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Notes on the Geography of Palestine

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Notes on the Geography of Palestine Palestine Exploration Quarterly ISSN: 0031-0328 (Print) 1743-1301 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ypeq20 Notes on the Geography of Palestine Caleb Hauser To cite this article: Caleb Hauser (1907) Notes on the Geography of Palestine, Palestine Exploration Quarterly, 39:4, 284-290, DOI: 10.1179/peq.1907.39.4.284 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/peq.1907.39.4.284 Published online: 20 Nov 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 3 View related articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ypeq20 Download by: [University of Birmingham] Date: 07 May 2016, At: 06:31 284 NOTES ON TIlE GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE. man said-this· together with all the other small indications he had gathered-ordinary travellers scarcely ever carry grain for food. We were behind the party and must needs be careful. It was now six in tlte morning. We could· calculate that eighteen hours had elapsed since they had been resting there, for the rock under which the camels had been tethered would only throw sufficient shade to shelter them at midday. They had therefore been there at twelve o'clock the preceding day. (To be. contin~ted.) NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE. By the Rev. CALEB HAUSER, M.A. I. Mahanaim.-Dr. Grove and Col. Conder have argued that this important place" should be sought south of the Jabbok rather than at the northern site of Mal}neh, where later travellers have placed it." I shall endeavour to show that the identification of Mahanaim with Ma1).neh is, nevertheless, correct. The passages· .in Joshua and 1 Chronicles, in which Mahanaim, as a Levitical city of Gad, is placed on the frontier of Gad and ·Manasseh(Josh. xxi, 38; xiii, 26, 30; 1 Chron. vi, 80) rather point to Jebel tAjltln as the .region in which it must be sought. An identification of this place must, however, in order to be decisive, be based on a critical study of the typography of two important events: Jacob's journey to meet Esau, and the battle between· the armies of David and Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 06:31 07 May 2016 Absalom. The typography of this later event shall be illustrated in .the following note on the Wood of Ephraim; here we shall review Jacob's movements with strict regard to typographical notices. Departing from Mizpah (possibly Suf) the patriarch came to Mahanaim apparently on his way to the Promised Land (Gen .. xxxi, 13; xxxiii, 17·sqq.). At Mahanaim, where he "saw the camp of God encamped" (Septuagint), he resolved, in firm reliance on divine protection, to reconcile his brother Esau. Hence the course of his journey was changed; and while his messengers went NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE. 285 to interview Esau and ,vere hastily returning with the mountaineer at their heels, Jacob was leisurely pasturing his flocks and herds toward the J abbok southwards, which he seems. to have reached just as his messengers returned from the land of Seir. That same night, having divided his "people" and property into two com- panies, and having made an appeal to the God of Abraham and Isaac, he lodged there, remaining on the north side of the Jabbok. But it was not the intention of Jacob" to place a natural barrier between himself and the brother 'whom he feared." Therefore a forward movement began on··the following day when Jacob sent his servants with presents for Esau on across before him, while he, with his household and property, intended to ford the Jabbok under cover of the night. So, after lodging yet awhile on the northern bank, he arose that night, taking his wives, women-servants, and sons; and, having his property also brought over, passed over the ford of J abbok with them. A return to the opposite bank is not mentioned. Jacob was left alone, having separated himself from his household, to c<;>mmunewith God, it seems. He wrestled with God on the ridge of a hill near by, and remained the victor. But returning at sunrise to his own near the Jabbok, he was observed to halt on his thigh as he crossed the ridge, which -he called Penuel, "the appearance of God," in commemoration of the event. Hereupon the meeting with Esau; after whose departure, Jacob, re-crossing the Jabbok, moved to Succoth, his goal being Canaan. Thus, if we place Mahan~im north of the J abbok, the narrative is perfectly intelligible; ,vhereas if we assume a site south of the Jabbok, we shall have Jacob sending his servants before him, across the J abbok northward, with presents for Esau who was coming from the south ! Now if it be possible to identify the the Wood of Ephraim in a satisfactory location, that is with regard to l\!ahanaim as at l\laQ.neh, then this identification must be correct. Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 06:31 07 May 2016 For .another indication of the position of 1vlahanaim, see the note on Peniacomia, No. XIII. II. The Wood of Ephraim, the scene of the battle .between the armies of David and Absalonl (2 Sam. xviii, 6) should be sought east of Jordan. Here Josephus places it. It was near Mahanaim; for David, who had made his residence, there (2 Sam. xvii, 24, 27 ; xix, 32; 1 I{ings ii, 8), stood by the gate-side (2 Sam. xviii, 3, 4) ready to succour his people, who had gone .out into the conflict. The victory won and Absalom" s~ain,. Ahimaaz and Cushi brought 286 ,NOTES ON THE. GEOGRAPHY OF PAL}JS'l'INE. tidings to the king, \vho, still waiting the1'e, was sitting between 'the "two gates" of the city wall (2 Sam. xviii, 24). Indeed, the people also who had fought the battle returned to Mahanaim that same day (2 Sanl. xix, 2). Furthermore, the Wood of Ephrainl does not -seem to have been as near the Jorrdan as some, misled by the phrase "by way of the plain" (""?~, 2 Sam. xviii, 23), have supposed; , ·for Israel and Absalom had pitched in the Land of Gilead (2 Sam. 'xvii, 26), to attack Mahanaim from the east, it seems. The Wood of 'Ephraim must therefore be sought on the slopes of Northern Ajltln, near Mahanaim. Here, indeed, E\uch woods of oak (2 Sam. xviii, 10) and other trees are still to be found. Conder speaks in glowing terms of "the beauty of the ravines of Gilead between Wady Hesban in the south and the Hieromax in the north," and 0() bserves: "Beside clear mountain brooks the horseman wanders through glades of oak and terebinth, with dark pines above" (Heth and Moab, p. 193). Here, near the head of Wady el-Ghafr (Northern ~Ajltt1n, pp. 179, 181), is a castle of the same nanle, the site of Ephron (so Buhl), destroyed by Judas l\1accabaeus (1 ~Iacc. v, 46- v3; 2 Mace. xii, 27), also the site of r'/€¢VpOVV (Polybius, v, 70, 12). No\v Ephron and Ephrain~ are one and the same, since the ending :-ain~ or -ain sometimes interchanges with -on. The Wood of -Ephraim was therefore along the upper course of Wady el-Ghafr, less than 15 miles from l\1a1,lneh,which is l\1ahanaim. III. Seii'ah and the Mountain of Ephraim.-The town was prob- .ably the first one that Ehud could reach; for" he escaped to Seirath. And it came to pass when he was come (to Seinih) that he ble\v a trumpet in the mountain of Ephraim " (Judges iii, 26, 27). This mountain was, without doubt, the spur reaching out from Ophra, the New Testament Ephraim, to the Jordan valley. Another con- sideration compels us to locate the l\1ountain of Ephraim just here. ·Ehud blew the trumpet to summon the Israelites for imnwdiate Downloaded by [University of Birmingham] at 06:31 07 May 2016 .service cd the fords of the Jordan. "And the children of Israel \vent dow,n with hin~ from the mrntnt and he before them. .'. And they went down after him and took the fords of Jordan toward Moab, .and suffered not a man to pass over" (Judges iii, 27, 28). All this time in the City of Palm Trees, King Eglon's servants, not a\vare of what had befallen ·him, were waiting to be readmi.tted into his presence; and they could not have waited many hours before -unlocking the doors of the parlour~ On seeing what had happened, they would flee back tol\ioab, one might reasonably suppose. NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE. 287 Ehud therefore, intent· upon preventing them at the fords, canno "have scoured the mountains of the ttribe of Ephraim. Then, too Seirah is so connected with the PeszUm that were by Gilgal (Judges iii, 19, 26) that we may look" for the site of Seirah not far from Gilgal. The required site is lhnrn Sirah, some 4 or 5 miles north west of Jericho. ." IV. J.1iollnt Halak, "the smooth (or bare) mountain that goeth up to Seir " (Josh. xi, 17 ; xii, 7), the extent of Joshua's conquests in Southern Palestine, is generally identified ,vith some· mount~in in the imnlediate vicinity of the 'Arabah. Trumbull seeks to identify this landmark with the northern wall of Wady el-Fikreh. 'He says, in J{adesh Batrnea: "The northern wall of this wady is a bare and bald rampart of rock,. forming a natural· boun~ary as it 'goeth up to Seir'; a landmark both impressive and unique, 'which corresponds with all the Old Testament mentions of tp.e l\lount Halak .." But Joshua's conquests extended farther south.
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