Sinai and Palestine Volume 1; In Connection with Their History (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1857 Excerpt: ...princes and people, than could be the case in the less firmly established monarchy of Shechem. But it would also be fostered by the difference between the two regions. Except Hebron there was no spot to which a king of Judah would naturally be attracted, either by the beauty or the fertility of its situation. The new capital which Herod founded for the Roman province of Judaea, under the name of Caesarea, was created with an especial view to intercourse with the west, which in early times had no existence. But in the territory of Ephraim, the fertile plains, and to a certain extent wooded hills, which have been often noticed as its characteristic ornaments, at once gave an opening to the formation of parks and pleasure-grounds similar to those which were the "Paradises" of Assyrian and Persian monarchs. One of these was Tirzah, of unknown site, but evidently near Shechem, and of proverbial beauty,1 selected by the first sovereign, Jeroboam,2 and then during three short reigns the habitual residence of the royal house.' Another was Jezreel during the reign of Ahab, of which I shall speak hereafter. But the chief was Samaria Six miles from Shechem, following the course of the same green and watered valley, the traveller finds himself in a wide basin, encircled with hills, on a lower level than the Valley of Shechem, and almost on the edge of the great maritime plain. In the centre of this basin rises an oblong hill, with steep yet accessible sides, and a long flat top. This was "the mountain Shomron" (corrupted through the Chaldee "Shemrin"into the Greek "Samaria"), which Omri bought of Shemer for the great sum of two talents of silver," and built on the mountain, and called the name of the city which he built, Sho...