being besides a large number of unwalled towns (ver. 5). Its chief cities were Ashtaroth (i. e. Beeshterah, comp. Josh, xxi, 27 with 1 Chron. vi, 71), Edrei, Golan, Salcah, and possibly Mahanaim (Josh, xiii, 30). Two of these cities, viz. Golan and Beeshterah, were allotted to the Levites of the family of Gershom, the former as a " city of refuge" (Josh, xxi, 27 ; 1 Chron. vi, 71). The important district was bestowed on the half tribe of Manasseh (Josh, xiii, 29-31), together with "half Gilead." After the Manassites had assist- ed their brethren in the conquest of the country west of the Jordan, they went to their tents and to their cattle in the possession which Moses had given them in Bashan (xxii, 7, 8). It is doubtful, however, whether the limits of this tribe ever extended over the | whole of this region. See Manasseh. Solomon ap- \ pointed twelve officers to furnish the monthly supplies ;' for the ro3'al household, and allotted the region of Ar- gob to the son of Geber (1 Kings iv, 13). Toward the close of Jehu's reign, Hazael invaded the land of Israel, and smote the whole eastern territory, "even Gilead and Bashan" (2 Kings x, 33; Joseph. Ant. ix, 8, 1); but after his death the cities he had taken were re- covered by Jehoash (Joash) (2 Kings xiii, 25), who de- feated the Syrians in three battles, as Elisha had pre- dicted (2 Kings xiii, 19 ; Joseph. Ant. ix, 8, 7). After this date, although the "oaks" of its forests and the wild cattle of its pastures — the " strong bulls of Ba- shan"— long retained their proverbial fame (Ezek. xxvii, 6 ; Psa. xxii, 12), and the beaut}' of its high downs and wide-sweeping plains could not but strike now and then the heart of a poet (Amos iv, 1 ; Psa. I lxviii, 15 ; Jer. 1, 19 ; Mic. vii, 14), yet the country al- I most disappears from history ; its very name seems to have given place as quickly as possible to one which had a connection with the story of the founder of the nation (Gen. xxxi, 47-8), and therefore more claim to use. Even so early as the time of the conquest, " Gilead" seems to have begun to take the first place as the designation of the country beyond the Jordan, a place which it retained afterward to the exclusion of Bashan (comp. Josh, xxii, 9, 15, 32 ; Judg. xx, 1 ; Psa. Ix. 7 ; cviii, 8 ; 1 Chron. xxvii, 21 ; 2 Kings xv, 29). 1 Indeed " Bashan" is most frequently used as a mere accompaniment to the name of Og, when his overthrow is alluded to in the national poetry. After the cap- tivity the name Batansea was applied to only a part of the ancient Bashan ; the three remaining sections being called Trachonitis, Auranitis, and Gaulanitis (Lightfoot's Works, x, 282). All these provinces were granted by Augustus to Herod the Great, and on his death Batanrea formed a part of Philip's tetrarchy (Joseph. War, ii, 6, 3; Ant. xviii, 4, 6). At his de- [ cease, A.D. 34, it was annexed by Tiberius to the province of Syria; but in A.D. 37 it was given by Caligula to Herod Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, with the title of king (Acts xii, 1; Joseph. Ant. xviii, 6, 10). From the time of Agrippa's death, in A.D. 44, to A.D. 53, the government again reverted to the Ro- mans, but it was then restored by Claudius to Agrippa II (Acts xxv, 13; Joseph. Ant. xx, 7, 1). j The ancient limits of Bashan are very strictly de- fined. Ii extended from the "bordei «f Gilead" on the south to Mount Hermon on the north (Deut. iii, 3, 10, 14; Josh, xii, 5; 1 Chron. v, 23), and from the Arabah or Jordan valley on the west to Salcah and the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites on the east (Josh, xii, 3-5 ; Deut. iii, 10). The sacred writers include in Bashan that part of the country eastward of the Jordan which was given to half the I tribe of Manasseh, situated to the north of Gilead. I Bochart incorrectly places it between the rivers Jabbok j and Am on, and speaks of it as the allotment of the tribes of Reuben and Gad (Num. .xxxii, 33). Of the four post-exilian provinces, Gaulanitis, Auranitis, Tra- chonitis, and Batansea, all but the third have retained almost perfectly their ancient naires, the modern Le-
BASHAN-HAVOTH-JAIK
685
jah alone having superseded the Argob and Traehoni- tia Of the ( Hd and New Testaments. The province of Jaulan is the most western of the four; it abuts on the Sea of < iaUlee and the Lake of Merom, from the former of which it rises to a plateau nearly 3000 feet above the surface of the water. This plateau, though now al- most wholly uncultivated, is of a rich soil, and its north-west portion rises into a range of hills almost everywhere clothed with oak forests (Porter, ii, 259). No less than 127 ruined villages are scattered over its surface. See Golan. The Hauran is to the south- east of the last named province and south of the Lejah; like Jaulan, its surface is perfectly flat, and its soil esteemed among the most fertile in Syria. It too con- tains an immense number of ruined towns, and also many inhabited villages. See Haukan. The con- trast which the rocky intricacies of the Lejah present to the rich and flat plains of the Hauran and the Jaulan has already been noticed. See Argob. The remain- ing district, though no doubt much smaller in extent than the ancient Bashan, still retains its name, modi- tied by a change frequent in the Oriental languages. Ard d-Balamyeh lies on the east of the Lejah and the north of the range of Jebel Hauran or ed-Druze (Porter, ii, 57). It is a mountainous district of the most pic- turesque character, abounding with forests of ever- green oak, and with soil extremely rich ; the surface studded with towns of very remote antiquity, deserted, it is true, but yet standing almost as perfect as the Any they were built. For the boundaries and characteris- tics of these provinces, and the most complete re- searches yet published into this interesting portion of Palestine, see Porter's Damascus, vol. ii ; comp. Schwarz, Potest, p. 219; Jour. Sac. Lit Jan. 1852, p. 263, S64; July, 1854, p. 282 sq. ; Porter, Giant Cities (Lond. 1865).— Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. v.