Chapter IV: Hebron to Beersheba, and Hebron to Jaffa (5)

Still, allowing the facts that I myself observed, as well as all the scientific calculations in the Journal above referred to, (indeed, making use of them,) there seem to remain certain considerations undisposed of, in favour of the theory that the Jordan formerly ran into the Red Sea.

1. The 'Arabah, south of the Dead Sea, and the Ghor on its north, are one continued hollow between the same parallel lines of hills; and Robinson has shown that by the Arabian geographers they are both called the 'Arabah; the native Arabs also still call by the name of Ghuwair, or little Ghor, a space at the southern extremity of the water.

In the Hebrew Bible also, the northern part is called 'Arabah, as in Joshua iii. 16, where it is said the Israelites crossed "the sea of 'Arabah, namely, the sea of salt." In 2 Sam. iv. 7, the murderers of Ish-bosheth went all night from Mahanaim to Hebron along the 'Arabah, this was clearly not south of the Dead Sea. Josh. xii. i., "From the river Arnon to mount Hermon, and all the 'Arabah on the east," going northwards; this is explained in the 3d verse as "the 'Arabah, (beginning at Hermon,) unto the sea of Chinnereth, (sea of Tiberias) on the east, and unto the sea of the 'Arabah, the sea of salt, on the east." The same words occur also in Deut. iii. 17, and iv. 49. That the present Arab 'Arabah on the south of the Dead Sea bore the same name, may be seen in Deut. ii. 8, where Moses speaks of "the way of the ''Arabah' from Elath, and from Ezion-gaber."

Therefore, according to Hebrew and Arabic authorities, the 'Arabah and Ghor form one line from the Lebanon to the Red Sea.

2. The Book of Job takes cognisance of the river Jordan, and describes river scenery in the land of Edom, _i.e._, south of the Dead Sea.

3. No lake existed in that locality before the catastrophe of Sodom, although a river may have traversed it. This I deduce from the march of the army of Chedorlaomer, shortly previous to that catastrophe, (Gen. xiv.) After the taking of Seir and Paran, he crossed the valley to Hazezon-Tamar, which is Engedi, (2 Chron. xx. 2,) and the confederates were met by the kings of the plain in the vale of Siddim. And I have heretofore shown that this is utterly impossible to be done with the present lake in the way. The words, therefore, of Gen. xiv. 3 obviously signify, as given in the Latin Vulgate and in Luther's German, "the vale of Siddim, which is _now_ the Salt Sea."

The inference from all these points is, that between the time of Chedorlaomer and Moses, some tellural convulsions took place which impeded the course of the river towards the Dead Sea, and thereby formed the present lake. There is no mention of a river in the lower 'Arabah during the wanderings of the Israelites under the leading of Moses.

It is another matter to discuss whether the overthrow of the guilty cities of Sodom and Gomorrah is connected with that convulsion of nature, with or without miracle, which formed the depression of the great valley; yet it is remarkable that the deepest part of the lake is at the spot which tradition has always pointed out for the site of those cities, and nigh to the salt mountain, which still bears the name of Sodom.

To this spot the slopes both ways tend, and there they meet. Calculating the whole line of depression, as Petermann does, at 190 miles, the slope from the north, _i.e._, from the "Bridge of the daughters of Jacob," near Safed, is comparatively gradual for 140 miles; and that from the south, _i.e._, from the elevation in the southern 'Arabah, where the level meets again from the north, is more precipitous for 50 miles. Action and reaction being equal in natural effects, the rapid declivity in the shorter distance is equal to the more gradual declivity in the longer measure.

But that centre of _seismal action_ is taken for the site of Sodom--hence the site of the destruction of Sodom and the starting point of earthquake are the same. The record of the destruction is, therefore, the record of some dreadful convulsion capable of stopping the Jordan, so as to form a lake there; and the only _adequate_ cause in nature assigned by geologists for such a depression, is earthquake accompanied by volcanic action.

While on the subject of possible depression of the Jordan bed, I may mention an indication which I have often pointed out to others, namely, the remarkable ledge traceable along the face of the Moab mountains at a considerable height, as seen from the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. It is distinctly marked, and forms a curious record of some natural change having occurred on a large scale.

Dr Wilson, in his "Lands of the Bible," contends that an earthquake capable of depressing a straight line of the length of the Ghor and 'Arabah, must have convulsed all the lands of Canaan, Moab, Ammon, Edom, and the Desert, with their inhabitants; but that no such convulsion took place, for Zoar on the east, and Hebron on the west, are known to have remained.

Does it, however, necessarily follow that seismal devastation spreads in _every_ direction? On the contrary, earthquakes act in oscillations from east to west, returning from west to east; or from north to south, returning from south to north: but not in the manner of a flood of water spreading in every direction at once. If so, a mighty earthquake, extending along the whole Ghor and 'Arabah, would be exactly such a cause as might spare a city on each side of its progress.

The whole subject still admits of much careful investigation on sundry points; but, meanwhile, until geologists have given us more data from which to form conclusions, I must take my stand upon the distinct record of Genesis; that what was the Salt Sea when Moses wrote, had been the Vale or Plain (Emek) of Siddim, containing cities with kings, who fought and were subdued by Chedarlaomer upon that plain in the time of Abraham; and that those cities were the same as those that were penally destroyed soon after.

XII. ACROSS THE LEBANON.

I have traversed the Lebanon eastwards and southwards of Bayroot several times; once in 1849; again in 1853; and also in 1855: but it seems advisable to narrate the incidents separately, and although on two occasions I passed over nearly the same ground, it will be curious to compare or contrast those journeys, inasmuch as the circumstances were dissimilar.