Tlie Kislion is, in fact, the drain by which the waters of the ])lain of Esdraelon, and of the mountains which inclose that plain, namely, C-armel and the Samaria range on tlie south, tlie mountain of Galilee on the north, and Gilboa, "Little Ilcrmon" (so called), and Tabor on the east, find their way to the Mediterranean. Its course is in a direction nearly due north-west along the lower part of the [ilain nearest the foot of the Sama- ritan hills, and close beneath the very cliffs of Carmel, breaking through the hills whicli separate the plain of Esdraeli)n from the maritime plain of Acre, by a very narrow pass, beneath the eminence of Harothieh or Har- ti, wliich is believed by some still to retain a trace of the name of Harosheth of the Gentiles. It has two princi- pal feeders : the lu-st from Deburieh (Daberath), on Mount Tabor, the north-east angle of the plain ; and, secondly, from Jclbuu (Gilboa) on the south-east. It is also fell by the copious spring of Lejjun, the stream from which is probably the "waters of jNIegiddo" (Porter, Ilundbook, p. 385). The highest source of the Kishon on the south-east is the large fountain of Jenin, the an- cient En-gannim, the water from which, increased by a number of the streamlets from the surrounding hills, flows westward across the plain through a deep channel during the winter months; but in summer this channel, like the northern one, is perfectly dry (Van de Velde, Travels, i, 3G2). The two channels unite at a point a few miles north of the site of jNIegiddo. The channel of the united stream is here deep and miry, the ground for some distance on each side is lo^v and marshy, and the fords during winter arc always difficult, and often, after heavy rain, impassable ; yet in summer, even here, the M'hole plain and the river bed are dry and hard (Kobin- son, ii, o(M). These facts strikingly illustrate the nar- rative of the defeat of Sisera. The battle was fought on the south bank of the Kishon, at jSIegiddo (Judg. iv, 13; V, 19). "While the battle raged a violent storm of wind and rain came on (Judg. v, 4, 20 ; comp. Josephus, Ant. V, 5, 4). In a short time the hard plain was turn- ed into a marsh, and the dry river-bed into a foaming torrent. The Canaanites were driven back on the river
by the fierv attack of Barak and the fury of the storm ; for " tlic earth trembled, the lieavens dropped . . . the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." The war- horses and chariots dashing madly through the marshy ground made it much worse ; and the soldiers, in trying to cross the swollen torrent, were swept away.
But, like most of the so-caUed " rivers" of Palestine, the perennial stream forms but a small part of the Ki- shon. During the greater part of the year (as above noted) its upper portion is dry, and the. stream confined to a few miles next the sea. The sources of this peren- nial portion proceed from the roots of Carmel — the "vast fountains called Sa'adiych, about three miles east of Chaifa" (Thomson, Land and Bool; ii, 140), and those, apparently still more copious, described by Shaw (Kob- inson, ii, 365), as bursting forth from beneath the east- ern brow of Carmel, and discharging of themselves " a river half as big as the Isis." It enters the sea at the lower part of the bay of Akka, about two miles east of Chaifa, "in a deep, tortuous bed, between banks of loamy soil some fifteen feet high, and fifteen to twenty yards apart" (Porter, Handbook; p. 383). Between the mouth and the town the shore is lined by an extensive grove of date-palms, one of the finest in Palestine (Van de Velde, i, 289). The part of the Kishon at which the prophets of Baal were slaughtered by Elijah was loubtless close below the spot on Carmel where the sac- rifice had taken place. This spot is now fixed with all but certainty as at the extreme east end of the moun- tain, to which the name is still attached oi El-Mahraka, '• the burning." See Caioiel. Nowhere does the Ki- shon run so close to the mountain as just beneath this spot (Van de Velde, i, 324). It is about 1000 feet above the river, and a precipitous ravine leads directly down, by which the victims were perhaps hurried from the sacred precincts of the altar of Jehovah to their doom in the torrent bed below, at the foot of the mound, which from this circumstance may be called tell Kiisls, the hill of the priests. Whether the Kishon contained any water at this time we are not told; that required for Elijah's sacrifice was in all probability obtained from the spring on the mountain side below the plateau of El-;\Iahraka. At the mouth of the river are banks of fine sand, which any unusual swell in the river converts into dangerous quicksands (Van de Velde, i, 289).
The modem name Nahr el-Jtfuhitfa some have thought means " the river of slaughter," in allusion to the slaughter of the prophets of Baal on its banks; but the name may also signify " river of the ford," from an- other meaning of the same root (compare Robinson, ii, 3(J5) ; the latter is the interpretation given of the name by the people of the country. — Kitto ; Smith. See fur- ther in Hamesveld, i, 522 sq. ; Schwarz, Palestine, p. 49 ; Hackett, Illustra. p. 821-323; Bitter, Erdk. xvi, 704; JMaundreU, Early Travels, p. 430 ; Pococke, East, II, i, 55 ; G. Kobinson, Palest, i, 203 (Par. 1835) ; Thomson, Land and Pool; i, 492 ; Stanley, Sinai and Pal. p. 347 ; Wilson, frauds of Bible, u,8G; Tristram, La«<?q/"/srae?, p. 95,494*