(6.) In the next place, Palestine is not now what it then was. The curse is upon it. Eighteen centuries of war and ruin and neglect have passed over it. Its valleys have been cropped for ages without the least at- tempt at fertilization. Its terrace-walls have been al- lowed to crumble, and the soil has washed down into the ravines, leaving the hill-sides rocky and sterile. Its trees have been cut down, and never replaced. Its fields have been desolated, its structures pillaged, and all its improvements ruthlessly destroyed. The utter insecurity of life and property has taken away all incen- tive for maintaining the resources of the land, and ex- tortion has robbed it of the last vestiges of thrift. What would the fairest country of Europe be under similar circumstances? But the close observer can still see the vast resources of the land, and abundant evidences of former richness, and even beauty. The products ascribed to it by the sacred writers are just those for which its soil and climate are adapted. The wide plains for wheat and barley ; the sheltered glens and deep warm valleys for the pomegranate, the olive, and the palm ; the terraced slopes of hills and mountains for the vine and the fig. Then there are the oak-forests still on Bashan; the evergreen shrubberies on Carmel ; the rich pastures on Sharon, Moab, and Gilcad; and the full blush of spring flowers all over the land.
(2.) Palestine now seems almost deserted. Few coim- tries in the old world are so thinly peopled. Some of the plains — the lower Jordan, for example, and Southern Philistia — appear to be "without man and without beast." Yet in no country are there such abundant evidences of former dense population. Everv available spot on plain, hill, glen, and mountain bears traces of cultivation. It is "a land of ruins." Everywhere, on plain and mountain, in rocky desert and on beetling
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cliff, are seen the remains of cities and villages. In Western Palestine they arc heaps of stones, or wliite dust and rubbish strewn over low tells ; in Eastern, the ruins are often of great extent and inagniticence. All this accords with the vast ])0i)ulation mentioned alike by the writers of the Old Testament (Judg. xx, 17; 1 Sam. XV, 4; 1 Chron. xxvii, 4-15) and of the New (iMatt. V, 1 ; ix, o3 ; Lnke xii, 1, etc.), and confirmed by the statements of Josephus.
(;5.) It has been seen that Palestine has, in reality, only one river — the Jordan ; yet it has several perennial streams, such as the Jabbok, the Arnon, and the historic Kishon ; and also the Yarniuk, the Belus, and others not mentioned in the Bible. Its mountains also abound with winter torrents. Doubtless these were all more copious in ancient days, when forests clothed the hills and the soil was fully cultivated. To these IMoses re- ferred, wlien he described Palestine as " a land of brooks of water." Fountains abound among the hills — "foun- tains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills"- — and throughout the country are vast numbers of wells and cisterns and aqueducts, showing that the supply of water from ordinary sources must have been always limited ; and illustrating too the labors of the patriarchs in digging wells, and their hard struggles to defend them (Gen. xxvi, 15; 2 Sam. xxiii, 15; John iv, 6; Deut.vi, 11). See River.
(4.) Another of the physical characteristics of Pales- tine ought not to be overlooked. Its limestone strata aboimd in caves, especially in the mountains of Judiea. Some are of immense size, as that at Khureitnn, near Bethlehem (Murray's Ilaiidboolc, p. 229). Many of them were evidently used as dwellings by the ancient inhabitants, as those near Eleutheropolis and along the border of Philistia (^ibid. p. 256 sq.) ; many as tombs, examples of which are numerous at Jerusalem, Hebron, and Bethel; many as stores for grain and folds for flocks. These caves are often mentioned in sacred his- tory. Lot and his daughters took refuge in a cave after the destruction of Sodom ((ien. xix, 30) ; in a cave the five kings hid tliemselves when pursued b\' Joshua (Josh, x, IG) ; in the caves of Adullam, Maon, and En- gedi David found an asylum (1 Sam. xxii, 1 ; xxiv, 3) ; in a cave Obadiah concealed the prophets of the Lord from the fury of Jezebel (1 Kings xviii, 4); in caves and " dens" and " pits" and " holes" the Jews were ac- customed to take refuge during times of pressing danger (Judg. vi, 2; 1 Sam. xiii, 6). Consequently, to enter into " holes of the rock and caves of the earth" was em- ployed b}' the prophets as an impressive image of terror and impending calamity (Isa. ii, 19; Rev. vi, 15, IG). The tomb of Abraham at Machpelah was a cave ((ien. xxiii, 19) ; our Lord's t(>mb was a cave, and so was that of Lazarus (John xi, 38), and those in which the Gada- rene d;emoniacs dwelt (Mark v, 3). In later times, caves became strongholds for robbers (Joseph. War, i, 16, 2), and places of refuge for conquered patriots {Life, 74, 75). Caves and grottos have also played an im- portant part in the traditionary history of Palestine. " Wherever a sacred association had to be fixed, a cave was inmiediately selected or found as its home" (Stan- ley, p. 151, 435, 505). Sec C.vvi:.