five minutes, and from Bîreh to Jerusalem three hours, with horses. The correspondence therefore in the situation is very exact; and the name affords decisive confirmation. The Arabic termination în for the Hebrew el, is not an unusual change; we found indeed several other instances of it entirely parallel.' Yet the name has been preserved solely among the common people. The monks appear for centuries not to have been aware of its existence; and have assigned to Bethel a location much further towards the North.2 Our friends the Greek priests at Taiyibeh had also recognised the identity of Beitîn and Bethel; and had endeavoured to bring into use the Arabic form Beitil as being nearer to the original; but it had found currency only within the circle of their own influence. From them the missionaries in Jerusalem had heard of the place and had learned the name Beitîl; though from others they had heard only of Beitîn.3

Bethel is celebrated in the Old Testament. Abraham first pitched his tent in Palestine on the high ground eastward of this spot, still one of the finest tracts for pasturage in the whole land. Here Jacob slept on his way to Haran, and saw in his dream the ladder and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it; and hither he afterwards returned and built an altar, and called the place Beth-el, 'House of

1) Thus for Heb. Jezreel we have Zer'in ; instead of Wady Isma'il (Ishmael), we heard Wady Isma'in; and the name Beit Jibrin also occurs in Arabic writers under the form Beit Jibril, i. e. Gabriel.

2) Brocardus places Bethel two leagues south of Samaria on the way to Sichem (Nâbulus) upon a high mountain; c. VII. p. 177. Eugesippus sets it a mile from Sichem on a part of Mount Gerizim; see in L. Allatii Symmikta, Col. Agr. 1653, pp. 111, 112. See also

God." Samuel came once a year to Bethel to judge the people. In later times it became notorious as a seat of idolatrous worship, after Jeroboam had erected here one of his golden calves. This was denounced at the time by a prophet of the Lord, who then transgressed and was destroyed by a lion.3 Bethel came afterwards into the possession of Judah; and king Josiah destroyed its altars and idols, burning upon them dead men's bones from the sepulchres.* After the exile, the place was again inhabited by the returning Jews; and was fortified by Bacchides the Syrian in the time of the Maccabees."

In the New Testament Bethel is not mentioned; but it still existed, as we learn from Josephus; and was captured by Vespasian. Eusebius and Jerome describe it as a small village in their day. This is the last notice of Bethel as an inhabited place. The name is indeed mentioned by writers of the times of the crusades; but apparently only as a place known in Scripture history, and not as then in existence.R Yet the present ruins are greater than those of a small village; and show that after the time of Jerome, the place must probably have revived and been enlarged. The ruined churches upon the site and beyond the valley, betoken a town of importance even down to the middle ages; and it certainly is matter of surprise, that no allusion to the place as then existing occurs in the historians of the crusades. The site

would seem already to have been forgotten in ecclesiastical tradition. During the following centuries, Bethel was sought for near to Sichem ; and it is only within the last three or four years that its name and site have been discovered among the common people, by the Protestant missionaries in Jerusalem. The monks even now know nothing of it; and the traveller who communicates only with them, is still led to believe, that Bethel and its very name have perished.2

We left Bethel at 9 o'clock, and ascending from the western Wady entered the Nâbulus road, and proceeded towards el-Bîreh. The path soon begins gradually to descend into the broad valley N. of Bîreh, which runs off E. S. E. forming the principal head of Wady es-Suweinît between Jeba' and Mukhmâs. We soon passed a fountain on our left, called 'Ain el-'Akabah; and not long after a cavern on the right, supported by two columns, and serving as a reservoir for water; being apparently supplied by a spring within. The bottom of the broad valley is cultivated, and seemed fertile. We reached Bîreh at half past ten, situated on the ridge running from W. to E. which bounds the northern prospect as seen from Jerusalem and its vicinity. A shallower valley has its head just on the South, which also runs E. and joins the northern one further down at the end of the ridge.

Bîreh may be seen at a great distance both from the N. and S. The houses are low; and many of them half under ground. Many large stones and various substructions testify to the antiquity of the site. Here are also the remains of a fine old church with pointed arches, which mark it as being of the time of the crusades. It was probably erected by the Knights

1) So Brocardus, Eugesippus, Breydenbach, and many others; see above, p. 128. Note 2.

2) So Lord Lindsay, Letters, etc. Vol. II. Schubert, Reise III.

p. 129.

Templars, who then owned the place. The walls, the recess of the altar, and the sacristies, are still standing; the former measured ninety feet in length by thirty-five in breadth. On the southern edge of the village is a Khân in ruins; and a few minutes further S. W. on the right side of the Jerusalem road, is a fine flowing fountain, with a trough of stone, connected with a small Muslim building or place of prayer. Here several females were employed in washing. The water was anciently conducted into two large reservoirs a little below on the other side of the path; in one of which, portions of two of the sides still remain tolerably entire, while the other is more in ruins.

Bîreh, as we were afterwards informed, now contained one hundred and thirty-five taxable persons; and sixty more had been taken away as soldiers. This gives a population of some seven hundred souls, all Muhammedans. The first seizure of soldiers took place after the rebellion in 1834. At that time all such as failed to produce the arms which the government required them to surrender, were at first imprisoned in Jerusalem, and then marched off to Yâfa; where all who were fit to serve as soldiers, were transferred to the army. Since that time there had been three regular conscriptions. The Nâzir (warden) of the sub-district in which el-Bîreh is situated, resided at this time at Beit Iksa, and was one of the former Sheikhs.

From el-Bireh, Jerusalem (the city) bore S. 4° W. and el-Jîb (Gibeon) S. 32° W.2-The distance from Jerusalem is reckoned at three hours with horses or mules; although with fast travelling it may be passed over in 24 hours. From Bîreh to el-Jib we travelled

1) Brocardus, c. 7. p. 178. 2) Other bearings from el-Bîreh were: Sha'fât S. 4° W. Neby

Samwil S. 30° W. Râm-Allah about W. Kefr Murr (ruins) N. 25° E. Tell 'Asûr N. 42° E.

in an hour and a half by way of Râm-Allah; the direct route would occupy about fifteen or twenty minutes less.

I hold el-Bîreh to be the Beer or Beeroth of Scripture, unless these were names of two distinct places;' and in that case el-Bîreh corresponds to the latter, Beeroth. The correspondence of the names is in itself sufficiently decisive. And further, according to Eusebius, Beeroth was seen by the traveller in passing from Jerusalem to Nicopolis ('Amwâs), at the seventh Roman mile. This road was the present camel-path from Jerusalem to Ramleh passing near el-Jîb; and to this day the description of Eusebius holds true. The traveller on emerging from the hills into the plain around el-Jîb, sees el-Bîreh on his right after a little more than two hours from Jerusalem.2-From the time of Jerome to the crusades there is no further mention of Beeroth. Brocardus first again speaks of Bira, which was regarded by the crusaders and later ecclesiastics as the site of Michmash. At that time it belonged to the Knights Templars, who probably

1) Beer is mentioned only once in Scripture, as the place to which Jotham fled, Judg. ix. 21. It is merely the same word in the singular, well,' of which Beeroth is the plural, wells.' Yet Eusebius and Jerome place Beer in the great plain ten miles N. of Eleutheropolis (Onomast. art. Brod Bera); and I find in our lists a deserted village el-Birch at the present day, adjacent to the mouth of Wady el-Surâr, not far from the site of Beth-shemesh. See Second Appendix, B. Pt. I. No. VI. 1.

2) Onomast. art. Brooo Beeroth. In the corresponding article of Jerome, a false translation, or more probably a corruption of the text, has occasioned great difficulty. Eusebius says that Beeroth

was ὑπό την Γαβαών, i. e. belonged to the Gibeonites, as related in

Josh. ix. 17. This Jerome translates "sub colle Gabaon," as if Beeroth was situated under the hill on which Gibeon stood. Yet in the article Xeproga Chephira, also one of the Gibeonitish cities, he correctly renders the very same phrase, olię vлò thr Faßaor, by

vicus ad civitatem pertinens Gabaon." The former instance therefore, is either an error in translation, or a corruption.-Instead of Nicopolis, the text of Jerome also has Neapolis; making Beeroth to be seven miles from Jerusalem on the road to the latter city. This is also an error; for the actual aistance is three hours, equivalent to nine Roman miles. The text of Eusebius is here in every respect the correct one. See further Reland Palaest. p. 618.