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descend precipitously into the valley of Hinnom, and are mingled with many a straggling olive-tree. All these rocks are hewn into sepulchres of various forms and sizes; no doubt they were the tombs of the ancient Jews, and are in general cut with considerable care and skill.

They are often the resting-place of the

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TOMBS IN THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHA PHAT.

benighted passenger. Some of them open into inner apartments, and are provided with small windows or apertures cut in the rock. There is none of the sadness or darkness of the tomb, but in many, so elevated and picturesque is the situation, that a traveller may pass hours here with a book in his hand, while valley

and hill are beneath and around him. Before the door of one large sepulchre stood a tree, on the brink of the rock, the sun was going down on Olivet on the right, and the resting-place of the dead commanded a sweeter scene than any of the abodes of the living. Many of the tombs have flights of steps leading up to them.

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'Although the size of Jerusalem was not very extensive, its very situation, on the brink of rugged hills, encircled by deep and wild valleys, bounded by eminences, whose sides were covered with groves and gardens, added to its numerous towers and temple, must have given it a singular and gloomy magnificence, scarcely possessed by any other city in the world. The most pleasing feature in the scenery around the city, is the valley of Jehoshaphat. . . The climate of the city and country is in general very healthy. The elevated position of the former, and the numerous hills which cover the greater part of Palestine, must conduce greatly to the purity of the air.” The Jews bury on mount Olivet; the Mohammedans, on mount Moriah, and north of it, along the outside of the city walls; and the Christians, on mount Zion.-CARNE'S Eastern Letters, pp. 259-265, 289–296.

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"MOREOVER he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire after the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. -2 Chro

nicles xxviii. 3.

"And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that

it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place."—Jeremiah vii. 31, 32.

[Joshua xv. 8, xviii. 16; 2 Kings xxiii. 10; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6 ; Neh. xi. 30; Jer. xix. xxxii. 35.]

This valley is so called in the Old Testament; though more commonly in the fuller form, valley of the son of Hinnom. . . It is a deep and narrow dell, with steep rocky sides, often precipitous, . . . and sweeping around mount Zion . . . descends with great rapidity into the very deep valley of Jehoshaphat. . . . Here it meets the gardens,' (lying partly within its own mouth, and partly in the valley of Jehoshaphat, or Kedron, and irrigated by the waters of Siloam,) in which Jerome assigns the place of Tophet; where the Jews practised the horrid rites of Baal and Moloch, and "burned their sons and their daughters in the fire." It was probably in allusion to this detested and abominable fire, that the later Jews applied the name of this valley (Gehenna), to denote the place of future punishment, or the fires of hell.-ROBINSON's Researches, vol. i. pp. 324, 402, 404, 405.

"On the south side of the valley of Hinnom, and near its junction with Kedron, is the Potter's Field. It is a small parcel of ground near the top of the bank, with an old ruined house on it. There was a small level spot, thirty feet below the top of the bank, at the bottom of a thick stratum of horizontal rock, Walls have been made enclosing a part of this, the face of the rock forming the south wall of the building. The roof, which is flat, is on a level with the top of the bank, and in it are a number of holes, through which they used to throw the dead bodies. It is not now used as a place of interment, and is, in fact, going to ruin, part of the walls having fallen in . . .

1 See following pages.

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"At the junction of the valley of Hinnom with that of the Kedron, which is nearly at right angles, the Hinnom running nearly east, and the Kedron nearly west, there is a level space of several acres, laid out in gardens, and well set with trees. These gardens and trees continue up the valley of the Kedron, which is wider than that of Hinnom, for some distance; this rich and beautiful spot, watered by Siloam, is called the King's Dale. These valleys have all steep high banks." -PAXTON'S Letters from Palestine, pp. 122, 123.

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VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT; OR BROOK KIDRON, KEDRON, OR CEDRON.

SCRIPTURE NOTICES.

"AND all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed

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over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness."-2 Samuel xv. 23.

"For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die. . .”—1 Kings ii. 37. "And Asa destroyed her" (Maachah's) "idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron."-1 Kings xv. 13. "And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest

to bring forth out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them without Jerusalem, in the fields of Kidron .... And he brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people . . . And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron."2 Kings xxiii. 4, 6, 12.

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"And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron. . . shall be holy unto the Lord. . .”—Jeremiah xxxi. 40.

"When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples."-John xviii. 1. (See GETHSEMANE.)

"The deep valley on the east of Jerusalem, (now called the valley of Jehoshaphat,) appears to be mentioned both in the Old and New Testament only under the name of the brook or torrent Kidron. Josephus also gives it only the same name. The prophet Joel, indeed, speaks of a valley of Jehoshaphat, in which God will judge the heathen for their oppression of the

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