Eloth, at about LXXV M. distance, and nearly in a S. S. W. direction; we have, so far, two considerable points given us towards the fixing of this border of Edom, which was to be the boundary of the Land of Promise, to the south. It was first of all to be (or to commence) from the bay of the Salt Sea, that looketh southward, Josh. xv. 2. and it went out from thence to the south side of Maaleh Accrabbim; i. e. as in the margin, to the ascent of Accrabbim; which might be the very road where these mountains are usually passed over. Accrabbim then, may probably be the same with the mountains of Accaba, according to the present name, which hang over Eloth; where there is a high steep road, well known to the Mahometan pilgrims for its ruggedness. And that this part of the boundary might reach so far to the southward, may be inferred, not only from St Jerome, who, (in locis Hebr.) makes Eloth to be a part of the Holy Land, but from Exodus xxiii. 31. where the Red Sea, including, as we may suppose, both the Elanitic and Heroopolitic Gulfs of it, is said to be the southern bounds of it. This seems also to be further confirmed by what follows in the context; where, from Maaley Accrabbim, this boundary was to pass along to Zin, or the desert of that name, which must therefore reach as far as Maaley Accrabbim and Eloth. From hence it was to ascend up, on the south side, unto Kadesh Barnea; which, from the circumstance of ascending up to it, must lie nearer the Land of Promise than Maaley Accrab

VOL. II..

F

bim,

bim, Eloth, or the Red Sea; as from the ascending up to it on the south side, should imply, that it even lay without, or on the north side of the boundary.

From Kadesh Barnea, this boundary was to pass along to Hezron, and to go up to Adar, and fetch a compass, (the direct way perhaps along this district being interrupted by mountains), to Karkaa; from thence, ver. 4. it passed towards Azimon, and went out into the river of Egypt. But of these intermediate places, unless Azimon should be the same place that was afterwards called Heroopolis, we can give no account. However, it may be observed upon the whole, that as this boundary, in its way to the river of Egypt, was to touch at the Heroopolitic Gulf of the Red Sea, (Mount Seir, Josh. xii. 7. being left all the way on the left hand), an imaginary line, drawn from the northermost shore of the Red Sea to Eloth, and from thence to Kadesh Barnea, and so forward, in the same parallel, by Adjeroute or Heroopolis, to the river of Egypt, near Kairo, or the Land of Goshen, will be the boundary required. But further notice will be taken of this subject, in the course of our geographical inqui

ries.

As their east border was to be the Salt Sea, Josh. xv. 5. even unto the end of Jordan, or its influx into it, so the west border, ver. xii. was to be the Great Sea, or the Mediterranean, and the coasts thereof, from Ekron to the river of Egypt; the most part of which is low, of a barren sandy quality,

quality, and very dangerous for vessels to approach. Several of the ancient cities, particularly those of the Philistines, have preserved their old names; for Ekron is called Akron, Ascalon is contracted into Scalon, Gath into Jet, and Gaza, which lies about seven leagues to the S. W. of Akron, and eleven in the same direction from Jaffa, is pronounced Gazy. Rhinocorura was situated near the bottom of the gulf, sixteen leagues to the S. W. by W. of Gazy, and eighteen to the eastward of the Nile. The Lake Sirbonis, the boundary, as it is made by some of the old geographers*, betwixt Egypt and Phoenicia, lay betwixt Rhinocorura and the Nile, at six leagues distance from the latter, which was formerly of great extent, and had a communication with the sea though indeed, what I have said of Kadesh Barnea, Rhinocorura, and this lake, is barely conjectural, by comparing what I myself have seen of Judea, the Nile, Arabia, and its two gulfs, with the accounts that are given us of them by different authors.

If then we take in the whole extent of the Land of Promise, from Hamath to the river of Egypt, and from the coast of the Great or Mediterranean Sea, to the eastermost possessions of the Reubenites, which reached to the deserts of Arabia, or, as it is recorded, 1 Chron. v. 9. to the very entrance into the wilderness from (i. e. on this side)

* Ab urbe Orthosia Pelusium usque regio maritima Phoenicia dicitur, angusta existens. Chrys. ex Strab. Geogr. lib. xvi. p. 208.

side) the river Euphrates, which countries, at one time or another, were in the possession of the Israelites, it will contain CCCCLX M. in length; and by bounding it no further to the eastward, as we will suppose, than with the meridians of Hamath and Damascus, it will contain near one hundred miles in breadth. The extent of it indeed, from Dan to Beersheba, which is often mentioned in Scripture, as the more settled and permanent possession of the Israelites, does not exceed cxx M.; yet, even reduced to this length only, considering the great fruitfulness of the whole, the number of its inhabitants, together with the many cities and villages that belonged to it, the Holy Land was so far from being an inconsiderable spot of ground, as some authors have misrepresented it, that, exclusive of what it was in the reigns of David and Solomon, Ezra iv. 20. and many ages after, it must have been always regarded as one of the most opulent and considerable kingdoms of the east; and that the Israelites, according to the acknowledgment of the king of Tyre, 1 Kings v. 7. were a great people.

CHAP

CHAPTER II.

An Inquiry whether the Nile, or a supposed torrent at Rhinocorura, was the Nahal Mitzraim, or River of Egypt.

Ir has been a point long controverted among the . learned, whether the Nile, or a supposed rivulet at Rhinocorura, was the western boundary of the Holy Land. In order therefore to settle this dispute, which is of no small consequence in the sacred geography, it may be observed in the first place*, that it does not appear, from the ancient geography, either sacred or profane, that Rhinocolura, or any city of note in that situation, was known, till many ages after the time of Joshua. Neither do we learn from Strabo, Mela, Ptolemy, Pliny, or any of the other old geographers or historians, who have described these parts, that any river or torrent, even after Rhinocorura was built, did there empty itself into the sea. Eratosthenes indeed, as he is quoted by Strabo, supposes the lakes. of Arabia, made by the overflowing of the Euphrates,

* Rhinocorura or Rhinocolura, as it is differently written, was so called from (ῥιν or ῥινος and κολύειν or xege) the inhabitants having had their noses cut off; as the story is told by Diodorus Siculus, Bibl. 1. i.