A description of Nazareth would be incomplete with- out mention of the remarkable view from the tomb of Neby Ismail on one of the hills behind the town. It must suffise to indicate merely the objects within sight. In the north are seen the ridges of Lebanon and, high above all, the white top of Hermon ; in the west, Car- mel, glimpses of the Mediterranean, the bay and the town of Akka; east and south-east are Gilead, Tabor, Gilboa; and south, the plain of Esdraelon and the mountains of Samaria, with villages on every side, among which are Kana, Nein, Endor, Zerln (Jezreel), and Taannuk (Taanach). It is unquestionably one of the most beautiful and sublime spectacles (for it com- bines the two features) which earth has to show. Dr. Kobinson's elaborate description of the scene {Bih. Res. ii, 336, 337) conveys no exaggerated idea of its magnif- icence or historical interest. It is easy to believe that the Saviour, during the days of his seclusion in the ad- jacent valley, often came to this very spot, and looked forth thence upon those glorious works of the Creator which so lift the soul upward to him.
Nazareth has long been distinguished for the peculiar beauty of its women. Antoninus Martyr found many there in the 6th centur_v, who pretended to have re- ceived this gift from the Virgin Mary; and travellers state that their descendants retain it still.
See, in addition to the above-cited authorities, Light- foot, Horai Heb. p. 918; Quaresmius, iii, 834; Schulz, Leitungen, v, 192; Kichter, Wall/, p. 57; Schubert, iii, 169 ; Burckhardt, ii, 583 ; Scholtz, Reis. p. 247 ; Hack- ett, Illustr. of Script, p. 301 ; Bonar, Land of Promise, p. 397 ; Sepp, Das Ucil. Land, ii, 73 ; Tobler, Nazareth in Paldsdna (Berlin, 1868).
Naz'arite [or, rather, Nazii-itel (Heb. Nazir, ^''T:, fully n^n5N ^^TD, a Nazarite of God; Sept. properly 'Sa'^ipa7og, as in Judg. xiii, 7 ; Lam. iv, 7 ; but often iiit.di.tti'OQ or ayiatr/isvoe ; Vulg. Nazarceus ; Tal- mud, nT'13), the name given to such Israelites, whether male or female, as consecrated themselves to Jehovah by a peculiar vow prescribed in Numb. vi. (In the treatment of this subject we freely avail ourselves of the articles in the Dictionaries of Kitto, Smith, Fair- bairn, and Winer.) See Vow.
1. The Name and its Signification. — The term "Ti'S comes Avith the verb "iT3, signifying to bind, and thence to separate. Hence we have the cognate "IT3 (jiizer'),
denoting a crown or diadem, which binds the head ; the hair (.Jer. vii, 29), which forms a natural crown ; and consecration to God as a nazir, which is a separation from certain things that symbolize all that separates or hinders from union with God. The concrete T^t3 oc- curs sixteen times in the Old Testament. It denotes, in general, one who is se]iarated from certain things and unto others, and so distinguished from other per- sons, and consecrated unto God. In two passages (Gen. xlix, 26; Deut. xxxiii, 16) it appears in the phrase l^nx "'i'^tS, one sqmratedfrom his brethren, a touching description of Joseph, as he was in the providence of God separated from his brethren by their jealous cru- elty for twenty years, and at the same time exalted above them in point of nearness to God and rank among men during the latter period of his life. In two othei-s (Lev. XXV, 5, 11) it denotes that which is separated from common use. It is applied to the vine, while it remained untouched during the sabbatical and the ju- bilee years. " That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy nazir" (ver. 5), that is, of thy vine in the year of its separation from common use. "A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you ; j-e shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather its nazirs" (ver. 11), that is, the vines of the ju- bilee j'ear. There are here two deviations from cus- tom : the vine is not pruned, and its spontaneous prod- uce is not gathered for consumption. It is remarkable that Joseph, in the context of Gen. xlix, 26, is figura- tively represented as " a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall" (ver. 22) ; in ether words, a young shoot from a fruit- ful tree, spreading forth its richly-laden branches in all the unrestrained luxuriance of nature. The verb ^T3 (nazd)-) is found in ten passages, two of which precede the Book of Numbers. In Lev. xv, 13 we read, " Thus shall j'e separate the children of Israel from their un- cleanness ;" and in Lev. xxii, 2, " Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel," namely, when they themselves are in their uncleanness, as is explained in the next verse. In these cases the separation is be- tween the holy and the profane; and this usage natu- rally leads to the special meaning of the terra nazir in the other twelve places in which it occurs.
According to others the word "ITS, a diadem, contains the original idea of "l"3, which will then radically sig- nify to croivn, and the hair is regarded as a crown to the person. The Nazarite in that view is the croicned one, because, as we are told in Numb, vi, 7, he has " the crown of God upon his head" (VrXI b" mbx "IT3), evidently referring to his distinguishing badge of the freely growing and profuse mass of hair, which was con- sidered an ornament (2 Sam. xiv, 25, 26), and which he was not allowed to cut off (Numb, vi, 5), because there- in his vow chiefly consisted (Judg. xii, 5) ; and this is confirmed by Numb, vi, 9, where it is said, '• If he defiled his head diadem (1"1T3 CXI), he is to shave his head." Hence also the signification of "1T3, ornamental hair, long hair (Jer. vii, 29 with Numb, vi, 19) ; while the vine again, laden ^vith fruit, is called Nazirife, or more probably Nazir, 1'^T3, i. e. the crowned (Lev. xxv, 5, 11) ; because in its uncut state, when its head is covered with grapes and foliage, it is as much adorned with a diadem as the head of the Nazarite with the abundant hair, just as we call the foliage of a tree its crown. Besides, the vine hills rising in the diflerent parts of Palestine, and resembling heads covered with hair, may have suggest- ed this figure to the Oriental mind, since the summits of mountains are called their heads ('i'X")) in Hebrew (Gen. viii, 5 ; Exod. xvii, 9, 10 ; xix, 20 ; Amos i, 2), and the foliage is not unfrequently compared to the hair or wool (milS) of animals (Ezek. xvii, 3, 22;