spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down." Le Bruin concludes his description of Lebanon with an account of the cedar apples, or the fruit which these celebrated trees produce.† He cut one of them in two, and found that the smell within exactly resembled turpentine. They exuded a juice from small oval grains with which a great many small cavities are filled, which also resembles turpentine, both in smell and in clamminess. These cedar apples must be classed with the scented fruits of the oriental regions; and have perhaps contributed greatly to the fragrance for which the sacred writers so frequently celebrate the mountains of Lebanon. [The long and elevated range of Antilebanon separates, nearly opposite Damascus, into two branches, the easternmost of which is the proper continuation of that mountainous ridge. The majestic hill in which it terminates, which almost perpetually has its summit crowned with snow, the deep ravines on its sides filled with ice like glaciers, and is estimated at about ten thousand feet above the level of the Mediterranean],—is in Scripture distinguished by the name of Hermon; and is by consequence mentioned as the northern boundary of the country beyond Jordan, and more particularly of the kingdom of Og, or of the half tribe of Manasseh on the east of that river.§ It is known in the sacred volume by different names, the Sidonians called it Sirion, and the Amorites Shenir. The Jewish lawgiver, in the book of Deuteronomy, gives it the name of Sion (as it is spelt in the Hebrew text.) 'And they possessed his land, and the land of Og king of Bashan: . . . from Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, even unto mount Sion, which is Hermon.'|| This mount Sion must not be confounded * Zechariah xi. 1, 2. Now Jebel-esh Sheikh.-Editor. § Deuteronomy iii. 8, 9. † Le Bruin, tom. ii. chap. 57. | Deuteronomy iv. 47, 48. with the famous mountain of Jerusalem, which lay in a different part of the country, and was celebrated for a very different reason. In the book of Joshua, it is called Seir, which is only another way of reading Shenir. Halak is mentioned in the same verse, and seems to be a contiguous mountain in the great range of Lebanon, remarkable, as the name signifies, for its smoothness.* Again, this mount Hermon is thought, not without probability, to be the same with mount Hor, mentioned by Moses in his description of the promised land:-' And this shall be your north border; from the great sea, ye shall point out for you mount Hor; from mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath.'+ But Joshua, speaking of the lands which remained to be possessed, among other parts, mentions all Lebanon, toward the sun rising, from Baalgad (a valley), under mount Hermon, unto the entering into Hamath.' By comparing these two passages, it seems extremely probable, that mount Hor is the same with mount Hermon. Both of them are placed in the same northern angle of the promised land, and bear the same relative situation to Hamath; and by consequence, the same mountain is intended under two different names. But, besides this mount Hermon in the northern border of the country beyond Jordan, we read of another mountain of the same name, lying within the land of Canaan, on the west of the river Jordan, not far from mount Tabor. To this mountain, the holy Psalmist is thought to refer in these words :- The north and the south, thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name ;'§ and in the following passage : As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descends upon the mountains of Sion.'|| Maundrell, in his journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, * Joshua xi. 17. Joshua xiii. 5. Numbers xxxiv. 7, 8. § Psalm lxxxix. 12. had a full view of Tabor and Hermon, at about six or seven hours distance to the eastward, and learnt from experience, what the Psalmist means by the dew of Hermon, the tents of the whole party being as wet with it as if it had rained all night.* [These two passages in the Psalms have occasioned no small difficulty to commentators. From the circumstance of Tabor and Hermon being associated together in the same description, it has been supposed that the hills must have been adjacent; and as the site of Tabor is indisputably near the eastern extremity of the great plain of Esdraelon, the name of Hermon has been given to a high ridge, Ed Duhy, on the north of the same extensive valley, and that of 'Little' Hermon, in contradistinction to the majestic Jebel-esh-Sheikh, in Lebanon. At what time this designation was first introduced, cannot be ascertained, although it seems to have been in common use in the time of Jerome. But that this was not the Hermon of the Bible, is evident from the hint conveyed in the words of the Psalmist as to its geographical situation. According to the usual style of Hebrew poetry, which makes the latter distich of a verse frequently nothing more than an echo, in different words, of the sense of the preceding, the inspired bard, who in verse twelfth had burst into the exclamation, 'The north and south, thou hast created them,' continues in the next clause the same sentiment figuratively, by specifying Tabor and Hermon as the two most prominent points in these opposite quarters of the favoured land of his nativity. In this view, the language is most expressive and full of energy. If we suppose Little Hermon, which is in close contiguity to Tabor, to be the hill that is meant, it is obvious that the beauty and grandeur of the idea is entirely lost. But if we consider the true idea of the passage to be an expression of admiring gratitude for the rich fertilizing influences which the bountiful God of Israel had imparted * Maundrell's Journey, p. 57. to that land, what could more graphically convey such a sentiment than the selection of two mountains, so opposite in their localities, as well as in the character of the regions in which they stand, and both equally flourishing under the refreshing dews of heaven. Thou hast made the north and the south; and whatever be the region, the traces of thy power may be seen, the kind arrangements of thy providence may be felt. Southern Tabor, surrounded with fertile plains, its sides adorned with trees and shrubs, all green and flowery to its summit, and northern Hermon, rearing its snow-capt head in gloomy majesty amidst the solitude of Lebanon, shall both rejoice in thy name.' [The other passage, Psalm cxxxiii. 3, is involved in still greater obscurity. The literal rendering of the original is, ' as the dew of Hermon that descended on the mountains of Zion.' But our translators, apparently unable to conceive how the dew of Hermon, in the north of Palestine, should be said to descend on the mountains of Zion, which were far south at Jerusalem, have endeavoured to obviate the difficulty by introducing a supplement; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended on the mountains of Zion. According to which rendering the meaning of the Psalmist will be, that the refreshing dews which the Lord gave to the Holy Land were so copious, and at the same time so extensively diffused, that not a spot was neglected, or left without its necessary proportion. The north and south equally shared in the genial influences of heaven. But the distinguished manner in which Hermon is mentioned, obviously in preference to the favoured hill of Zion, precludes the adoption of this view. Houbigant suggests a mode of removing the difficulty by reading Sion instead of Zion, which he supposes to have crept in through the carelessness of a translator. But this is a liberty with the text of Scrip.. ture, which a strong necessity alone can justify. Reland, while he frankly acknowledges the great diffi 6 culty of the passage, inclines strongly to the opinion, that Hermon, in the vicinity of Tabor, is the mountain referred to, and that Zion denotes some of the little hills that lay around. A writer in the Christian Magazine has thrown out an ingenious conjecture, that the name Zion, instead of being understood as a proper name, denoting the holy hill of God, or any other hill, should be taken adjectively, according to its original meaning, as signifying dry, or arid, standing in need of moisture. Unity is as the dew of Hermon;' the copious dew that descends on the dry or parched mountains, refreshing, enriching, and fertilizing them.'* But perhaps the most natural and obvious solution of the difficulty is to understand Zion, the metropolis, to be used as the representative of the mountains of Palestine. 'A good reason,' says the writer alluded to, ' for specifying Zion, and taking the designation of the mountains from it, might in this case be assigned. Not only did God's respect to the worship performed in Zion secure the blessing from which the figure is borrowed, but, according to the scope of the Psalms, Zion was the centre of unity to the tribes, and the scene of their sacred communion. Thither they all went up to testify their fellowship in the Lord; and probably the Psalm might be originally intended to celebrate the beautiful spectacle in the seasons of holy convocation, with the various advantages of that unity which was thus cherished among them. A different interpretation must be given to the last sentence in the Psalm, according as the one or other of these views is adopted. If the former, then the words, " for their God commandeth the blessing, even life everlasting," must be understood in a general way of the scene where unity prevails, as dews, like those of Hermon, refresh and fertilize the dry and parched mountains, so unity is truly and extensively beneficial: it is so through the countenance and approbation of heaven, * Christian Magazine, September 1809. 66 |