MEROM, THE WATERS OF
the river, confining its waters to its bed’ (Le Strange, Pal. under the Moslems, 68). The floor of the valley northward is one vast morass, varying in breadth from 2 to 3 miles, From the chief source of the Jordan at Tell el-Kddi to the lake, a distance of 11 miles, there is a fall of 498 ft. Towards the lower end the marshes are covered with papyrus-reeds (Arab. babir), and through them in dark sluggish lanes the waters from the north make their way into the lake. The whole place is literaily alive with wild fowl, ranging in size from the pelican to the tiny but gay-plumaged kingfisher; and the water is plentifully stocked with fish (see JORDAN). All the waters from the S.W. of Hermon, and as far north as Hasbeiyeh, from Merj A'‘yiin, and from the western slopes south of the Litany, are carried down into el-Huleh. A few miles above the lake on the west side of the valley there is a copious sprimg, ‘Ain el-Baldta. Almost due west is the much larger ‘Ain el- Melldha, which turns a mill and sends a broad stream across the plain. Possibly misled by this name, Burckhardt gave currency to the statement that the S.W. shore of the lake was covered by a saline (Arab. mallahah) crust (Travels, 316). There is no trace of salt here or elsewhere in the valley.
The uplands of Naphtali drop almost precipi- tously on the west edge of the plain. On the east the mountains descend from a greater height, but much more gradually, approaching almost to the water’s edge. From the lake northward the land is called Ard el-Huleh; southward it is known as Ard el-Khait.
The Waters of Merom appear no more in history under that name; but of the lake and the district under different appellations we have frequent notices. It figures as the lake of Semechonitis in Jos. Ant. ν. v. 1 (cf. Jg 4°). Here, in the ‘plain of Hazor,’ or ‘ Asor,’ Jonathan defeated Demetrius (Ant. x1. v. 7; 1 Mac 11%). When Zenodorus died, Cesar bestowed his country, lying between Trachon and Galilee, upon Herod. It con- tained Ulatha and Paneas, and the country round about (Ant. Xv. x. 3; BJ 1. xx. 4). Οὐλάθα here is evidently equivalent to Huleh, and to xnbm xo of the Talmud (Neubauer, Géog. du Talmud, 24, 27ff.; HGHL 481}, note), and it 1s Suplicd in accord- ance with subsequent usage to the district as well as the lake. Josephus gives a brief description of the place in BJ Il. x. 7, IV. i. 1. Seleucia, which he mentions, is Seléikiyeh, about 9 miles S.E. of the lake, while Daphne corresponds with Difneh, near Tell el-Kadi. The Arab geographers speak of the lake now as Bahairah Kadas and anon as Bahairah Bdaniyas, from its proximity to each of these strong- holds; but the name el-Huleh constantly asserts itself as epplying to both lake and district (Le Strange, Pal. under the Moslems, 52, 68, 32, etc.). To the district also Boh& ed-Din refers (Life of Saladin, PEF tr., p. 155).
The highway from the south and from the west by way of Sated keeps close to the hills on the western edge of the plain, to escape the marshes. It crosses the vale in the north past Tell el-Kadi to Banids, and thence to Damascus.
The land is oceupied to-day by the Ghawdrineh Arabs, ‘the dwellers in the Ghér.’ The herds of buffaloes that find congenial haunts in the marshes are their chief care. They also till the soil, which still justifies its ancient reputation for fertility (Mukaddasi, A.D. 985; Yakfit, A.D. 1225). Their other occupations are hunting and fishing, and making mats, ete., of the reeds from the marshes, Of these also many of their fragile houses are built, The women, however, do the most of this work.
eee ἘΤΤΝ SP 390 ff.; Thomson, Land and Book ii. 450 ff. ; Smith, HGHL 481; Schumacher, The Jauldn, 102;
MERONOTHITE
Macgregor, Rob Roy on the Jordan; Guy Le Strange, Pal. under the Moslems, 32, 34, 39, 52, 68, 455; Robinson, BRP ii. 435, ili. 392-395; SWP Mem. i. 205, Map Sheet iv.; Buhl, GAP 118, 234 (doubts the identification with el-Hudeh); Dillm. on Jos 115, W. EwIna.
MERONOTHITE.—1. Jehdeiah ‘the Merono- thite’ (‘ni527) was over the asses of king David, 1 Ch 27 (B ὁ ἐκ Μεραθών, A —Mapaddv). 2. Jadon ‘the Meronothite’ assisted in repairing the wall of Jerusalem, Neh 37. No place of the name of Meronoth is mentioned in OT, but from the context of Neh 37 it would appear to have been in the neighbourhood of Gibeon and Mizpah.
MEROZ (ἡ; B Mnpwt, A Mafap, Luc. Μαρώρ ; Vulg. Meroz) is nowhere mentioned in Scripture except in the Song of Deborah (Jg 555), whose curse, like that of the Saviour on Chorazin, has alone pre- served it from oblivion. The bitterness of the curse against Meroz can be accounted for only by some special aggravation ofits offence. Of Reuben, Dan, and Asher, who also played an ignoble part, the lan- guage of the song, although satirical, is restrained. But with what impetuous fury it bursts forth—
‘Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof ; Because they came not to the help of the Lord, To the help of the Lord against the mighty.’ This may have been because of their nearness to the field of battle, while the others were far away. If the surrounding country were in a fever of excitement because of the presence of the hostile forces, and the grave issues depending on the coming conflict, the appeal to their patriotism was strengthened ἘΣ If, within sound of the strife when their heroic kinsmen of Zebulun and Naphtali closed in deadly struggle with the oppressor, the men of Meroz illo sullen and craven, behind their walls, we can under- stand why the hot heart of the prophetess overflowed upon them in a flood of corrosive rhetoric.