HARODITE
85
HARP
Mile of Gilboa rises over the fnuntain steep and rujiged. Some have thought it strange that the Midianites should not liave seized on this fountain ; but, as many of the Israelites probablj' lurked in the mountain, the IVIidian- f ites may have deemed it more prudent to encamp in the
1 open plain to the north, where there are also fountains.
j The Jerusalem Itinerary seems to indicate that the name
! Aiii Jiihid {i\. d. "Fountani of (ioliath") arose from an
; ancient tradition that tlie adjoining valley was the site
of David's victory over the giant (ed. Wesseling, p. 580). The fountain was a noted camping-ground for both Christians and Saracens during the Crusades. William of Tyre calls it Tiihania {Gesta Dei per Francos, p. 1037 ; Bohadin, Vita Saladini, p. 53). The valley of Jezreel still forms a favorite haunt of the wild Bedawhi, who periodicall}' cross from the east side of the Jordan, as in Judg. vi, 5 : " They came up with their cattle and their tents, and the\' came as grasshoppers for multitude; both they and their camels were without number" (Por- ter, I/arulbookfor Si/r. and Pal. ii, 355 ; Kobinson, Bib. Res. ii, 324).— Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. v.
Ha'rodite (Heb. Charodi', I'inn, Sept. 'Apo^i'), an epithet of Shammah and Elika, two of David's lieroes {'1 Sam. xxiii, 25), probably from their being natives of Harod, a place near the fountain of the same name (Judg. vii, 1). See Hakoritk.
Haro'eh (1 Chron. ii, 52). See Reaiaif.
Ha'rorite (Heb. Charori', "'"li'^rt, prob. by errone- ous transcription for "''li^fl, HarodUe ; Sept. has QaSi, Vulg. A rorites), an epithet of Shammoth, one of David's heroes (1 Chron. xi, 27) ; for which the parallel passage (2 Sam. xxiii, 25) more correctly reads Harodite (q. v).
Har'osheth (Heb. Charo'shelh) of the Gentiles (D^liill no^n, vorhnanship of the nations, i. e. city of handicrafts ; Sept. 'ApK7w9 twv WvM',\u\g. Ilaro- seth fientiuvi), a cit^?- supposed to liave been situated near Hazor, in the northern parts of Canaan, afterwards called Upper Galilee, or Galilee of the Gentiles, from the mixed races inhabiting it. See Galilee. Ilaro- sheth is said to have been the residence of Sisera, the general of the armies of Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor (Judg. iv, 2). Here the army and chariots of Jabin were marshalled under the great cap- tain before they invaded Israel, and defiled from the northern mountains into the broad battle-lield of Eschra- elon (ver. 13). After the terrible defeat and slaughter on tiie banks of the Kishon, to this place the fugitives of the army returned, a shattered and jianic-stricken remnant. Barak and his victorious troops followed them into the fastnesses of their own mountains, to the verj- gatcs of Harosheth (ver. 16). The city is not again mentioned in the Bible, nor is it referred to by Jose- phus, Jerome, or any ancient writer. It was at the ex- treme of Jabin's territory', opposite the Kishon (ver. 13), and also at a good distance from Tabor (ver. 14). It is supposed to have stood on the west coast of the lake Merom (el-Huleh), from which the Jordan issues forth in one mibroken stream, and in the portion of the tribe of Naphtali. Jabin's capitgcl, Hazor, one of the fenced cities assigned to the children of Naphtali (.Josh, xix, 36), lay to the north-west of it. Probably from inter- marriage with the conquered Canaanites, the name of Sisera afterwards became a family name (Ezra ii, 53). Neither is it irrelevant to allude to this coincidence in connection with the moral effects of this decisive victo- ry ; for Hazor, once " the head of all those kingdoms" (Josh, xi, 6, 10), had been taken and burnt by Joshua ; its king, Jabin I, put to the sword ; and the ^\ hole con- federation of the Canaanites of the north broken and slaughtered in the celebrated battle of the waters of Merom (.Tosh, xi, 5-14)— the first time that "chariots and horses" appear in array against the invading host, and are so summarily disposed of, according to divine command, under Joshua, but which subsequently the children of Joseph feared to face iu the valley of Jez-
reel (.Tosh, xvii, 16-18), and before which Judah actual- ly failed in the Philistine plain (Judg. i, 10). Herein was the great difticulty of subduing jilains, similar to that of the Jordan, beside which Harosheth stood. It was not till the Israelites had asked for and obtained a king that they began " to multiply chariots and horses" to themselves, contrary to the express words of the lavi^ (Deut. xvii, 10), as it >vere to tight the enemy with his own weapons. (The first instance occurs 2 Sam. viii, 4; comp. 1 Chron. xviii, 4; next in the histories of Absa- lom, 2 Sam. XV, 1, and of Adonijah, 1 Kings i, 5; while the climax was reached under Solomon, 1 Kings iv, 26.) Then it was that the Hebrews' decadence set in ! tliey were strong in faith when they hamstrung the horses and burned with fire the chariots of the kings of Ha- zor, of Madon, of Shimron, and of Achshaph (.losh. xi, 1), Yet so rapidly did they decline when their illustrious leader was no more that the city of Hazor liad risen from its ruins; and, in contrast with the kings of Meso- potamia and Moab (Judg. iii), who were both foreign ]j0- tentates, another Jabin, the territory of whose ancestors had been assigned to the tribe of Naphtali, claimed the distinction of being the first to revolt against and shake off the dominion of Israel in his newly accjiured inherit- ance. But the victory won by Deborah and Barak was well worthy of the song of triumph Avhich it inspired (Judg. v), and of the proverbial celebrity which ever afterwards attached to it (Psa. Ixxxiii, 9, 10 ; a passage ■\\hich shows that the fugitives were overtaken as far as Endor). The whole territory was" gradualh' won back, to be held permanently, as it would seem (Judg. iv, 24); at all events, we hear nothing more of Hazor, Haro- sheth, or the Canaanites of the north in the succeeding wars. The etymology of the name Jlarosheih, q. d. " wood-r«^?j«/7.s," joined with the above facts, may jus- tify us in locating the cit\- on the upland plains of Naph- tah, probably on one of those ruin-crowned eminences stiU existing, from which the mother ol' Sisera, looking out from her latticed window, could see far along that road by which she expected to see her son return in tri- umph (Judg. V, 28). Deborah, in her beautiful ode, doubtless depicted the true features of the scene. Ecm- nants of the old forests of oak and terebinth still ^^•ave here over the ruins of the ancient cities, and travellers may see the black tents of the Arabs— fit representa- tives of the Kenites (iv, 17) — pitched beneath their shade (Porter, Handbook for Syr. and Palest, ii, 442 sq. ; Stanley, Jeicish Church, i, 359).— Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. V. Schwarz (Palestine, p. 184) thinks it identical with the village Gi7-sh, situated on a high mount one Eng- lish mile west (on Zimmerman's Map north-west) of Jacob's bridge across tlie Jordan, and nearly destroy- ed by an earthquake in 1837. Dr. Tliomson, however, who gives a vivid description of the geograjjhical feat- ures of Barak's victory (Land and Book, ii, 142 sq.), re- gards the site as that of the present village Harolhieh (a name, according to him, giving the exact Arabia form of the Hebre-\v), an enormous double moimd or tell along the Kishon, about eight miles from Jlegiddo, cov- ered with the remains of old walls and buiklings.