[2. J Again, although the variations of the seasons in Palestine may appear to us slight, and the atmosphere dry and hot, yet after the monotonous climate of Egypt, where rain is a rare phenomenon, and where the difference between summer and winter is hardly per- ceptible, the " rain of heaven" must have been a most grateful novelty in its two seasons, the former and the latter — tlie occasional snow and ice of the winters of Palestine, and the burst of returning spring, must have had double the effect which they would produce on those accustomed to such changes. Nor is the change only a relative one; there is a real difference — due partly to the higher latitude of Palestine, partly to its proximity to the sea — between the sultrj^ atmosphere of the Egyp- tian valley and the invigorating sea-breezes which blow over the liills of Ephraim and Judah.
The contrast with Egypt would tell also in another way. In place of the huge overflowing river, whose only variation was from low to high, and from liigh to low again, and which lay at the lowest level of that level country, so that all irrigation had to be done by artificial labor — " a land where thou sowedst thy seed and wateredst it with thy foot like a garden of herbs" — in place of tliis, they were to find themselves in a land of constant and considerable undulation, where the wa- ter, either of gushing spring, or deep well, or flowing stream, could be procured at the most varied elevations, requiring only to be judiciously husbanded and skilfully conducted to find its own way through field or garden, whether terraced on the hill-sides or extended to the broad bottoms. But such a change was not compulsory. Those who preferred the climate and the mode of culti- vation of Egypt could resort to the lowland plains or the Jordan valley, where the temperature is more con- stant and many degrees higher than on the more ele- vated districts of the country ; where the breezes never penetrate, where the light fertile soil recalls, as it did in the earliest times, that of Egypt, and where the Jordan in its lowness of level presents at least one point of re- semblance to the Nile.
[3.] In truth, on closer consideration, it will be seen that, beneath the apparent monotony, there is a variety in the Holy Land really remarkable. There is the va- riety due to the difference of level between the different ])arts of the country. There is the variety of climate and of natural appearances, proceeding partly from those very differences of level, and partly from the proximity of the snow-capped Hermon and Lebanon on the iiortli and of the torrid desert on the south; and which ap- proximate the climate, in many respects, to that of re- gions much farther north. There is also the variety which is inevitably produced by the presence of the sea — " the eternal freshness and liveliness of ocean."
Each of these peculiarities is continually reflected in the Ilelirew literature. The contrast between the high- lands and lowlands is more than implied in the habitual |
forms of expression, " going vp" to Judah, Jerusalem, Hebron; "going down" to Jericho, Capernaum, Lydda, Caisarea, Gaza, and Egypt. Jlore than this, the differ- ence is marked unmistakably in the topographical terms which so abound in and are so peculiar to this literature. " The mountains of Judah," " the mountains of Israel," '-the mountains of Naphtali," are the names by which the three great divisions of tlie highlands are designated. The predominant names for the towns of the same district— (Jibeah, Geba, Gaba, (iibeon (mean- ing "hill"); Kamah, Pamathaim (the "brow" of an eminence) ; Mizpeh, Zophim, Zephathah (all modifica- tions of a root signifying a wide prospect)— all reflect the elevation of the region in which they were situated. On the other hand, the great lowland districts have each their peculiar name. The southern part of the maritime plain is " the Shephelah ;" the northern, " Sha- ron ;" the valley of the Jordan, " ha-Arabah ;" names which are never interchanged, and never confounded with the terms (such as emek, nachal, ffai) employed for the ravines, torrent-beds, and small valleys of the high- lands. See TopoGiiAPiiiCAL Terms.
The differences in climate are as frequently mentioned. The psalmists, prophets, and historical books are full of allusions to the fierce heat of the mid-day sun and the dryness of summer; no less than to the various accom- paniments of winter — the rain, snow, frost, ice, and fogs — which are experienced at Jerusalem and other places in the upper country quite sufficiently to make every one familiar with them. Even the sharp alternations be- tween the heat of the days and the coldness of the nights, which strike everj' traveller in Palestine, are mentioned. The Israelites practiced no commerce by sea; and, with the single exception of Joppa, not only possessed no harbor along the whole length of their coast, but had no word by which to denote one. But, that their poets knew and appreciated the phenomena of the sea is plain from such expressions as are constant- ly recurring in their works — " the great and wide sea," its "ships," its "monsters," its roaring and dashing " waves," its " depths," its " sand," its mariners, the per- ils of its navigation (Psa. cvii). See Sea.