Some of the MohammedanB of the country give a distorted account of the taking of J., confusing it with another eoene in Joshua's life. It is said that a great Imam tried to take the city, liut 80 difHcult was the task of demolishing the walls that the work was not completed when darkness compelled the besiegers to atop. In the morning the walls had sprung up again, and thi' siege had to be recommenced. This went ou for several days, wiien Gnally the Imam caused the sun to stand still, and thus, the day being lengthened, the destruction of the city waa completed. This may not represent an early local tradition, aa the plains were covered with monasteries when the Arabs took the land, and the Mohammedans very probably contused the varioua Biblical accounts they beard from the monks.
Not only was J. utterly destroyed, but Joshua pronounced a solemn curse ou the man who should rebuild it, prophesying misfortune to his children : ' He shall lay the foundations thereof in his first- born, and in his youngest shall he set up the gates of it' (Jos 6=«). In IK 16*" we are told how this curse fell upon Hiel the Bethelite, who in the days of Ahab rebuilt the city. We infer that between these two periods the site was unoccupied, but that it continued to be known by its old name is proved by the facts that in the partition of the land J. was assigned to Benjamin (Jos 18^'). and that David's messengers, after being maltreated by the Ammonites, were told to ' tarry in J. till your beards be grown ' (2 S 10', 1 Ch 19=). Notwith- standing the fulfilment of the curse, the city became again inhabited, for, on the complaint of the ' men of the city ' that the water was naught and the ground barren, Elisha healed the waters bv casting salt in the spring (2 K 2'»). There was also a settlement of the sons of the prophets at the place, who had at their command fifty strong men, whom they sent on a vain search for Elijah, when
he had been carried up into heaven from Kie other side of Jordan (2"). After this the place is men- tioned several times. When Pekali, kin" of Israel, made his raid on the southern kingdom, taking many eapti\'es, these were released by order of the prophet Oded, and taken to J., ' the city of palm trees' (2 Ch 28"). Zedckiah, fleeing from Jerus. before the forces of Nebuch., was taken in the plains of J. (2 K 25», Jer 3'J'). In the list of returned captives (E/.r 2'''-Neli 7*") the children of J. are put down at 345. These restored exiles evidently took up their abode on the old site, for in Neh 3^ we read that the ' men of Jericho' had their share in rebuilding the walla of Jerva. Later on it was fortified by the Syrian geaerai Eacchidos (1 Mac 9").
In the time of our Lord, J. had become an important place, owing to the partiality shown by the Heiodian family to the city. .losephus de- scribes the ]ilace with enthusia.sm (Il'ars, IV. viii. 2-3). The city lay 150 stadia from Jerus. and 60 from the Jordan. It was situated in a plain, divided in the middle by the river, and flanked on either side by high mountains, of which tha western raii^'c overhung the town. Pilm trees abounded in the plain, those near the Jordan being the richest. In summer the climate was so hot that no one cared to come near it, but in winter the air was so mild that the inhabitants went about with linen clothing when snow covered the rest of Judea. He speaks at length of a fountain which was situated near the old city taken by Joshua, and which was healed by Elisha. He claims unusual powers of irrigation for these waters, which had only to flow lightly over tha soil to make it fruitful, and which watered a plain 70 furlongs long by 20 broad, fertilizing gardens thickly set with trees, which produced balsam and myrobalanum. The palm trees were of many kinds, one yielding an excellent honey. Such was the luxuriance and rarity of the vegetation that the author declares the place might well be pronounced divine, and challenges a comparison with any other climate in the whole earth. Strabo (xvi. 2) likens the plain surrounded by mountains to a theatre, and corroborates Josephus' account of its fertility, declaring that the revenues from the balsam (from which medicine was extracted for the head and eyes) and from other plants was great.
When Pompey visited Pal. and endeavoured to clear the land of robbers, he destroyed two of their strongholds, Threx and Taurus, which commanded the approach to J. (ib.). After Jerus. was taken by Pompey, Gabinius, the Rom. general, divided the country into five parts, making J. one of the seats of Assembly (Jos. IVnrs, I. viii. 5). When Herod was appointed at Rome to be king of the Jews, and oefore he was installed in Jerus., his allies plundered J., finding the houses full of all sorts of good things ( Wars, I. xv. 6). Later he farmed from Cleopatra the revenues of the regions about the city, which had been panted her by Antony (Ant. xv. iv. 2), and fortified above the town a citadel, a buUding fine and strong, which he called Cypros in honour of his mother, and built a city to the north of J., which he named Phasaelis after his brother ( Wars, I. xxi. 9). J. was important enough to have its amphitheatre, for we read that from this place Salome announced to the assembled soldiers the news of the death of Herod, which had taken place in the city, though he had given orders that he should be Ijuried at Herodium ( Wars, I. xxxiii. 8). After his death, his ex-slave Simon, aspiring to make himself king, burned down the roj-al palace {Ant. xvil. x. 6), but this was magnificently rebuilt by Archelaus, who also accomplished important work in irrigating