(Or £112,135.) Volney's Travels, vol. ii., p. 360. "The peasants are everywhere reduced to a little cake Thus saith the Lord God of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and of the land of Israel, they of barley or dourra, to onions, shall eat their bread with care- lentils, and water." "Dread fulness, and drink their water prevails through the villages.' with astonishment; that her "The arbitrary power of the land may be desolate from Sultan, transmitted to the ALL that is therein, because pacha and to all his sub-deleof the violence of all them that dwell therein, Ezek. xii., 19. Ye shall be as a garden that hath no water, Isa. i., 30. How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? Jer. xii., 4. gates, by giving a free course to extortion, becomes the mainspring of a tyranny which circulates through EVERY class, while its effects, by a reciprocal reaction, are everywhere fatal to agriculture, the arts, commerce, population; in a word, EVERYTHING which constitutes the power of the state."-Volney's Travels, vol. ii., p. 378, 379, 412, 477. "The remains of cisterns are to be found (throughout Judea) in which they collected the rain water; and traces of the canals by which these waters were distributed on the fields."-Malte-Brun's Geography, vol. ii., p. 150, 151. "We here see none of that gay carpeting of grass and flowers which decorate the meadows of Normandy and Flanders. The land of Syria has almost always a dusty appearance. Had not these countries been ravaged by the hands of man, they might perhaps at this day have been shaded by forests." -Volney's Travels, vol. ii., p. 359. And the cities that are in "Every day I found in my habited shall be laid waste, route villages deserted and cit and they shall know that I am the Lord, Ezek. xii., 20. ies in ruins."-Volney's Ruins, c. i. When thus it shall be in the "I looked for the ancient midst of the land among the people and their works: and people, there shall be as the all that I could find was a faint shaking of an olive-tree, and trace, like to what the foot of as the gleaning of the grapes the passenger leaves on the when the vintage is done, Ib., sand."-Volney's Ruins, c. ii. The glory of Jacob shall 13. be made thin, Isa. xvii., 4. But yet in it shall be a tenth; "The land of the plains is and it shall return and shall be FAT and loamy, and exhibits eaten, as a teil-tree, and as an every sign of the greatest feoak, whose substance is in them, cundity. Were nature assistwhen they cast their leaves, ed by art, the productions of Isa. vi., 13. The city that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred, Amos v., 3. I will make SAMARIA as a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard. And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof, Micah i., 6. the most distant countries might be produced within the distance of twenty leagues." -Volney's Travels, vol. i., p. 308, 317. "Galilee would be a paradise were it inhabited by an industrious people, under an enlightened government."-Malte-Brun's Geography, vol. ii., p. 148. 66 A tract from which a hundred individuals draw a scanty subsistence formerly maintained thousands."-Pierre Belo, quoted by Malte-Brun. "This great city is wholly converted into gardens."Maundrell's Travels, p. 78. "The relative distance, local position, and unaltered name of Sebaste, leave no doubt as to the identity of its site; and its local features are equally seen in the threat of Micah."-Buckingham's Travels in Palestine, p. 511, 512. O Canaan, the LAND OF THE "In the plain between RamPHILISTINES, I will even de- la and Gaza" (the plain of stroy you: The seacoast shall the Philistines, along the seabe dwellings and cottages for coast), the houses are so shepherds, and folds for flocks, many huts, sometimes deZeph. ii., 5, 6. tached, at others ranged in the 66 The remnant of the Philistines shall perish, Amos i., 8. I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof, Ib. 7. form of cells around a courtyard, enclosed by a mud wall. In winter they and their cattle may be said to live together, the part of the dwelling allotted for themselves being only raised two feet above that in which they lodge their beasts." -Volney's Travels, vol. ii., p. 335. "All the rest is a desert." -Ibid., p. 336. "The ruins of white marble sometimes found at Gaza prove that it was formerly the abode of luxury_and_ opulence."-Volney's Travels, vol. ii., p. 340. The king shall perish from "It is no more than a deGaza, Zech. ix., 5. Baldness fenceless village."-Ibid., p. is come upon Gaza, Jer. xlvii., 340. 5. ASKELON shall be a desola "The deserted ruins of Az tion, Zeph. ii., 4. Askelon kalan."-Ibid., p. 338. I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, Amos i., 8. "We met successively with various ruins, the most considerable of which are at Ezdoud, famous at present for its scorpions."-Ibid. 66 LEBANON is ashamed and Among the crags of the hewn down, Isa. xxxiii., 9. rocks (on Lebanon) may be The forest of the vintage is seen the no very magnificent come down, Zech. xi., 2. The remains of the boasted cehigh ones of stature shall be dars.”—Ibid., vol. i., p. 292. hewn down, &c., Isa. x., 33. The rest of the trees of his forest shall be few that a child may write them, Isa. x., 19. AMMON. I will stretch out my hand upon thee. I will destroy thee, Ezek. xxv., 7. I will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen, Ibid. "There are but four or five of these trees which deserve any notice."-Volney's Travels, i., 292. "All this country, formerly so populous and flourishing, is now changed into a vast desert."-Seetzen's Trav., p. 34. "The far greater part of the country is uninhabited, being abandoned to the wandering Arabs."-Ibid., p. 37. "We met numbers of Arabs I will make RABBAH (the chief city) of the Ammonites with their camels."-Ibid. a stable for camels, And a couching place for flocks, Ezek. xxv. 5. Rabbah shall be a desolate heap, Jer. xlix., 2. MOAB. The spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape. The cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein. Judgment is come upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near, Jer. xlviii., 8, 9. The days come, saith the Lord, that I will send unto Moab wanderers, that shall cause him to wander, Ibid., 12. O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove, that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth, Jer. xlviii., 28. Moab shall be a derision. "The keepers drive in goats for shelter during the night." Mr. Buckingham relates, that at Amman he "lay down among flocks of sheep and goats, and that he was almost entirely prevented from sleeping by the bleating of flocks." Travels among the Arab Tribes, p. 72, 73. "The buildings exposed to the atmosphere are all in decay. The plain is covered with the remains of private buildings," &c.-Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, p. 359, 360. "The ruins of Eleale, Heshbon, Meon, Dibon, Aroer, still subsist to illustrate the history of the Beni Israel." Burckhardt enumerates many ruined sites within its boundaries.Travels in Nubia, p. 38. els in Syria, p. 370. Trav Of Moab, Burckhardt writes -"Wherever the Bedouins (wandering Arabs) are masters of the cultivators, the latter are soon reduced to beggary by their unceasing demands." -Travels in Syria, p. 381. "The wretched peasants retire among the rocks which border on the Dead Sea."Volney's Travels, vol. ii., p. 334. "There are many families living in caverns"- "inhabitants of the rocks." Seetzen's Travels, p. 26. "There are many artificial caves in a large range of perpendicular cliffs, in some of which are chambers and small sleeping apartments.".. Captains Irby and Mangles' Travels, p. 473. "In the Valley of Wale," bor 1 As the wandering bird cast out dering on the Arnon, Burckof her nest, so the daughters hardt observed "a large party of Moab shall be at the ford of of Arabs Shererat encamped. Arnon, Isa. xvi., 2. EDOM (or Idumea) shall be a desolation. I will make thee most desolate, Jer. xlix., 17. Ezek. XXXV., 3. I will stretch out my hand upon Edom; and will make it desolate from Teman, Ezek. XXV., 13. They wander about in misery, the women wearing nothing but a loose shirt hanging in rags about them.”—Travels, p. 370, 371. "The traces of many towns and villages are met with. At present all this country is a desert, "And Maan (Teman, as marked in the map prefixed to Burckhardt's Travels) is the only inhabited place in it."-P. 436. If grape-gatherers come to "The whole plain presented thee, would they not leave to the view an expanse of some gleaning grapes? if shifting sands; the depth of thieves by night, they will sand precludes all vegetation destroy till they have enough. of herbage." Burckhardt's But I have made Esau BARE, Travels in Syria, p. 442. Edom shall be a desert wilderness, Jer. xlix., 9, 10. I will stretch out upon Idumea (Edom) the line of confusion and the stones of empti ness. "On ascending the western plain, we had before us an immense expanse of dreary country, entirely covered with black flints, with here and there some hilly chain rising from the plain."—Burckhardt's Syria, p. 444. Moreover, the word of the "It is from the summit of Lord came unto me, saying, (the mountain) El Nakb that son of man, set thy face against one can judge of the general Edom, and prophecy against aspect of the country, of the it, and say unto it, Thus saith melancholy and dismal state of the Lord God, behold, O Mount which it is difficult to convey Seir, I am against thee, and I an idea with the pencil alone. will stretch out mine hand Many prophets have announagainst thee, and I will make ced the misery of Idumea, but thee most desolate, &c., Ezek. XXXV., 1, 2, 3. I will lay thy cities waste; and thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir, Ezek. xxxv., 3, 4. the strong language of Ezekiel can alone adequately describe this great desolation." -Laborde. "The following ruined places are situated in Djebal Shera (Mount Seir), Kalaab, Djir |