FROM the south of Palestine to Mount Carmel, along the coast of the Mediterranean, extends a plain about 120 miles in length, which, under the name of Sharon, was anciently the most lovely and fertile district in the country. It was consequently numerously peopled, and covered with towns and villages. South of this was the land of the Philistines, containing five principal towns or lordships; Gaza, Askelon, Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron; of which Askelon, being the only one situated on the sea-shore, was the most important. There is good reason to suppose that the Philistines, or Cherethites, 2 were descended from Shem, and that they settled here as

(1) Isa. xxxv. 2. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon.

(2) 1 Sam. xxx. 14. We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites,... and we burned Ziklag with fire.

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colonists from Crete. The Septuagint translation of their name, “men of another tribe,” certainly indicates their foreign origin; as the fact that they gave the name of Palestine1 to the whole country, sufficiently proves their political importance. In the time of Moses they were a brave and warlike people ;' and in the reign of Saul they not only retained this character, but were much in advance of the Israelites in the arts and manufactures. History relates, that at a very early period the king of Askelon led an army against Sidon, took the city, and expelled the inhabitants, who went away and founded Tyre.

As long as the Hebrew commonwealth lasted, the Philistines, by their unprovoked aggressions, continued to be "a thorn in the side" of their neighbours; and, although many times beaten, they were not entirely subdued until the Jews themselves had lost their independence. Like the inhabitants of the more northern cities, Tyre and Sidon, they were much devoted to commerce, Askelon being their seaport; but they likewise paid attention to agriculture, for which their country, from its fertile character, was well adapted. They were gross idolaters, worshipping the god Dagons and other idols, and were among the few nations suffered to remain in the land, to try the faith of the Israelites. In the division of the land of Canaan, Askelon was assigned to the tribe of Judah, but it never remained in their possession for any length of time together.

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In consequence of various acts of oppression committed by (1) Josephus, &c.

(2) Exod. xiii. 17. And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the. people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt.

(3) 1 Sam. xiii. 19, 20. Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel;... but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock.

(4) Judges xv. 5. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.

(5) Judges xvi. 23. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand. See also 1 Sam. v.

(6) Judges i. 18. Also Judah took Gaza with the coast thereof, and Askelon with the coast thereof, and Ekron with the coast thereof.

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the Philistines on the Israelites, more particularly the taking of their cities1 and the selling of the inhabitants as slaves to foreign nations, the prophet Amos foretold that Askelon. should be stripped of all political power; Zephaniah, that its idolatry should be punished by its being laid desolate; and Zechariah, announcing the future triumph of Israel, declared that its inhabitants should be exterminated."

Askelon, though strongly fortified, and occupying an important position on the confines of two rival kingdoms, was unable to hold out against the several nations who successively subjugated Palestine; consequently it fell under the dominion of Syria and Egypt, whenever the sovereigns of these countries were in their turn victorious. Herod the Great, though of an Idumean family, was born here, and beautified the city with fountains and baths; it was also, after his death, a favourite residence of his sister Salome. In the beginning of the great war between the Romans and Jews, the latter people, exasperated by the oppression of the Roman governor Florus, rose in rebellion, and laid waste many of the Syrian cities, and among them Askelon; but they met with a severe retaliation, 2,500 of them being massacred in that city alone. Askelon, however, rose again from its ruins; for in the history of the Crusades it is frequently mentioned as a wealthy stronghold, the occupation of which was considered so important, that when its fortifications had been destroyed by Saladin, they were carefully restored by Richard I. A.D. 1270. In the eighth and last crusade it was totally destroyed by the Mahometans,

(1) 2 Chron. xxi. 16, 17. Moreover the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines,... and they came up into Judah, and brake into it, and carried away all the substance also that was found in the king's house, and his sons also, and his wives, so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.

(2) Joel iii. 6. The children also of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

(3) Amos i. 8. And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Askelon; and I will turn mine hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God.

(4) Zeph. ii. 4. For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Askelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up.

(5) Zech. ix. 5, Askelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Askelon shall not be inhabited.

and the harbour blocked up with stones, to prevent any further invasion by the Christians. No attempt was ever made to rebuild it. In 1610 it was " a place of no note," being merely occupied by a Turkish garrison. It continued to be inhabited for about fifty years after this, but it is now literally "a desolation, without inhabitants."

In its days of prosperity Askelon must have been a strong city; the walls were built on a ridge of rocks which embraced the town and terminated in the sea, the enclosed area being depressed like an amphitheatre. The sumptuous buildings which adorned the town at the period of the Crusades have been so entirely demolished, that it is not even possible to discover to what order of architecture any one of them belonged; but there are many mutilated shafts of columns, which show the material employed to have been chiefly grey granite, with here and there a coarse marble or beautiful porphyry. There never was a more striking verification of prophecy than the utter desolation of this formerly important and wealthy town, of which scarcely more is now to be seen than enough to testify that it once did exist.

ANCIENT Babylonia, the country of which Babylon was the capital, comprised the tract of land which lay between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and which was bounded on the north by Mesopotamia and Assyria, and on the south by the Persian Gulf. This country (originally called Shinar) took its name from the metropolis, which was founded by Nimrod,' and was called Babel, from a Hebrew word signifying to confound, from the confusion of tongues formerly inflicted on the inhabitants as a punishment for their impious ambition.2

(1) Gen. x. 10. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.

(2) Gen. xi. 2-9. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us