Page 211.—_Tekoah._] This town, the birthplace of Amos, lay six miles to the south of Bethlehem, (Maundrell, p. 88, says nine) and on the very edge of the desert. 1 Macc. ix. 33. “Ultra nullus est viculus, ne agrestes quidem casæ, et furnorum similes, quas Afri appellant mapalia. Et quia humi arido et arenoso nihil omnino frugum gignitur, cuncta sunt plena pastoribus, ut sterilitatem terræ compensent pecorum multitudine.” Hieron. Prolog. ad Amos. Op. v. 208. “The mountains of Palestine,” observes Shaw, (p. 338) “abound with thyme, rosemary, sage, and aromatic plants of the like nature, which the bee chiefly looks after.” Bethcherem, the name of which (_villa vineæ_) implies its productiveness of grapes, is mentioned by Jeremiah, (vi. 1.) as in the vicinity of Tekoah. Hieron. in loc. Op. iv. 533. Page 214.—_Ziph._] It lay eight miles eastward from Hebron. Josh. xv. 24. Reland, 1064. Page 219.—_Valley of Rephaim._] The Rephaim, from whom this valley took its appellation, were the supposed gigantic inhabitants of Canaan, whence the valley is called by the Seventy κοιλὰς Τιτάνων, Josh. xv. 13. It stretched from mount Moriah to Bethlehem, and the road now goes through it, Maund. 87. Bethlehem itself has been so frequently described by travellers, that it is unnecessary to quote any thing from their works. Josephus gives thirty stadia for its distance from Jerusalem, somewhat less than four miles, or six sabbath-days’ journies; Eusebius and Jerome six miles, Reland, 445. 645. The course of the Kedron to the Dead Sea appears from Pococke’s description to be considerably north-east of Bethlehem, ii. 34. Page 222.—See Maundrell, p. 87. Clarke, 4. 419. The building now called Rachel’s tomb is evidently very modern. Page 226.—Respecting the hospitality exercised at Jerusalem at the time of the Passover, see the commentators on Matt. xxvi. 18. Surenhusius Mishna. 4. 467. “Mercede non elocabant incolæ Hierosolymis domos ad festa accedentibus, sed gratis concedebant.” Lightfoot. Among the ten wonders, the Rabbins reckon that “no man did ever say to his fellow, I have not found a bed in Jerusalem to lie in.” Lightfoot’s Works, i. 951. Hasselquist, p. 103, mentions with surprise the little inconvenience produced in Cairo by the entrance of the caravan of Mecca, containing 100,000 persons. Page 228.—_On the tenth of the month._] Exod. xii. 3. it is commanded that the lamb should be taken on the tenth of the month, and kept till the fourteenth; but the Jewish authors are not agreed whether this referred to that Passover exclusively, or was to be a perpetual rule. See Lightfoot’s Works, i. 952. Page 232.—_The Galileans obstructed by the Samaritans._] Josephus (Ant. xx. 5. Bell. Jud. ii. 12. 3.) relates an instance in which the Galileans, passing through Samaria, were attacked by them and several persons killed. Comp. Luke ix. 52. Samaria was the shortest way from Galilee to Jerusalem; the journey required three days, Jos. Vit. 52.