The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 244

or fortified town. Like the names above see at once that it is simply one element of tha mentioned. it was by no means an uncom- Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, which ex- mon name. Beside the present Hazoi-, tends due nC'Tth aud south for e. clistnnce of which was in northern Palestine, two cities sixty hours. This is the Ghor, or Sunken of thnt name are mentioned in the south Valley of the Arnbnh " (see note on eh. iii. (eh. xY. 23, 25). It rose from its ashes 16), "extending fromHas\Jeyn to the lElanitio during the period ol inaction which followed guif as a continuous cleft-the deepest one the death of Joshua, and though (eh. xix. 36) known to us" (Ritter, ii. 241). He goes on it was assigned to I-he tribe of Naphtali, to enumerate the various signs of volcnnic became once more the centre of a strong agency in this region; the frequent earth- Canaanitish organisation. It was, perhaps, quakes, the form of the be.sin of Gennesareth the city Solomon is sta,ted to ha,ve fortified (though he denies it to be a crater), the hot (1 Kings ix. 15), though this is not expressly springs, the frequent caves, the naphtha. stated. This becomes more probable when deposits and springs, the hot water springs we find this Hazor among the cities to be found even in the Dead Sea, the lofty of northern Israel ca,ptured by Tiglath- crystalline masses of the Sinaitic peninsula, Pileser (2 Kings n. 29). ••Yet still, in spite and the porphyritic dykes found at the of the destruction by the Ass.rrians, the southern end of the GhOr, as well as the name lived on till the time of the Maccabees, general conformation of the country east of and the great contest betweeen King Deme- Jordan. The sea of Chinneroth, or Tiberias, trius and Jonathan the Maccabean took is stated by Conder (Handbook, pp. 212, place upon the plitin of Razor" (Ritter, ii. 216) to be 682·5 feet below the level of the 225). Josephus also mentions the .,,.,liiov Mediterranean. And in the valley. The 'Arrwp in this connection. Robinson identifies Shephelah, or lowland district (see above eh. it with Tel Khuraibeh, on the lake of Huleh, ix. 1). The borders of Dor. Rather, the the ancient Merom. Conder regards it as heights, or highlands (n1El~ Vulg. regionibus) represented by Jebel and Metj Hadireh, on of Dor. This elevated position was e. re- the borders of this lake. Dean Stanley markable feature of the neighbourhood, places it above the lake, while Vandevelde though the various translations of the word finds a place called Hazur, with extensive (as "coast,"ch.xii.23; "region,'' 1 Kings iv. ruins, some distance westward. 'The names, 11) rather obscure the prominence given to however, Hazu:r and Haziri, are very this physical characteristic in the Scripture common. Of Madon and Shimron nothing narrative. Rosenmiiller would translate it is 1.,10wn. Knobel wonld identify Achshaph the "promontory" of Dor, for Dor (now uith Acco or Ptolemais. Robinson supposes Tantura, Tortura, or Dandora) was upon it to be the modem Kes!i.f. But this is not the sea coast south of Carmel, and nine certain, for Acbshaph (eh. xix. 25) formed the Roman miles north of Cresarea. Thus border of Asher, while Kesa£ is in the situated, its position on a hill, though the extreme north. According to Conder, it is hill is not a lofty one, would 8trike the the present el Yasif. observer, and it accounts for the peculiar form of speech noticed above, which is so Ver. 2.--0n the north of the mountains. common that in the LXX. it is usually Rather, to the northward, in the mountain given as part of the proper name, Na'/>•~owp district. Not neceasarily the Lebanon and (cf. Na'/>a6oo',p, eh. xii. 23; Ne~0aowp, l Kings Anti-Lebanon range, but the mountains of iv. 11). And behind it are still higher Galilee, which lay within the boundaries rocky ridges, to which the name also ap- of Kaphtali. The LXX. reads iT11 for plies. Dor, with its excellent harbour, was jT!l;' and therefore renders r:ara ~,owva, a noted place of commerce in ancient adding T'JV µ.-yaAT/V from ver. 8. The pla.lne times, especially in the mure~ coccineus, south of Chinneroth. Rather, the Arabah from which the far-famed Tynan dye was south of Chi1111eroth (see note on eh. iii. 16). obtained. These are a species of mussel, The word Are.bah is given untranslated in and Seetzen mentions two varieties, the eh. xviii. 18. This was, no doubt, tbe great mwrex trunculus of Linnreus, and the Helix Gh&r, or depression of the Jordan, or at fonthina. The latter is of a whitish green, least the northern part of it, extending for but when taken out of the water it passes some distance south of the town of Chin- from red to purple, and after death to violet. neroth (eh. xix. 35; Deut. iii. 17). This Its use has Leen sup~rseded by that of the town gave its na.me to the lake or inland cochineal insect, lmt the Tyrian purple_ was sea now better known to the student of in great demand in early times. Its co_sthness Seri ptures as the sea of Tiberias, or lake of may be inferred from th~ fact that m each Gennesareth (see Num. xxxiv. 11). "As we insect a little pouch beh1_nd the head, nol enter upon the geological character of the the size of a pea, canto.ms the dye. Sea b!IDin which contains the sea of Galilee, we Bitter, iv. 280, 281; Pliny, 'Nat. Hist.' 9, on. xt. 1-28.J TitE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 187