457 and the price for the whole work will be about was sought to conceal from the knowledge of his and which in all was of a 1 5 shillings. Even those who already possess the subjects, probability English edition will find the new work indis- mental character. The special interest of Hommel’s pensable, if they wish to be up to date; while article lies in his attempt to bring this into con- students who have not yet made acquaintance nexion with what the Book of Daniel relates of the with Jastrow may be confidently recommended lycanthropy of Nebuclzadnt’zzar. It is well known a is the circum- to procure the forthcoming volume as the authority that serious difhculty occasioned by on its subject. J. A. SELBIE. stance that in that book Belshazzar is called the son l1IarJ’mltcr, A bcrdecll. of Nebuchadnezzar, whereas there was no blood I relationship whatever between them. Nabonidos, on the other hand, was the father of Belshazzar, ~R.mon~ f6t (ptríobícá.fa. and Hommel seeks to show reason why in Dn 2-5 I we should read 7>2> (Nabonidos) for nY>7D2> The Book of Daniel. I (Nebuchadnezzar) everywhere except in 5 2. He PROFESSOR HontMEL contributes to the Tlaenl. finds a similar error of transcription in chap. 6, Darius into Literaturblatt (28th March last) a paper on ’The where he would change (t&dquo;i’n7) Date of the Book of Daniel, and the Lunacy of Gobryas (v~1’~1a). The bearing of all this upon the Nabonidos.’ The Annals of the latter monarch date of the Book of Daniel, especially if, with of the contain repeated notices (extending over five Hommel, one could be brought to accept years) of the absence of Nabonidos from Babylon Aramaic portions (chaps. 2-7) as part of an original and his sojourn in Te-ma-a (Tema), while his son work, and to look upon chaps. 8-12 as of ~Iacca- Bel-sar-usur (Belshazzar) with the nobles and the baean date, is of no little importance. But the troops was in the land of Akkad. Hommel argues present is not the place in which to examine the that this exile of the Babylonian king can have validity of his arguments. J. A. SELBIE. been due to nothing but some malady which it I ~ra~~~culte~~, ~1 ber dee~z.

Jacob’s Route from Haran to Shechem. BY PROFESSOR S. R. DRIVER, D.D., LITT. D., OXFORD. OF none of the four places, Mizpah, Mahanaim, territory of Gad, and in a ‘ vale’ (Jos I32ï, Ps 606), Penuel, and Succoth, which Jacob is stated to -presumably, therefore, in the part of the Jordan have passed on this journey, has the name been valley through which the Jabbok flows into the preserved locally; and the identifications which Jordan, and which is very fertile. The following have been proposed are in consequence entirely synopsis will perhaps assist the reader to estimate conjectural. From such indications as are afforded the relative probability of the principal identifica- by the way in which the places are mentioned tions that have been hypothetically proposed :- either in this narrative or elsewhere, it may be inferred that Mi~pah was some elevated spot on the north-east of Gilead; that ~llaha~zai~n was within sight of the Jordan (Gn 3210; cf. 2 S 229 I8‘’3~’ [see 17 24]), near some ford of the Jabbok (3222), and also a city of Gad, bordering closely on Manasseh (Jos i 32g. 30 2138); that Penuel was close to the on than Suc- Jabbok (Gn 32~-sof.~ higher ground 1 A Saracenic castle : see photographs inMitth. u. Nachr. des Z.D.P.V., coth, and to the east or south-east (Jg 85.8, cf. v.11); I898, p. 55f. It stands on the top of a hill, and commands a particu- larly fine view of the entire Jordan valley, from the lake of Gennesareth and that Succoth was on the route between Penuel to the Dead Sea (Le Strange, in Scliumacher’s Across the Jordan, p. and Shechem, which would pass most naturally 286 f.). 2 ’The hills of so called from the metalliferous sand- over the ford little south of the gold,’ yellowish ed-Dlmiyeh (a point stone of which they are composed,—two conical hills, round which the at which the Jabbok enters the Jordan), in the Jabbok winds, about 6 miles east of Deir’ Allā, up the valley.

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All these places, except Suleikhat, as well as the till it enters the Jordan valley, some 10 miles lower routes and fords mentioned in the following re- down ; the stream rushes along swiftly, at the marks, are shown on G. A. Smith’s large Topo- bottom of a deep chasm like a cmion, with very graphical ~lTap of Palestine. The reader will also lofty and precipitous banks,’ fringed by tall canes ’ be able to follow the argument with the help of and rushes, and with no road or passage along the Map of Gilead in the Ene. Bibl. ii. s.v., or either side, except, as it seems, rough paths through even with the shilling Map of Palestine in Murray’s the jungle, the best of which is a rocky and Classical Maps (both of which , indicate the ele- perilous bridle-path, on the face of the bluff on the vations by shadings). Suleikhat, according to north side, along which Professor Paine found Merrill’s description, is in the higher part of the himself frequently obliged to dismount (p. 489 f.). W. Suleikhat, 3 miles north of the W. ’Ajlun, and The real ancient thoroughfare in these parts from a mile east of the road through the Gh6r from west to east, says Professor Paine, is a well-marked Beisan to the south ; it would therefore in G. A. Roman road (not shown on G. A. Smith’s Map), Smith’s Map be in the second wady north of ~V. leading up from Deir ’Alld, past Shihan and ’Ajlun, a little below the figure ‘ 500.’ At the Mukhmah to ’Amman. Professor Paine’s state- spot indicated there are considerable ruins, stand- ments certainly produce upon the reader the im- ing some 300 ft. above the plain, and commanding pression that they are accurate ; it is difficult to an extensive view of the Jordan valley ; the site think that he could have come forward to contra- therefore, it is argued, if adopted for Mahanaim, dict Merrill as categorically as he does, without the would well suit the conditions of the narrative in assurance that he was on firm ground in doing so. 2 S 18 (see Hastings’ D.B. s.v.). It is probable that the Mizpah’ of Gn 3149 was On the topography of the Jabbok valley, the further to the north or north-east than either Kal&dquo;at article of Professor J. A. Paine, Succoth and er-Rabad or Suf (for it seems to mark the border in Penuel not yet identified,’ in the Bibl. Sacra, 1878, these parts between Israelitish and Aramaean terri- pp. 4S i-98, should especially be consulted. This tory) : but that hardly affects the main question ; article is mainly a criticism-and, so far as one Jacob will in any case have approached the region who has not personally visited the locality can of the Jabbok from the north or north-east. To judge, a conclusive criticism -of an article by consider, then, Merrill’s route first. If Jacob passed Merrill in the same periodical, 1877, pp. 742 ff., in by (or near) Suleikhat, he will naturally have come which sites are proposed for these two places. Pro- down to it by the route passing north and south along fessor Paine describes the region about the Jabbok the Gh6r 2 ; but a glance at the map will show how minutely, with a sketch-map (p. 483), examines improbable it is that, having reached the neigh- Merrill’s identifications from the point of view of bourhood of Deir C A1Iä, he should then, if his both topography and philology, and (if his de- goal were the ford ed-Damiyeh, have made a scriptions may be assumed to be correct) shows défour of 6 miles to the east, up the valley of the convincingly that they cannot be sustained. As Jabbok, to Tulul edh-Dhahab ( = Penuel), and regards the lower course of the Jabbok valley, then back again,-crossing the stream (Gn 3222) there is a remarkable conflict of testimony : while ~ as he returned, and afterwards, of course, recross- Merrill (pp. 748-50) speaks of it as the man ~ ing it, to Deir ’Alla ( = Succoth), in order then to thoroughfare to the east’ with ~ a good and easy ) resume his journey to ed-Dimiyeh. Moreover, road,’ Professor Paine declares emphatically that ; if Tulul edh-Dhahab is Penuel, it must have been there is practically no road through it whatever useless either for the Midianites to take flight up from the ford ez-Zubliyeh, a little south of Jerash, to it, or for Gideon to pursue them; for, as has 3 been Succoth is said in the Talm. to have been called in later times shown, according to Professor Paine, the Tar alah, or Dar; alah but it is very doubtful whether, as Merrill thinks, banks of the stream for some 10 miles above Tulul Deir ’Allā has any connexion with this ; for Dcir is a Syriac and Arabic word (common in names of places) meaning ’monastery,’ which there is 1 Similarly Thomson, Land and Book, iii. 584 : ’The no reason whatever for seeing in the Tar- or Dar- (without theyod) of gorge of the Zerka is wild and and the Talm. exceedingly picturesque ; name. Cf. Paine, p. 492 ff.). the cliffs rise 4 Heth almost perpendicularly to a great height on and3, Moab pp. I8I-I86; Smith, D.B.2s.v. GILEAD, p. II92. 5 either side.’ A depressed plain (Bukei’a is the dimin. of ?), surrounded by 2 The route down from Ral’at er-Rabad would sandstone and limestone ridges (Heth and Moab, I86). Conder (Smith, straight D.B.2 II92a) thinks that the name Mahanaim still survives in Mukh- have led him to the head of the W. ’Ajlun, not into the mah (?) on the W. edge of this. W. Suleikhat.

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edh-Dhahab, as far as the ford ez-Zubliyeh, are so road from ’AmmAn to Gerasa (the Mesra ez- lofty and precipitous as to be virtually impassable Zubliyeh, Paine). According to Paine, (3) is on either side. It thus seems impossible that dangerous, and quite impassable for large droves Tulul edh-Dhahab can really be the ancient Penuel. of cattle, the descent being very steep and the Conder’s localization of Mahanaim and Penuel current swift (p. 484) ; 3 hence natives always send brings Jacob by an entirely different route. Pass- loaded animals round by (4). But even supposing ing through Gerasa, he will have crossed the Jacob, coming from the north, had crossed the Jabbok by the ford ez-Zubliyeh (on G. A. Smith’s Jabbok by (4), this, as the Map shows, would not Map, just north of el-Mastabeh) ; pursuing the route taken him in the direction of ed-Damiyeh : southwards he will have climbed from the level of I therehave is, as we have seen, no passage down the the Jabbok (between 500 and 1000 ft.), 1000 ft. Jabbok, at any rate for flocks and herds; and the or more, up to el-Bukei‘al 1 (2000 ft.); then turning road over the ford leads naturally up to Jogbehah off to the west, at a point not clearly indicated, and ’AmmAn. If he crossed by (2), he could no but perhaps at Jogbehah, he will have climbed doubt have picked his way’ (Paine, p. 489) down I200-ISoo ft. more, past es-Salt, till he reached past Tulul edh-Dhahab (= Penuel) to Deir ’Alld Jebel ’Osha (3597 ft.), then-though, if his goal ( = Succoth) : but this implies that Mahanaim was was ed-Damiyeh, the shorter and more obvious not at Merrill’s site, but somewhere (say) near route would have been for him to go straight down Burmah ; and there remains the further difficulty to it from es-Salt (see the route in G. A. Smith’s mentioned above, that there would be no route for Map)-going on in a north-westerly direction he Gideon and the Midianites above Tulul edh- will have come down to the Jabbok, have crossed Dhahab. The most natural ford for Jacob to it at about one mile south-east of Deir ’All a, after- cross would be (i) : then Mahanaim might be 4 wards, turning southwards along the Gh6r route, he (say) at Deir ’Alld, 4 miles north of the ford ; will have crossed it again in order to reach the ford Penuel might be (say) near where the Gh6r route ed-DAmiyeh. Can this extremely circuitous route crosses the route from es-Salt to ed-Da.miyeh ; and of journeying from any part of the Jebel ’Ajlun to Succoth on one of the lower terraces of the Jordan ed-DAmiyeh be deemed probable?i’ Is it likely valley (which here sinks from -500 ft. to -1000 ft.) that Jacob would have gone, with his numerous west of the point just suggested for Penuel, in the flocks and herds, up and down these lofty moun- position, south of the Jabbok, and consequently in tains ? Let it also be remembered that el-Bukei’a the territory of Gad, postulated by Dillmann.5 ( = Mahanaim, upon this hypothesis), so far from Perhaps, at some future time, excavation will show being ’near’ either the Jordan or the Jabbok., is whether towns stood anciently upon the sites thus 20 miles from the former river and 8 from the indicated. latter, while even Jebel ‘Osha ( = Penuel) is r o It is to be regretted that in recent maps of miles from the Jordan and 8 from the 3 Jabbok. Professor Paine’s own horse was, in July, swept off its Conder’s localizations obviously do not satisfy the legs. When Tristram crossed by this ford (Land of Israel, conditions of the biblical narrative. 549), ’the strong current reached the horse’s girths’ ; it is, Gn 3222 says that Jacob passed over the ‘ford’ however, ’not very formidable’ in September (Thomson, Land and iii. see for date ’of Jabbok. According to both Paine’s sketch and Book, 584 ; the p. 578). 4 Suleikhat, Merrill’s site (see above), I3 miles north of the G. A. Smith’s there are four fords in the Map, Jabbok ford, would not perhaps be too distant from it for lower Jabbok: (i) The ford crossed by the Gh6r the narrative of Gn 32 (it is not certain that ’ there ’ in route (acc. to Paine, p. 497 f., the Mesra Kenan, or 3213 is Mahanaim : vv.3-6 imply that Jacob had stayed at there that ’Canaan-ford’2); (2) the ford on the road from Mahanaim for some time, so ’and he lodged night’ reads like a new statement relating to a place to es-Salt to Deir ’Alld and Beisan; (3) the ford on which he had now advanced, and which seems to be the one the road from to Burmah and Gerasa ¡ es-Salt (the named afterwards (v.30) Peniel). However, a site nearer -4fesra e1Z-Nâfariyeh, Paine) ; (4) the ford on the I/ the Jabbok would seem to be more suitable for a place on the border between Gad and Manasseh I326. 30), and 1 (Jos Conder himself (p. I85) takes him much further round belonging properly to Gad (2I38). by the east to reach el-Bukei’a, viz. by the present Haj route. 5 The route from the south the Ghôr, Moab, 2 up through Whence, also, on Paine’s sketch, a route is marked, and and past Heshbon and Beth-Nimrah (see G. A. Smith’s of spoken (p. 498), as leading up to ’Ajlun and other towns Map), would also be a natural one for Esau to take in coming of the Jebel ’Ajlun. from Edom to meet Jacob (Gn 33),

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Palestine no attempt is made to distinguish sites the reductio ad absurdum of map-making ; and yet which are certain from sites which are merely this is by no means unexampled in maps of Pales- hypothetical. The student who uses Murray’s Map tine.’ Thus in maps of this country the sites would suppose, for instance, that the sites there shown for many places must often be accepted given for Betonim, Ramath-Mizpeh, Ramoth- with caution and distrust. A critical map of Gilead, Penuel, Ed, Zoar, Zophim, Beth-Peor, Palestine, on a convenient scale, in which the were as certain as those of Jerusalem or Hebron, certain sites were distinguished consistently- whereas, in fact, they are one and all purely con- whether typographically or otherwise-from those jectural, and at least in some cases anything but which are (a) only more or less probable, and (b) probable. Even in G. A. Smith’s extremely valu- purely conjectural, is a desideratum of biblical able Map it is difficult not to think that the note of students at the present day. interrogation might have been suitably used more 1 freely than it has been. The maps in the E71g<- See, e.g., Luhith (Luith) in G. A. Smith’s Map and The upon which this is placed in clop(edia Biblica, however, show in this respect a Murray’s Map. grounds the former on the south of Ras Si’aghah are not apparent ; commendable and reserve. That a judgment those assigned in P.E.F.M. West Pal., pp. 228, 253, are place should, in two different maps, be shown with surely questionable and inconclusive in the extreme. Con- equal certainty in two different positions, is surely trast Buhl, p. 272.

The Breat Text Commentary. THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

ACTS I I I. 19-2 1. Seasons of refreshing.-The word refreshing’ was used the Greek translators in Ps 66’= for the wealthy ’ Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins by pla,-e into which Israel was after through may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of brought passing fire and water, and so it takes us back in thought to the refreshing from the presence of the Lord ; and that He Exodus. As Israel then under the tyranny of may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, groaned I’haraoh, so were the now under the yoke of euen Jesus : whom the heaven must receive until the Jews groaning was the of the and times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake Rome. It ‘seasons Gentiles’ (Lk 2 1~’¡), for a second Exodus. wanted seasons by the mouth of His holy prophets which have been the Jews longed They of or of for that is the better since the world began’ (R.V.). refreshing rccrealz’on, meaning, as in 1’s 3913 where the word again occurs. In fact, Israel wanted ‘the regeneration’ (1B1t i9=8), to be made once more a people.―RACKHAM. EXPOSITION. That He may send the Christ.-This sending is, by the construction of the Greek, dependent on their repent- Repent ye therefore.-The apostles began (Ac 238), as ance, as are the seasons of refreshincr. -ABBOTT. the Baptist began (Mt 3~), as the Christ Himself began Who hath been appointed for you, euen Jesus.’- (Mt 4171 Mk’ 115), with the exhortation to repentance, to a The expression here not only refers to the fact that Jesus change of heart and life, not to mere regret for the past.- was the appointed Christ, inasmuch as the covenant with hBO~~’LIIv’G. Abraham was fulfilled in Him, but also to the return of And turn again.-As in :Mt 13&dquo;’, Mk 4’~, Ac 28-7, so Jesus as the Christ, the Messianic King, at I-Iis Parousia, in also here, the verb is active, ‘ turn,’ though it is rendered accordance with the voices of the prophets.―KNOWLING. ‘ be converted’ in the Authorized Version.―KNOBB’L!KG. Restoration of all things.--The same word is used by Repent-indicates a change of aim and purpose, while Josephus for the return from the Captivity, and by Philo for ‘ turn again’ expresses a consequent change in direction the restoration of inheritances at the Jubilee. The times and course in life. Both changes are wrought b)’, not on, which had to run their course before the restitution of all the Individual.―AnBOTT. things were already in progress. St. Peter embraced the That your sins may be blotted out.-Particularly their whole period between the Ascension and the Second Advent, being so terribly at cross purposes with God as to have when the regeneration (BIt 1928) will take full effect, when rejected His Chosen One as a sinner.-BARTLr;1’. the creature shall be delivered from the bondage of cor- THE ancient mode of obliteration was by applying the ruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God blunt end of the stylus to the wax on which letters had been (Ro 819-21) by the bringing back, in the new heavens and traced with the sharp end.-Jncol3so~r. new earth (2 P 313, Rev 2i1-S), of all things out of the con-

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