King James Bible Dictionary

PALE, adjective [Latin palleo, pallidus.]

1. White or whitish; wan; deficient in color; not ruddy or fresh of color; as a pale face or skin; pale cheeks. We say also, a pale red, a pale blue, that is, a whitish red or blue. pale is not precisely synonymous with white, as it usually denotes what we call wan, a darkish dun white.

2. Not bright; not shining; of a faint luster; dim; as the pale light of the moon.

The night, methinks, is but the daylight sick;

It looks a little paler.

PALE, verb transitive To make pale

PALE, noun [Latin palus; coinciding with Eng. pole, as well as pale It has the elements of Latin pala, a spade or shovel.]

1. A narrow board pointed or sharpened at one end, used in fencing or inclosing. This is with us more generally called a picket.

2. A pointed stake; hence to empale, which see.

3. An inclosure; properly, that which incloses, like fence, limit; hence, the space inclosed. He was born within the pale of the church; within the pale of christianity.

4. District; limited territory.

5. In heraldry, an ordinary, consisting of two perpendicular lines drawn from the top to the base of the escutcheon, and containing the third middle part of the field.

PALE, verb transitive To inclose with pales or stakes.

1. To inclose; to encompass.

Symbol of death.
Revelation 6:8

PALEA'CEOUS, adjective [Latin palea, straw, chaff.]

1. Chaffy; resembling chaff, or consisting of it; as a paleaceous pappus.

2. Chaffy; furnished with chaff; as a paleaceous receptacle.

PA'LED, participle passive Inclosed with pales or pickets.

1. Striped.

PA'LE-EYED, adjective Having eyes dimmed.

PA'LE-FACED, adjective Having a pale or wan face.

1. Causing paleness of face; as pale-faced fear.

PA'LE-HE'ARTED, adjective Dispirited.

PA'LELY, adverb Wanly; not freshly or ruddily.

PAL'ENDAR, noun A kind of coasting vessel.

PA'LENESS, noun Wanness; defect of color; want of freshness or ruddiness; a sickly whiteness of look.

The blood the virgin's cheek forsook,

A livid paleness spreads o'er all her look.

1. Want of color or luster; as the paleness of a flower.

PALEOG'RAPHY, noun [Gr. ancient, and writing.]

1. The art of explaining ancient writings. More correctly,

2. An ancient manner of writing; as Punic paleography

PALEOL'OGIST, noun One who writes on antiquity, or one conversant with antiquity.

PALEOL'OGY, noun [Gr. ancient, and discourse.] A discourse or treatise on antiquities, or the knowledge of ancient things.

PA'LEOUS, adjective [Latin palea, chaff.] Chaffy; like chaff.

which is covered; watered; or brings and causes ruin

(land of strangers). These two forms occur in the Authorized Version but four times in all, always in poetical passages; the first in (Exodus 15:14) and Isaiah 14:29 The second (Joel 3:4) In each case the Hebrew is Pelesheth , a word found, besides the above, only in (Psalms 60:8; 83:7; 87:4) and Psalms 108:9 In all which our translators have rendered it by "Philistia" or "Philistines." Palestine in the Authorized Version really means nothing but Philistia. The original Hebrew word Pelesheth to the Hebrews signified merely the long and broad strip of maritime plain inhabited by their encroaching neighbors; nor does it appear that at first it signified more to the Greeks. As lying next the sea, and as being also the high road from Egypt to Phoenicia and the richer regions no of it, the Philistine plain became sooner known to the western world than the country farther inland, and was called by them Syria Palestina-Philistine Syria. From thence it was gradually extended to the country farther inland, till in the Roman and later Greek authors, both heathen sad Christian, it became the usual appellation for the whole country of the Jews, both west and east of Jordan. The word is now so commonly employed in our more familiar language to destinate the whole country of Isr'l that although biblically a misnomer, it has been chosen here as the most convenient heading under which to give a general description of THE HOLY LAND, embracing those points which have not been treated under the separate headings of cities or tribes. This description will most conveniently divide itself Into three sections-

I. The Names applied to the country of Isr'l in the Bible and elsewhere. II. The Land; its situation, aspect, climb, physical characteristics in connection with its history, its structure, botany and natural history. III. The History of the country is so fully given under its various headings throughout the work that it is unnecessary to recapitulate it here. I. [THE NAMES].

Palestine, then, is designated in the Bible by more than one name.

1. During the patriarchal period, the conquest and the age of the Judges and also where those early periods are referred to in the later literature (as) (Psalms 105:11) it is spoken of as "Canaan," or more frequently "the land of Canaan," meaning thereby the country west of the Jordan, as opposed to "the land of Gilead." on the east.
2. During the monarchy the name usually, though not frequently, employed is "land of Isr'l." (1 Samuel 13:19)
3. Between the captivity and the time of our Lord the name "Judea" had extended itself from the southern portion to the whole of the country, and even that beyond the Jordan. (Matthew 19:1; Mark 10:1)
4. The Roman division of the country hardly coincided with the biblical one, and it does not appear that the Romans had any distinct name for that which we understand by Palestine.
5. Soon after the Christian era we find the name Palestina in possession of the country.
6. The name most frequently used throughout the middle ages, and down to our own time, is Terra Sancta

   the Holy Land. II. THE LAND.-The holy land is not in size or physical characteristics proportioned to its moral and historical position as the theatre of the most momentous events in the world's history. It is but a strip of country about the size of Wales, less than 140 miles in length and barely 40 in average breadth, on the very frontier of the East, hemmed in between the Mediterranean Sea on the one hand and the enormous trench of the Jordan valley on the other, by which it is effectually cut off from the mainland of Asia behind it. On the north it is shut in by the high ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and by the chasm of the Litany. On the south it is no less enclosed by the arid and inhospitable deserts of the upper pert of the peninsula of Sinai.

7. Its position.

   Its position on the map of the world

   as the world was when the holy land first made its appearance in history

   is a remarkable one. (a) It was on the very outpost

   an the extremist western edge of the East. On the shore of the Mediterranean it stands, as if it had advanced as far as possible toward the west, separated therefrom by that which, when the time arrived proved to be no barrier, but the readiest medium of communication-the wide waters of the "great sea." Thus it was open to all the gradual influences of the rising communities of the West, while it was saved from the retrogression and decrepitude which have ultimately been the doom of all purely eastern states whose connections were limited to the East only. (b) There was, however, one channel, and but one, by which it could reach and be reached by the great Oriental empires. The rivals road by which the two great rivals of the ancient world could approach one another

   by which alone Egypt could get to Assyria and Assyria to lay along the broad hat strip of coast which formed the maritime portion of the holy land, and thence by the plain of the Lebanon to the Euphrates. (c) After this the holy land became (like the Netherlands in Europe) the convenient arena on which in successive ages the hostile powers who contended for the empire of the East fought their battles.

8. Physical features.

   Palestine is essentially a mountainous country. Not that if contains independent mountain chains, as in Greece for example but that every part of the highland is in greater or less undulation. But it is not only a mountainous country. The mass of hills which occupies the centre of the country is bordered or framed on both sides, east and west, by a broad belt of lowland, sunk deep below its own level. The slopes or cliffs which form, as if it were, the retaining walls of this depression are furrowed and cleft by the torrent beds which discharge the waters of the hills and form the means of communication between the upper and lower level. On the west this lowland interposes between the mountains and the sea, and is the plain of Philistia and of Sharon. On the east it is the broad bottom of the Jordan valley, deep down in which rushed the one river of Palestine to its grave in, the Dead Sea. Such is the first general impression of the physiognomy of the land. It is a physiognomy compounded of the three main features already named

   the plains the highland hills, and the torrent beds features which are marked in the words of its earliest describers, (Numbers 13:29; Joshua 11:16; 12:8) and which must be comprehended by every one who wishes to understand the country and the intimate connection existing between its structure and its history. About halfway up the coast the maritime plain is suddenly interrupted by a long ridge thrown out from the central mass, rising considerably shove the general level and terminating in a bold promontory on the very edge of the Mediterranean. This ridge is Mount Carmel. On its upper side the plain, as if to compensate for its temporary displacement, invades the centre of the country, and forms an undulating hollow right across it from the Mediterranean to the Jordan valley. This central lowland, which divides with its broad depression the mountains of Ephraim from the mountains of Galilee is the plain of Esdr'lon or Jezreel the great battle-field of Palestine. North of Carmel the lowland resumes its position by the seaside till it is again interrupted and finally put an end to by the northern mountains, which push their way out of the sea, ending in the white promontory of the Ras Nakhura . Above this is the ancient Phoenicia. The country thus roughly portrayed is to all intents and purposes the whole land of isr'l. The northern portion is Galilee; the centre, Samaria; the south, Judea. This is the land of Canaan which was bestowed on Abraham,

   the covenanted home of his descendants. The highland district, surrounded and intersected by its broad lowland plains, preserves from north to south a remarkably even and horizontal profile. Its average height may betaken as 1600 to 1800 feet above the Mediterranean. It can hardly be denominated a plateau; yet so evenly is the general level preserved and so thickly do the hills stand behind and between one another, that, when seen from the coast or the western part of the maritime plain, it has quite the appearance of a wall. This general monotony of profile is however, relieved at intervals by certain centers of elevation. Between these elevated points runs the watershed of the country, sending off on either hand

   to the Jordan valley on the east and the Mediterranean on the west

   the long, tortuous arms of ifs many torrent beds. The valleys on the two sides of the watershed differ considerably in character. Those on the east are extremely steep and rugged the western valleys are more gradual in their slope.

9. Fertility .

   When the highlands of the country are more closely examined, a considerable difference will be found to exist in the natural condition and appearance of their different portions. The south, as being nearer the arid desert and farther removed from the drainage of the mountains, is drier and less productive than the north. The tract below Hebron, which forms the link between the hills of Judah and the desert, was known to the ancient Hebrews by a term originally derived from its dryness

   Negeb . This was the south country. As the traveller advances north of this tract there is an improvement; but perhaps no country equally cultivated is more monotonous, bare or uninviting in its aspect than a great part of the highlands of Judah and Benjamin during the larger portion of the year. The spring covers even those bald gray rocks with verdure and color, and fills the ravines with torrents of rushing water; but in summer and autumn the look of the country from Hebron up to Bethel is very dreary and desolate. At Jerusalem this reaches its climax. To the west and northwest of the highlands, where the sea-breezes are felt, there is considerably more vegetation, Hitherto we have spoken of the central and northern portions of Judea. Its eastern portion

   a tract some nine or ten miles in width by about thirty-five in length, which intervenes between the centre and the abrupt descent to the Dead Sea

   is far more wild and desolate, and that not for a portion of the year only, but throughout it. This must have been always what it is now

   an uninhabited desert, because uninhabitable. No descriptive sketch of this part of the country can be complete which does not allude to the caverns, characteristic of all limestone districts, but here existing in astonishing numbers. Every hill and ravine is pierced with them, some very large and of curious formation

   perhaps partly natural, partly artificial

   others mere grottos. Many of them are connected with most important and interesting events of the ancient history of the country. Especially is this true of the district now under consideration. Machpelah, Makkedah, Adullam En-gedi, names inseparably connected with the lives, adventures and deaths of Abraham, Joshua, David and other Old-Testament worthies, are all within the small circle of the territory of Judea. The bareness and dryness which prevail more or less in Judea are owing partly to the absence of wood, partly to its proximity to the desert, sad partly to a scarcity of water arising from its distance from the Lebanon. But to this discouraging aspect there are some important exceptions. The valley of Urtas , south of Bethlehem contains springs which in abundance and excellence rival even those of Nablus the huge "Pools of Solomon" are enough to supply a district for many miles round them; and the cultivation now going on in that Neighborhood shows whet might be done with a soil which required only irrigation and a moderate amount of labor to evoke a boundless produce. It is obvious that in the ancient days of the nation, when Judah and Benjamin possessed the teeming population indicated in the Bible, the condition and aspect of the country must have been very different. Of this there are not wanting sure evidences. There is no country in which the ruined towns bear so large a proportion to those still existing. Hardly a hill-top of the many within sight that is not covered with vestiges of some fortress or city. But, besides this, forests appear to have stood in many parts of Judea until the repeated invasions and sieges caused their fall; and all this vegetation must have reacted on the moisture of the climate, and, by preserving the water in many a ravine and natural reservoir where now it is rapidly dried by the fierce sun of the early summer, must have influenced materially the look and the resources of the country. Advancing northward from Judea, the country (Samaria) becomes gradually more open and pleasant. Plains of good soil occur between the hills, at first small but afterward comparatively large. The hills assume here a more varied aspect than in the southern districts, springs are more abundant and more permanent until at last, when the district of Jebel Nablus is reached

   the ancient Mount Ephraim-the traveller encounters an atmosphere and an amount of vegetation and water which are greatly superior to anything he has met with in Judea and even sufficient to recall much of the scenery of the West. Perhaps the springs are the only objects which In themselves, and apart from their associations, really strike an English traveller with astonishment and admiration. Such glorious fountains as those of Ain-jalud or the Ras el-Mukatta

   where a great body of the dearest water wells silently but swiftly out from deep blue recesses worn in the foot of a low cliff of limestone rock and at once forms a considerable stream

   are rarely to be met with out of irregular, rocky, mountainous countries, and being such unusual sights can hardly be looked on by the traveler without surprise and emotion. The valleys which lead down from the upper level in this district to the valley of the Jordan are less precipitous than in Judea. The eastern district of the Jebel Nablus contains some of the most fertile end valuable spots in the holy land. Hardly less rich is the extensive region which lies northwest of the city of Shechem (Nablus), between it and Carmel, in which the mountains gradually break down into the plain of Sharon. Put with all its richness and all its advance on the southern part of the country there is a strange dearth of natural wood about this central district. It is this which makes the wooded sides of Carmel and the park-like scenery of the adjacent slopes and plains so remarkable. No sooner however, is the plain of Eadr'lon passed than a considerable improvement Is perceptible. The low hills which spread down from the mountains of Galilee, and form the barrier between the plains of Akka and Esdr'lon, are covered with timber, of moderate size it is true, but of thick, vigorous growth, and pleasant to the eye. Eastward of these hills rises the round mass of Tabor dark with its copses of oak, and set on by contrast with the bare slopes of Jebel ed-Duhy (the so called "Little Hermon") and the white hills of Nazareth. A few words must be said in general description of the maritime lowland, which intervenes between the sea and the highlands. This region, only slightly elevated above the level of the Mediterranean, extends without interruption from el-Arish , south of Gaza, to Mount Carmel. It naturally divides itself into two portions each of about half its length; the lower one the wider the upper one the narrower. The lower half is the plain of the Philistines-Philistia, or, as the Hebrews called it, the Shefelah or Lowland. The upper half is the Sharon or Saron of the Old and New Testaments. The Philistine plain is on an average 15 or 16 miles in width from the coast to the beginning of the belt of hills which forms the gradual approach to the high land of the mountains of Judah. The larger towns, as Gaza and Ashdod, which stand near the shore, are surrounded with huge groves of olive, sycamore and, as in the days King David. (1 Chronicles 27:28) The whole plain appears to consist of brown loamy soil, light but rich and almost without a stone. It is now, as it was when the Philistines possessed it, one enormous cornfield; an ocean of wheat covers the wide expense between the hills and the sand dunes of the seashore, without interruption of any kind

   no break or hedge, hardly even a single olive tree. Its fertility is marvellous; for the prodigious crops which if raises are produced, and probably have been produced almost year by year for the last forty centuries, without any of the appliances which we find necessary for success. The plain of Sharon is much narrower then Philistia. It is about 10 miles wide from the sea to the foot of the mountains, which are here of a more abrupt character than those of Philistia, and without the intermediate hilly region there occurring. The one ancient port of the Jews, the "beautiful", city of Joppa, occupied a position central between the Shefelah and Sharon. Roads led from these various cities to each other to Jerusalem, Neapolis and Sebaste in the interior, and to Ptolemais and Gaza on the north and south. The commerce of Damascus, and beyond Damascus, of Persia and India, passed this way to Egypt, Rome and the infant colonies of the West; and that traffic and the constant movement of troops backward and forward must have made this plain, at the time of Christ, one of the busiest and most populous regions of Syria.

10. The Jordan valley .

    The chacteristics already described are hardly peculiar to Palestine, but there is one feature, as yet only alluded to, in which she stands alone. This feature is the Jordan

    the one river of the country. The river is elsewhere described; [JORDAN] but it and the valley through which it rushes down its extraordinary descent must be here briefly characterized. This valley begins with the river at its remotest springs of Hasbeiya , on the northwest side of Hermon, and accompanies it to the lower end of the Dead Sea, a length of about 1,50 miles. During the whole of this distance its course is straight and its direction nearly due north and south. The springs of Hasbeiya are 1700 feet above the level of the Mediterranean and the northern end of the Dead Sea is 1317 feet below it, so that between these two points the valley falls with more or less regularity through a height of more than 3000 feet. But though the river disappears at this point, the valley still continues its descent below the waters of the Dead Sea till it reaches a further depth of 1308 feet. So that the bottom of this extraordinary crevasse is actually more than 2600 feet below the surface of the ocean. In width the valley varies. In its upper and shallower portion, as between Banias and the lake of Merom (Huleh), it is about five miles across. Between the lake of Merom and the Sea or Galilee it contracts, and becomes more of an ordinary ravine or glen. It is in its third and lower portion that the valley assumes its more definite and regular character. During the greater part of this portion it is about seven miles wide from the one wall to the other. The eastern mountains preserve their straight line of direction, and their massive horizontal wall-like aspect, during almost the whole distance. The western mountains are more irregular in height, their slopes less vertical. North of Jericho they recede in a kind of wide amphitheatre, and the valley becomes twelve miles broad

    a breadth which it thenceforward retains to the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. Buried as it is between such lofty ranges, and shielded from every breeze, the climate of the Jordan valley is extremely hot and relaxing. Its enervating influence is shown by the inhabitants of Jericho. All the irrigation necessary for the cultivation which formerly existed is obtained front the torrents of the western mountains. For all purposes to which a river ordinarily applied the Jordan is useless. The Dead Sea, which is the final receptacle of the Jordan, is described elsewhere. [SEA, THE SALT, THE SALT.)

11. Climate .

    "Probably there is no country in the world of the same extent which has a greater variety of climate than Palestine. On Mount Hermon, at its northern border there is perpetual snow. From this we descend successively by the peaks of Bashan and upper Galilee, where the oak and pine flourish, to the hills of Judah and Samaria, where the vine and fig tree are at home, to the plains of the seaboard where the palm and banana produce their fruit down to the sultry shores of the Sea, on which we find tropical heat and tropical vegetation." McClintock and Strong . As in the time of our Saviour (Luke 12:64) the rains come chiefly from the south or southwest. They commence at the end of October or beginning of November and continue with greater or less constancy till the end of February or March. It is not a heavy, continuous rain so much as a succession of severe showers or storms, with intervening periods of fine, bright weather. Between April and November there is, with the rarest exceptions, an uninterrupted succession of fine weather and skies without a cloud. Thus the year divides itself into two and only two seasons

    as indeed we see it constantly divided in the Bible-" winter and summer" "cold and heat," "seed-time and harvest."

12. Botany .

    The botany of Syria and Palestine differs but little from that of Asia Minor, which is one of the most rich and varied on the globe. Among trees the oak is by far the most prevalent. The trees of the genus Pistacia rank next to the oak in abundance, and of these there are three species in Syria. There is also the carob or locust tree (Ceratonia siliqua), the pine, sycamore, poplar and walnut. Of planted trees large shrubs the first in importance is the vine, which is most abundantly cultivated all over the country, and produces, as in the time of the Canaanites, enormous bunches of grapes. This is especially the case in the southern districts, those of Eshcol being still particularly famous. Next to the vine, or even in some respects its superior in importance, ranks the olive, which nowhere grows in greater luxuriance and abundance than in Palestine, where the olive orchards form a prominent feature throughout the landscape, and have done so from time immemorial. The fig forms another most important crop in Syria and Palestine. (Besides these are the almond, pomegranate, orange, pear, banana, quince and mulberry among fruit trees. Of vegetables there are many varieties, as the egg plant, pumpkin, asparagus, lettuce, melon and cucumber. Palestine is especially distinguished for its wild flowers, of which there are more than five hundred varieties. The geranium, pink, poppy, narcissus, honeysuckle, oleander, jessamine, tulip and iris are abundant. The various grains are also very largely cultivated.

    ED.)

13. Zoology.

    It will be sufficient in this article to give a general survey of the fauna of Palestine, as the reader will find more particular information in the several articles which treat of the various animals under their respective names. Jackals and foxes are common; the hyena and wolf are also occasionally observed; the lion is no longer a resident in Palestine or Syria. A species of squirrel the which the term orkidaun "the leaper," has been noticed on the lower and middle parts of Lebanon. Two kinds of hare, rats and mice, which are said to abound, the jerboa, the porcupine, the short-tailed field-mouse, may be considered as the representatives of the Rodentia . Of the Pachydermata the wild boar, which is frequently met with on Taber and Little Hermon, appears to be the only living wild example. There does not appear to be at present any wild ox in Palestine. Of domestic animals we need only mention the Arabian or one-humped camel, the ass, the mule and the horse, all of which are in general use. The buffalo (Bubalus buffalo) is common. The ox of the country is small and unsightly in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, but in the richer pastures the cattle, though small, are not unsightly The common sheep of Palestine is the broadtail, with its varieties. Goats are extremely common everywhere. Palestine abounds in numerous kinds of birds. Vultures, eagles, falcons, kites, owls of different kinds represent the Raptorial order. In the south of Palestine especially, reptiles of various kinds abound. It has been remarked that in its physical character Palestine presents on a small scale an epitome of the natural features of all regions, mountainous and desert, northern and tropical, maritime and inland, pastoral, arable and volcanic.

14. Antiquities .

    In the preceding description allusion has been made to many of the characteristic features of the holy land; but it is impossible to close this account without mentioning a defect which is even more characteristic

    its luck of monuments and personal relies of the nation which possessed it for so many centuries and gave it its claim to our veneration and affection. When compared with other nations of equal antiquity

    Egypt, Greece Assyria

    the contrast is truly remarkable. In Egypt and Greece, and also in Assyria, as far as our knowledge at present extends, we find a series of buildings reaching down from the most remote and mysterious antiquity, a chain of which hardly a link is wanting, and which records the progress of the people in civilization art and religion as certainly as the buildings of the medieval architects do that of the various nations of modern Europe. But in Palestine it is not too much to say that there does not exist a single edifice or part of an edifice of which we call be sure that it is of a date anterior to the Christian era. And as with the buildings, so with other memorials, With one exception, the museums of Europe do not possess a single piece of pottery or metal work, a single weapon or household utensil, an ornament or a piece of armor of Isr'lite make, which can give us the least conception of the manners or outward appliances of the nation before the date of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. The coins form the single exception. M. Renan has named two circumstances which must have had a great effect in suppressing art or architecture amongst the ancient Isr'lites, while their very existence proves that the people had no genius in that direction. These are (1) the prohibition of sculptured representations of living creatures, and (2) the command not to build a temple anywhere but at Jerusalem.

Originally denoted only the sea-coast of the land of Canaan inhabited by the Philistines (Exodus 15:14; Isaiah 14:29, 31; Joel 3:4), and in this sense exclusively the Hebrew name Pelesheth (rendered "Philistia" in Psalms 60:8; 83:7; 87:4; 108:9) occurs in the Old Testament.

Not till a late period in Jewish history was this name used to denote "the land of the Hebrews" in general (Genesis 40:15). It is also called "the holy land" (Zechariah 2:12), the "land of Jehovah" (Hosea 9:3; Psalms 85:1), the "land of promise" (Hebrews 11:9), because promised to Abraham (Genesis 12:7; 24:7), the "land of Canaan" (Genesis 12:5), the "land of Israel" (1 Samuel 13:19), and the "land of Judah" (Isaiah 19:17).

The territory promised as an inheritance to the seed of Abraham (Genesis 15:18-21; Numbers 34:1-12) was bounded on the east by the river Euphrates, on the west by the Mediterranean, on the north by the "entrance of Hamath," and on the south by the "river of Egypt." This extent of territory, about 60,000 square miles, was at length conquered by David, and was ruled over also by his son Solomon (2 Samuel 8; 1 Chronicles 18; 1 Kings 4:1, 21). This vast empire was the Promised Land; but Palestine was only a part of it, terminating in the north at the southern extremity of the Lebanon range, and in the south in the wilderness of Paran, thus extending in all to about 144 miles in length. Its average breadth was about 60 miles from the Mediterranean on the west to beyond the Jordan. It has fittingly been designated "the least of all lands." Western Palestine, on the south of Gaza, is only about 40 miles in breadth from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, narrowing gradually toward the north, where it is only 20 miles from the sea-coast to the Jordan.

Palestine, "set in the midst" (Ezekiel 5:5) of all other lands, is the most remarkable country on the face of the earth. No single country of such an extent has so great a variety of climate, and hence also of plant and animal life. Moses describes it as "a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt not eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass" (Deuteronomy 8:7-9).

"In the time of Christ the country looked, in all probability, much as now. The whole land consists of rounded limestone hills, fretted into countless stony valleys, offering but rarely level tracts, of which Esdraelon alone, below Nazareth, is large enough to be seen on the map. The original woods had for ages disappeared, though the slopes were dotted, as now, with figs, olives, and other fruit-trees where there was any soil. Permanent streams were even then unknown, the passing rush of winter torrents being all that was seen among the hills. The autumn and spring rains, caught in deep cisterns hewn out like huge underground jars in the soft limestone, with artificial mud-banked ponds still found near all villages, furnished water. Hills now bare, or at best rough with stunted growth, were then terraced, so as to grow vines, olives, and grain. To-day almost desolate, the country then teemed with population. Wine-presses cut in the rocks, endless terraces, and the ruins of old vineyard towers are now found amidst solitudes overgrown for ages with thorns and thistles, or with wild shrubs and poor gnarled scrub" (Geikie's Life of Christ).

From an early period the land was inhabited by the descendants of Canaan, who retained possession of the whole land "from Sidon to Gaza" till the time of the conquest by Joshua, when it was occupied by the twelve tribes. Two tribes and a half had their allotments given them by Moses on the east of the Jordan (Deuteronomy 3:12-20; comp. Numbers 1:17-46; Joshua 4:12-13). The remaining tribes had their portion on the west of Jordan.

From the conquest till the time of Saul, about four hundred years, the people were governed by judges. For a period of one hundred and twenty years the kingdom retained its unity while it was ruled by Saul and David and Solomon. On the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam ascended the throne; but his conduct was such that ten of the tribes revolted, and formed an independent monarchy, called the kingdom of Israel, or the northern kingdom, the capital of which was first Shechem and afterwards Samaria. This kingdom was destroyed. The Israelites were carried captive by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, B.C. 722, after an independent existence of two hundred and fifty-three years. The place of the captives carried away was supplied by tribes brought from the east, and thus was formed the Samaritan nation (2 Kings 17:24-29).

Nebuchadnezzar came up against the kingdom of the two tribes, the kingdom of Judah, the capital of which was Jerusalem, one hundred and thirty-four years after the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel. He overthrew the city, plundered the temple, and carried the people into captivity to Babylon (B.C. 587), where they remained seventy years. At the close of the period of the Captivity, they returned to their own land, under the edict of Cyrus (Ezra 1:1-4). They rebuilt the city and temple, and restored the old Jewish commonwealth.

For a while after the Restoration the Jews were ruled by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and afterwards by the high priests, assisted by the Sanhedrin. After the death of Alexander the Great at Babylon (B.C. 323), his vast empire was divided between his four generals. Egypt, Arabia, Palestine, and Coele-Syria fell to the lot of Ptolemy Lagus. Ptolemy took possession of Palestine in B.C. 320, and carried nearly one hundred thousand of the inhabitants of Jerusalem into Egypt. He made Alexandria the capital of his kingdom, and treated the Jews with consideration, confirming them in the enjoyment of many privileges.

After suffering persecution at the hands of Ptolemy's successors, the Jews threw off the Egyptian yoke, and became subject to Antiochus the Great, the king of Syria. The cruelty and opression of the successors of Antiochus at length led to the revolt under the Maccabees (B.C. 163), when they threw off the Syrian yoke.

In the year B.C. 68, Palestine was reduced by Pompey the Great to a Roman province. He laid the walls of the city in ruins, and massacred some twelve thousand of the inhabitants. He left the temple, however, unijured. About twenty-five years after this the Jews revolted and cast off the Roman yoke. They were however, subdued by Herod the Great (q.v.). The city and the temple were destroyed, and many of the inhabitants were put to death. About B.C. 20, Herod proceeded to rebuild the city and restore the ruined temple, which in about nine years and a half was so far completed that the sacred services could be resumed in it (comp. John 2:20). He was succeeded by his son Archelaus, who was deprived of his power, however, by Augustus, A.D. 6, when Palestine became a Roman province, ruled by Roman governors or procurators. Pontius Pilate was the fifth of these procurators. He was appointed to his office A.D. 25.

Exclusive of Idumea, the kingdom of Herod the Great comprehended the whole of the country originally divided among the twelve tribes, which he divided into four provinces or districts. This division was recognized so long as Palestine was under the Roman dominion. These four provinces were, (1) Judea, the southern portion of the country; (2) Samaria, the middle province, the northern boundary of which ran along the hills to the south of the plain of Esdraelon; (3) Galilee, the northern province; and (4) Peraea (a Greek name meaning the "opposite country"), the country lying east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. This province was subdivided into these districts, (1) Peraea proper, lying between the rivers Arnon and Jabbok; (2) Galaaditis (Gilead); (3) Batanaea; (4) Gaulonitis (Jaulan); (5) Ituraea or Auranitis, the ancient Bashan; (6) Trachonitis; (7) Abilene; (8) Decapolis, i.e., the region of the ten cities. The whole territory of Palestine, including the portions alloted to the trans-Jordan tribes, extended to about eleven thousand square miles. Recent exploration has shown the territory on the west of Jordan alone to be six thousand square miles in extent, the size of the principality of Wales.

See Canaan
Canaan

PALES'TRIAN

PALES'TRIC, adjective [Gr. a struggling or wrestling, to wrestle, to strive.] Pertaining to the exercise of wrestling.

PAL'ET, noun The crown of the head. [Not used.]

PALETTE. [See Pallet.]