Palestine and Sj-ria; its pomegranates and watermelons are likewise in high repute, and its gardens and orange and citron groves deliciously fragrant and fertile. But among its population are fugitives and vagabonds from all countries ; and Europeans have little security, wheth- er of life or property, to induce a permanent abode there. A British consul is now resident in the place, and a rail- road has been projected to Jerusalem.
See Raumer's Paldstina ; Vohiey, i, 136 sq. ; Chateau- briand, ii, 103 ; Clarke, iv, 438 sq. ; Buckingham, i, 227 sq. ; Richter, p. 12; Richardson, ii, 16; Skinner, i, 175- 184; Robinson, i, 18; Stent, ii, 27, M'Culloch's Gazet- teer ; Reland, p. 864 ; Cellar. Xof. ii, 524 ; Hamelsveld, i, 442 ; ii, 229 ; Hasselquist, p. 137 ; Niebuhr, iii, 41 ; Jol- iffe, p. 243; Light, p. 125; Ritter,/>(7/i. ii,400; Schwarz, p. 142, 373, 375; Thomson, Land and Book, ii, 273. — Kitto; Smith.
Jop'pe ('loTTTTj;), the Greek form (1 Esdr. v, 55; 1 Mace. X, 75, 76 ; xi, 6 ; xii, 33 : xiii, 11 ; xiv, 5, 34 ; xv, 28,35; 2Macc.iv,21; xii.3,7 ['Io7r;rir?/c]) of the name of the town Joppa (q. v.).
Jo'rall (Heb. Yorak', n^i'^, prob. for iTl'i'i, sprinJc- ling, or autumnal rain; Sept. 'Iwpc'i v. r. Oi'pa, Yulg. Jora), a man whose descendants (or a place whose for- mer inhabitants) to the number of 112 returned from the Babylonian captivity (Ezra ii, 18) ; called HAParn in the parallel passage (Neb. vii, 24). " In Ezra two of De Rossi's MSS., and originally one of Kennicott's, had iTiV, i. e. Jodah, which is the reading of the Syriac and Arabic versions. One of Kennicott's MSS. had the original reading in Ezra altered to t3"11'^, i. o. Joram; and two in Nehemiah read C^"!!, i. e. Harim, which corresponds with 'Apdjx of the Alexandrian ]\IS., and Churom of the Syriac. In any case, the change or con- fusion of letters which might have caused the variation of the name is so slight that it is difficult to pronounce which is the true form, the corruption of Jorah into Hariph being as easily conceivable as the reverse. Bur- rington {Geneal. ii, 75) decides in favor of the latter, but from a comparison of both passages with Ezra x, 31 we should be inclined to regard Harim (n"n) as the true reading in all cases. But, on any supposition, it is diffi- cult to account for the form Azephurith. or, more prop- erh", 'AooKpovplB, in 1 Esdr. v, 16, •,vhioh Biirrington considers as having originated in a comiption of the two readings in Ezra and Nehemiah, the second syllable arising from an error of the transcriber in mistaking the uncial E for 2" (Smith).
Jo'rai (Heb. Yoray', '^'ni'^, perh. i. q. Jorah; Sept. 'Iwptt, Vulg. Jorai), the fourth name of the seven chief- tains of the Gadites other than those resident in Bashan (1 Chron. v, 13). B.C. i)erh. cir. 782. " Four of Ken- nicott's MSS., and the printed copy used by Luther, read iTl"^, i. e. Jodai" (Smith).
Jo'rani (Heb. B"!"!"!; Sept, Twpa/j), prop, a short- ened form of the name Jehokam (q. v.), for which it is indifferently used in the Heb., and arbitrarily in the A. v., as the following classification shows : a. The king of Zobah (2 Sam. viii, 10; Sept. 'licSovpcii.i; elsewhere called Hauoram). b. The king of Judah (2 Kings viii, 21, 23, 24; xi, 2; 1 Chron. iii, 11 ; elsewhere Jehoram). c. The king of Israel (2 Kings viii, 16, 25, 28 [twice], 29 [twice]; ix, 14 [twice], 15, 16 [twice], 29; incor- rectly for Jehoram, 2 Kings ix, 17, 21 [twice], 22, 23; elsewhere correctly so), d. The Levite (1 Chron. xxvi, 25, CH"^). e. By error for Jozabad (1 Esdr. i, 9).
Jor'dan {Ueh.Yarclen', "ll'l", always with the arti- cle T??!''!'; 'lopocjj'jjt,'), the chief and most celebrated river of Palestine, flowing through a deep valley down the centre of the country from north to south. In the following account we largely cite from Kitto's Cyclo- pmdia and Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, s. v. See
RiVEK.
JORDAN
1005
JORDAN
1. The Name. — This signifies descender, from the root Tn"^, " to descend" — a name most applicable to it, wheth- er we consider the rapidity of its current, or the great depth of the valley through which it runs. From what- ever part of the country its banks are approached, the descent is long and steep. That this is the true ety- mology of the word seems evident from an incidental remark in Josh, iii, IG, where, in describing the effect of the opening of a passage for the Israelites, the word used for the "coming down" of the waters (DI^HIl t3'^'7"l''il) is almost the same as the name of the river (see Stanley, S. and P. p. 279, note). Other derivations have been given. Some say it is compounded of "IX"^, fl river, and "IT, the name of the city where it rises, but this etymology is impossible (llcland, Palcest. p. 27J). Another view is, that the river having two sources, the name of the one was Jor, and of the other Dan ; hence the united stream is called Jordan. So Jerome (Comm. in Matt, xvi, 13). This theory has been copied by Adamnanus (ZJe Loc. Sand, ii, 19), William of Tyre (xiii, 18), Brocardus (p. 3), Adrichomius (p. 109), and others ; and the etymology seems to have spread among the Christians in Palestine, from whom Burckhardt heard it (Travels in Syria, p. 42, 43 ; see Robinson, Jj'ib. Pes. iii, 412, note). Arab geographers call the river either El-Urdon, which is equivalent to the Hebrew, or Esh-sheriah, which signitics " the watering-place ;" and this latter is the name almost universally given to it by the modern Syrians, who sometimes attach the appella- tive el-Kebir, " the great," by way of distinction from the Sheriat el-jMandhur, or Hicromax.