ENON, signifies the place of springs, where John baptised. (John iii. 23.) It is uncertain where it was situated, whether in Galilee, or Judæa. or Samaria, where Lubin places it, viz.

AHAVA, a river of Babylonia, or of Assyria, where Ezra assembled those captives whom he afterwards brought into Judæa. (Ezra vii. 15.) It is supposed to be that which ran along the region of Adiabene, where a river Diava, or Adiava, is mentioned, on which Ptolemy places the city Abane or Aavane. This is probably the country called Ava (2 Kings xvii. 24. xviii. 34. xix. 13.), whence the kings of Assyria translated the people called Avites into Palestine; and where, likewise, in their room, they settled some of the captive Israelites. Ezra, intending to collect as many Israelites as he could, to return with him to Judæa, halted in the country of Ava, or Ahava, whence he sent agents into the Caspian mountains, to invite such Jews as were willing to join him. (Ezra viii. 17.)

AJALON, a city in the canton of the tribe of Dan, assigned to the Levites of Kohath's family. It was situated between Timnath and Beth-Shemesh, and is probably the city alluded to, in Josh. x. 12. There were three other cities of this name; one in the canton of Benjamin, another in that of Ephraim, not far from Schechem; and the third in the canton of Zebulun; the situation of which is not known.

ALEXANDRIA, a celebrated city of Egypt, built by Alexander the Great, A. M. 3673, B. c. 331, and situated between the Mediterranean Sea and the Lake Moeris. Alexandria at present exhibits no vestiges of its former magnificence, except the ruins that surround it, and which are of very remote antiquity. Under the Arabian dynasty, its splendour gradually declined with its commerce. From the neglect of the canals, which antiently diffused fertility through the surrounding country, and the encroachments of the sand, the city is now insulated in a desert, and exhibits no vestiges of those delightful gardens and cultivated fields, which subsisted even to the time of the Arabian conquest. The commerce of antient Alexandria was very extensive, especially in corn (Egypt being considered the granary of Rome), so that the centurion could easily meet with a ship of Alexandria, laden with corn, sailing into Italy. (Acts xxvii. 6.) Alexandria was the native place of Apollos. (Acts xviii. 24.)