Page 149.—_The garden of God, the plain of Jericho._] See the description in Josephus, B. J. iv. 8. Huds. Ὡς οὐκ ἀν ἁμαρτεῖν τινα ἔιποντα, θεῖον εἶναι τὸ χωρίον, ἐν ᾧ δαψιλῆ τὰ σπανιώτατα καὶ καλλίστα γεννᾶται. Other particulars respecting the city and the region which surrounds it may be found in Reland, 829. Most modern travellers to the Holy Land also describe it. See Maundrell, p. 80. seq. Pococke, ii. 31. Epiphanius describes Jericho as having a circuit of twenty stadia. It is generally supposed that the village of Rihhah, about three miles from the Jordan, marks the site, as it evidently bears the name of Jericho. But Rihhah has no ruins, such as might have been expected on the site of so considerable a city. Hence it has been thought that the ancient Jericho stood nearer the mountains, at a place where many broken shafts and other traces of buildings are visible, and at the distance of six miles from the Jordan. Buckingham, 295. Page 158.—_Chiefly inhabited by priests._] This circumstance serves still further to illustrate the local propriety of the parable of the good Samaritan. Page 161.—_Bethabara._] Βηθαβαρὰ בית עברה denotes a place of passage. John i. 28. Engeddi was called, from its palms, Hazazon Thamar, 2 Chron. xx. 2. It was a large village. Pliny, who calls it the second town in Judæa after Jerusalem, (v. 17.) must have confounded it with Jericho. It was about three hundred stadia from Jerusalem. Page 161.—_Balsam shrubs._] Pliny N. H. xii. 25. ii. 672. Hard. “Omnibus odoribus præfertur balsamum, uni terrarum Judæa concessum, quondam in duobus tantum hortis utroque regio, altero jugerum xx non amplius, altero pauciorum. Opes Judæis ex vectigalibus opobalsami crevere, quod in his tantum regionibus gignitur. Est namque vallis quæ continuis montibus velut muro quodam ad instar castrorum clauditur. Spatium loci ducenta jugera nomine Hierichus dicitur. In ea sylva est et ubertate et amœnitate insignis; palmeto et opobalsamo distinguitur. Arbores opobalsami formam similem piceis arboribus habent, nisi quod sunt humiles magis et in vinearum morem excoluntur. Hæ certo anni tempore balsamum sudant” Justin, xxxvi. 4. The balsam tree appears to be a native of Arabia Felix, (see Bruce’s Travels, v. 19-24.) and, according to Josephus, the queen of Sheba brought it into Judæa, Λέγουσι δ’ ὅτι καὶ τὴν τοῦ ὀποβαλσάμου ῥιζαν, ἥν ἔτι καὶ νῦν ἡμῶν ἡ χώρα φέρει, δόυσης ταῦτης τῆς γυναικὸς ἔχομεν. Ant. viii. 6. Various ancient authors describe the shrub. See Dr. T. M. Harris’s Nat. Hist, of the Bible, published at Boston, N. A. Beneath the desolating sway to which Palestine is subject, the balsam has disappeared from the plain of Jericho. Pococke, 32. Volney, Voy. en Syrie, ii. 187. Arabia now supplies what is imported under the name of Balsam of Mecca. Hasselquist, 293.